Someone lobbed this at me recently.

This question is really important and really simple.

Let’s begin with the really important. Your salvation is an eternal exchange between you and God when you, by faith, respond to the Spirit of God. I don’t know your story, day, or awareness, but there is a time that you KNEW deep in your inner being that something had changed.

That was a Faith transaction. Not a feeling exercise. You didn’t flex a muscle, or swat a fly, or smell a flower. You signed an eternal covenant. You went from death to life. You went from being a homeless, abandoned orphan to wearing the King’s name, ring and gown.

You know it. And more importantly, so does God.

So no matter where you wander in the King’s country, you are still the King’s daughter. Even if you are not speaking to your Dad, He cannot and will not disown you.

Instead of questioning whether you are the King’s daughter, which is a settled issue, perhaps better questions are: why are you hiding from your Loving Father, and where do you think you can go to be away from Him?

Romans 8:38-39 says ‘Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.’ And Psalm 139:7 says ‘Where can I go from your Spirit?’

Here is the really simple part. He is as close as a prayer of faith. Speak to the One who is pleased to call you daughter.

Today I am doing a little experiment, but I want to frame it up for you:

This is not a to do list or  a report card or a syllabus for the Christian life. This is more like a doctor’s visit where you look for symptoms, pains and needs. The goal is to help you maybe take a little medicine, adjust your lifestyle, cut out or add to your diet so that you can live healthier and stronger.

I want ask you some practical questions about your God life. Why? Because if you are not careful, you will read this blog, and others’ blogs, books and ideas and get more information but not more Revelation of God.

How can that be?  Because information is not the source of the God life. There are many people who are stuffed like turkeys with biblical knowledge but have no deepening relationship with God. The Bible called them Pharisees. To know the deep things of God, we are to ask, seek, knock for the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth. We search for truth as though we are looking for treasures. And the good news is, God promises that we will find Him when we seek Him with our whole hearts.

In short, we are talking about a willing spirit. Willing to know God. Willing to look for Him.  Willing to be open to His leading. Only the life of God produces God life. David said in Psalm 51, “Lord grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.” David knew that God was worthy of the search and that finding more of God helped him to do his daily life in a sustained, supernatural way.

So here are some questions to ponder and answer. (Not just read and blow past…)

1. On a regular basis do I set aside time to talk to God in a purposeful way, like I would to any person of importance? (Meaning not just in the shower, on the toilet, during drive time, or in a crisis)
2. Do I have a piece of scripture that I am currently chewing on,thinking about, memorizing, believing?
3. Do I purposely try to interrupt my life with the supernatural by listening to music that propels me heavenward, going for a walk and noticing God’s beauty, talking to a friend about God truths?

Okay this is enough prodding for today.  It isn’t a test to pass or fail, praise or condemn. . . . It is a doctor’s diagnosis.  Are you spiritually anemic? Then ask, seek, knock.  Bang on the doors of heaven.

Rest. It stirs up all kinds of images, but there is a spiritual rest that I am only beginning to comprehend. As I am seeking more revelation from the Lord, He has lots to say  about it. The following is an excerpt from a phenomenal book, The Rest of the Gospel, by Dan Stone. Better get your fork because this is meat. Pray over the rich truths within these truths this week:

“It is not your striving that releases Christ’s life through you. It is your trusting. Just say, “Lord, Your Holy Spirit it  showing me this truth. I embrace it by faith, just like I embrace Jesus FOR me by faith and experienced forgiveness of my sins. I now embrace Jesus IN me as my life. Teach me, convince me of this truth by the Holy Spirit, so that I won’t be captive any longer trying to produce this life myself.”

What’s good news to us now isn’t just that He died FOR us, though that is good news. It isn’t just that He’s WITH us, though that is good news. It isn’t just that He’s IN us, helping us, though that is good news. The really good news is that  He is in us, living His Life as us.

He has joined His Spirit with our spirit. In the unseen and eternal, there’s Deity inside us. We are not that Deity, but we are containers of that Deity.

A well of eternal life is springing up within us. That life is adequate, that life is sufficient, that life is never exhausted, never tires, never tastes bitter. That life is always light, always has mercy in it, always has a second chance in it, always carries God’s forgiveness toward others, always is love.

When we recognize this, suddenly the Oughts and Musts of Satan’s frenetic life become the “Be still, and be” of God’s life — the “Be still and be”  of His eternal presence.  A dramatic change of our point of reference results.  Satan’s invitation to humanity was “you become.” When we’re playing  the game of Must and Ought, we’re in the spotlight. Our performance is center stage.

But our point of reference is now the indwelling Jesus Christ. He has not part in the separation implied by Must and Ought. He lives in our sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, where all simply IS. We are invited to let that be, and let Him come forth.”

