Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Welcome to In Between. My name is Brooklyn and I am so happy that you're joining us.
[00:00:06] So this season, this is episode one. And this season we are going to dive into who God is.
[00:00:14] And at first that might sound like, I know who he is. Like, I've read the Bible, I've gone to church, I've listened to podcasts and so on.
[00:00:25] But what I want us to focus on this season is who we know who he is. We do. We have probably an idea of who he is, right, and who we believe he actually is. Because sometimes I think that there is a gap.
[00:00:41] AW Tozer said a very famous line, and you've probably maybe heard it. He says, what comes to our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. What comes to our minds when we think about who God is is the most important thing about us.
[00:00:59] And he goes on to say, for this reason, the gravest question before the church is always God himself.
[00:01:07] And the most pretentious fact about any man is not what he, at any given time may say or do, but what he, in his deep heart, conceives God to be like.
[00:01:18] We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God.
[00:01:25] So we tend to move towards, to base our lives off of who we believe God is.
[00:01:32] And what we do think about him shapes everything we do think about it. The God that we hear about on Sundays, the God that we read about in the Bible, the God that we listen to in pod about, listen to about in podcasts, do we believe that he is the same God now? Do we believe that he is the same God to us?
[00:01:56] Not just to Mary or to Moses or to Jonah or any of those people, but to actually us, that he is here and now in the present, he's not far away and he's not somebody that just used to do miracles. He still does.
[00:02:12] But do we believe that?
[00:02:16] And we might know it, Like I said, we might know that in our heads, we might be like, yeah, I know, I've heard. I've. I know those things.
[00:02:24] And you can say all you want like, yes, I know that. But do we actually believe it in our souls? Because if we did, don't you think we would live a bit differently?
[00:02:36] Don't we?
[00:02:38] Wouldn't we? If we believed that all powerful, mighty, all knowing, omniscient, omnipresent, faithful, loving, caring, gracious, merciful God was in our midst at this very moment, in every moment to come, we would do things a bit different, don't you think? We would set our intentions differently. Don't you think we'd be a bit more obedient? Don't you think that we would talk to him more and consult with him more and ask him for his wisdom?
[00:03:07] A lot of us have created this safe and easy God that fits neatly into this box in our lives that we can kind of push aside when it's not. It doesn't fit with our narrative. And then sometimes we can, when we need him, come pull the box back and open it up and be like, hey, God, this is what I need today. Or, how you doing? It's Sunday. Good to see you at church. And that is not who God is. God cannot be placed in a box. And these gods that we've created in our heads are not real.
[00:03:34] We want to know the one true creator, God, Yahweh. We want to know him and we want to have relationship with Him.
[00:03:44] And when we do that, we will. We will step into callings that we don't feel qualified for because we know that his power is made perfect in our weakness, that he truly will fill in that gap.
[00:03:58] And while now we might confess sins to him, or we might bring our struggles to him, but do we believe that he can actually redeem us? Do we believe that he can actually change our hearts from the inside out? Do we believe that he has that power and that he has that desire for us, Us?
[00:04:17] Do we believe that in hard times, when we pray to him and we cry out to him, that he is actually listening to you, that he actually is working all things together for your good, even in the hard, for your good and his glory, that he is there and he is caring, and he wants to know what you're going through.
[00:04:39] Recently, I was doing the dishes like I do mostly every day, and I had worship music playing throughout my house. And again, again, I have that going most of the time. And so a lot of times it's just background noise to me at this point, as sad as that is. So I was doing the dishes, and I was going through all of these things in my head about what was coming up. Some things that were stressing me out, some things that I was fearful about, that I was trying to figure out, all right, how can you, Brooklyn, control this situation to assure that we all are safe and that it comes out with the best outcome? And I don't know if you've ever had this happen, but it felt like there was this line in the song that was playing in the background that I was ignoring that was louder than the Rest. And it was highlighted to me, and it was by Red Rocks Worship. And it was the song Good Plans. And it said in it, he has good plans for me, so I will take heart in desert and gardens. Deserts and gardens.
