How Big is your God?
Posted by appolus on January 11, 2009
Each human is a vast unexplored universe. Only I have the ability to navigate the human heart and map it. Without the navigator, without the map all is chaos and darkness. Without the ship of God and Jesus the Captain, you will only ever stare at the horizon of your souls and be fearful of what lies beyond.”
HOW BIG IS YOUR GOD?
Here is a word that the Holy Spirit whispered into my heart. “Each human is a vast unexplored universe. Only I have the ability to navigate the human heart and map it. Without the navigator, without the map all is chaos and darkness. Without the ship of God and Jesus the Captain, you will only ever stare at the horizon of your souls and be fearful of what lies beyond.”
God says in Psalm 139 “How precious are your thoughts of me, O God, how great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand.”
Oswald Chambers writes “Neither logic nor science can explain the sublimities of Nature. Supposing a scientist with a diseased olfactory nerve says that there is no perfume in a rose, and to prove his statement he dissects the rose and tabulates every part, and then says, “Where is the perfume? It is a fiction; I have demonstrated that there is none.” There is always one fact more that science cannot explain, and the best thing to do is not to deny it in order to preserve your sanity, but to say, as Job did, “No, the one fact more which you cannot explain means that God must step in just there, or there is no explanation to be had.“
How vast is the God that you know ? How big is the God that you perceive? Do you worship a small God? Do you think small? Do you have a limited perception of yourself in regard to how God can use you? Can you see that there could be a correlation as to how you perceive God and to how big He is in your life? You may ask “what is my perception of God to do with how big God is?” It is true, no matter what you think of God it does not change the vastness of God. Even if you do not believe in God it does not change the fact that God exists.
Have you ever been in a job that you hated? Did you ever have detention in school? Did you ever have to perform a duty that was a total grind to you? Perhaps you were a soldier in the army and had to perform guard duty? Why do I ask these question and what has it to do with how our perception of God can shape our relationship with Him and how effective we can be in the Kingdom?
In the tasks that I described above, did time “move,” fast or slow? Strange question to the scientist is it not? Time is time. One hour is 60 minutes.It never changes it is a hard number and it is set. We know that God never changes and He is what He is regardless of what we think of Him or how limited we perceive Him.
Yet, how many of us know that our perception of time, which never changes, depends upon how much we want to do what we are doing. One hour can seem like a month if we are engaged in mere existence. And the opposite is true. When we are enjoying what we are doing then time can “fly.” Do not write this off as mere perception which ultimately does not mean anything. The people who perform great and mighty things for God are the people who truly believe He is great and Mighty. They see Him in a proper perspective. And when they do, they go of and “make disciples of all nations.” Hudson Taylor believed in a mighty God that could save all of China, so of he went and dedicated his life in the pursuit of that goal. He did not limit God in His thinking. He knew that He served a God that could save all of China.
There is the opposite end of the spectrum. People who think that they know all that there is to know about God. They have the answers for everything and they have a neat and tidy theology and everything is in order. Perhaps it is systamatic, perhaps it is not, but it is rigid. This would generally apply to the religious, the Catholics, the Baptists and so on. Their theology is closed, like the canon of Scripture and they are not open to any more revelation. They ultimately “limit” God.
When we think about Job, we know that his “friends,” only added to his agony. The best part of Job’s relationship with his friends in his hour of need was when they sat silent with him for a week. They were dumbfounded at his situation, and , after pondering it, because they could not explain it, they came to the conclusion that he was a sinner. In the light of chapter one of the book of Job we know this is not the case. And as with all believers who have not delved into the deep with God, they began to scorn Job.
You see, if Job is not guilty, if he is not deserving of his situation, then his friends would need to abandon their rigidly held doctrine, or belief of God. For they believed that God blessed believers and cursed sinners(materially). They had a relationship with their doctrine and not with their God. Does your faith in God depend upon God healing you? Does your faith in God depend upon Him materially blessing you? Do you rigidly believe that poverty is a curse and material wealth is a blessing? When you pray for someone to be healed and they are not, what is your conclusion? Lack of faith on your own part? Lack of faith on the part of the one you prayed for? Are you locked into a dogma that if things do not work out the way you planned then someone must be at fault? Is it not possible that God does not fit into a neat dogmatic box?
You see, the man who is locked into a dogma, has more trust in his dogma than he does in God. His relationship is ultimately with what he believes in, not Who. He will come unstuck, just as Job’s friends did, when his dogma fails and he thinks he knows everything about God. And when it does fail, what will this man do? Will he question himself? Or will he begin to attack others and deny that the situation even exists? Will he begin to doubt God? Perhaps the god that he worshipped did fail him. Maybe the god that he worshipped was a god of his own making? One of the saddest events is to witness someone who believes that they should never be sick, be sick. Their dogma does not allow for them to be sick, so something must be wrong with them.
