Is God an "Absentee Landlord?"

"Let me give you a little inside information about God. God likes to watch. He's a prankster. Think about it. He gives man instincts. He gives you this extraordinary gift, and then what does He do, I swear for His own amusement, his own private, cosmic gag reel, He sets the rules in opposition. It's the goof of all time. Look but don't touch. Touch, but don't taste. Taste, don't swallow. Ahaha. And while you're jumpin' from one foot to the next, what is he doing? He's laughin'....He's a SADIST! He's an absentee landlord! Worship that? NEVER!"   Al Pacino as the devil in "The Devil's Advocate"

I left out the profanity, though I considered leaving it because, well, it's the devil. He's profane. The movie gives one of the best depictions of the evil one I've seen, though he's still too charming.
The key point is that the devil, the accuser of God, calls God an "absentee landlord," a description that I've actually heard from the mouths of Christians. Words attributed to Satan come from the mouths of those who claim to be his children.

Now of course the movie is fiction. But is this better? Is it better that even nonbelievers know that considering God an "absentee landlord" dishonors him?

I've actually had an absentee landlord, who came to be known as "the voice." I never saw him or met him. We only talked on the phone. But I could talk to him. If I sought him with all of my heart, I would find and talk to my absentee landlord. Yet God is made out to be worse than even this. Those who accuse him, with the devil, of being an absentee landlord, make God out to be even more absent. They make God out to be unreachable, no matter how hard the seeker seeks him.

In doing this, they make him a liar, because he promises to be found by those who seek him with all of their hearts.

This is the irony: God is and will be absent from those who consider Him so, from those who doubt his presence and his desire to be present.

Where is God? He is with those who refuse to believe the lie of his absence.

The first words of the Lord Jesus

These are the first recorded words of the Lord Jesus Christ:



"Why were you looking for me? Didn't you know that I had to be in my father's house?"



He was twelve. Joseph, Mary, and Jesus, as well as others who travelled with them, went to Jerusalem for an annual festival. When the festival ended, Joseph and Mary thought Jesus was with them.

They thought they knew where he was.

Hundreds of years before this, in Israel's history, two men were unaware of God's presence, or absence. Jacob declared his ignorance of the Lord's presence, after experiencing the "stair way to heaven." And Samson awoke as he had done before, expecting to easily defeat those who sought to take his strength. But he did not know that the Spirit of God had departed from him.

So it was with Mary and Joseph. Twelve years earlier, angels came to shepherds announcing the birth of God's son. Nine months before this, one angel told Mary of the birth of Immanuel, God with her and Israel. God was in Israel, the son of a Jewish girl.

He was also at a Jewish festival. But who truly knew who he was, or where he had to be?

When is the Lord with you?

It is written,

"The LORD is with you while you are with him. If you seek him he will allow you to find him, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you."

This scripture shows the reality of experiencing God's presence, and of knowing where God is. If he is not with us, it is because we are not with him. If we have not found him, and if we don't know where he is, it is because we have not sought him with all of our hearts. If he has forsaken us, it is because we have first forsaken him.

As I have said before, so I say now: We can be as close to God as we want to be.

So the question is not, "Where is God," but rather, where are we?

Oracles

God made all people to be oracles, to be those who hear his voice, share his voice, and follow his voice.



All people.



The first man and woman saw and heard God. They knew him directly. This was neither mystical nor magical nor supernatural, nor even "spiritual." It is only naturally for a son and daughter to have access to their father.



Cain, even in his sin, had conversations with God, even with all of his attitude.



Noah and his family knew God and listened to him.



Abraham was known as "the friend of God." God identifies himself as the Abraham's, Isaac's, and Israel's God. This is his name. He is known by his relationship to them.



Moses spoke to God face to face, as a man speaks with a friend, and he desired for all of Israel to be his nation of priests. But they chose to have Moses and Aaron as mediators.



Joshua, with the law of God and the law of Moses, spoke with God regularly, for God was with Joshua as he was with Moses, never leaving him nor forsaking him.



Samuel, the last judge and first prophet, knew the voice of the living God, and none of Samuel's words fell to the ground.



King David was the man after God's own heart.



Jeremiah foresaw a day when all would know God, from the least to the greatest. Joel also foresaw the Spirit upon every man and woman of faith. No longer would the Spirit be only upon prophets and kings and priests briefly. Moses' desire would be fulfilled: that all of God's children would be prophets.



Then came John the Baptist, who announced Immanuel, God with man and woman...again. This honor would come again to every man and woman, by the Spirit in every man and woman of faith.



The Spirit came upon all believers on the day of Pentecost. He did the same in Samaria, the household of the Gentile, Cornelius; and upon 12 Ephesian Christians.



And in the Book of Revelation, every nation, tongue, tribe, and people group will stand before their God and Father and Creator. All will know God. All will be "prophets and prophetesses."



All will be oracles speaking oracles. This is natural. This is eternal.

I write as an oracle to other oracles, and to those who seek to be oracles.

Follow my new blog, I speak as an oracle of God, so that we may continue to answer the question, Where is God?

He is in those who believe in Christ, speaking to them, and speaking through them.

What does the power of God feel like?

Wait to be endued with power from on high.

You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth.

