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?

How far are you willing to go to find God?

You have heard that it was said, "YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY"; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.
Matthew 5:27-30 NASB

You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility towards God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the scripture speaks to no purpose: "He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us"? James 4:4-5 NASB

Jesus shows the seriousness of not just the external act of adultery, but the internal desire that leads to adultery. God sees both of these as worthy of hell, of eternal separation from Him, and all the torment that this separation entails. A man (and by implication a woman), as far as Jesus is concerned, should be willing to go to whatever lenghts necessary to separate and disassociate from not only sin, but causes of sin. True, Jesus used hyperbole to make points, but I believe that He means what He says. If our right eye or hand literally made us sin, and if gouging an eye or cutting off a hand would literally remove causes of sin, then we should literally do what Jesus said. The point is that sin is serious and avoiding it should be done, no matter how painful or inconvenient.

James, the brother of Jesus, calls those who desire friendship with this ungodly world "adulteresses." Many times in the scripture God speaks of Himself as a husband and His people as His bride or wife. Idolatry is considered spiritual adultery, unfaithfulness to God, a lack of pure devotion and dedication, the kind expected between wives and husbands. Again the seriousness of this is expressed. There is no in between, one is either God's friend or God's enemy, a friend of the world or an enemy of the world. The world in this passage could be compared to an adulteror, and God's people to an adulteress.

Surely if in human marriages Christ expects men and women to do whatever is necessary to be faithul to each other, internally and externally, then the same applies to our Heavenly Husband.

Lately I reflect on how no one taught me this. I learned to believe in Jesus and have a guarantee of heaven. But I did not learn devotion, the kind of devotion that is expected between even non-christian wives and husbands; even between "boyfriends and girlfriends." Shows like Jerry Springer, Maury Povich, Cheaters, and other "reality" shows assume that faithfulness is possible; so do the countless "you cheated on me" songs. Yet I was taught that perfect faithfulness to God and my wife was not possible, that Christian's are not "sinless, we just sin less;" not "perfect, just forgiven." But what husband or wife can remain married to a partner that says from day one, at the altar, "I don't have to commit adultery, but I'm going to commit adultery. After all, nobody's perfect?" A marriage cannot exist in a state of perpetual adultery, unfaithfulness. Neither can a relationship with God exist in this state.

But how far are we willing to go?

How far am I willing to go to be faithful to my God and my wife?

Am I willing to refuse to watch certain shows or look at certain magazines? Am I willing to avoid certain places and people? Am I willing to forsake all others until death?

Am I willing to experience rejection, suffering, and literal death for Christ and for the sake of His message?

This is normal marriage and normal discipleship. From the beginning a husband and wife should understand the seriousness of their vows. And from the beginning a disciple of Jesus should understand that one, according to Jesus, CANNOT be His disciple if he or she does not deny him or herself, accept rejection, suffering, and literal death (the cross) and follow Jesus, no matter what the consequences of following Him may be.

How far are you willing to go?

TRANSLATIONS

All creation understood the Creator's words.
Adam and Eve understood.
Even Cain in his sin understood.
Enoch knew and testified that he pleased God.
Noah understood God's instructions for the ark, and God's rainbow covenant.
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob understood the blessing
Until Moses, the word of God was not in writing.
Then it happened.

God Himself literally wrote the Ten Commandments on two tablets of stone.
This was, in the truest sense, the very word of God, the written word, the beginning of scripture as we know it.

Joshua received these words concerning God's word:

"This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. "

THIS BOOK
THE LAW

NOT THESE BOOKS OR THESE TRANSLATIONS

God wrote on two tablets of stone: The Ten Commandments
Moses wrote what God told him to write: The Law of Moses, The Torah

The Law
The Writings
The Prophets
The Scriptures

Indeed, Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes wrote their interpretations, commentaries, and traditions.
But Jesus made a clear distinction between the word of God and men's traditions.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, James, Peter, and Jude wrote inspired letters to churches.