[00:05:44] And I felt God whispered in my spirit in that moment. After that, that line was kind of highlighted to me, which makes no sense, unless you know what I'm talking about. And then it makes sense. But, yeah, it's not something I can super explain, but he said, do you believe that?
[00:05:59] And in that moment, I did not. I did not believe that he was working all things together for my good. I believed that I needed to have it all together for my good, that I needed to have control of every situation, that I and my human humanness could try to make it work out the best way that I possibly could.
[00:06:18] And then I really. He asked me, do you trust me?
[00:06:21] And again, in that moment, I was not trusting in him. I was not even looking at him or acknowledging him. I was looking at the dishes, but not really in my mind. I was looking at all of these hardships and trials that were coming up. And that's where my gaze was. My gaze was not on who he is and who I believe he is.
[00:06:40] It was on these things. And when I switched it, I. I apologized and I just said, God, please remind me. Please let me remember. Please help me keep my gaze fixed on you, because that is going to change the way that I handle everything coming up.
[00:06:57] He is not some weak, passive God that we've created. He is not sitting in his recliner, checking in from time to time, hearing our prayers and then going in one ear out the other.
[00:07:10] He's not sitting back judging you, saying, oh, she's still messing up, and then turning the other way.
[00:07:16] No, he's not. Through Jesus and through the Holy Spirit, he actually lives in you. His spirit lives in you.
[00:07:24] And he hears our prayers. He is with us every step of the way. He is present.
[00:07:31] He has a willingness and a desire to.
[00:07:35] To do good for you. Matthew 7, 9, 11 says, so if you know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him?
[00:07:51] My daughter Quinn, she's really. She asks for the most right now because she's seven. And then my son is almost two. And then Mila's five months old, so she asks the most for things. But when she asks, I have a desire, like a deep desire to give her what she wants most of the time. Sometimes she asks for, like, llamas and stuff. And even then I'm like, maybe, maybe, but you get what I'm saying. I have a deep desire to give her what she is asking me for.
[00:08:16] And so if I as a human, as an imperfect mother, have that desire, how much more would our perfect Father in heaven have? The same desire to give good gifts to his children who ask, he cares what you have to say, but do you ask? Do you bring it to him?
[00:08:38] The philosopher Dallas Willard wrote this. He said, God responds to our prayers and that is not a charade. He does not pretend he was answering our prayer only when he was going to do what he was going to do anyways.
[00:08:52] Our requests really do make a difference in what God does or does not do.
[00:08:59] The idea that everything would happen exactly as it does, regardless of whether we pray or not, is a specter that haunts the minds of the many who profess belief in God. It makes prayer psychologically impossible, replacing it with dead ritual at best.
[00:09:15] So the idea that everything would happen exactly as it does regardless of whether we would pray or not is a false idea.
[00:09:23] God hears you and he cares and he changes things for you, for our good and his glory.
[00:09:30] And I don't want to pray out of dead ritual at best. I want to believe that the one who knows me, knows my inner being, knit me together in my mother's womb, is listening.
[00:09:41] I don't want this boxed in God for me and I don't want this boxed in God for you. And he doesn't want that either. He wants you to know Him. He wants to have a personal, intimate, day to day relationship with you.
[00:09:55] And so that's why this season we're going to dive into who he reveals Himself to be in through scripture and then how that has played out for people's testimonies.
[00:10:05] And I cannot wait to do that alongside of you. I think that it's going to be so powerful and I have prayed and prayed over this and I'm excited to grow with you, but I need you to do your part too.
[00:10:17] I need you to set your gaze on Him. I need you to seek Him. I need you to ask him to reveal Himself to you, to remind you, to show Himself to you and to help you to truly believe that he is who he says he is.
[00:10:35] So we are going to end there today, but I am excited that you are along for this journey and yeah, we're just going to grow together.
