God’s Presence
… by Metanoia or Repentance
Jesus came to give us new eyes (new heart, new circumcision, new identity) to see what we couldn’t see before our healing…
I’m asking myself, can we ask better questions?
I think so. If we are willing to open ourselves up to discomfort, God(F,S,S) will meet us where we are at because the Relationship of God(F,S,S) is already there… already present with&in us in the Holy Spirit no matter where we find ourselves nor the circumstance. “There is no place we can go to escape God’s Presence/Love, even Hell. God(F,S,S) is always with us and will never forsake us.” – Psalms 139, Hebrews 13:5 (Oswald Chambers – The Never-forsaking God)
Is there a difference between metanonia (see the Key page for an explanation) and what we have interpreted as the English word repentance? If so, how does our understanding change the road to God… the one we think we are traveling?
The following analogy may sound silly, but the silliness is necessary because what we’re talking about is very much like me waiting for someone (let’s say, Tony) who has an appointment to meet me when Tony is already present with me in the room, yet in my relative blindness I can’t see that Tony is already present with me. My confused relative reality in this analogy is me thinking I am waiting on Tony to show up when Tony is already there. Tony’s reality is that he is waiting for me to see that he is already present with me in the room, but I don’t re-cognize that Tony is there. In this analogy, Jesus is our appointment that we are waiting on. Jesus’ absolute reality is that the fullness of God(F,S,S) in human form is waiting for us to see, feel, experience and metanoia (re-cognize, re-know) that God(F,S,S)’s presence is already with&in us.
With what may seem like a ridiculous analogy in mind, it is important to understand in the context of this conversation about your Original Me. You accepting God(F,S,S)’s invitation to re-know your Original Me begins only when you allow yourself to metanoia (re-cognize, re-know) that God is already present with&in you. There is absolutely nothing you can do to make God more present with you. However, you can increase your awareness of God’s presence. You can agree with God, and in so doing choose to metanoia (change your perspective/s or belief/s) so that you can see that God is already intimately present. Some will refer to this process as “repenting,” but “repenting” has traditionally been interpreted as something we do that is not the same as metanoia. Our traditional belief of what it means to repent usually means that God’s presence is available to us only after we change our behavior, which, unfortunately, is a pagan belief that has been carried forward into the religious beliefs of Christianity, not what Jesus revealed. Our traditional understanding of “repentance” is a form of religious blindness that Jesus so frequently references in the context of the healing that Jesus desires for us to receive.
Some people will be understandably skeptical when reading this and will ask the question, “if the Relationship of God(F,S,S) has always been with me (God present, but waiting for me to re-cognize God’s presence), why then didn’t God stop or prevent the evil and suffering that I caused or that I experienced in my life? A part of the answer is that God doesn’t force God on us. The Relationship of God(F,S,S) doesn’t coerce but instead invites us to participate. The question is, will we accept? Does accepting God’s invitation to re-cognize (re-knowing) who God says we are, make all our suffering go away? No, but it does mean that the suffering we see is with new eyes (eyes healed of our blindness to see God’s presence) that leads us to a new understanding. It also leads to shalom (completeness, healing). If not all in this life, then at least some in this life. God does not promise us there will be no suffering or pain (suffering and pain often being of our own creation). Since God(F,S,S) doesn’t create our suffering and pain, the mystery we struggle with is how does something we created (or something forced on us) then get used by God(F,S,S) for our good? How does God(F,S,S) turn our ashes to Beauty? Our answer is found in the Relaitonship of God(F,S,S) and how we are ONE in the Relationship of God(F,S,S) with&in Jesus.
Going Deeper into this conversation about who God created us to be is how we find God’s Beauty in us (who God created us to be). Finding God’s Beauty doesn’t eliminate the ashes, but it does change the effect the ashes have on our lives in such a transformational way that we see the ashes with an appreciation that can only be explained by the infinite nature of God’s beautiful presence indwelling us.
Embracing your Original Me is not about finding all the answers. It’s about getting new eyes. The reality is that no person can give us “the answers,” but we can experience them in an ongoing conversation with Emmanuel (God with&in Us). No one can have that conversation with God for you. Only you. The Relationship of F,S,S (the Trinity) likes it that way. It is that way by God’s sovereign design.
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*Look for future thoughts on the Old Testament references to the “Veil of Moses,” how Israel was blind (how even today it keeps us blinded) to God’s nature, and how Jesus removes this veil as we understand our identity in Jesus. – 2 Corinthians 3:14
