Here is a question:
Do you worship the one true God whom you serve, or do you worship an idol that you have created in your own mind, which does your bidding?
To my understanding, it is my reasonable service to do what God, i.e. Jesus, asks me to do. After all, it is through His sacrifice on the cross and His shed blood I am saved. Furthermore, it is also reasonable for me to accept Jesus however He desires to reveal Himself to me. While I understand that my Father is a loving God, He is also the one I worship and obey simply because He is who He is. Therefore, I cannot and should not demand He be anything other than what He actually is.
He is my master and I am His servant.
What I have noticed, though, is that some people say that God would never do this, that God could never do that, and must conform to what they want Him to be even contrary to what He has stated and shown Himself to be through His actions throughout history. I would submit that individuals and even church groups who demand God conform to their demands do not worship God in actuality, but rather have created a modern-day image of what they want Him to be.
The difference is that when you recognize God for who He really is, He is pleased and responds to you personally. However, when you worship a false conception of your idea of who you want God to be, it does not respond to you at all.
Doctrine is not God. Man’s conception of God through learning about Him, even in the scriptures, is at best a natural-minded approximation of who He is. We can only ever really know God through personal contact and experience with Him in the Spirit through our spirits. Even at that, we will be ever learning and coming to know Him throughout eternity.
Here is a truth,
The image of the beast, which is the antichrist, is an idol who fits the world’s conception of who god is because it will be the god they agree with and who seemingly does what they want and what they see as best. The antichrist does not force people to believe in him, he just fits precisely the idolatry that they have already created in their hearts.
The way to fight against this deception (which is currently very strong in the world) is to practice allowing God to be who He truly is in your life on a daily basis. When your Lord reveals something to you that goes against your presuppositions, search the scriptures to see if that is true, opening your heart to be willing to be taught – by His Holy Spirit.
I went to Bible College and attended a church that believed they knew the “whole truth.” It took me years and a lot of willingness to be led by the Holy Spirit into unlearning some of what I was taught when God showed me differently.
I remember one day walking down a dirt road when Jesus spoke to me these words,
“I am not coming back until the end of the millennium.”
As I walked, I wasn’t thinking about end time events at all, but He just spoke that to my spirit out of the blue. I could have dismissed it simply because I already had been taught differently. However, because I knew my Father’s voice, I listened and considered His words. That one revelation started to clarify a lot of misunderstanding I had about Israel, the millennium, and end time eschatology in general. The fact is, had His Holy Spirit not spoken that to me, I might never have considered those things and remained in confusion until this day.
Personally, I want to know God as He truly is and not just as I want Him to be. I don’t want to worship an idol of my own creation that does just what I want, but I want to know a personal God whom I can build an everlasting relationship with in truth. Therefore, I trust that my Father is a good God who wants the best for me and thus, I want to know Him as He truly is so that I can be as close to Him as possible – always.
Amen