Living in the Overflow - Part 2 of the Series, Walking with God

John 15:4 (New King James Version)
4. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

When is the last time you got last time you got together with a friend just to “hang out”? If someone asked you what you were going to do, or what you had planned, the answer would be: "nothin". All you planned to do was hang out-chill. If your friend just needed help straightening up, washing their car, folding laundry, it didn’t matter – you were going to help. Why? Because you just enjoy being with your friend. You don’t have to be entertained all the time and you don’t have to have specific plans, you just enjoy spending time together. The cool thing is, your friend feels the same way toward you. And even better than that, when you got back home, or your time together was finished, you would say it was absolutely fulfilling – just to have that time together. You didn’t really require anything from one another aside from just spending your time together.

Let me ask you another question. When is the last time you did that with God? When is the last time you just hung out with Him and didn’t ask Him for anything? Maybe you just asked Him what you could do for Him. Maybe you just spent time telling Him how grateful you are that you have a job, a roof over your head, food to eat, clothes to wear, a car to drive. Maybe you just spent time telling Him how wonderful you think He is, or maybe you just spent time worshipping Him – getting lost in Who He is, and not even thinking about yourself. I think if we’re honest, that sounds foreign to most of us.

But it’s really not very far fetched at all. Think back to Genesis chapters one and two. Think back to Adam and Eve. They had a relationship with God, didn’t they? The bible tells us that God came down and walked with them in the cool of the day. They spent time together. What did that time consist of? I’ll tell you what it DIDN’T consist of. It DIDN’T consist of petitioning God for anything- they had it all. It DIDN’T consist of asking God to deliver them from anything; it didn’t consist of praying for financial needs, food on the table, lost loved ones, healing, forgiveness, a better job, and favor, none of it. You know what? There wasn’t even a church, no altar, no offering plate, no BIBLE, and as far as we know, there wasn’t even any WORSHIP MUSIC. You have got to be kidding me!!!!!! What on earth did they DO?

They simply hung out; chilled. They RELATED to one another. I believe they did tell God how much they loved and appreciated Him, but I believe the majority of their time spent together was just enjoying each other. They completed each other- that’s what a relationship is all about. Each party gives, each party receives. What do you give? You give yourself. What do you receive? You receive that other person. Each of you is the other’s reward. You don’t need a thing except to be together and enjoy one another’s company. That’s the way God originally intended things. How have we gotten so far off?

I’ve found myself thinking in the past that my relationship with God consisted of my “Christian involvement”. You know, like going to church, taking bible classes, visiting a nursing home, giving time to the teen group on Sunday nights, teaching classes, “fellowshipping” (hanging out) with other believers – those types of things: Christian involvement. The more I was involved in, the more I believed my relationship with God was growing. While all these activities are “good”, they are not the foundation upon which a relationship with God is built, nor sustained.  God is your foundation; He is your first relationship.  All activities, all Christian “involvement”, must flow out of that relationship first.  When they do, there is freedom and peace.  When they don’t, there is frustration, effort, and weariness. I believe most of Christianity lives in this latter scenario…because the first foundation, their first relationship with God has been neglected. If “church activities” were taken away from most Christians today, I’m afraid there wouldn’t be anything left to speak of with regards to their relationship and fellowship with God.

There are a few things I think we can point to in order to find out how we got to this place, the place where we are frustrated and weary in our walk because we have neglected our first love, God our Father.

First, I don’t think we really see God as a “Person”. In John 4:24, Jesus did say that God is a “spirit”, but Jesus also told us in Matthew 6 to call God our “Father”. I’m not so sure we really comprehend and truly see God as our Father, but if we are to relate to Him as a Father, we need to relate to Him as a person in our thinking. Genesis 1:26 tells us that we have been made in the image of God, so I would say that gives us common ground to relate to each other.  If we continue to see God as some “spirit in the sky”, He will always be distant.  If we work at seeing Him as a person, our Father, we will draw close to Him…to walk with Him, to talk with Him, to grow intimate with Him.

