Relationship with God:
The Primary Goal

Spiritual Man

Hombre Espiritual

What then is God's purpose for man? Is that we be good or obey the rules as if God was some big school master wanting order. Is that He wants us to do something for Him when there is nothing that He can't do for himself? What did He have in mind when He created humans? What is His desire for mankind and for us as Christians now. Perhaps we can begin to answer this question by looking at the reason that Christ came to earth. In John 3:16 we see that because of God's love for us He sent Jesus that we might have eternal life. Also in John 10:10 Jesus said He came that we might have life in an abundant way. In John 12:50 Jesus said that the Father's command is eternal life. What does having eternal life mean? Is it existing forever? The Bible is clear that all will exist forever whether in heaven or hell. Furthermore in John 17:3, Jesus said: "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." Knowing (gnosis Gr.) is not just a knowing about but a knowledge that comes by experiencing. We experience eternal life by relating with God, sensing His life as we enjoy Him in an intimate way as He manifests His personality and nature in His presence with us. (1 John 1:1-3, 2:27) The life God has for us is from eternity, from heaven, the kind of life that the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit have together. Is this the purpose of God that we live His life in a relationship with Him?What is God like? What would it be like to to hang out with the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit as they did things and related for a day? We are all familiar with the fact that God is love, full of mercy, all powerful, righteous, omniscient, omnipresent etc. But how can we see more closely what God is like. In Romans 1:20 Paul writes: "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." (NIV). We can see God's nature through the creation just as we can see the personality of an artist through his art. First of all we must understand that creation was made by Elohim, God in plural. Creation was a joint effort of the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. As we look at the creation we must bear in mind the enjoyment they must have had together making everything that exists in this material world. What is obvious is that God is the greatest artist that exists as seen in His love of the beauty of the stars or the colors and flow of a sun set. Did you ever see a flower in which the colors don't go together? How about His expression of movement and flow expressed in the way a swallow flies the hovering of an osprey or the pirouettes of a hummingbird. God's love of music is clearly seen in the sounds of the birds, the wind in the pines or the sound of the ocean. God's humor chuckles out of the discombobulated running of a wild turkey or the funny flopping way a seal moves on the ground. Just the fact that He has spun out of the fragile structure of atoms that are more space than any thing else such a beautiful self reproducing environment for us to enjoy shows His immense creativity.

At each stage of the creation story expressed in Genesis God expresses His enjoyment His perceiving "It was good." This good is not just a begrudging, "well that's all right" but an emotional expression of His appreciation for the artistry of what was made. The word good in the Hebrew means: good, pleasant, agreeable, excellent rich, valuable in estimation, appropriate, becoming, glad, happy, prosperous, kind, right, of benefit, prosperous, happy.

My belief is that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit so enjoyed the life expressed in creativity, and beauty but most of all in the kind of relationship they had together that they decided to make beings like themselves with whom they could share this quality of life. Hence, Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." (Gen.1:26) God created man and placed Him in a special environment that was propitious for the development of this quality of life.

The three main aspects of this life are: first of all the relationship that we are to have with God. I believe that the scripture indicates that God made each one of us separately, long before we were born (Psalm 139) giving each one of us our individuality and special characteristics that would appear later. From the time of that creation, there is a special love that God has for us, especially when we are born again and that nature He has given us comes alive. In John 17:23 we see that the Father loves us in the same way He loves Jesus. This love seeks to be reciprocated. In John 5:20 we see that the Father loves (Gr. fileo) the son. This love is an expression of affection and warmth. In John 16:27 we see that God expresses this same kind of love and affection to us. God wants us to experientially know Him in such a way that we as Paul come to treasure this relationship above everything else in our lives. (Philippians 3) I have been amazed over and over again to see the affection, esteem and passion of love that I and others have sensed being expressed by the presence of the Holy Spirit to people I am praying for. God is courting us so that we can be that bride who is overwhelmingly in love with His son.

The second aspect of the life is that God wants us to live His quality of life with each other by developing the same relational atmosphere of love and affection that The Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit have together. Have you ever imagined what their relationship is like? I have oftened wondered why God rides on a cherubin or on the wings of the wind. They are obviously much bigger than the universe and don't need any vehicle to get around. Could it be that they like to race around like kids on horses or motorcycles. Can you imagine the Father on a cherubin and Jesus on the wings of the wind like a skateboard racing each other across the sky and laughing all the way? They wants us to enjoy each other just as they enjoy each other. The first and second commandment are to love Him and then each other. It has been so easy for the people in the church to put priority on so many other things such as doctrine, building the church and the work of the gospel and when conflicts have developed over these secondary focuses we have fallen into the greater sins of ambition, hatred, resentment, competition and division. The tendency of a religious spirit can make us so stiff and stoggy in our relationships that those from the world don't want to have any thing to do with us. How does God feel when His children so misrepresent Him in this way.

