The Answer to Your Most Important Question

"There are dozens of  views about everything until you know the answer.  Then there's never more than one."  C.S. Lewis, from "That Hideous Strength."

One of two things will happen to you and me:
1. We will die.
2. We will see Jesus in the sky.

Whichever one happens first, on that day, and in that moment, we will have the answer to our most important question.

But what is the most important question?

Some would say, "Doesn't it depend on your perception, on how you define life and reality?"

So many views on this issue, but only one answer:  the answer we will each receive, when we die, or when we see Jesus in the sky.

But do we have to wait until then?

Or do we really lack the answer to the question?

No, we don't.

We don't have to wait until the very end of our lives, which could be right after we read this blog, or before we finish it.

You're reading me.  Why?  What drew you to me, and me to you?

The Question:

"What is the meaning and purpose of my life?"

When we die, or when we see Jesus in the sky, we will know what we've known all along.  What you and I know right now.

As it is written,
"The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.  For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised, Amen."  (Romans 1:18-20,25, NIV)

What is the meaning and purpose of your life and mine? 

To worship and serve our Creator.

But we knew this already.  Yet we act and live as if we don't.

We argue and debate about creation vs  evolution, one religion vs another religion, denominations vs other denominations.  We do this now, but on that day, the day we die or see Jesus in the sky, all of our differing views and arguments will be silenced.  On that day, there won't be a debate.

But really, there's no debate today.

We already know the answer to our most important question.

Oppression, Idolatry, and President Trump

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, and recovery of sight to the blind,  to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." 
The Lord Jesus, quoting the Prophet Isaiah.

When President Donald Trump called the countries of my native continent "shithole countries," he changed my life as an African-American Christian.  (I praise God, who causes all things to work together for good for His beloved and called children.)  I have a renewed sense of purpose, a new revelation of why my ancestors came here, and why I am here now, thanks to President Trump's words.  I'm writing to share this purpose with my brothers and sisters in Christ, who also share in this purpose, because the Spirit of the Lord is upon us, just as the Spirit was upon the Lord Jesus.  We share in the Lord's anointing in proclaiming His good news.  And this is the good news:

The Lord Jesus, by His Spirit,

Sets us free from every oppression; 

Oppression is idolatry--

Which is the foundation of all slavery.

President Trump's insult to my native continent is an expression of oppression based in an idolatrous view of himself.  In making this statement, he assumes an authority that only the Creator wields.  As American Christians, whether African-American, European-American, British-American, or any other variation of American, we have a spiritual and moral obligation to resist oppression. 

Oppressors are in sin for oppressing, and the oppressed are in sin if they yield to the oppressor.  The oppressed are not in sin for being in situations of oppression.  The oppressed are in sin if they submit to an oppressor in a way that they should only submit to God.  

For example:  King Nebuchadnezzar built a statue of himself and commanded the nation of Babylon, including exiled Israelites, to bow to his statue or die.  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow to Nebuchadnezzar the oppressor, and were willing to suffer and die, whether God delivered them or not.  They reasoned that whether God delivered them or not, The God of Israel was still the only true God.  Therefore, whether they lived or died, God was God, not Nebuchadnezzar the oppressor, the idolater.  

Like King Nebuchadnezzar, every oppressor is an idolater.  They want a homage that belongs to God the Creator, and to Him alone.  They seek to define the oppressed person; but God alone defines every human.  They claim a right of human definition that the Creator alone has over creation. 

President Trump assumed a divine right of definition by calling African Countries "shithole countries."  It is written, "From one man He made all nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; He marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands."  Acts 17:26.  Therefore, what God has made, marked out, and appointed, no man has the right to redefine or dishonor.  President Trump is not the creator or determiner or definer of any country on earth.  We as believers know this, we who inhabit this so called "Judeo-Christian nation founded on Judeo-Christian principles."  We who hypocritically say we are "one nation, under God."  We who say we offer the liberty of Christ Himself to every nation on earth.  

We are liars if we refuse to speak out against President Trump's dishonorable statement about African people, whom God created, and for whom Jesus died and rose.  We promote the oppression that comes from idolatry and results in slavery.  We misrepresent the Spirit and the Savior who came to set the oppressed free.

