God Wants a Visitation

God has always desired a people that were truly His.  A people that He could be on display to and through. So the nations will see how mighty and amazing He is. When God saved Israel, He took them into the wilderness.  Not to punish them, but to bring them to a place where they would rely only on Him. He wanted to bring them to a place where He could reveal Himself to them and be on display. To show the nations that He was God and this was His people, but Israel was afraid.  

Only Moses went up the mountain where God hid him safely and revealed His glory, while Israel stayed below and built a golden calf. They were more familiar with their old religious ways and too afraid to step into something new with God. It was easier to stay behind, miss out on God on the mountaintop, and instead worship a statue.

In another story, Jesus sent His disciples to the other side of the lake while He stayed on shore. A mighty storm arose and The disciples struggled and rowed against the storm all night long. As the wind fought against them, they knew this was no ordinary storm. They were exhausted with little hope left they would survive.  They easily thought all was lost.  

Jesus saw them and walked out on the water towards them.  But He didn’t walk out to go to them, but He actually intended to pass by them.  He was about to put on a display that He was God in the midst of the storm and pass by them and reveal His Glory.  But like Israel, the disciples were afraid. They cried out in fear when they saw Him.  So the demonstration ceased, Jesus got into the boat, and He silenced the storm.  

The disciples were more familiar with storms and ghosts than they were with God.  “Who is this that commands the wind and waves”, they said. The display of God’s glory, the demonstration of His power had been shut down by fear and familiarity of the world around them.

He wants us to witness and be a part of something amazing, to participate with Him in a demonstration of His power and majesty, but we are more familiar with this world, with darkness, with storms, with powerless religion.  If we don’t allow God to break these things off us, and rip them out of our hearts, we will miss God’s visitation.   

What are we Familiar with?

We are not these things we think we are.  They have just been embedded in us by our environment, our upbringing, the society, church, TV and so on.  There are things in us that are contrary to God Ways, and if we aren’t careful these things will keep us apart from Him.  They will cause us to misunderstand, to fear, and to judge incorrectly.  They will keep us from truly encountering Him, from really becoming, who we are destined to become.

Gods people tend to be more familiar with the world while they have very little of God in them.  No wonder we find church boring. No wonder we don’t understand scripture.  No wonder we says things like I just don’t under why God does… So when God moves they miss it, they fear it, they judge it, they shut it down.  They listen to the  patterns they know.  God wants to change these things in us so we look more like Him so our hearts are more like His.

God is not familiar with the things we are. And He wants us to be familiar with Him.   Not punish us not force us to obey to follow a bunch of rules. He just wants us to be like Him and less like everything else.  

God wants a people now…not someday.

It’s about God having a people on this earth not a people in Heaven with Him. But a people on this earth that look like Him that sound like Him that act like Him that reflect who He is.  A people that God can look down and say they are mine they look like me.  A people smack dab in the middle of this earth to remind darkness that this is God’s kingdom. A people smack dab here that reflect what’s above here down below.   

God want a people NOW.  Not someday when we get to Heaven. When we all get to Heaven what a day of rejoicing that will be.  Yes.  It will be, but God wants Heaven here on earth NOW.  He wants a people that are truly His people.  Here on this earth right now. He wants a people that He can come down to, not so we can go up to Him. But He can come down to us And be on display to the world so all the nations here on this earth can see how Great He really is. God wants to come down. He wants to visit. He wants to be on display.    

Churches take people in and tell them to prepare for one day when they will go to Heaven and be with God.  That’s not completely right.  Churches should be preparing people for one day when God will come down from Heaven and visit us here.  God wants to be with His church NOW.  Not someday. 

We always think we’re going to go up, everyone is fixated with going up someday but God wants to come down.  We are stuck in church trying to be good people, just waiting to go up someday And Gods like you fool, I want to come down now.

We wander aimlessly.

Israel wandered aimlessly only ever complaining that they weren’t where they thought they should be.  They wandered aimlessly not ever really knowing their God. They were familiar with so many gods and with so many idols. This was just another one. Like the disciples, they didn’t realize who it was that was with them in the boat. 

God is extremely patient, but Israel was more interested with getting to the promised land than becoming the people God was trying to help them become.  They were more interested in not being in trouble and having an easy life. They were more interested in getting to the promised land than actually taking the time to know this God that had delivered them.  Sound familiar?