Hebrew
Aramaic
Greek
The Bible
Translations
Interpretations
Commentaries
Bible Histories

We are disadvantaged by time, geography, culture, history, and language.

Some say read one, and only one Bible translation.
Some say read at least three to come closer to accuracy.

Jesus said these words concerning His own teachings and words:

"My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself. "

Those who intend to obey God can distinguish what is God's word and what is not God's word; the words of God from the words of man alone.

Adam and Eve failed to obey just one clear command given to them by God.
Humanity continued to fail God and each other, though there was no written law, but only the law of conscience in every person, until Moses.
The Israelites, after leaving Egypt, failed to obey the many commandments of God.
Many Israelites, in the days of Jesus, failed to obey the gospel of God.
The church today fails to obey the Spirit of God within them.

The problem is not God's word.

PRESENCE

"I don't 'do' emotion. Emotions are overrated. I'm more interested in creating a presence." Clive Owen

Presence: A person's bearing, especially when it commands respectful attention
Dictionary.com

I believe “a presence,” as actor Clive Owens uses the word, and as he manifests it in his movies, is simply this: the silent stillness of singular focus. When one with a presence enters a room, he enters with one mind, one will, one focus. She enters to simply be in the room, to simply be herself in that room. And what does it mean to be herself other than to be in the room? If she stands, she simply stands without fidgeting. If she looks, she looks at one thing, one person. If she thinks, she thinks of one thing.

And if he enters the room, the one with a “presence,” for the purpose of speech, he speaks of one truth, for one purpose. If he enters to act, he performs one task. For he is one man, not two. She is one woman, not three. He and she, being one being, speak and act one thing; think and intend one thought or intention. Are not mistakes made when a person gets ahead of himself or herself? Do we not err when we attempt to do more than one thing at a time, to be more than one place at a time, to say more than one thing at a time?

But I disagree with Owen concerning emotion, as though emotion and presence cannot coexist, though he does not directly say this. I believe the one with a presence, if he or she purposes to express an emotion, expresses one emotion: pleasure or displeasure. I believe the one with presence is without ambiguity, whose essence is clarity; singularity, simplicity.

I believe this because our presence is an image and likeness of God’s presence.

HEAR O PEOPLE OF GOD: THE LORD OUR GOD, THE LORD IS ONE.

He is who He is.

He is.

This is His Name.

God is light.
In Him there is no darkness.
No.
No darkness.
At all.
The presence of God, the bearing of His person that commands respectful attention, is unlike any other presence, the supreme presence indeed. We have all experienced Him, the silent listener of each prayer, the quiet that surrounds us when we are alone in our beds, the feeling of being watched when no one is around. His presence is at times like the presence of a police car behind us, at other times like a constant companion. He fills a room at times, at others He seems no where to be found.

He is God.

On mountain tops He is felt. On ocean docks at night we tremble before Him. In the thunder we hear Him. In the lightning we see Him and fear Him. In the rainbow He smiles. In the rain drops He weeps. To be known by God is heaven. To be ignored by Him is hell. So indeed, in His presence is heaven. And indeed, in His absence is hell.

Judeo-Christian Principles

Lately it's been up for debate whether America is indeed a Christian country founded on Judeo-Christian principles. Some have argued the faith of the founding fathers and the biblical framing of the constitution. Some have argued the assumption of the Creator by the founding fathers. Some have argued that we as Americans have left our religious roots and need to return to the faith of our fathers.

What are these Judeo-Christian Principles, really?
What is the definition of a country that is Christian?

As far as the principles go, the "Judeo" ones would at least be the 10 commandments. The "Christian" ones would be principles of faith in Christ expressed in denying ourselves and following Jesus, even if it means rejection, suffering, and death (a cross.)