Many Christians in the West still hold to the belief that material “blessings,” come from God and “failures,” are the work of the devil. Of course the book of Job took on these issues . If God is to be proven faithful and thereby our trust in Him is to grow, then trials and tribulations are the gateway to greater trust. With every trial that He brings us through then our trust in Him grows. Faith is trust. Without trials how would we grow? The problem is, most Christians pray against these and see them as works of the devil.
This teaching is further bolstered by people who teach that if , for instance, you do not have material wealth, then somehow you are not “possesing,” all that God has for you. So, they see it as a lack of faith. Which of course is actually the opposite of faith. For true faith is borne in the fire, a fire that certain people would describe as “from the devil.” So we now have a culture of Christians who are fearful and pray against every possible trial, and see that trial as a failure of faith, when in actual fact the trial is the precursor to real faith.
If you are struggling right now. Perhaps you have an illness, a grave report from the Doctor? Perhaps you have a wayward adult child? Maybe you have financial problems, then can I counsel you to look beyond the horizon of who you are? Can I encourage you that God is a faithful God who is vast beyond our comprehension. You too are a magnificent creature made in the image of the vast God.There is no limit to what God can do through you if you can embrace God in your situation and learn from it. Do not run from your situation, step into the boat of God and head directly towards the horizon, even although you do not know what lies beyond. Once you clear the breakwaters of fear and dread, then only something thrilling can lie beyond the place that you have never sailed to. Do you want to go to a place that you have never been to before? Then trust in God. You are in His hands.
People are vastly complicated, God much more so. The door to the deeper walk with Jesus is the unexplained. When you come to the end of yourself, when your dogma fails you, when you cannot explain or understand your situation, then you are at the door. And the password? “Yet though He slay me, even then I will trust Him.” If you want to go deeper with God, allow Him to search you. Join Him in the journey that goes beyond what you understand, into the deeper waters, and beyond the horizons of your understanding.
A Call To The Remnant 
joysome said
Always remember that in the land of Egypt there are/were many Gods, and that we are ‘dealing’ with spirit not flesh. To navigate round the universe you do indeed need the Fathers mantel for the hate of/ and in man would not allow you entry to its secrets. Hades was opened by the entry of Jesus and he stood at the doorway to allow the spirit of hatred a choice to either come with him and peace or do battle for that peace. Hatred chose War. We all have that choice. David then in a mantel of the Father went into the spirit nations to claim the hatred he to wore the Fathers mantel. Anyone claiming to be able to go into a universal place is a liar for only the Father in his mantel of LOVE could enter. So when people say ‘the holy spirit’ ask yourself is it the ‘holier than thou spirit’ to me it would seem so. Flesh is the body for the spirit thats why THE ONE WILL COME needs to.
appolus said
Hi Joysome..thanks for dropping by. Could not understand your reply, sorry…………Frank
joysome said
No problem allow me to explain. Its all about love. Would a loveing father engage us in a war NO. Would a loveing father lie to us NO. Would a loveing father leave us to the enemy No. So why then are we in this mess. Answer MAN. The Lord has come to get us all out of this mess we seem to have got ourselves into. Greed, Poverty. Hate, murder and so on seems to rule a vast part of the world right now, wouldn’t you agree?. So would a loveing father gift us with such a horrific mess, No he comes to bring an end to mans rule.
Was Jesus holy! No he didn’t even have a building never mind a church from what I can see he walked and cast out demons and the demonic got angry with frauds and money lenders in the temple and gifted wherever he walked. So who made him into holy ? You tell me because most of us aren’t holy and he knew that cos he walked among us, right so somewhere along the line someone turned him into something he wasn’t, just like you and me, therefor when they hung him on a cross, as most of us have been at some point, ie. you are not what I wanted, your are not worthy, you are a failure, you are not pretty, etc., they left him to die in their condemnation. SO NOW WHAT. Answer: HAVE NO FEAR one will come. So what we need now then is positive evidence that one has wouldn’t you agree.
appolus said
Hi Joysome…sill not clear where your coming from in regard to the post. On one of your points about a loving Father “gift us with such a horrific mess.” All the mess and chaos in the world is not a “gift,” from God, its man’s sin and rebellion that has caused the mess………..Frank
hopesome said
So who created man !