Like Israel of the Bible, churches everywhere are filled with people wandering aimlessly. Many who don’t really know God and are nothing like Him. Are afraid and full of the wrong things.  We come to church and get saved, only to one day go up.  Generation after generation end up wandering aimlessly never really becoming the people God deserves.  They wander the wilderness until eventually they die off and God starts again.

We are not ready.

We need to unclutter our lives, start to narrow our hearts now, decide what’s truly important, and start to prioritize.  We need to move our hearts back towards the God we say we serve.  God wants a visitation, but if God showed up today how many churches would He have to go through to find one where He can pass by in all His glory and be on display?

We think we are that church, but honestly we aren’t.  Most would say “Sorry God we are too busy, too afraid, too preoccupied with ourselves, too comfortable in our broken religion to allow you to be on display.  We are more comfortable with fear, anger, bitterness and worry.  We are more familiar with entertainment and pleasure. There’s just no room left for you God.  We are too familiar with the ways of this world. Sorry God, your ways are unfamiliar and scary, we choose to stay behind with our idols and fear.”

We are unfamiliar and uncomfortable with God, but we are comfortable and right at home with the world.  We have no problem with the world being on display in us. It’s just God we are cautious of in our lives. We want to be saved and go to heaven someday, but now we just aren’t really interested in being the people you deserve us to be.  We don’t want to set apart our lives just for You quite yet.

But God wants a people, not just a person.  He wants a people that He can display Himself through.  He wants the whole church on the mountain so He can pass by in all His glory.  

Prepare now.

God wants a visitation but we are not ready.  God wants a people but we are not that people, not yet anyways.  We need a visitation, we need God to pass by.  We need to stop running after everything else but God, and get our heads on straight, wake up, and realize that visitation is on its way.  We can’t miss this.  We won’t allow this to go elsewhere.  We won’t allow familiarity with the world to shut it down.  Start to deal with your heart now, start to declutter your life and start to stir up the possibility of God coming down. Start to hunger for it.  

Start to set yourself apart now, start to prepare yourself now for the day of visitation. Don’t just live everyday in the normal hustle and bustle and expect one day God will just appear and you’ll be ready.  Be like Esther. Start to set yourself apart now for the day when you will go before the King. Allow the patterns In you that are contrary to God, to be removed.  Open up to the possibility that you might not actually have it all together, that you may not know everything.  And that we might be wrong about what we think about God.

God says forget all that. Forget all you know or think you know, let it be wiped away for I am about to do something new! Can you not see it? But the problem is we don’t see.  God open our eyes to see. Open our hearts to feel again, to break, to melt. Break off rip out these old familiar patterns in us that are nothing like You.  Let us not miss the something new that You are about to do.

Who are the people God deserves?

Currently, we are nothing like God. The people inside the church are full of the same stuff the people outside the church are carrying around.  The same messed up ideas that keep God far away.  We must be careful. We think we are the people of God and that God will come to us, visit us, but sometimes the people outside the church have a better chance of encountering God than the people in the church. Many times the people outside are more open to God than God’s own people. If we aren’t careful God might just pass the church by and go to the people we least expect. God will have a people, and we aren’t a guaranteed choice. 

God deserves a people that are so distinct, so set apart, so fully persuaded and committed, that there is no doubt whatsoever who their God is.  Our God is powerful, mighty, not to be messed with, nor tested.  He deserves a church that is powerful, anointed and full of the presence of God.  A church that is so distinct that even current religious system would probably hate and persecute it. A line needs to be drawn in the sand, no more comfortable, lazy Christianity that serves our purposes, and only produces strife, confusion, and worldliness. The true church that God deserves needs to arise now.  

We are on the verge of a day of visitation the likes of which the world has never seen, when God comes down to us in all His Glory and Splendor and Majesty…  but, we are also on the verge of missing it completely. 

Well, the good news is, God wants to help.  He wants to help us get rid of the stuff that holds us back.  He wants to help us become the people He deserves us to be.  He doesn’t want us to miss Him and be stuck wandering, even though we deserve it.  He is better than we are.  God wants to come down now, He just looking for a people willing to be completely His now… not someday. 

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