So, focusing on the ten commandments, "freedom of religion" cannot mean freedom to worship any God other than the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, for this very God said that His people were to have no other god and that they were not to make any images of things in creation to worship them as the Creator. All of the Old Testament clearly portrays God as having absolutely no tolerance for worshipping any other god except Him IN ANY OTHER WAY EXCEPT THE WAY HE COMMANDS! And this is rightly so, because He is God, and there is no other, and we dare not approach Him without giving Him His due respect. We could not just enter the White House, nor can we just enter God's presence without reverence.

And Christ Himself said that He came not to abolish the law (these Judeo principles) but to establish them. He also said that He was the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except by Him. So these Judeo-Christian principles are quite exclusive and dogmatic.

Not only this, but what would a Christian country founded on Christian principles look like from beginning to end, from the foundation until now? What kind of relationship would have defined the interactions with the natives who were here already? We think of Thanksgiving, turkey, the pilgrims, and well being between "the settlers" and the natives. All seemed well. But as we know, all did not remain well. And all is not well in the present for the natives.

What about the 400 years of slavery in this country? What about the times that are considered "the good ole days" by some, which were clearly not the good ole days for others? What about the dollar bill, which has "In God we trust" on one hand, symbols that are clearly not founded upon Judeo-Christian principles.

The name of God is taken lightly literally daily. This is against the "Judeo-Christian Principle" known as the third commandment. The word Christian has lost all value and meaning when celebrities who are clearly singing or acting in ways that absolutely contradict who Christ is and what He did thank God and Jesus for winning music awards or movie awards for such irreverence.

Where is the line?

What is the distinction between those who believe in Christ and those who do not?

Clearly mere church attendance doesn't make the difference in our nation. Both Senator John McCain and President Barack Obama, while running for president, claimed to be born again Christians, yet were in bitter opposition and contradiction.

What would be the assumptions of a Christian nation and its constitution? Rebellion? Independence? Unqualified freedom. Observe these scriptures:

"Submit to God, resist the devil and He will flee from you." James 4:7
"Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities." Romans 13:1
"Apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:5
"The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." 2 Cor. 3:17
"Whom the Son sets free is free indeed." John 8:36

So, according to the scriptures above, some Judeo-Christian principles are:
1. Submission to God and to His delegated authorities (not rebellion)
2. Total dependence upon Christ (not independence)
3. The Lord Jesus Christ and His Spirit, who is Lord, as the true source of true freedom (not a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.)

"Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." Luke 12:15, the Lord Jesus Christ

What is the American dream, realized in capitalism, if not the acquiring of an abundance of possessions? Doesn't capitalism assume that happiness indeed is directly related to abundance of possessions? If not, what is capitalism? It's not just the idea of each person receiving what they earn. It is competitiveness. And it is measuring competitiveness by productivity, abundance, who has "the most toys." Was this the mindset of Christ? Then how can it be one of the fundamental assumptions of a Christian country?

"Fear God, and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, and every secret thing, whether it be good or evil."
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

Where is God's honor, respect, and fear in this country? Do we not applaud movies as "irreverent?" Where is honor for "the king/those in authority?" Indeed, where is honor for authority itself, which scripture says comes from God? Do we not call the lone soldier who rebels against his commanding officer a hero? Indeed, the American hero?

It seems doubtful from our beginnings until now that we have ever truly and unambiguously been a "Christian Nation founded on Judeo Christian Principles." But if this was the aspiration of the founding fathers, then we at least, as individuals, can live by the principles of Christ. But in doing so we will have to draw many a line and disassociate ourselves from many "American Causes." In order to be a true Christian nation, the American must have one true allegiance, and that allegiance must be to Christ. But do we fear theocracy too much for this? Must we focus more on a government "of the people and by the people" instead of "one nation, under God?" Jesus is Lord, not Congressman, Senator, or President. To Him we submit, and our submission is not based upon our voting Him into His position. He is a King, the King, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. A "Christian Nation" submits to Christ as Lord. Do we?