When I was young I had an encounter with God and I knew He was real. It was interesting because I knew a lot of people who believed in Him but didn’t seem to know Him or know He was really REAL. This wasn’t a judgment I made, I just sensed that some people really KNEW Him and most people seemed to only know ABOUT Him. It’s interesting how our journey in faith can come full circle.

Over time this theme of His deep desire for union with all people began to jump out from the pages in the bible. Scripture from Job where he says: I had heard of You but now I see You (paraphrased, Job 42). Or when Israel wanted to have a king like the other nations and Father tells Samuel: “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not  rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them…” 1 Samuel 8. And I love Jeremiah 31:33: For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴ And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Paul repeats this new covenant in Hebrews 8. This is our heavenly Father’s heart desire: that we KNOW Him.

It seems on my journey and hunger to grow the more I do so, the less I know theologically. And I’m learning to really love NOT knowing. Not having all the answers. But letting that part actually go totally and instead learning, deepening curiosity with my Father. Asking Him questions and listening for His voice back with answers and sometimes His own questions that usually make me laugh as I realize the folly of my question. The desire for this deep union to grow has overtaken any former desires to be “in the know” in my faith journey.

Much of the learning of my journey has been coming back to that place of union and remaining there-the same place I was in as a young girl when I first experienced His presence. Looking to Holy Spirit for the answers vs another person. Jesus actually gave this direction to His disciples when He explained to them in John 14 that it was better for Him to go as there would come Another in His stead: the Helper, the Holy Spirit who would remind them of what Jesus had taught them and unfold to them even more. I still glean from others and their learnings but have leaned in more to what my heavenly Father is saying to me first and foremost. Jesus also said: I only do what I see My Father doing (not what I see Rabbi so and so doing, or pastor fill in the blank).

I remember first learning that the current system of church isn’t what was necessarily intended. That around 300 AD Constantine, the first Christian Roman emperor systemized following the way of Jesus (what the disciples called our faith) following how temples did it with one man in the front teaching the others. I honor my faith roots but at the same time I hold the question of, is this the best way to do it?

The disciples met together, FREQUENTLY. Sharing meals, sharing revelation and encouragement-a Psalm, a song. Theirs was like a round table where all had a voice. All had or could have a say as to what they were hearing from Father or sensing. How empowering this had to be!

Have you ever met with a group of people where you met this way? Round table format where everyone brought in a word, or an encouragement for another, a song or a creative work…maybe a prayer request. It is empowering. As time goes on the people begin to grow more confident in their hearing from the Lord. Others may encourage them in how Father has uniquely gifted them and they may begin to operate in that gifting or grow more deeply in it. And more than any of that, the deepening of intimacy unlocks our identity-as we see Him rightly who we are and who we are made to be comes out.

For awhile I was convinced that the current church system needed to be done away with but as time goes on I’ve realized and noticed our heavenly Father meets us where we are as any good parent would. And some would rather stay in a church structure all of their life and glean their revelation from the person up front and that is okay. We live in union with Him regardless of if we attend a church service or not.

I love how Paul witnesses to the men of Athens: For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. ²⁴ The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,^[c] 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. ²⁶ And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, ²⁷ that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, ²⁸ for

“‘In him we live and move and have our being’;^[d]

as even some of your own poets have said,

“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’^[e]

He is already IN US.

Walking today I imagined all of this outside of the confines of religion and I considered: God, a Father who created all people-all are made from Him and in His likeness. Some are born into families where they are told this, many are not. As with anything created, part of the creator is imparted in the creation-so it is with humans. We are infused with God Himself. He lives inside of US! How does it look to share this relationship with someone today who perhaps was born into a family that didn’t know this truth? What if it looked like introducing them to the most loving relationship they could ever have their entire life? And as you’re introducing them to Him, something inside of them KNOWS what you’re telling them is true-a person’s spirit knows the truth. What if the focus came off of the consequence of not knowing Him and more on to the benefits of KNOWING Him and getting to know Him more in this life? Maybe you would share more about how He has helped you in your life or been there for you when people weren’t or saved you in some way. Maybe you would take a deeper interest to the person you were introducing to Him and would want to show them this great love that has changed you as you’ve lived in it. Consider how sad it would be to live this life completely unaware of this union one could be living in with the Creator of the universe who also happens to be their Father.

Did you know that people that are of other faiths or no faith at all are meeting Jesus? He is revealing Himself to them-personally, without any other people involved. Muslims will call Him “the man in white”…tribal people that Christians attempted to evangelize already knew who they were talking about because He personally had revealed Himself to them. I have two friends who were deep in the new age movement who Jesus revealed Himself to in incredible ways. Consider Paul (formerly Saul) who persecuted those following the way of Jesus-Jesus Himself encountered Him. He will meet us where we are.

Humans like hacks. We like formulas, ways to simplify processes, sometimes even relationships. I wonder if we’ve done this with God and how we approach Him. The thing about that though is, relationships are alive-they move they breathe, they change. People change, they grow, they see things differently. It seems easier to put Him in a system, a way of doing it “right” with God. “If you follow these 5 steps, you’ll be good.” I thrived in these systems for a time and then like itchy clothes I had to take them off. They drove me nuts. It’s like He would bring me back to that little girl that He encountered and I would “wake up” in a sense and remember, oh yeah, you’re not the God of a system or a religion, You are the Father who meets me where I am.

Have you asked Him to reveal Himself to you? Ask Him, try it. Ask Him questions and then listen for His answers. Remember, He is your Father and He delights to reveal Himself to His children, which would be you by the way. He created man to have a family, a people that would be in relationship WITH Him, not to just know about Him.