What is God's perspective? He spells it out clearly in His Word, but it's not something that will have life or meaning to us without the revelation of His Holy Spirit. It's more than intellectual and more than a book full of words. It's spiritual. The Holy Spirit gives life to it in our hearts and minds and when He does, things begin to make sense. In essence, we can read the Bible from cover to cover many times over and never "get it" until the Holy Spirit reveals it- brings it to life in us. He interprets it and removes the veil from our spiritual eyes to begin to see for the first time what it all means.
My personal definition of God's perspective would be the point from which He views and judges all things. Remember God's statement in Isaiah 55:8-9: "My thoughts are completely different from yours," says the Lord. "And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts". Our God holds the highest vantage point that exists and it's remained as unchanged as he is. It's the only viewpoint that is whole or complete. In other words, "Holy". Our Lord and God judges all things according to His perspective. Above everything that we hold to be true in this life, His perspective alone is the truth. We can assume many things based on what we see from our limited vantage point and believe that we know accordingly, but only our God sees and knows the whole truth.
He authored the truth before we even existed and it remains as unchanged as He is. Our biggest struggle seems to be that we are so often tempted to judge things from our low and limited perspective. If I stand in a valley, I can look up at the mountains on either side and I can see what's in the valley. But I can't see anything beyond. Before men traveled the globe, it was widely assumed that the world was flat. This judgment was made based on the information they had at the time, but it wasn't the whole perspective, it was limited and consequently incorrect. The belief that the world was flat didn't change the truth. We can chuckle about it today because we know that it isn't flat and the assumption seems ridiculous to us. But many of the assumptions we make based on our own limited perspectives aren't funny, they're tragic and eternally dangerous.
God created everything. He's the author and creator of this world we live in and every good thing in it. Every word He has spoken is the only real and complete truth. So why would we look to any source other than the one who knows for the answers and the standards we should live by? Why do we tend to accept perspectives that are taken from lower vantage points than God's and try to judge things in our lives according to limited (flawed, incomplete) perspectives? Is our perspective higher than God's thereby allowing us to know more than God? Some people in their pride and insolence, even dare to try to judge God's motives from their own lowly perspective. Of them I would ask: are we the Creator or the created? Are we God or merely the dust of the earth, given life by His holy breath that He breathed into us? Did you catch the key words in my statement above? Pride and insolence. What led to satan's downfall? Pride and insolence. We know by God's Word that he's God's enemy, and that he is now constantly trying to destroy what God created - including us. He's constantly trying to distort our perspective to keep us from seeing the truth. I would go as far as to say that he is even successful in varying degrees at distorting the perspectives of some of God's own people. He knows that if he can distort our perspective or at least limit it, then he can minimize who we become in Christ. He knows that if we are able to recognize our true identity in our Lord, that we become empowered by the truth and become heirs to the authority and power of Christ in us. And thereby extremely dangerous to satan's own plans and purposes. He knows that if our eyes are opened and we are allowed to obtain God's perspective, that we will recognize that the battle is already won and that he's truly powerless and defeated. That he has no power over us. That if Christ lives within us, we are no longer limited by the perspective of our flesh.
I'll use the beloved Apostle Peter as an example (I love this guy!). When Peter was walking on the water toward Christ, why did He begin to sink? If the Lord showed him that it was possible, why did it become impossible for him to stay on the surface? Because it denied the perspective of his flesh. His flesh told him that it wasn't possible for him to do what he was doing. So he began to sink and cried out for Christ to save him (Which of course He did). Peter succumbed to his intellect - to his flesh. Because of pride, we place great importance on what we ourselves can know (our own intellect, our limited perspective). Pride is why Adam and Eve were so tempted to eat of the fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil . They wanted to be like God. Pride is why we place so much importance on intellect. We have institutions designed to increase our intellect and place a certain amount of honor those who do. But if that intellectual increase is not based on God's perspective, then what good is it? There is but one whole perspective, one point of view that is complete and inclusive of the truth - our God's. So why would we place high value on anything else? Our limited intellect, or perspective if you will, is what stands between us and the truth. GOD IS NOT LIMITED BY OUR PERPECTIVE! But, He allows us to choose to be limited by it if we choose to be. He has given us free will from the beginning.
Why are we often unable to obtain, or to see, God's answer to our prayers? We know that He has the ability to perform what we call miracles (to us they're miracles, to Him, it's just what He does - He's God!). We've been told repeatedly throughout the Bible of what He is able to do, so where is the limitation? If it's not with Him, then it must be with us. Our precious Lord showed Peter, walked on the water right in front of him, that it was possible. The problem was with Peter - his intellect, his perspective got in the way of God's truth. Why are we sometimes so ineffectual at demonstrating our God's power and glory through the works that He would do through us? BECAUSE OF OUR INTELLECT/PERSPECTIVE - OUR FLESH!
So, getting back to the primary topic of this writing and making it personal to myself - What is my will in Christ? Dearest brothers and sisters, children of the all powerful, unlimited God,
While I live, let this be my Will:
It is my will as I live to share the importance of having God's perspective in all things. And if by examining your own perspective, you find like me that it is limited, begin to pray for His - "Lord, teach me your ways and help me to walk in the center of them, straying neither to the left or the right. Help me to think like you do. Help me to see what you see and to hear what you hear. Make me sensitive to your own heart and help me to feel what you feel".
In the wake of my life, let this be my will:
Honor me, more importantly honor God, all who have known me - by sharing His perspective with everyone you come in contact with. All who will listen. Come to know His heart and His perspective and make them your own and share this light in a world that is being overcome by darkness.
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