It is all about Relationship

This is a continuation of a series about our relationship with our Heavenly Father. YHVH (the LORD) wants a deep and personal relationship with each one of us. I strongly recommend you do not start your reading here but go to the beginning of the series to better understand.

[Click to go back to Part 1 It is all about Relationship]

Can you have a relationship with someone you can not hear, see, or feel? What kind of relationship would that be?

Is that how your relationship is with God?

If so, then the question you may want to ask is: Do I have a relationship with God or do I have a Theology that says I have a relationship with God? Is it possible that you have a theology ahead of your experience?

Many are familiar with the term to "give your heart to the Lord", and many have done just that, perhaps at an altar call somewhere. Some may be changed dramatically, while others do not seem to change that much. Is your heart really given to God? Does God HAVE your heart? What does that picture look like?

Notice that when God truly has your heart, He is the one who changes it. He is the one who will mold and shape you to bring you to His righteousness.

The following is a quote from God from my sister in-law’s prayer journal.

"The heart has to be right before the works mean anything to Me.  You cannot earn My favor by obedience. I give favor to those whose hearts are turned toward Me. Doing things by routine, losing true repentance in the ordinary day to day makes those sacrifices null and void. Get your heart right first, then bring me sacrifices."

This is actually correction from God and it is quite sobering. There is an interesting verse in Isaiah where God seems to go against His own instructions to the Israelites.

God was not pleased with what the Israelites were doing, even though they were probably doing what YHVH had commanded back in Torah. Yet God is not pleased, (even if we do what He says), if our heart is not in it.

You see how important having a right heart is to God? This is not some New Testament idea. Remember circumstances change but God’s principles never change! Look what Moses was trying to convey to the Israelites way back in the Torah.

Do you recognize the acronym RLO?

I would like to create a new acronym, one that should hold a different and important meaning for believers in Messiah everywhere. RLO stands for Repent, Listen, and Obey. This is not a formula; it is instead, something that we need to understand and internalize for a stronger relationship with the Creator of the Universe. YHVH desires a personal relationship with us and with every member of our families, and with all of mankind.

"Repent and listen and then obey, even if it is something foolish and makes no sense to you. I am God, no one understands me."

RLO needs to become our standard habit of living our lives, not just when we are interacting with YHVH, but even when we interact with our fellow man.

Here is how it works. God shows us an area in our lives where we need to change; we Repent. Next God shows or tells us what to do; we Listen. Finally and most importantly we Obey His instructions. Obedience brings us blessing, obedience brings us closer to God and opens up the door for further communication and instruction from Him. You may wonder why we don’t change the order of the first two words to Listen, Repent, Obey. It seems that would make more sense. But God’s ways are not man’s ways. I am learning we need to repent first before we can even listen to God.

Please understand that our communication is not limited to only receiving instruction and correction from God and then dutifully performing them. We may also ask Him questions that we may have wondered about. Many times God will answer in surprising ways, but He will only answer and give us direction and instructions within His the laws which He has already established in His word. For example; God has never told my wife to do something against my will, even if I don’t give the best instructions. God has set the man as head of the woman. Therefore when I make a rule in the household like "No Television", God would never say it is ok to watch television. In fact, He usually supports a decision like that by saying something to the effect of: Remember your husband said not to watch television.

So the mom thought about it some more and realized that she had "celebrated" with the kids by taking them out to eat. While there appears to be nothing wrong with this, there had previously been rules set up in the family by the husband, along with some eating habit guidelines by God, that when followed correctly, did not allow the mom to take the kids out to eat. So the mom began to repent to God for the error. She knew she was not supposed to do it, but had reasoned in her mind that it was ok, because it was a "reward" for the job done well by the kids.

The point I want to make is RLO; until our hearts are unburdened, until we are at peace with God, family and neighbor, we may not be ready to listen. The example just given is not meant to instruct on when to go out to eat, but it is showing that when we go against God’s instructions or a spouse’s desire, we put up a block between God and our ability to commune with Him. In this case God mercifully led the mom through the days activities, letting her come to realize her error and then letting her repent. What a beautiful picture.

As we build our relationship with God we find our lives slowly changing. We no longer are as concerned with the mundane activities of our daily lives. Instead there is a new excitement wondering what God has for us as our mind begins to focus on Godly things.

It was not too long ago that I fully understood Ps 37:4. Once we begin to focus on God, to delight in God, our hearts change! It is YHVH who does the changing in our hearts so that we desire the things He wants us to desire.

Some of you may be wondering if you can do RLO even if you never or rarely hear from God. Yes is the short answer; by diligently seeking instruction from God’s Word. Listen to what He is saying in the written Word. Daily, absorb the wisdom written therein. Ask God every day, before you read His word, to open your mind to His direction and His leading. Here is another segment from a prayer journal where YHVH shows us how really important it is to know His Word.

"If everyone went back to what scripture actually said, not what some man says about it, but what scripture that they have read, processed and brought to me for wisdom and understanding and then followed it, applied it to their lives, you would not have denominations, the whole world would be saved and there would be one body. Nothing could stand in front of that power of my Holy Spirit working and dwelling in your lives. Satan’s best bet is to divide and thus conquer. He thrives on division. He doesn’t even cause most of it. He just relies on people’s pride and desire to be right and louder than everyone else to reign and do the work for him. Submitting to anyone’s authority is foreign. If you can not submit to a person, how can you submit to me who you can not see?"

You can see God does not mess around. He desires a unified body where our hearts are given over to Him, submitted to Him. We become living sacrifices for Him.

God’s Word needs to be first and foremost in our lives; using His word to teach, train, and instruct us. When we apply the principles of RLO, we then use God’s Word (spoken "Rhema" and written "Logos") to reach out and to help others, serving YHVH as living sacrifices. Then we develop a new and wonderful intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father.

So what do you choose? You do have a choice; do you choose to be united with Christ, or uniform with this world?