Finally the third aspect of the life God calls us to is that His nature of righteousness, creativeness, freedom, artistic and poetic expression, zest for life, and enjoyment, that was placed in us through the new creation would be freely expressed in and through us. He placed us in an environment where we can develop this creativity in being stewards over His creation. The command given to man, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." (Genesis 1:28, NKJV) is God giving man a stewarship in an environment that was designed bring to the surface all the aspects of this eternal life that we might enjoy them with Him. In the context of providing for our material needs Jesus commands us "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Mat.6:33) Later Paul tells us that the kingdom of God is not meat or drink but righteous peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. This list again could be extended to include the fruit of the Spirit. In our day to day activities where we are expressing our God given creativity in providing for the needs and wants of our selves and others, the purpose of God is that we do all this within the context of primarily dedicating ourselves to living His kind of life and extending this life to others.

To take a deeper look at the nature of this life, we can look at Jesus in His time here on earth. He said that if we have seen Him we have seen the Father. (John 14:9) He also said He could do nothing of Himself but what He saw the Father doing. He was so obedient that every expression, not only in the outward action but also the emotions and attitudes He manifested were what the Father was expressing at that moment.

Most obvious is Jesus' love and compassion for people especially for sinners and the needy. His desire for the children to come unto Him " for such is the kingdom of God" (Lu.18:16) indicates that the spontaneity, innocence and freedom of expression so obvious in these little ones are central parts of heavenly life. Even Jesus' humor is obvious when he cast the legion of demons out of the Gaderene demoniac into the pigs and they went screaming into the sea. What is very special is that Jesus and therefore the Father are not caught up in their position of power and authority but are much more interested in the sharing of their life and love shown by the coming of Jesus.

"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross!" Philippians 2:5-8 (NIV)

Jesus did not hold on to His position and form of being of equal with God but dedicated himself to love us and set us free. Furthermore this Jesus who is co- creator with the Father said that He is gentle and lowly in heart. (Mat.11:29) I remember a number of years ago during a time of prayer God's presence came so strongly on me it was like my own nature disappeared from my body and I was filled with the feeling of how God feels within Himself. The center of what I felt was His enjoyment of just "hanging out" with me and being my friend. He brought to my mind the scripture cited above from Mathew 11 and then said this is the touchstone of life. I did not know what a touchstone was but later upon looking it up in a dictionary found it was a siliceous stone used to test the purity of gold and silver. I believe God was showing me that the test for the quality of Christianity was to see if this nature of love and enjoying each other was manifest. This is further reinforced by the anger that Jesus expressed at the Pharisees, the religious authorities of His time who were very caught up in their position, power and outward legalities rather than the simplicity of love and true inner righteousness.

We humans are so expert in complicating things that we miss the central point. God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit have shared together the most beautiful kind of life that exists. We were made to share that life. After man had fallen Jesus came set us free to be able to receive this life. However the church has tended to develop a religious life style that is stiff and stodgy that doesn't represent God's desire. We must first of all develop a clearer perspective of the kind of people God is calling us to be. We can see this in the scriptures, by observing nature, but especially by learning to experientially know God by relating to Him as He manifests Himself in His presence or the anointing. In 1 John 2:27, we are told that the anointing will teach us and as we are taught we are to abide with Him.

We must free ourselves from legalistic perspectives that tend to conform us to some outward form that makes us feel we are being more religiously correct. As we gain a greater clarity of the kind of life God calls us to we must commit ourselves to developing the freedom from our own limitations and hangups to live that vivacious life of love, joy, peace, care, mercy, faith, confidence etc. that He calls us to.

The fact that this life is expressive, free and vivacious does not in any way mean it is at all impure. In Galatians 5 Paul makes it clear that we are called to liberty; but we are not to [use] our "liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, [even] in this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." The love that characterizes this life is pure and considerate of others. It is becoming free to be others centered and never using others for our own desires. It is the same kind of love we experience with God that we are called to have with each other. (Philippians 2:1-2)

Therefore we must take on the challenge to develop an ever more full and articulated relationship with God. We must seek to create among our Christian circles and toward those who have not accepted Jesus an environment that represents the nature of heaven. This living Christianity is more of a growing challenge to artistically living life rather than fulfilling some list of doctrines and rules. It is dedicating ourselves to being the most expressive, loving and fulfilled people, who at the same time are able to positively stimulate others because of the quality of our lives. We must press on after the goal, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:14) That goal and wonderful prize is to live His life with Him and each other.

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