appolus said
Hi hopesome, thanks for dropping by. God created man and what a fortunate creature man is. Man’s perfection lies in the fact that he has the ability to sin. Seems like a contradition doesn’t it? If we were impeccable, if we could not sin, if we could only do what was “right,” if we could only worship God, if we could only choose to walk with Him, then God would have created a robot. We would be cosmic bit players in a scripted exsistance. Yet we are free moral creatures with the ability to make choices. The ramifications of this kind of freedom is enormous, in fact it is the essence of our very existence. To blame God for the ills in the world is the classic human reaction to their imperfections. It must be someone else’s fault, the alternative is to look in the mirror of life and see your own crass self loking back. Self-serving and self absorbed. Mini-gods who can travel no further than to the edge of their own understanding, making the edge of their understanding the edge of all that exists. Jesus is the antidote to this condition. When we cry out to Him He opens up the eyes of our understanding and we see our condition, we dethrone ourselves and we willingly give up our humanity. We are given a new heart and with that heart we can “smell the roses of His presence.” We are transformed and in giving up we receive, in dying we find life, in humility we find ourselves raised into the very presence of the living God. All of it is counter-intuative. In giving we recieve, in dying we find life, when attacked we do not defend, when despised and cruely treated we love. In all of that we break the chains that bind humanity. We do not render evil for evil and the source of evil is rendered powerless. Darkness versus light, love against hatred. The dearest thing to humanity is their very exsitence, the creature with the new heart is no longer afraid of death and all the fear is gone……………Frank
hopesome said
so if God created man as you say why would a loving father gift us the ability to sin surely he wouln’t want us constantly 1. tempted 2. in turmoil. 3.having to be constantly ‘on the ball’ so to speak keeping a watch out for the enemy!. The way I see it is this. The bible is a prophecy and we are all ‘looking for love, a deep kind of love (the divorce rate tells us this doesn’t exist!) and Jesus is love. He’s not a hi on a sunday kind of love or a pray to you when I can kind of love but a constant kind of love that says LAY DOWN YOUR LIFE (it falls short) AND I’LL GIVE YOU MINE AND THEN WE BECOME AS ONE. Few are willing to obey to that extent and he knew that( Leave your father and mother etc) but he kept ‘knocking on the door to our heart’ in the hope that one day mans fear would leave us and his hope would take us up (rapture). When you do lay down your life daily and ‘do as he tells you’ so to speak, even if it seems scary then the journey with him really begins and you begin to taste he new wine and then mans love is not enough and you are constantly filled with his. His love is not weak when faced with an enemy it looks him straight in the face and with a word, literally lays him to waste beautifully. How : because his words are power his being is power his very existence is power and he doesn’t need mans weapons of nasty, vile speech, bullets, bombs or venom to overthrow. When you walk at one with him you have the inheritance of that power plus more. The power he speaks is vibrant and that vibrant is over and above mans therefor man is laid to waste and he takes over.
appolus said
Well hopesome it looks like we agree on many things. I am just not sure of where you are coming from when you say………..
“so if God created man as you say why would a loving father gift us the ability to sin surely he wouln’t want us constantly 1. tempted 2. in turmoil. 3.having to be constantly ‘on the ball’ so to speak keeping a watch out for the enemy!.”
Are you saying He is not a loving Father? Are you saying He did not create man? Are you saying that we do not have the ability to sin? Are you saying God made a mistake when He made us? The beginning part of your comment does not jive with the rest of your comment(of which I agree)………….Frank
hopesome said
Who planted temptation, sickness, hate starvation etc in the hearts of man. A loving Father wouln’t. So whoever created wasn’t coming from a source of GREAT LOVE and yet we know that the father loves us because he send us messages of such, in a quiet moment or while we pray or when we are down. My theory reads as such. The war the bible speaks of is for us his people. God the loving father against his opposite in / of the enemy ie. man. If our loving Father wins then we are safe, secure and able (in all circumstances and all ways to overcome) The enemy then loses the world and all that it represents. So the father says ‘ok Satan we will fight on equal terms, thats only fair you and the world with all its power and my power being equal to yours..If I win the battle then that particular territory becomes mine,ie temptation, greed, etc., etc., In the meantime you must allow the people hope. It was agreed. Howeve being a deceiver satan lied and tried to not only defeat the father but take what little hope we had. LOVE BEING THE LAST BATTLE to be won. In other words a fair and square ‘battle’ and david being one of he fathes warriors (to overcome David in man ie salacious music industry etc. ) However once the battle for the earth was won the enemy moved into the spirit nations and so then did the war, then to the universe and so did the war but the Father kept his promise and gifted us hope all along the way untill finally he could take creation and then gift it to us in him and his not the enemys and his. As the great battle draws to a close we will begin to hear and see more of the fathers heart and hope and not the worlds that constantly assails us as we walk. So yes I know both the loving Father and the enemys and what each has created. I know who’s side i’m on GOD BLESS
appolus said
Hi Hopesome…you write…
“Who planted temptation, sickness, hate starvation etc in the hearts of man. A loving Father wouln’t. So whoever created wasn’t coming from a source of GREAT LOVE and yet we know that the father loves us because he send us messages of such, in a quiet moment or while we pray or when we are down.”
