God Lives in Our Hearts, Not in Our Heads

 

"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love," (Ephesians 3:17)

Jesus dwells, abides, makes Himself at home in our hearts.

Not in our heads.

Yet the whole thrust of the AA cult is to teach people "Choose your own conception of God!"

What does that mean? You choose God to live in your head.

He becomes a figment of our imagination, rather our depending on Him for our life, our breath, our very being.

It makes no sense to me, how anyone can look at the AA cult, and conclude that it is a mainstrream program, a basic plan of action to help people break free of alcoholism.

How can you break free of the debilitating affects of alcohol addicition if you give into the lie that you are defined by this perversion, and that you can run off to some made-up deity to help you find your way in life?

The issue of God living in my head, though, and the relentless challenges I faced trying to make sense of Him working in my life, these conflicts created an unprecedented burden for me.

Verses like this were really difficult for me to understand:

"Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." (John 6:29)

I was constantly bombarded with this question: "What am I supposed to do? Am I doing enough? Is it wrong for me to rest? What is my part?"

I was plagued by these questions because I had learned nothing but mixture from my parents, my church, and other people on TV. People do not hear the fullness of the wonderful Gospel. Jesus is our life, and He is taking care of us.

He is not some figment of our imaginations, nor is He some conception that we think about, so that we can feel good about ourselves as we pray to Him.

The truth is that He is taking care of us, He is a GOD to us! (Hebrews 8:12)

He is not someone whom we have to figure out. He has us all figured out, and He has figured out the best way to guide us! Yet for so long, I was going along with a god that my mother had come up with, that my father went along with, a god based on human efforts and human works, Church-ianity at its finest, or rather at its worst.

No one had ever told me that He lives in me. No one had ever told me that He is taking care of me every step of the way, so therefore I do not have to constantly look over my own shoulder. He is taking care of you, and He is taking care of me.

If we would only let Him, and Let Him make Himself at home in our hearts!

No Need for Extra Self-Talk

I keep wanting to share, I keep wanting to explain how deep the revelation has become for me.

Wow, Paul was not kidding when he mad this prayer clear to everyone:

"17That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: 18The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints," (Ephesians 1:17-18)

We need to pray this prayer every day, since Paul got down on his knees to make this prayer for the Ephesian Christians--and they were already the most spiritual mature of the many churches he ministered to!

I have seen more and more how much I was distracted by thoughts and feelings. I kept thinking that I had to correct or get rid of bad feelings, and then I would wrestle with "What if?" and "What about?" thoughts when I would struggle.

I was so convinced that I had to do something to get God working in my life.

Yet that is the very "works" mentality which works against faith!

Yes, such madness was all too commonplace for me. The way I understood God was someone faraway, imperious. Never did anyone show me that God is my DADDY!

"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." (Romans 8:15)

For the longest time, I really believed that I had to get the ball rolling in life. I thought that my life was in my head, and that I had to think everything through in order to do anything.

All that self-talk, all that constant self-awareness can really harm your mind, take away your peace.

For some reason, I was taught that I had to be on the lookout for myself. Never once did anyone explain to me, until Pastor Prince and Pastor Bob George, that Daddy God is watching out for me!

And we need to keep hearing and hearing the Word of Christ (Romans 10:17), to get the revelation of His love for us. YES!

We Make a God out of Our Minds, and We Suffer

God is not a product of our minds.

We are the product of God's mind.

Alcoholics Anonymous pushes one of the most devious cults, in part because it starts with this fraud:

"Choose your own conception of God."

In essence, we are exorted to make up God to suit ourselves, our own projections, our own affections.

That is absolute nonsense.

He created us. We did not create ourselves.

"Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture." (Psalm 100:3)

Any religious movement or group that tells you to "Choose your own conception of God" is ultimately telling you to worship yourself, to live in your head.

That's what happened to me for many years. I lived in my head, I went by my feelings. Oftentimes, I was so confused that I often found myself depending on other people to tell me what to do.

I never realized how real, how alive Daddy God is to me, until I received God's Word without the adulterations of other religions, ideologies, patterns, precepts, and cults.

For the longest time, I sensed that God was close to me or far from me depending on how I felt. The larger lie that was so pervasive in my life was that I had to perform in some way to make God present to me.

I had to make sure that I was feeling happy, so that I knew God was with me. This sense "void" or "non-existence" was so prevalent in my life, that I was convinced that I had to "conjure up" God in order to know that He was with me.

When the Bible exhorts us to walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7), the Bible is not telling us to take a leap of absurdity. It's not something silly, fantastic, or fanciful. What is happening before us now is a REVELATION that God is real, that God is here, and that Daddy God hears us!

But, our minds need to be renewed, and thus we are transformed, so that we understand that He is for us, not against us:

"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31)

For too long, I had made God's presence and care for my conditional on my thoughts and feelings.

Daddy God is real. He is not a figment of my imagination, and I don't have to feel bad if doubts or wonders start to assault my mind. I do not have to change my thinking or feeling to know and believe that Daddy God is here for me.

This transformation has taken a long time for me. I have been listening to God's Word on a frequent basis, and I have received God's Word into my heart.

"Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls." (James 1:21)

God's Word saves us. Jesus, the Word made flesh, is our Salvation.

I suffered for so long because I lived in my head, and I confused faith with feeling, instead of faith as resting in the fact of God's Word.

Thank you, Daddy God, for sending Your Son, that I could have fellowship, oneness with You. Thank you, Lord!