Invitation and Response

To grow in any relationship requires a progression of invitations and responses. When you first meet someone, and you strike up a conversation their response determines if this relationship is going anywhere or not! If the two of you hit it off, who knows how close of friends you might become. It takes two to tango...


I say this all the time, but it is so important for me to understand the nature of my relationship with God: God has chosen to relate to His creation in love. Love requires both parties choose the relationship...incrementally ...step by step...


From that first question of whether or not God really exists, to that moment of Moses holding out His staff over the Red Sea in agreement with God's plan to part the waters, God gave invitation after invitation, and Moses gave more and more of himself to the relationship in response.


Exodus 3:1-4 Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.


This is the divine pattern: God invites Moses by breaking in to the physical realm> Moses responds>God sees the response and gives more>Moses responds and gives God more of himself "here I am"...


This is where this relationship was going:


Exodus 14:26-27 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the waters may come back upon the Egyptians, on their chariots, and on their horsemen.” And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and when the morning appeared, the sea returned to its full depth, while the Egyptians were fleeing into it. So the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.


And this was the glorious beginning of what God had in His heart for the man who responded to Him:


Numbers 12:8 I speak with him face to face, Even plainly, and not in dark sayings; And he sees the form of the Lord . Why then were you not afraid To speak against My servant Moses?”


The same pattern is true of every great man or woman in the Bible, or even those living around us now. Everyone starts in the same infant condition, from there, our lives are really just the sum of our choices to respond to, ignore, or outright reject the one who called us into existence with a plan, purpose, and a heart wired to experience Him in a completely unique way. Because of love, everyone gets as much, or as little, of God in their lives as they want.


Each invitation by God requires a response. Because of free will, even a detailed and accurate prophecy for your life is really just a detailed invitation to respond. God isn't into fortune telling. Because of love, God is into invitations...a response is required to an invitation...thinking a party would be fun is NOT the same as setting aside the date, buying the present, and then at the proper time getting in my car and driving to the party! If we want to go further into the glorious plan God has for our lives, we must agree with God with our words and our actions, not just our thoughts.


God desires everyone get to the greatest measure available to them of His presence. He wants everyone to have the experience of Moses: "face to face" conversational dialog based on a history of taking risks in the unseen God and then seeing Him answer those risks with more tangible indications of His real presence. BUT, God will not force this relationship on anyone!


The fullness of what God has for us comes by saying "yes" to the introductory measures God has for us: talk to God and then really believe He can talk back, and wait to hear Him for yourself in your heart. Keep talking and listening UNTIL you hear Him. When He gives direction, do that thing! When God shows you something coming up ahead, pray into it, make choices that agree with that thing, and prepare your heart (mind, will, and emotions) to obey. Take RISKs with your time, money, and energy that agree with the Sermon on the Mount. And most importantly, reach for more of God with your words several times a day. I Don't like reading my Bible? I ask for His help. I don't like giving my money away? I ask for His help. I want to pray for sick people and have them miraculously recover, Speak words of prophecy over others, bring people into a saving knowledge of who Jesus is? I ask for God's help!! The more I ask, the more God does. The less I ask, the less He does.


This is Christianity 101. If I won't respond to these initial invitations, I should not expect the fullness of what is available to me to "just happen". Because salvation is a free gift from God, we tend to think that nothing can be "earned." God never designed his children to just live their lives disconnected from Him waiting for that day when He turns one or two of them into a David or a Daniel or a Paul. God put these people in the Bible to show us the minimum of what was available to a man or woman who would fully respond to God!


We look at David and take comfort in the fact that David made a lot of mistakes and was still the "man after God's own heart." Having confidence that God loves us despite our failures is AWESOME! BUT how much MORE would God give to a man or woman who would give Him even more than David?! I want to find out...for real!


I seriously get 70 to 80 years AT BEST to learn how to say "yes" to God and search out the fullness of what He has for me. My heart response in those 70 or 80 years will affect my living condition in heaven FOREVER. I have already wasted too much time with entertainment and dreams about how much of what everyone else who doesn't know God is interested in I can fit into those 70 or 80 years...ugh...tragedy! I don't want to waste another second on anything less than finding out how much God will give a man who is willing to give God all of his attention, time, money, emotion, strength, reputation...the more I give Him of myself, the more He has to work with to build something glorious out of my life! On the day I meet Jesus face to face, nothing will matter except His opinion of what I did with what He gave me. From that day on...forever...only His opinion of me will matter. I want to love Him well so I can enjoy knowing I gave Him everything I could when I realized that was what He desired.


What would God do with a man like me? What would He do with someone like you?! We only get one chance to find out...as He gives more, a stronger response is required if I want to continue to grow in my relationship with Him.


God, help me to be thankful, but unsatisfied with the measure I am experiencing of Your presence, Your Spirit, and humility (agreement with God). Give me more, God, and then give me wisdom and strength to respond!

Matthew 7:7-9, 11 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!