In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. John 1:1-2
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. Revelation 21:3
LIFE WITH GOD. From Genesis where God is walking in the garden with Adam and Eve to Revelation’s new heaven and earth, God’s plan is for us to experience life with him. He created people to join in the eternal fellowship of the Trinity that was from the beginning. This is the origin of LIFE WITH GOD. Living for self, apart from God, brings brokenness, called sin. It causes people to use God to control their own lives, and live over him, under him, from him and for him. How do we live LIFE WITH GOD?
Jesus came to be WITH us and show us how to live by his example, making the way plain by his death on the cross for our sin. While Jesus was preaching, teaching, touching, and healing he was communicating with God and communing with God. This is “simultaneity.” In his book, A Testament of Devotion, Thomas Kelly describes simultaneity as the ability to be engaged with two things at the same time.
There is a way of ordering our mental life on more than one level at once. On one level we may be thinking, discussing, seeing, calculating, meeting all the demands of external affairs. But deep within, behind the scenes, at a profounder level, we may also be in prayer and adoration, song, and worship and a gentle receptiveness to divine breathings.
Billy Graham lived a LIFE WITH GOD, in simultaneity. When Billy Graham arrived at the Today Show studio for a scheduled interview, they said there was a prayer room for him to use beforehand. Billy Graham’s assistant told them, “he won’t need it, he prayed when he got up this morning, while he had breakfast, on the way here and he will probably be praying through the interview.” Setting aside a few minutes in a room cannot contain or constrict the fullness of communion with God.
LIFE WITH GOD will look different for each of us because he made us each unique. The same Holy Spirit is available to each of us, but he communicates and communes with each of us in a personal, intimate way. Skye Jethani writes in his book, WITH, “the goal of LIFE WITH GOD – IS God.” He says we must first have a clear understanding of who he is and what he is like. Pray for God to reveal himself to you more deeply, more clearly, more fully. Prayerfully engage the whole drama of scripture, from Genesis to Revelation. Seek to live in simultaneity. Pray without ceasing, with words (communicating) and without words (communing). Jesus promises you the help you need through the Holy Spirit (John 14)
By Donna Burns
