Forgotten God

As of late, I've been completely intrigued by Francis Chan's latest book, Forgotten God, which discusses how Christians today call on God the Father and Christ the Son, but often forget about the incredible power and gift for our lives on earth, the Holy Spirit. So often, as Christians, we sense that God is somehow distant, far away, and unattainable or that we have to live by certain self-induced rules to gain His favor. Chan shows how generous and caring the God we serve is, by teaching us the power of the Holy Spirit. If allowed into every section of our life, the Spirit of God has the power to do incredible things in and through us.

However, we often forget that our bodies are the Spirit's temple. The world around us begins to dictate our actions and decisions. Instead of living by the fruit of the Spirit described in Galatians 5, we become the opposite (frustrated, prideful, mean, selfish, rude, self serving, etc). We doubt, we question the power of the Spirit, thus placing ourselves as some type of "godhead' of our own lives. This, I believe, is why we don't see more joyful, Spirit led, confident, courageous Christians changing the world. For we cannot serve both God and man - we have to choose, and far too often we choose the latter.

“if all you want is a little Jesus to ‘spiritualize’ your life, a little extra God to keep you out of hell, you are missing out on the fullness of life you were created for.” –F. Chan, Forgotten God, Pg. 122

Amen! But how do we even begin to get out of the box of spirituality and into the unyeilding surrender to God's control of our lives? Simply put... by daily asking for the Spirit's guidance, by disclosing our struggles, and facing the obstacles that so often get in our way. And it's different for each of us, to some it's our job, to others our families, other's may struggle with food or financially, while other's have a paralyzing fear that often prevents them from even moving at all. Baby steps. We don't change overnight, living with God as the center is a process of growth and continual surrender. As it says in Forgotten God:

“each of us has a strong tendency to attempt to wrestle control from the Spirit and ‘do’ this life on our own.” – F. Chan, 131

It should no longer be a question of what I need to do to control my life. Because my life is not mine to control. No, it’s a matter of what God wants me to surrender to Him in my life. What needs to be done for me to release the securities that the world offers, for the eternal security of Christ?

"Perhaps you don’t need fire from heaven, but peace. Perhaps what you need is wisdom to know which decision to make, or courage to do the right thing, even though you might lose your job. Or maybe you need love because you feel alone. Or you want people with a similar vision to journey with and support you along the way. Whatever you need, the point is that God is aware of you and your circumstances, and He knows what you really need. He is able to bring these things, people, and circumstances in your life… He wants to completely transform us.” F.Chan 145-146

And how does this transformation happen? With prayer, time, and accountability. Pray fervently, pray radically, pray courageously believing that God will come through. And remember that to God a day is like a 1000 years and a 1000 years are like a day. To us time means no answer or that God is no longer there, but to God time means instilling patient perseverance into the lives of His children.

So let’s stop living the safe life, the planned life - where we decide what we will do and where we will go, and let’s start living lives of complete surrender asking the Spirit to lead and direct our paths right into the situations He’s intended us to be in. Who knows, the drive home may require an “unnessesary” stop along the way that changes someone’s life forever. The ringing phone may be someone desperate to know someone cares. And the prompting to “go” in our hearts may just be the very thing to break us of our comfort and push us into the life of daily trust in the Spirit for everything we need. God did not call us to a life of comfort, at least not this side of heaven. Christ has called us to daily pick up our cross and follow Him, wherever He leads, whatever He wants, needs to be our complete determination daily.