How to be Happy

"People who learn to control inner experience will be able to determine the quality of their lives, which is as close as any of us can come to being happy." 
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

We make ourselves laugh and cry by sheer imagination.  By thinking about an irritating person, we can make ourselves feel genuinely angry.  Happiness, sadness, and anger, all conjured from our own minds.  You can do it now.  You can think of a funny or sad or unjust scene in a movie, and feel happy or sad or angry.  And it could happen quickly.  Perhaps instantly.

You can create your own emotions, your emotional state, from moment to moment, by choosing an emotion, and then imagining a situation that brings that emotion.  Actors do it all of the time, and we believe them.  We feel what they imagine they are feeling, their pretend emotions based on pretend situations.

None of this is new to you, I'm sure.  You've probably heard it all before:

Mind over Matter

Cognition creates Emotion

We are what we Think

As a Person thinks, So is the Person.

So forth, and so on.  Etc.  Etc.

It can't be that easy, right?  But if not, then why do TV shows and movies get to us so much?  When you're about to watch a comedy show, for example, have you ever noticed how your mouth starts to shape itself into a perpetual smile, like you're preparing to laugh?  I've noticed it when I watch comedies during the week.  It's like I'm getting into a comedy mindset.  Or an angry mindset when I watch a crime show of some kind.  Watching TV proves that creating emotions by imagination is really quite easy.  

What if we practiced using our own minds in the way TV show writers use them everyday?

I think we actually already do this without knowing it.  We do it when we rehearse arguments before they happen, or when we keep thinking about something or someone that really bothered us during the day.  We imagine the conversation over and over again; we imagine what we could or should have said differently.  And we feel what we imagine.  

What if we simply did this deliberately, and determined what we want to feel as a habit of our lives?

Job and the Voice of God

"Who is this that darkens My counsel with words that lack knowledge?  Gird yourself like a man that I might question you." ~God, speaking to Job from a whirlwind

A conversation between God and Satan took place in heaven. a conversation about Job.  But Job didn't know this.  Neither did Job's wife, nor Job's friends.  So whatever Job, or his wife, or his friends said in Job's story should be measured by the conversation between God and Satan in heaven.  Sometimes Job's friend's seemed wise and their words seemed right.  At other times they were obviously wrong about Job.  And sometimes Job's words seemed wise and right.  At other times Job is obviously wrong about what is going on.  Both Job and his friends needed a revelation from heaven, a revelation about the conversation between God and Satan.

No matter how logical, or right, or wise, or in line with how things typically are, no matter what Job and his friends thought, without revelation, they simply didn't know what they were talking about.  All Job could accurately and wisely say was what he said in the beginning of his trials:

• Naked I came into the world, and naked I will return; the LORD gives, and the LORD takes away; blessed is the name of the LORD.
• How can I accept good from God and not adversity?

And the only things Job and his friends could add to Job's wise words are these words alone:

We have no idea what God is doing.

All Job could do is ask God for revelation, and refrain from accusations.  But God reserved the right to reply, as His powerful words showed.  God never told Job from the whirlwind about the conversation He had with Satan.  That conversation defined the whole trial.  Perhaps it defines the trials that we face.  After all, Jesus said that Satan requested to sift Peter like wheat.  For all we know, Satan still makes these kinds of requests with us today, whether we are blameless like Job, or prideful like Peter.  Whichever is the case, without God's voice, we will have no idea what God is doing in our lives.

Do you really want to hear God's voice? (Part 2)

The LORD gives wisdom, out of His Mouth comes knowledge and understanding.
~King Solomon
The LORD is with you, while you are with Him; if you seek Him, He will allow you to find Him, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.
~Azariah the Prophet to King Asa

God speaks and is speaking.  But are we listening?  Do we want to listen?

Most of us feel no need to listen to God.  After all, we have "common sense," right?

We think we can make decisions without God.  And we think God's voice isn't worth our time or attention; He's not as real to us as our boyfriends or girlfriends.