By giving the human the ability to to sin, does not mean that God planted anything. Again, without the ability to choose,we would not exist for it seems clear that God could have, if He so desired, created beings that could never sin and only do what is right.
He did however, warn them about the tree of knowledge. In creating a being with genunine choice, their had to be genuine choice. When the moment comes and they are tempted, not by God but by the “serpent,” they now have the ability to exercise that which makes them unique, uniquly human. They failed.
In your theory, there is a battle that could go either way, if I am reading you correctly. Even if it were true, and God limited Himself and the playing field was levelled, this would violate Scripture. According to Scripture, Jesus federally represented man and victory was gained at Calvary. So, although we battle even today, we battle in a war that is already won. There is no hope that darkness can overcome light, Satan’s fate is sealed. And interestingly enough, satan and the fallen angels prove that God is not in the business of creating beings that cannot exercise choice and simply roboticly follow Him because He programmed them that way. You may also want to read ….
https://scottishwarriors.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/the-difference-between-men-and-angels/
Let me know what you think. I am glad that you know the Father and may the Lord Jesus Christ bless you………..Frank
hopesome said
Scripture only goes so far and most of the time so does man. Only if you are prepared to go beyond both will you find the answer to why man was sin. As yet no man has done that. The bible I said was a prophecy, in other words a time to come which means yes he wins but unless we know the agony of the cross (or battle or wars he fought for us ) we will never really know him or the price he paid for us,when you do know, then you are willing to die for him. He asked a great price from me twelve years ago. To lay down my life. I did. For 40 days I (we, for he was with me) fasted and won then three weeks later he took me to another 40 days. The agony he took me threw was his, no hope save his no manna save his, no love save his, I died and he claimed the victory. To this day he still does. I am his and his alone literally for no man may put assunder that which he claims. Now my empty vessel is his and his alone, he owns me, I died for him and he died for me, the agony he showed me was beyond human speech and knowledge and still he shows me daily mans inhumanity to his fellow man. When once again we go beyond then you will have an answer to why man was sin. Peace Be With You and thank you for responding to his hope as well as mine.
appolus said
Hi Hopesome…you write….
” He asked a great price from me twelve years ago. To lay down my life.”
This is the price He asks all of His children. Every genuine Christian in the world has walked this path. Its a narrow path and few there are that find it. The depths of one’s “knowledge,” of Calvary directly correlates to the depth of walk. A good analogy would be “He who is forgiven much, loves much.” The greater the revelation of Calvary the greater the love, first for the Lord, then for the world. Here is a post I wrote a while back that touches on this subject, where my heavenly Father honored with me with some insight into what He felt about Calvary……..
https://scottishwarriors.wordpress.com/2008/08/25/i-got-a-letter-from-god/
You may also like this one…..
https://scottishwarriors.wordpress.com/2008/10/05/calvary-the-lost-message/
And finally this one….all speak of supernatural revelation of Calvary
https://scottishwarriors.wordpress.com/2008/10/29/just-one-drop-just-as-i-am/
hopesome said
I meant literally lay down my life. To passover as he did, to surrender my spirit as he did to have nothing left to give but to cry out to the father as he did. I have always said to myself unless you have been there you ae not able to fully understand, he took me at my word, and I took him at his that he would protect me in the process of death and that we could both say DEATH HAD NO VICTORY. To be at one is to know him and now I do. Jesus renered up his spirit to join the fathers (passover) If we are to truly follow him then so must we.
hopesome said
I have posted further on ‘a letter from god. May hope for you and yours be lifted to his.
hopesome said
You asked ‘How big is your God’
appolus said
Hi Hopesome…you write….
