Playing With God

A couple of nights ago, I was playing a stupid shooting ball game on my phone. Doing the traveling thing, there is a lot of down time when you cannot access the internet and you are stuck in a seat for the next 2 to 6 hours. A mindless waste of time comes in handy.

Foolishly trying to play this game as a means of relaxing before I go to sleep, I found myself getting angry and frustrated and the stupid game. I needed certain color of balls to clear the field yet all I kept getting was the color that I cannot reach yet! It was obvious that the game was set up to frustrate me.

While getting angrier and angrier, I considered how I was fighting with my computer, losing photos and videos as I was learning how to use my newer video equipment. It just made me crazier.

I started to consider God and His control. If I went with this toward its logical conclusion, it wasn't the game really opposing me, or the video equipment. No, it was the One who is in charge and in control of all reality.

I was playing the game against God.

It was then that God spoke to me, "you can either play with me, or against me."

"You are either playing with me or against me".  It rings of what Jesus said, "you are either for me or against me."

There is no other option. 

I see the problem coming from the first lie..."if you eat this, you will become like God". This was the temptation for the first sin. To become like God is to be in control...to ascend and be like Him. 

Yet, with the Father's will overshadowing ALL will, we still have a choice of sorts. The choice is whether or not to submit to His Lordship in our perspective, our reality, to submit by faith into His control. It is saying "I am not God, and never will be, because I was not made so." It is what the LAW shows us. 

The Law is the written form of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. If taken as a means to become like God, we obviously fail. If taken as a clear showing of our lack of power, of good decisions, and turn back to trusting Him...this is repentance.

It is turning from attempting to become like God, to trusting God through Jesus Christ. He finished the work. He completed the Law, showing who He really is...God. 

Our "choice" is to either play nice with God by faith or fight with God because we don't trust Him to run things like we want...what WE think is best.

This is hard, really hard.

Yet as it is written, God wants faith, not works. Works are an outward expression of faith.

If I believe smoking will kill me, I WILL stop. If I trust God as all knowing, all powerful, and perfect, I will trust His decisions, His will, and His plan for every aspect of my life. I will therefore obey.

He wants faith first.

Looking at King Saul vs. King David, Saul was rejected because he didn't kill Agag. David, though he completely disobeyed several of the major commands...adultery, murder, was "a man after God's own heart". I think this is because David trusted God...in his heart. He KNEW God was in control. He struggled and wrestled with it, but as the Psalms reveal, He knew God was in charge of all of his life. He in a deep way, played the game with God. Saul, did not. That was why he was rejected.

In both cases, they are playing their part, yet one, by a "choice" within the story, shows the difference in their character...as characters.

Now, I believe that Faith is something more than just trusting something because we know it is reliable. I think there is a vast spiritual element to it.

Miraculous faith is deeper; it isn't a mental or will-full "belief". It is from our core, deep and comes out as a Knowing that we KNOW. 

This is what I think the scripture means when it says "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence not seen". 

It is a substance, yet it is given to us by The Father as a gift. It is not something we can self-generate.

Sel-generating would be a work, a control, a power. That is more like witchcraft.

No, faith is a gift, given by God. We respond naturally because of the measure given (the parable of the Talents). 

So, with that faith, that Knowing that we KNOW. This is where the miraculous happens.

God by His Holy Spirit, which resides in us, gives a command...."move that mountain!" We receive the command and KNOW that it was from God. We then act by that faith, that gift, and repeat the command. The command had AUTHORITY from God, because it is HIS will, not ours. 

This is how a Kingdom functions. A subject of the Kingdom does not act on his own authority. He carries out the Authority of the King.

It is like a policeman. He has the badge. He represents the state. The state gives him the authority.

If a man who is not a policeman acts as though he is one, no one is responsible to obey.  Like the 7 sons of Sceva.

When the Authority is really there, we WILL know it. Then what we say, what we command, will have zero doubt like it is written in James.

Every time, and it hasn't been a lot, that I was given the authority to do the miraculous, this what it felt like. I ended up saying and doing bizarre things without a shred of doubt. Yet, this thing only happens when The Father and The Son will it. I know through the Holy Spirit, because HE makes it clear.

Something good to know. We did nothing to receive salvation. We need to do nothing to keep it. It is the same with walking with God in power. There is nothing to learn as HE is the teacher. There is no place to get to as He is our Father. We are like toddlers. He doesn't expect us to figure out how to be like Him...He just wants us to trust Him.

The "Choice" to play with Him, instead of against Him, comes into play as we seek Him and His kingdom. In our seeking, we yield to His authority.

We, like David, struggle with our own will, our own desires, and keep turning back toward trust. "not my will, but yours be done".

This is the real choice. 

The game plays much better when we do this.

It is harder when we fight, because He will use ALL circumstance against us from video equipment to gaming programs.

His goal is for us to always turn back to trust, to where we play WITH Him, not against Him and He always wins.

This is the assurance of salvation.