Relationship
One of the things that I am learning about our Lord and His Ways is that He values relationships.
I had a dream once, and in it I was in a room with my earthly father and there were emails all over the floor. I was busy going through the emails. It was impressed on me that I was more interested in the emails than my father and it spoke to my heart. For at that time I was moderating a list of about 400 apostalic and prophetic people and honestly I was more concerned with the list and its emails than my personal relationship and time with the Lord.
This morning as I was waiting upon the Lord with praise and thanksgiving, I was reminded of the desire the Father has for us to have "relationship" with those that are put on our hearts to contact in person. Some years ago I attended a congregation who were interested in my husband attending services. They repeatedly called him and invited him to men's breakfasts on Saturday morning. My husband reacted to a unknown person calling him and inviting him to breakfast with an unknown group of men just as we would expect any responsible person would. He thought it strange and almost laughed it off...that a stranger would invite him to have breakfast at a church with a group of unknown men none of which had ever darkened his "always open door." And 10 years later none of that congregation have ever made any effort to get personally acquainted with my husband though he's known throughout the community as a gentle wise man. I am no longer associated with that congregation for other reasons.
I don't fault these men or congregations. They are operating on the highest level of knowledge that they know. I remember my husband and I attending a congregation some time ago and at the door greeting us were the husband and wife who lived just two houses up the road from us. My husband recognized them and indicated so to them. Strangely we weren't really warmly welcomed.. weren't treated as valued neighbors...and never had contact with them again. They never used the opportunity to make friends with us and my efforts to open a line of communication with some fresh muffins had no results.
Any testimony we might have or effort to share Jesus that doesn't ultimately invite an ongoing relationship is not in Truth and Spirit. It may be true and they may speak Truth but there's no spirit which ultimately involves relationship.
This is true not only as it relates to our efforts to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with others..but as we have our own relationship with the Lord. It is so important that we have the understanding that He is more interested in relationship than witness/works. The scriptures talk of the power of testimony...about my relationship with the Lord and what He's doing in my life. That isn't about something that happened in some time before today...but it's about the on going relationship and the power it has in my life. That's where the power of testimony rests...who and what the Lord is doing in my relationship to Him in the now and in the past when it is accompanied by on going relationship.
There is an occasional example of God using someone that had nothing to do with the Lord God but was apparently usable...but whose life didn't line up with the Truth of God's Word.
There are also many times when God uses someone who confesses Christ and is used of Him whose lifestyle stinks, simply...I was one of them...yet the Lord didn't withdraw His gifts from me. But used it to draw me into Himself. He never forsook me and continued to do miraculous things as I struggled in an abusive marriage and lived pretty precariously after I got out of that relationship before I came to understand that I had an identity in Christ Jesus and that I had the opportunity to grow up in Christ. He just didn't want to work and to live out His live in my daily relationships.
That is what He longs for in His people....to bear the testimony of God's personal work in our lives..not just miracles, though those are powerful, but how He has changed us. That is the basis to relate to others...knowing He longs to have relationship with them and to grow the Life of Christ in them for eternity.
