THE INTERNAL SEARCH Is God There?

THE INTERNAL SEARCH

Is God There?

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Jesus places His image in our heart.  When we look within we see His face, which means our spirit is aware of Him.  Seeking His face during times of pain and sorrow can yield little more than a flickering sparks in the broken heart.  However asking God for God-consciousness during those times achieves the awareness of His indwelling presence often accompanied by His peace.  Recognizing our union with God satisfies our longing for wholeness.  With each of those prayers for God-consciousness I rediscover His life in me.  I am still amazed sensing the Holy Spirit after a period of distraction.  I find myself breathing a sigh of relief followed by a bit of a smile.  The usual release of tension accounts for the sigh and the smile attends the pleasure of knowing He is never absent.  While those involuntary reactions are not the test of His presence they are a welcome comfort.

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There are good reasons for being wary of attempting to experience God within. Brennan Manning cautions in his book Ruthless Trust, The Ragamuffin’s Path to God says, “[T]hat to seek the experience is to seek self, not God.” However I am making no pretense of unselfishness.  God has given us the liberty to come to Him precisely during moments of trouble, doubt, and hardship.  

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    “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give rest.”  Matthew 11:28

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True, the desire to experience freedom from sin and pain are not lofty motivations but to whom else should we go and what other path should we take.  God has made His presence our cure and prayer the way to discover Him as the cure.  Finding Him within is laced with unavoidable sensations.  Having lost my Christ-centered focus once before I was cautiously suspicious.  Men like Martin Luther spoke of the dangers awaiting those who, “…attempt to know God as he is in himself by speculation or by mystical contemplation.”  He said, “It is perilous to wish to investigate and apprehend the naked divinity by human reason without Christ the mediator, as the sophists and monks have done and taught others to do.”  However, the peril is only real if the investigation is attempted, “…by human reason without Christ the mediator.”  Christ, the mediator, is the one who made the invitation to come and designated the place to turn to…deep in the center of our heart. (Gal. 4:6, Eph. 3:16&17, 2Cor. 1:22)

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Nonetheless, I was concerned about being drawn into some foolish mysticism.  I had to ask myself, “How do I know it is God I am conscious of and not a self-induced sense of wellbeing?  What distinguishes God-consciousness from a self-conscious deception and was the experience supposed to be like it was when I was first saved?”  “How would I recognize Him?”  The questions are legitimate.  However, I took courage knowing I was doing God’s will by asking Him and that providing a recognizable revelation of Himself was His business.

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Years of ministry produced in me a keener awareness of the fruit of the Spirit than the recognition of the Spirit, Himself.  I reasoned that only God living inside could produce His fruit.  Unfortunately that way of thinking misdirected my refocus.  Peace within is a fruit of the Spirit, yet the presence of peace within is not proof that God is within.  Peace or what paces as peace can be manufactured by intellectual convictions, emotional satisfaction, or pharmaceutical stimulation.  Peace can be evidence of God’s Spiritual connection but it is not proof.  That is why a sighting of good fruit does not prove the presence of God, even though it is evidence. 1 John 4:16-18 affirms that if fruitful qualities show up in our lives it is evidence that God is really in us.   Nonetheless, evidence is not proof.   

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 The test for a vital spiritual connection with God has more to do with what is alive inside the heart than what it yields.  Paul gives us the test which proves God’s life is in us:

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“For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.  And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’  The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”  Romans 8:15-16

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The true test of the presence of God within is the reassuring witness of the Holy Spirit, Himself.  Therefore even during times of turmoil, distraction, and tragedy a believer’s proof that God has not left him is the Holy Spirit’s affirmation spoken from within the believer’s heart…not fruitfulness.

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There will be seasons of dryness in every Christian experience.  In times of fruitlessness,

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“We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.  If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.”                          1 John 4:13 +15

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“Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them.  And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gives us.”  1 John 3:24 

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Fruit production, like obeying His commands, can be done as we yield to the will of God within.  They provide evidence that God is alive in us.  However, proof that God is in us rests solely on our awareness of the fact that the Spirit of God is in us, even when we are so distracted that we do not yield God’s fruit. 

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The Apostle John restates Paul’s test for proving a Spirit to spirit connection exists within saying:

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“This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.”       1 John 4:2

That is why Jesus could say, without being contradicted by unresponsive distracted saints, that, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” (Mat. 12:34 and Luke 6:45)

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Turning around to inwardly gaze Godward I took the one question test:

 HAS JESUS CHRIST COME WITHIN MY FLESH?      YES _____  or      NO_____   

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If the answer is anything other than “YES” you have reason to doubt your Spirit to spirit connection with God.  The Holy Spirit avoiding an affirmative answer would make Him a deceiver, if He is really in you.  If you do not hear a “YES” within, you doubt the truth of God and you either need to turn back to God again or turn toward Him for the first time.  Take a minute and settle that problem now.  If God is not within, He will be the instant you wholeheartedly follow the instructions given in the book of Acts:

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“Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.  And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call.”  Acts 2:38+39

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Paul gave similar directions: 

“They replied, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.”  Acts 16:31