God's power is with those who believe in Jesus. Believers are taught to wait and receive this power. Presumably they would know when they had received it. But how would they know? The answer is in the rest of what Jesus said before he ascended: they would be his worldwide witnesses, or witnesses wherever they were on earth. So, the key to how the power of the Holy Spirit "feels" is in how a powerful witness feels.

To be powerful, or to have power, is to be effective and successful in achieving a desired goal.

To be a witness is to be one who has seen, heard, or experienced a specific event, and has the character to be believed.

So a powerful witnesses has the character and ability to communicate effectively and successfully what he or she has seen, heard, and known.

How do you feel when you know what you are talking about; when you know what you have seen, heard, and known? How do you feel when you have acted in such a way as to be trustworthy? I believe I can describe your feeling in one word: confidence. So the power of God, given for believers to be his witnesses, feels like confidence. But it is a "supernatural" confidence. This means that the feeling comes from the inside out, without any "tangible" cause. It is given to you directly by God as God give you the experience of himself; the very experience you bear witness to.

For example, on the night when I came face to face with God, ready to die, I confessed that Jesus is God's Son and that he died for my sins, the very sins for which I wanted to die because of my guilt. After this confession, I felt peace cover me like a blanket, a literal invisible blanket, and I know longer wanted to die. This is an experience that I bear witness to. The Spirit in me, who came upon me in that day, also gives me the ability and character to continue to tell this testimony at the right time, the right way, to the right person. This is another aspect of the confidence. Not only do I feel confident in my character and ability, but I feel confident in relation to the timing of the testimony. I have a supernatural certainty of when, where, and to whom I share this testimony.

Certainty. Clarity. Authority. These three words give a tangible standard by which you can know how the power of God feels when you have the desire to use it for his purposes. This is the only time you will experience it and know it.

Another measure of the power is how it effects others. There are two possible effects: edification or conviction. Edification means that one who already believes in Christ will be strengthened in their faith; they will feel encouraged, comforted, and urged in obedience to God. One who does not already belong to Christ will feel convicted, proven guilty of rebellion against God and urged to cease rebellion and to yield to God in submission.

The power of God has an effect, positive or negative, depending upon who listens. It effects both speaker and listener.

Confidence/Clarity/Authority/Certainty

Effectiveness in convincing by character and ability

Joy to the one speaking and the one listening

Conviction to the one speaking and the one listening

This is how God's power feels when it is used for God's purpose: to be his witness.

Meditations on the Matrix

Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work...when you go to church...when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you to the truth.

Neo: What truth?

Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind.

In the Matrix movies I see so many analogies to Christian Spirituality. I see a a Satanic system and kingdom like the one Morpheus describes above, a system that can be seen everywhere, even now, in this very room. I see, in this very room, the absence of the acknowlegement of God; even an aversion to the knowledge of God. I see the same when I look out my window and turn on my television. But worst of all, I not only feel it at work, but at church. Even at church I ask the question, "Where is God?" I feel his absence in all of the places Morpheus describes. I feel his presence in me and with me, but outside of me seems to be at enmity with God in me. This is the Matrix, the bondage, the invisible prison for my mind. Everything in this world, as it is, seems to have one purpose: to be a distraction of Satan from the one true God of creation. In America there is still oppression. Americans are still slaves, not of the "white man," but of Satan.

The Question (A Review)

Trinity: It is the question that drives us, Neo. It is the question that brought you here. You know the question just as I did.
Neo: What is the Matrix?

There are three main characters in the movie series "The Matrix":
Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity.

Each of the three movies has a specific question that leads to more questions.
The question in the first movie is, "What is the Matrix?"
But this leads to the core question, the true question in the movie: What is reality? or What is real, as Morpheus put it to Neo. And this question of reality leads to a powerful statement by Trinity: The matrix cannot tell you who you are.
Neo replies, "But an oracle can?"

Indeed, who can tell Neo the reality of his identity? This is the question of the first movie. This is the answer of the first movie: Neo is "The One." Morpheus is the one who finds The One. And Trinity is the one who loves The One.

On to the second movie...

This is the question of The Matrix Reloaded, "What is purpose?" Or from Neo's perspective, "What is my purpose?" What is "The One" supposed to do? The answer to this question unravels all of the answers in the first movie concerning reality and Neo's identity. He is not "The One" who will save the Matrix and Zion, but the one who preserves the Matrix and Zion. Morpheus no longer knows who he is or what his purpose is. But Trinity still loves Neo. And Neo still loves Trinity, which leads to the question of the final movie.

What is love? Is love "just a word" as one of the programs said in the movie? No. Love is reality and identity. Love is the purpose of reality and identity. It was the love of Trinity that revealed Neo's identity in the first movie. It was Neo's love for Trinity the drove Neo's life in the second movie, giving purpose to his identity. And it was his love for trinity and all humanity that defined Neo's purpose and identity in the third movie. Love is self-sacrifice; to lay down one's life.

Love is the answer to the question.

God
is
Love.

He is the ulitmate answer to every ultimate question.

There is a question that drives me. There is a question that brings me to you.
Every blog I have written answers the question.
Every blog that will be written will answer the question.

Is this the question that drives you? Is this the question that brings you to me? You know the question just as I do.

Where
is
God?