It’s a balmy day with the sunshine peering through partially naked trees in the forest. I can still look up on my morning run and catch spots of golden coloured leaves but most of the woods stands bare, slowly swaying in the crisp air of November. Those maples and poplars comfort me standing so brave and unafraid through seasons of abundance and barren-ness just doing what they are created to do quietly and faithfully.
God spoke the trees into existence and since then they just do what He created them to do. He spoke us into existence and with the extra breath of life we became living beings with a will and a soul made from the dust right into His image. From the very beginning He came and walked with us offering a close understanding of who He really is.
Some of us have heard about who He is all our lives without understanding who He truly is. There is a vast difference between talking about the attributes of God and understanding and believing in His character. There’s a wide dichotomy between hearing about who He is all of our lives and knowing who He is with all of our being. 1 Corinthians 13 says we can only “know in part” now, but a time is coming when we will “know fully, just as we are fully known,” so even if we are not face to face with God now, we make it our quest with Paul in Philippians 3 “to know Him and the power of His resurrection” and make His character known on earth.
Earlier this year I was in a wrestle with God about the myriad of open-ended questions I had asked Him with no direct answer in return. I learned that God is more interested in my personal transformation than in a direct confirmation. He is more interested in my understanding of Him being illuminated than the outline of my life being perfectly clear.
The commission of knowing Him brings transformation to our inner selves because He comes in deep as a divine archaeologist and starts chipping away at the layers of our false selves so we can be free to live in our created identity.
When we misunderstand who God really is we get everything else in life wrong. I see ways I have clearly misunderstood His character in the past and how that has naturally led to misrepresenting Him. Job’s friends were pretty convinced that hardship and suffering resulted from disobeying God. The misunderstanding that God was punishing Job led the whole group in misrepresenting the character of God to Job in His suffering. God spoke very directly to them in Job 42, “You have not spoken of me what is right.”
A.W. Tozer says, “The knowledge of God cannot be denied, but it can be distorted.” Most of us would never deny the existence of God but many of us have distorted images of Him and as Tozer goes on to say, “The image that comes to mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you.” Maybe it’s the most important thing about us because it dictates everything about who we are.
Eve had the opportunity to walk with God in the garden every day. She knew Him as kind, gentle, and faithful. Satan in his craftiness comes to her and whispers distortions about the character of God and she allows the temptation to view Him as less than He truly is to overcome what she knew to be true about Him. The serpent still whispers the same thing very craftily into our ears and his goal is to distort our understanding of God so that we are handicapped and confused about ourselves, others, and the world.
Eve took on the false identity Satan promised her “to be like God” and suddenly felt shame for the very first time. The shame of taking on something she was not created to identify with drove her to sew clothes of fig leaves and hide insecure and afraid of the presence of her Creator.
What’s the very first thing Eve does when God comes?
Accuse Adam.
What does Adam do first?
Accuse Eve.
It’s a fearsome thing to cover who we really are and when we try we end up insecure and afraid of everything and everyone. As a method of self protection, we live criticising and accusing those who threaten our false selves.
A distorted view of God=false identity=shame=fear=accusation.
But we can live free from the false identities. We can let the labels of ministry and job titles fall, along with the admiration and accusation of others and find the reality of our created identity in the face of the One who knows us best. Our true identity is found in intimate relationship with God, a connection only possible when we see the truth of who He is and who we are because of Him. Even though we have cowered under the fear of false identities, we can be free because of God’s relentless pursuit of His image in us.
The voice of God still comes softly into our hidden shame and says gently, “Who told you?”
Who told you what you believe about me?
Who told you the labels of identity you are carrying? Who told you to question the goodness of God and sink your teeth into the fleeting sweetness of a false wisdom you were not created to carry?
When we identify who He really is and who we really are in the eyes of our Creator we lose the drive to cower in shame and hide from His presence. There is no more fear. We have no need to criticise and accuse others, because He has taken the false labels off us and placed a banner above us— and it’s all love. When love is our banner we don’t hide in shame anymore. When love is our banner we fear nothing. When love is our banner we cannot accuse.
You can let go of your fig leaves and look right up into His face today and rest in what He speaks over you. His voice of love spills into our hearts like a soothing balm, healing and restoring us to the truth of who we’re created to be. We can be as peaceful as the trees standing naked from the pressure of performance against the grey of a future we don’t understand because every deepest root is grounded in the knowledge of who He really is.
We can be quiet like the forest swaying gently and rooting deeper into the knowledge of Him.
There is a direct correlation between stillness and knowing and that’s why Psalm 46 exhorts us to “Be still, and know that He is God.” Life can be very loud with distractions and a certain crafty serpent still whispers distortions very frequently. It is often easier to be guided by incessant fear whispers of a serpent with a crushed head than to pause long enough to be compelled by the love of a resurrected Saviour.
Because when fear is a habit, love makes us afraid.
But we can learn to be still so we can know. In that stillness we can learn to hear Him and grow slowly into His likeness. We have no need to cower in shame, hiding behind layers of false identities. We become fearless. That freedom from fear releases the drive to criticise and accuse, and gives us the stamina to look up and clearly see His banner of love swaying wide and open above us.
When it’s all love above us and in us, it can be all love around us.
Jonathan Helser says, “His affection is the stone in your hand to slay the giant of accusation.” Instead of ruminating about others and becoming distracted with accusations or applause, commit to practicing stillness and knowing what you truly believe about God. When you see His affection and become solid in your belovedness there is absolutely nothing that can distort your perceptions of reality. When love is your banner nothing can make you afraid because there is no fear in love.
Let the whisper of His love overcome and align you in all that is true today.
Here’s a small exercise for your weekend (and every day!) to guide your being still and knowing who He truly is.
- Practice raw honesty. Some of us know very well how to follow the “letter of the law.” As it says in 2 Corinthians 3, “The letter kills, but the spirit gives life.” The reason we are uncomfortable with quietness and questions is often because it uproots the hard truth we can easily cover with good performance. Commit to the humility it takes to be completely transparent about what is true.
- Jesus asked Peter in Luke 9, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” and after Peter’s answer He continues, “But who do you say that I am?” God is not as interested in what you have heard about Him as who you say in truth that He is. Write down who you say that He is.
- Ask the Holy Spirit to show you any distortions you have believed about God. 2 Corinthians 10 says although we’re walking as human beings we are not warring against human beings, so we need weapons of war that have “divine power to destroy strongholds.” Strongholds are distortions or “arguments and lofty opinions” against what is true about God. Write down characteristics of God you have believed that are against the truth of His character.
- Practice stillness. Not as a forced routine, but a natural result of being unafraid of what is true. 2 Peter 1:4 says “He has granted us great and precious promises so we can become partakers of His divine nature.” In believing His promises, we grow into His image. Stillness invites us into the depth of our reality, and allows the greatness and preciousness of His promises to saturate the deepest parts of who we are. Ask the Holy Spirit to align your whole being with the truth of His promises as you listen in stillness and write down what He gives you.
Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash
katekleinsasser.com 