Second, I would say that we as the Church have been completely immersed in ignorance over the topic of truly relating to God, with a pure heart and pure motives. I personally have seen very little to no teaching on this topic, and if there is any, it sure hasn’t won any popularity contests among pastors, speakers, or the folks in the pews. Bring in somebody to tell me that God is getting ready to bring me my miracle! Bring in somebody to tell me that God is getting ready to make me rich!  Bring in some "prophet" to tell me that God has a monster opportunity coming my way! Yeah, that’ll fill the seats. But talk about simply relating to the Lord and being fulfilled in just knowing Him better and hearing His voice? YAAAAAAWWWWWNNNNNN. Tell me when it’s over! We (and I’m including myself in this) have been a bunch of stinking spoiled brats.

We as Christians have made our “relationship” with God all about US. I’ll bet just about every one of us could name someone we know personally that is either currently (or has been for some time) miffed with God over something that didn’t work out the way they wanted it to.  How pathetic. We treat God not as our Father, but as our Pez candy dispenser.  Our prayer time (if we have prayer time) consists of petitions for things to satisfy us. But that’s what God is there for, to answer our prayers, right? We walk up to God, tap Him on the shoulder, tell Him what we need, then say “See ya later!” and off we go into our busy lives. We’ll call the Lord again later when we need Him for something else. But, what if He needs us for something? That’s silly, we think, God doesn’t need ME for anything – He’s God!!  Here’s a thought…maybe he just wants YOU.

Let me tell you something. We talk about a LOT of different things in church – different subjects, and they all are important to a degree. However, there is NOTHING MORE IMPORTANT TO GOD than your relationship with Him. Nothing. Not Prosperity, Healing, Deliverance, CHURCH…ALL are SECONDARY TO GOD. Do you know why that is? Because it’s about Him, not what He can do for you, not about what He can give you, not about what you can get out of the relationship. It’s simply about Him and Him first. If you’ve gone beyond that, or rather, skipped over the first part, you’ve missed it.

Third, I think we as a Church have put so much focus and effort on getting people “involved” and keeping people “involved”.  Again, while none of this is wrong, we have neglected to spend as much time teaching people to be engaged and involved with God FIRST.  Folks, it’s the PRIVATE INTIMATE TIME WE SPEND ALONE WITH GOD that He so desires from us. That, my friends, is what a relationship with God is first all about.  He is our source of life and the provider of the desire and energy to want to BE “involved”.  We’ve gotten it completely backwards.  Church and church activities are an outward expression of our love for God FIRST which then causes us to want to serve. Most Christians reverse this and stay busy with church activities because they think it shows they love God.  We look at a verse like I John 2:6 that says: “He that says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk, even as He walked” and we think, “Boy, I need to make some changes. I need to start walking differently. I need to try harder. I need to treat people better, I need to give more.  I need to…”.  NO NO NO NO!! What we need to do is the first part….ABIDE IN HIM!!!! We need to see that this Christian life only works when we allow Him to live through us, as we ABIDE IN HIM. Our effort is not to be in our works.  Philippians 2:13 reads “For God is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure”.  We abide, God works.  Our only effort is to relate to Him, abide in Him, and stay linked to Him. The rest will take care of itself.

Everything we talked about here: serving, giving, going to church, witnessing, all of it needs to be a by product of our RELATIONSHIP to the Father. So many of us are trying to operate in “Christian service” without ever involving God. We’re trying to “produce it”. In the same way our body will struggle and strive to operate on an empty stomach, spiritually we will struggle and strive to operate on an empty heart. If we haven’t received the love, goodness, mercy, and grace that God has for us, filling our heart full, we won’t have love, goodness, mercy and grace to give to others. When we’re full, it simply comes out – naturally. We don’t even have to think about it.

In summary, all “Christian service” is secondary. GOD IS PRIMARY. Jesus told us in Matthew 6:33, “Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness; and ALL THESE THINGS shall be added unto you” Did you hear that? Seek Him, and all other things would be added. We’ve made it all about the things. Our life is not about the things. Many think the more “things” they can involve themselves in for God, the more "things" they can get from God, the more of God they have. I used to think that. But my eyes have been opened to the truth. It’s brought a measure of freedom like I’ve never known before. And this is just the beginning.  I want to awaken the Church to this truth so that we as the Church can walk in this freedom that God has intended for us. Then, all we are, all we do, all we have, and all we give...all these "things" would just be the result of Living in the Overflow - a simple result of spending time with God, getting filled up with His love, mercy, and goodness, and then simply allowing it to flow out of us freely and effortlessly.

I'll be exploring Secondary Things in more depth in the next and last article in this series, Walking with God.

Blessings!

Dan Owczarzak