It's not in your push. It’s in your position.

It’s Not In Your Push

It’s In Your Position

“Hearing God is not something you do; it’s someone you are.” —Robert Morris

If you had a chance to read the first post in the Hearing God series, we discovered that it is God’s nature to speak. He is always pursuing His children from the very beginning of time. We cannot come to know or experience God unless He speaks to us. John 6:44 says “the only way people come to me is by the Father who sent me—he pulls on their hearts to embrace me…” The Greek word for “pulls” means to drag or pull by force. It is the same word used to describe how Moses was pulled or saved from the Nile River. God speaks so we can be rescued from the waters of sin, defeat, fear, and desperation. He speaks to give us a new life and a future. And if you notice the urgency of that word “pull by force,” you will understand that God was not willing to let us wander on our own. He had a plan that would cost Him everything to ransom the people He created. Knowing that the ultimate choice still rested in the hearts of those He loved, He initiated the greatest love story ever told to win them back.

But did you realize there is a deeper, more intimate conversation that God desires to have with every single person who has ever lived, and breathed on this planet? But we can only get to this level through relationship, and God will not force Himself on us. He is not looking for a world full of robots that He can control; He is pursuing a world full of people He can love. 

To get the full picture, we must take a trip back to the Garden of Eden—the first tabernacle. The first people. The first view of how relationship between God and humans was meant to be. You remember the story—everything was Paradise (literally)—God walked and talked with Adam and Eve like friends. This has always been the plan, until the Serpent entered the scene and negated everything that God spoke to His children. And the relationship was broken. As soon as Adam and Eve accepted the lies of Satan, they succumbed to the darkness, fear, and shame of sin. They did the only thing they could think to do. They concocted a scheme to cover their shame and when they heard God’s voice, they hid. Did you catch that? Genesis literally says that when they heard God walking in the Garden that they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God (Genesis 3:8). They still heard Him, but the voice that brought them joy and peace just hours ago, now brought fear.

Then God asks something that I’ve often thought is very strange. He calls out, “Where are you?” God is God. Creator of the Universe, all-knowing, all seeing—He didn’t need to ask that question because He already knew the answer. What God was asking was “Where are you in proximity to my presence? Why are you positioning yourself away from me instead of walking towards me?” This is crucial. Our position determines how much and how well we hear the voice of God. They found themselves positioned on the other side of sin.

Let me try making this story a little more relevant. Imagine that you enjoy the best relationship with your children. Every day when you get home from work, they run to meet you at the door with a ton of hugs, kisses, and giggles. After you put away all of the junk you’ve carried in from your stressful day, you spend the rest of the evening playing hide and seek in the back yard, eating your favorite dinner around the table while everyone talks about their favorite parts of the day, and then after snacks and baths, you cuddle in bed and read a book until everyone collapses in happy exhaustion. Imagine this was your life for years, and then one day you come home, and no one meets you at the door. As a matter of fact, it is quiet, too quiet. You look around and the natural response is to call out, “Hey, where is everybody?” And just imagine that your children peek out from behind the sofa and say, “We heard you coming, we were afraid, and we hid.” I can think of nothing worse happening to a parent than to experience this distance from your children. Now think of how God felt when His children responded the same way. Think of how God feels when His children choose to position themselves away from Him when all He wants to do is love them.

To experience the deep things of God, we must position ourselves in His presence every day, every moment. I call this practicing His presence. The message of the Garden is that God never designed us to live by choosing between good and evil but by hearing God’s voice. We are not supposed to choose between “is this good or bad, but is this good or is this God?” And the only way to shift this way of thinking is by our position.

The purpose of this entire post is to encourage you that there is a special, unexplainable relationship that God wants to enter with His kids. He wants to speak to you about things that will make no sense to others who have not positioned themselves in His presence. Let me leave you with some things to reflect on this week as you prepare your heart to learn to discern, respond, and obey the voice of God.

• If you don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus, you won’t be able to experience these deeper truths that God is dying to share with you. If this journey intrigues you, and you feel God “pulling” at your heart, don’t hide from Him. Right now, position yourself before Him (get on your knees, or close your eyes, anything it takes to drown out distraction and focus entirely on His voice). Confess that you have let sin separate you from Him, that you’ve tried to straighten out the mess in your life, but it has left you empty. Tell Him that you believe that He died to pursue you and forgive you and to make a place in His presence for you. Tell Him that you accept Him as your Lord and Savior, and you are ready to know the deep things of God.

• If you made that decision or are already in relationship with Jesus, then take the next few moments to ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart for any sin that may be lurking in the shadows or hiding in the corners. We cannot dive deep into His presence, His words, or His truth until we repent.

• Sometimes you will hear me say, “Dive deep; drown willingly.” Going to deeper depths with God isn’t about checking off a list of things we must do in order to get God to speak to us. It isn’t about our effort or how much we push through our preconceived notions of what it takes to be right with God. It isn’t about what we do at all. It is about who we are. We are children of the Good Shepherd, and the Good Shepherd lays down His life for His sheep. But following Christ comes with a price. Jesus said, “If any person wills to come after Me, let him deny himself [disown himself, forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, refuse and give up himself] and take up his cross daily and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also] (Luke 9:23 AMPC). Moving into this deeper relationship with Christ means giving up the right to ourselves. 

THIS IS THE CHALLENGE: If you want to know God, then you have to position yourself in the circle of His presence every single day. “Never break the Circle that unites us…Others will join you. Some will leave the Circle. But if you keep your eyes on Me until the end…the lake will seem tame compared what awaits us” (Ted Dekker The Circle Series).

This week be determined to dive deep and drown willingly!

**I’d like to acknowledge some awesome sources of inspiration for this post. The sermon series Frequency by Robert Morris, The Circle Series by Ted Dekker, and the title of the post from Steffany Gretzinger.