“I meant literally lay down my life. To passover as he did, to surrender my spirit as he did to have nothing left to give but to cry out to the father as he did. I have always said to myself unless you have been there you ae not able to fully understand”
Your comparison to what Jesus did leaves me slightly uncomfortable. Now I understand the internet is not the best medium and often there can be mis-conceptions and meanings can be lost in the words that we write. So, for clarification, you are not comparing yourself or what you went through to what Jesus went through are you? Jesus was the sinless son of God and what He suffered on the cross will never be fully know by man. And no man, or woman, has ever come close to what Jesus suffered and can never know what it meant to HIm and His Father. We can have insights and revelations of Calvary, but our own personal experiences are pitiful in relationship to the true extent of Calvary. The bigger the revelation we have of God, the smaller we become in our own eyes. That is why one of the greatest prophets can stand in the presence of God and have this reaction “Woe is me, for I am undone, I am a man of unclean lips.” You may find this piece interesting. You will see that we both agree that death no longer has any victory and the grave has no sting.
https://scottishwarriors.wordpress.com/2008/02/13/anatomy-of-a-miracle/
The more revelation we have of God, the deeper the walk,then the less personal pro-nouns we will use. It will all be about Him as we marvel at His glory, His majesty His glory what He has done. We will know that what we have come through is nothing but light afflictions, as testified by that great martyr and writer of two thirds of the New Testement, brother Paul. Flogged and whipped and tortured and stoned and eventually killed yet he describes it only as “light afflictions.”…………..brother Frank
hopesome said
The passion of Jesus not the passion of man was shown to me. Jesus honoured who I was and now I honour who he is. Its honour that is lacking in the world and passion that honours his name. I asked of him he asked of me now we walk as one. Is that not the whole point to become as one with him. What scared you about my passion is what scared the disciples when they watched the magdalen. She adored him and gave him her sweet perfume. The internet is fine its mans interpretation that is lacking and his understanding of true passion. Remember lean not on your own understanding. So Why not ask him who I am next time you speak with him. AND BY THE WAY I WAS A RECEPTIONIST IN A MENTAL HEALTH UNIT and know exactly what you are trying to say!
appolus said
Hi hopesome..why not just tell me who you are? Are you saying that you are a sister in Christ? Or are you saying that you have some elevated position? The point is that we dwell with Him and we walk with Him, we do not become Him. Perhaps you are not saying that, maybe plain speach would be better.
” AND BY THE WAY I WAS A RECEPTIONIST IN A MENTAL HEALTH UNIT and know exactly what you are trying to say!”
I do not know what that means…………..Frank
hopesome said
Elevated position is what we are in him. Your reference to the ‘internet’ and its ‘ways suggested to me that you were along the lines of ‘probably a nut case’! Why not tell you who I am. I am a work in progress. Aren’t we all! To dwell with him is ok but you get surely to the point when to dwell is not enough and you want more of him. Frank you have had your head in the bible not your heart its not enough and you know it.
Jesus was eternal: Jesus walked as and with us: But so did the enemy so how to tell the difference then is really the question. By the fruits, thats vague in the extreme. I hope we all bare fruit! so today did you witness his fruit frank. You need to kinow that he loves you in all your ways inside outside upside and downside, as I put it. By the end of the week you will know that he does and in the process who I am.
appolus said
Hi Hopesome…you write…
“Frank you have had your head in the bible not your heart its not enough and you know it.”
Thats just bizarre. I spend most of my time writing about that very subject. I did not think you were a nut, I thought you may be an ego-maniac, someone who has had an experience and now believes that they are elevated above other genuine Christians. The above statement is dripping with pride and a lack of knowledge, and, not true, so by reason, you are decieved. Humility and love is the key to our walk with the Lord, that never changes. I see neither humility nor love in your responses sister, just an ego run wild. By the end of this week I will not know who you are. If you tell me your a sister in Christ, then I will accept that, there is nothing beyond that for you.
You are a work in progress , but by talking about yourself over and over and focusing on you rather than Jesus, you will stunt the growth and begin to take backward steps. Keep your eyes upon Him. Press into the Holy Spirit for guidance. Hunger and thirst to come into His presence, it will change you. You will get to a point where you only want to talk about Him. You will have an idea of just how big a God that we serve, and you will know that we are humbly in His service and that God has His people all over the world. Do not make the mistake of the prophet, thinking that he was the only one, it will isolate you from other genuine Christians. God bless you on your joureny
hopesome said
Ego is the biggest stronghold of the enemy frank and always the last to fall. I have no ego I was taking yours.
appolus said
“I have no ego I was taking yours.”
Dear hopesome, that is an egotistical statement in and of itself. Like I said before, the closer we get to God, the smaller we become in our own eye’s. We boast only of Him or we boast of our sufferings that glorify Him. My hope lies in HIm alone. If I am to become more like Him, it will be His work, and His alone and He will receive all the glory. I would agree that ego is an enemy to all the saints and we all must “beware when we stand, lest we fall.”
Php 2:12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, cultivate your own salvation with fear and trembling.
David said
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blessings,
david