The Journey: To What Is 3-11-2020
By Dean Foster
March 11, 2020
The Journey: to what it is
"8The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear the sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So, it is with everyone born of the Spirit." John 3:8
I've written before on The Journey how God first invaded my life when I was a youth. I told briefly how he stormed the beaches of my life before I knew Him and took me by surprise. What God did back then was to plant the seeds of faith in me. The soil He pressed those seeds into must have needed tending and preparation though, because God stayed with me. The way He stays with all of us when we seek Him. God knows who He wants each of us to be in Christ and how He will get us there.
God invades and takes the beaches wherever and however He finds them. Then He moves or He waits or He shakes things up. God alone is sovereign and has a plan that will bring us all to Him and to who we are meant to be in Jesus Christ. This is The Journey.
For me, there would be those poignant, God filled moments when I felt "connected" to God. The times when I knew He was hearing my prayers, the times that I saw Him moving in my life. There were also quiet times when I wondered where God was. Then a time came when life in the world would pull me away.
Welcome to The Journey.
It wasn't a cavalier, careless or casual decision I came to. I didn't, wouldn't consciously think or say I can do this without you God. It was more an unspoken, rash, or back of my mind idea that I would do most of the work on my own and go to God for help with the big stuff. Then I went off to get different jobs, and better jobs, and tried college for a while. Most of it was on my own with barely even a word to share with God. Instead, I struggled through it alone in a "win a few lose a few" blind alley approach. As I got by, God's plan for me was working though. I had no idea that He was preparing the soil.
Then something "big" came along. I prayed fervently to God for His help when I applied for a great job with more long-term potential than I had ever had before. He was with me and things worked out. The position was a good fit and I was "in." Still in my twenties the future was bright. When friends and loved ones congratulated me on what "I" had accomplished though, it was easy to forget reaching out for God's hand. Easy to cut him out and take the credit myself. I thanked everyone as if it was all me. God waited, watching the soil turn itself. This is also The Journey.
Years went by that way. I had no idea the Holy Spirit was watching over me. "The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear the sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going." I took full credit when I accomplished something. When I failed, I thought of a way to make it seem otherwise. God waited, tended, shook things up. He allowed the soil to sit for a while. I had no idea.
Then I met Sandy and by the Spirit we fell in love. With God watching over us, life seemed abundant and new. Sandy's love warmed my heart and brought us both closer to God. With Him in our marriage the Holy Spirit watched over the life we were building together. God was there to pull us even closer to His side when an unexpected challenge came at us. God was there when hopes were dashed and plans had to be changed. God was with us day after day and I had no idea. He was working the soil.
If you try to fight the enemy alone with barely a word to share with God, life can unfold that way. Or you can open your eyes and see Him already with you. Then humble yourself and call out to God! Pray out loud! As loud as you can! Pray something like: "OH GOD! OH GOD!" or "I CAN'T DO THIS WITHOUT YOU GOD!" or "PLEASE GOD HELP ME!" Then wait. Only God is sovereign. Only God knows when the soil is ready.
I don't remember what exactly we prayed or said or what I was thinking right after the emotional worship service at Brunswick United Methodist Church that had just concluded when my friend John came up and took me by both shoulders. I was in those quiet, spiritual tears, he was too. And we were both smiling and laughing. Then he said, "I am not even going to ask if you want to! I am just saying you are going on the next Men's Koinonia at Inspiration Hills!"
The Holy Spirit in John was telling him that I was ready to be more than a "good churchgoer." The Spirit in John was saying the seeds were planted and the soil was good to go. Here is a man who needs to be made new so he can worship God in "Spirit and in Truth." I needed Jesus to take my hand and pull me off of the treadmill of church and onto the track with follower disciples. The Holy Spirit must have been telling John that beneath the nice guy veneer I put on for the people at church was a lost, hurting, angry man who needed a real relationship with Jesus Christ.
At the time I didn't know what a relationship with Jesus was. Before that weekend the idea of being born again was as far from my mind and as hard to imagine as it must have sounded to Nicodemus that night when Jesus stressed how important it is when he said, "Truly I tell you, no one can see the Kingdom of God unless they are born again" (Jn 3:3).
Anger, loss, and broken dreams had caused my pain but I couldn't see it. My heart was not being hardened from the outside in but from the inside out. How I reacted to the world was causing me to ache for life itself. Sandy was there for me, every minute of the day. She could see I wasn't who I used to be, but when she tried to help, I doubt if I was listening. I had no idea what the answer might be. I didn't even know what the questions were.
It was as though I was bound up in the ropes, pulleys, clips and interwoven cables that held up the facade of a happy guy. You can get tied up in the front you erect to make it look like you are handling things. Christ had come to set me free! I didn't understand that I had to choose it though, he wouldn't do it just because I needed him. I had to choose life and let go of the ropes. Then Jesus would help me knock down the walls. How do you do that though? How do you choose to give up who you are for someone you don’t know? That is what being born again really is. The very idea seems not only impossible but unimaginable.
- Some people try to imitate Christ. They think that is enough to get into heaven. They think imitating Jesus and doing the things He might do or want us to do is enough. No one can do it though. We can say our prayers. We can attend church regularly. But if we haven’t been to the foot of the cross to give up who we are, we haven’t been born again. We can't be the person we have always been and simply say we are born again. That is the message Jesus is trying to teach us.
- Some change their behavior outside to conform to the way people want them to behave in church or "as Christians." But that doesn't change who they are deep inside, how they feel, what they think. That is what Jesus is talking about. It's who we are to and with God; the one who God knows.
- To be born again means that “[God] will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you” (Ezekiel 36:26). “Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4); we have “passed from death into life” (John 5:24). The new birth brings about a change in our philosophy and manner of living. People! Men, women, whoever reads this please, let go of who you are. It is very hard to do but the new Spirit God has for you will help!
There is a great mystery to the new birth. Jesus said, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes” (John 3:8). But you can see the result. We see that Jesus did not explain the new birth. I doubt that our natural minds can understand the supernatural movement of the Spirit. The best we can do is come to Christ in simple faith. Come to Him with all the trust you have to be born again. When you know and He knows what more do any of us need.
This is The Journey
