Personally Present God

I’m at a conference this week for transformational leaders. The theme for this session seems to be spiritual transformation, a topic very dear to my heart. But as I have listened to the speakers sharing with each other, I have heard a message that is not The Message of Jesus Christ.

I have heard statements such as “God, whatever you mean by that word, is our collective consciousness, the universal field, nearly infinite power…” and “There might be an intelligence there [within the "universal field"], but we don’t know…” and “It [the universal field] doesn’t DO anything, it just IS.” The kicker was “WE are the Great I AM.”

Christ cried out over Jerusalem, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me” in Matthew 23:37. I can hear Him still crying out over our world, so lost in vain philosophy and deception.

I re-read a passage in 2 Corinthians 3 today in Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase, The Message, which comforted me immensely and had an even more profound effect than it usually has on me in light of all I have been taking in over the past few days. I thought I would end this blog entry with excerpts from Paul’s letter:

A veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth…and this veil can be removed only by believing in Christ…Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are – face to face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone [or a universal field, unable to DO anything]. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.

To that I say, Yes and Amen! THAT is spiritual transformation. What an amazing thing to have a personal relationship with God Almighty, the Great I AM. Even His name reflects relationship as I speak it back to Him: You ARE! Yes, yes, Lord, YOU ARE.