But you know how it feels talk to someone who completely zones out.  You know when people are really listening to you, and when they're not focused on your words at all.  You know who is open to you and who isn't.  And you know how it feels when someone asks your advice with no intention of actually taking it; they just want you to tell them they're right.

The same is true for God.  He knows when we ask His guidance with no intention of following it.
And He knows when we are completely zoned out, completely unfocused, completely unreceptive.

Do you really want to hear the voice of God?

The Voice of God and Democracy

The Spirit of Truth and the Voice of God

"For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world: 

to bear witness to the truth. 

All who are of the truth hear My voice."  The Lord Jesus.

"When He, the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all truth."  The Lord Jesus

"The Spirit is truth."  The Apostle John

One way to hear and speak the very words of God is to have an unwavering uncompromising unconditional commitment to the truth.  

Hear only the truth.

Speak only the truth.

Now by truth, I mean the word of God as affirmed by the Lord Jesus Christ, who Himself is "The way, The Truth, and the Life."  I don't mean simply being "brutally honest."  Nor do I mean "just the facts."  I mean "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God."

I mean the one and only truth, by which everything and everyone else is wrong if he or she disagrees.

How can we know and speak this truth?

God.

As it is written, "God is light, and in Him there is no darkness.  No.  No darkness.  At all."

God is truth and the truth. 

Simple right? 

Obvious, right? 

Then why all of the disagreement, denominations, opinions?

In heaven, will there be denominations or opinions?  Then on earth, there should be unity in mind and perception.  Jesus taught us to pray, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.  Your kingdom come.  Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." 

In heaven, there is absolute truth:  God Himself.  Jesus Himself.  The Spirit Himself.  As it is in heaven, so it should be on earth.  Everyone in heaven hears and knows God's voice.

Do you want to hear and know the voice of God? 

Do you want to be a Spirit listener?

Jesus tells you how; this is what He says:

"For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world:  to bear witness to the truth.

All who are of the truth, hear my voice."

All who are of truth hear God's voice.

All who are of the truth:  Hear God's voice.

Are you spiritually desperate? (Part 2)

This is what the Spirit is saying to the spiritually desperate:

"If life is knowing Me, then death is My silence.  I am life, says the Spirit.  Live.  Trust me.  And I'll show you who I am.  Jesus is Lord.  Amen."

***

Without the Spirit, two things are desperately lacking in our lives:

1. The truest most trustworthy friendship.
2. The truest most trustworthy guidance.

THE SPIRIT IS OUR ONLY TRUE FRIEND
Think about genuine connections in your life.  How many are there?  Even with your very best friend on earth, there are times of separation or disconnection.  These are even necessary.  But with the Spirit, you are indwelled by the very best friend you will ever have.  God is love.  The Spirit is God, therefore, the Spirit is love.  You are indwelled by Love, and as it is written, Love never fails.  The Spirit alone is our truest and most trustworthy friend.  And being the most trustworthy, He is our only true guide.

THE SPIRIT IS OUR ONLY  TRUE GUIDE
Who amongst your wisest friends is never wrong and always knows what to do with your life?  Who knows why you were created, or where you should be in your life's journey and destiny?  Wise people give good and wise principles, or even good advice, but never perfect advice for you or me.  We need our Creator.  The Spirit is our Creator, as it is written, "The Spirit of the Lord has made me, the Breath of the Almighty gives me life."

The Spirit is our truest most trustworthy friend and guide...unless we think we're ok without him.

Are you spiritually desperate?

"On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, 'Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.'  By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified."  

John 7:37-39

About 20 years ago, I came to a point of desperation in my life, a point where I desperately needed to hear from God.  I used to listen without question to my pastor, but during this time something happened that changed everything.

I began to hear the voice of God for myself, 

and what my pastor was telling me didn't match what God was saying.

I felt devastated.

Though it seems obvious, at that time I never considered that my pastor may not being hearing from God on a given occasion, especially an occasion that directly involveed my life and not his. 

During this time in my life, hearing from God was a matter of life and death for me, a matter of my identity and destiny as I knew it at that time, because everything I'd hoped and dreamed and lived for had failed me.  

I had nothing but the voice of God.  

I had no one by the Spirit of God.

