I was recently reading an excerpt from Darrell Johnson’s book, “Handling the Trauma of Holiness,” and was struck by his description of the two “laws of the soul” that fight against knowing God as He really is.
Law #1- We tend to form our OWN conceptions of God, creating a god who is the projection of the God we wish existed.
Law #2- We often suppress God’s revelation of himself because what he reveals is too much for us to handle… so we ignore or repress it.
The combination of these two human tendencies is a potent recipe for belief in a pseudo Jesus. Without an intentional aligning of our thoughts, actions, and decisions to the plumb-line of God according to the Bible, we will always drift into delusions… at least, I know I will. This will happen because, in our natural state, we will always justify what we are doing and where we are.
CAUTION: This should not cause us to freak out over whether or not we have our faith in the “true Jesus…” but, rather, it SHOULD cause us to consistently look honestly at our lives and adjust it.
The practical steps to counter this problem are… 1. Stay connected with other followers of Jesus (the Church) for accountability. 2. Stay connected in your relationship with God through prayer, Bible study, and daily obedience. 3. Become an apprentice under someone you trust to be an honest and mature follower of Christ, and give them permission to speak into your life.
God is so holy (meaning other than), so pure, so powerful,so loving, and so gracious, that it shakes us to the core when faced with a glimpse of him. According to Johnson, if we truly know God as he is, there are three things that will characterize our response to him… awe before the Wholly Other, shame before the Absolutely Pure, and joyful gratitude before the Merciful One.