(page 62, The Rest of the Gospel, by Dan Stone. You can purchase this book through our website under Resources, Recommended Reading.)

I know we are all around children. And they are just worth laughing at.

Charis’ pronunciations have gone through funny evolutions in the age 4-6 years.

She went from saying:

Moo-shee for movie

Pa-sget-ti for spaghetti

Snar-gan-off for stroghanoff

Toob to tomb (as in “They put Jesus in the toob”)

Now we are in the season of six-year-old questions. A couple of the craziest  ones  lately are:

How did God make spiders? (Not why, but how?)

and

Did Jesus make toots (our family word for having gas)?

Chuck and I took on the task of painting our bedroom and replacing the flooring that Pearl had so graciously decorated for us.

All this in one weekend.

After two sleepless nights on a mattress in our living room, discount floor tiles that were defective and now had to be corrected, and a house that looked like a cyclone had not just hit it but had moved in and hovered for several days, I was over it.

To our dismay, our shower head broke and the garbage disposal kicked the bucket the same weekend.
Did I mention that we are not the best do-it-yourselfers?

So I was heading out to the store to fix the flooring first thing Monday morning and saying out loud:
“Lord, seriously? I am sore, my back is killing me, the floor looks terrible, the shower head is broken, now the disposal is trashed—”

I rounded the corner of the house and there is a long liquidy line of Pearl poop all over my sidewalk and driveway.

“And now this, Lord? Seriously??”

I slammed the door getting into the Jeep, turned the key, hit the radio on and shifted into reverse. And I heard Kari Jobe sing out:

“I  believe You’re my portion
I believe You’re more than enough for me
Jesus, You’re all I need.”

Thanks Lord. Seriously.

Someone asked me this the other day when we were talking about hearing from God.  In fact, when you start talking about any kind of intimacy with God, there are always lots of questions. But to be candid, those questions look a lot like doubt and fear.

It goes all the way back to the Garden when the snake hissed, “Did God really say?”

Hearing from God is not about getting a grade, checking a box, or receiving a gold star. Nor is it about failing. It is a relationship. It is about learning to follow.

Think of an infant who is BORN to walk. She is fully equipped but simply under-developed. So with time and strengthening, encouragement and modeling, that child will rock on her hands and knees, then crawl in some crazy, awkward fashion and then take her first wobbly, trembling steps. But it doesn’t stop there.

Those first steps lead to bruised hands and heads. Skinned up knees, lots of boo boos and band-aids.

But NEVER does the parent tell the child, “Stop trying. Why bother? It’s too hard. You simply can’t do this.” The parent knows that those little arms, legs and feet were designed for Running.

So listen for the voice Who calls you. Listen in songs, in nature, in the Bible and books. Listen even through others’ conversations with you. Listen for those words that ring a bell deep inside you.

And speak back. Talk to Him. All the time, about everything.
Talk to the One who made you able to Run into His arms.

The other morning, Chuck called me, all hyped up. He was taking the girls to school. “I know you are busy, but the sunrise is incredible! If you would leave right now and go to that peak at the park, you would still be able to see it. But you have to hurry.”

I hung up the phone and looked out my window; all I saw was a blurry, dismal gray. Not much of a motivator to leave my warm house and hot coffee. But I did.

I grabbed my keys and drove out of the little hollow that my house sits in and headed for the highest, closest place I could find. Even as the Jeep climbed up the first hill, the light started exploding around me. In my rearview mirror, I got flashes of reds and pinks in the sky. I strained to turn around to see it but couldn’t. Now I was totally motivated.

I drove back down another hill and back into the gray. Waited on a break in traffic. Where should I go? Time and colors were burning. The park was too far. Finally, my turn. Onto Northshore, I turned left. I climbed again but this time I was facing the sun. This time nothing between me and the sky.  I reached the top of a undeveloped subdivision and flash, there it was: the sun and blood reds and warm pinks slashing and splashing across the sky.

My heart was racing. All I could say for a few minutes was, “Wow.”

So quickly the colors in the sky merged and cooled and stretched out. Like an artist had just plopped some paint on a canvas and then with a loving stroke had smoothed them and diluted them into long, lovely strands.

“You sure are a show off,” I said quietly. And I heard, “My mercies are new every morning.”

As I have pondered this over several days, here are a few take-aways:

One, I want to be quick to share when I see something beautiful. If Chuck hadn’t called me, I would have missed this gift.

Two, I want to be quick to respond. If I had depended solely on what I could see, or if I had tarried, I would  have missed out.

And three,  I want to be quick to live in the reality that as beautiful as that sunrise was, it does not compare to the beauty of His mercy. That was the greatest gift — the reminder that every morning, because of Him, I get a clean slate to begin painting on.

“One thing I ask, and I would seek, to see your beauty.”