That's how I became a Spirit listener.

Through many hardships, mistakes, trials and errors, I learned that I needed to know God's voice for myself, so that I would know when my pastor (or any other believer for that matter) was speaking from God or was simply speaking from their own opinion.  This is true for me, you, and every believer.

Every believer in Christ can now hear the voice of God.  This is the privilege and birthright of every one who believes in the Lord Jesus:  young and old, rich or poor, Jew or Gentile, full time minister or home-school teacher.

But in order to Spirit listen, we must feel our desperate need to listen.  

As the Lord Jesus said, we have to be spiritually thirsty to receive His Spirit.

Are you spiritually desperate?

A Call To Spirit Listeners (Part 3)

"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you received from God?"  The Apostle Paul

What is more important than God in us?  Who is more important?  Is there anything else more worthy of our thoughts, focus, and purpose?

If you believe in Jesus--

The Holy Spirit is in you.

The Holy Spirit is God.

Therefore, God is in you.

If we really believed that, how could our lives ever be the same?

We often think of how awesome it would be to have Jesus Himself with us like the apostles did.  I'm sure you've heard this before or read it before.  But it's worth repeating, hearing again, and reading again.  Jesus Himself said it was better for Him to leave so He could send us the Holy Spirit.  How could that be better to men who had been with Jesus Himself, in the flesh, for 3 whole years?  The only way it could be better is if the Spirit of Jesus Himself, the same Jesus they were with for 3 years, was not only with them, but in each and every one of the 12 apostles.  They would have their own "personal Jesus" in them, if I can say that reverently.

So it would be like having Jesus with each and every one of us all the time, instead of Jesus being limited in time and space, only in Israel, where people have to crowd him and press him to get near Him.  The real Jesus, in each of us, all the time.

To make this real to me, I often imagine if Jesus were sitting right next to me...say, on my job.  How would that affect how I work? 

If Jesus were with me, in the flesh, I'd just want to do whatever He said.  Whatever.  He.  Said.  How could I come up with better ideas or plans than Him?  My job (and my life) definitely wouldn't be a democracy if Jesus, the Lord, is with me.  I'd just do what He said. And there could be nothing at all better than that.

After I imagine this, I realize that I am actually in this situation.  Jesus is actually with me all the time by the Spirit.  All I have to do is follow Him, just like He said to the 12 when He called them.  He still says this today by His Spirit to all who want to be His disciples:

Follow me.

If you long to follow the Spirit no matter the consequences, like the 12 apostles followed Jesus, then you are a Spirit listener.

Let's begin our journey. 
Let's follow the Spirit of Jesus together. 
Let's be Spirit listeners.

Tell me your passion for this in the comments.

A call to Spirit listeners (Part 2)

So what Spirit are we listening to?  Who is He?  And how do we know Him?

Before we look at who He is, let's first look at who He is not:

He is not the Universe, or you, or me, or creation, or everything, or nothing, or the all, or whatever we think He is.

He is God, The One Who is Who He is, The Creator of everything and everyone.  The Spirit of God the Father, The Spirit of God the Son, the Spirit of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel.

This is the Spirit I am listening to, and I am seeking to listen with you, if you are listening to the Spirit of the Only True God.

How do I know?  And how can we know together?

1. The Spirit always acknowledges and honors the Lord Jesus:  honoring who He is--the Son of the Living God, and what He did--Jesus died for our sins, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven.

2. The Spirit gives Jesus' followers power to bear witness to who Jesus is--convicting unbelievers and carnal believers of sin, and encouraging spiritual believers in the knowledge and likeness of Christ, uniting them in this pursuit.

3.  The Spirit always brings about love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  Key words--love, peace, and self-control.  God is love, therefore His motive is always love.  God is peace, therefore He never authors confusion or chaos.  And as it is written, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." The Spirit will never render you passive in mind or will.  Satan and demons will.  The Spirit will not.  Ever.

So what Spirit are we listening to?  Who is He?  And how do we know?

We are listening to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the only true God, and we know Him by the testimony of Jesus, by power as Jesus' witnesses, and the fruit of the Spirit that comes from yielding to Him.

.