Is our depth in God real or just perceived?
One of the buzzwords in Christendom here in my locale is “Deeper”. It’s a word I’ve often used to describe a state of pursuit of an increasing empowering intimacy with God.
But the thought crossed my mind this morning – ‘if I use this word “Deeper” to define how I should feel about my ever growing pursuit of the Presence of God, then there needs to be a few things brought to the light’:
1) Depth should be measurable – so if I am ‘deep’ today, how can I attest to finding a ‘deep-er’ place in God?
2) Depth is discovered in digging or boring – Going down positionally.
3) Depth is not seen at the surface – only when one overlooks the chasm can one see the perceived depth, and even then, the depth is really fully measured by ‘diving in’.
So how do we GO DEEPER IN GOD? This list is far from comprehensive, but it’s definitely helped me during my pursuit of God to have some measurable quantifiers that help me plummet new depths in God:
- Pray bold Spirit-led prayers: One of the things that God is showing me more and more is the simple truth that He is God. (Yup, I know… slow Neli!) But knowing that He is God, puts focus on his infinite capabilities, and his sheer immenseness and not my logic and limitations. As long as your prayers are in line with the will of God (measurable by Scripture and good interpretation), there is nothing to hard for your God.
- Love HARD: One of the greatest joys we have as sons and daughters of God, is the gift of unconditional, unfathomable love that God has for us. God has been teaching me to not just love people, but to love em hard, even if in my natural fleshly perception, they may not be as easy to love. God is teaching me to love, not because it’s my Christian duty, but to love because he first loved me – without relent and with vigour.
- Find the places in my life of flaw, and meditate on Scriptures that address those flaws. Sometimes it’s in the areas of struggle that we fail to remember who made us, our purpose, and who we belong to. I’ve found that most of the Scriptural passages that I’ve memorized were not actually because of Sunday School teaching (though a lot were), but because in times of desperation, God has taught me to dig into the Bible for passages that speak to specific issues in my life, and get them in my spirit to the point where he deals with it. I am what Scripture says I am, but more importantly, my God is what Scripture defines Him as!
- Carry an environment of worship EVERYWHERE you go. You get around me, you’ll always hear this phrase “Worship is not Christian slow-jams”. We incorrectly assume at times in church culture that worship has to be linked to music. Not necessarily. If Romans 12:1 describes worship as “offering ourselves as living sacrifices”, then we should always be alive with the purpose of looking for opportunities to sacrifice ourselves for God’s glorification.
I’m reminded of the character Pig-pen from Peanuts who always carried a cloud of dust around him wherever he went. I’d love to be that dude, but instead of a cloud dust and grime, be a carrier of the presence of God visibly…
“the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God.” 2 Chronicles 5:14
Neli Atiga 