A Father’s Elaborate Preparation for Fellowship
In the last post, we concluded that it is in the place of fellowship
that we get to know God, or if you like, to enjoy God. Do you
remember how the dictionary defined ‘fellowship’?
It is ‘friendly relationship; companionship: the fellowship
of father and son.’
Please recall that the chief purpose God made human beings
was so we could enjoy Him and glorify Him. It wasn’t because
he was needy. He did not wake up one morning and realized how
lonely he was, and then said, “You know what? I am going
to make human beings to keep me company.” God is self-existing,
self-sufficient, complete, entire, and does not need our affection
or company to be complete. If he needed our love and affection
to be in some way complete, then, he would not be God, would
he? Any way if he did, then he must have been a thoroughly starved
God, don’t you think? Why, you say? Because we hardly
ever give him the love or praise he so richly deserves. So,
this whole deal is about us, and for our sakes. It is a father’s
desire to birth and bless a son that compels the divine heart
to seek us out in order to bless us.
I think it is so important that we get this paradigm shift.
Until a revelation comes to our heart that God chose us only
in order to love and to bless us, we may continue to act as
though he owes us, or as though we do him a favor by fellowshipping
with him. In fact, some people have rebelled against God and
‘religion’ because they think that God is so demanding.
It’s like saying, ‘Who in heaven does he think he
is to demand so much from me or to demand that I submit to him?
Why does it always have to be about him?’ But when we
see a loving and caring father that seeks our company and even
our obedience only in order that he may have the opportunity
to bless and impart our lives, then we can’t help but
cry, ‘Abba, Father!’.
So, let’s go back to the beginning and take a peep into
the divine workshop on the sixth day of creation morning. That
was the day he made man, with the goal of fellowship in mind.
Now, here is the marvelous thing about this. He was eagerly
anticipating our coming. He made elaborate preparations. He
could not just speak the word alone this time. Before now, all
he had to do to create anything was speak the word, and it was
so. Check it out for your self in Genesis chapters one and two.
But when it was time to make man, his beloved friend and companion,
he spoke the Word first, yes, but then he did something he had
never done till this time. He dug his hands into clear dust
and mud, digging and molding his man: “Then the Lord God
formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his
nostrils the breath or spirit of life, and man became a living
being” Genesis 2: 7, Amplified Bible.
No wonder Ephesians 2: 10 tells us clearly, according to the
Amplified Bible, “For we are God's [own] handiwork (His
workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we
may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand)
for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that
we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged
and made ready for us to live]”. You are God’s deliberate
handiwork. All of us humans were deliberately and thoughtfully
created by a loving God with ‘good works’ in mind
for us. Oh, he wants us to live ‘the good life which he
prearranged and made ready for us to live’. It’s
a good life he planned in the beginning for all of us. If this
doesn’t make you dance, then you need to read it over
and over again until it does.
Notice a recurring theme in the passage we just quoted is ‘plan’.
God made elaborate preparations for our ‘birth’
on creation morning. None of us is a product of accident or
chance occurrence. God planned well in advance for your coming
into being. And it gave him immense pleasure thinking about
his good plan for you. This is how the New Living Bible puts
it in Ephesians 1: 5, “God decided in advance to adopt
us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus
Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great
pleasure”.
‘This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great
pleasure’! It gave God great pleasure thinking about you
and the plans he has for you. The Message rendition of that
verse clearly shows that he not only took time in planning man’s
being, it was a pleasure for him - “Long, long ago he
decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What
pleasure he took in planning this!)”. It wasn’t
a bore. It was a carefully thought out process, but it was also
an exciting one.
Now, you are thinking, ‘I will like to know some of the
elaborate preparations he made in advance of having me fellowship
with him’. Genesis 2: 7 tells us two of those right away.
“Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground
and breathed into his nostrils the breath or spirit of life,
and man became a living being.”
Did you notice that? God made a form which resembles any of
us today, and then did something that was utterly amazing. He
breathed (exhaled purposefully and intentionally) into man the
breath or spirit of life. The word used here is ‘neshamah’
in Hebrew, or ‘pneuma’ in Greek; and means either
breath or spirit. That is why the Amplified bible safely translates
it as ‘breath or spirit’.
So, the first thing that God did was exhale into us the ‘spirit
of life’, and we became living souls. Ah, you get it;
until he did that, we were nothing different from any other
organic form he has already made. It was the ‘spirit of
life’ that rushed into our being on creation morning that
made us unique, highly elevated above all other forms of animal
or plant life. There are then two key factors here that make
us in a large degree what we are as humans – spirit and
life. In the next post, I am going to continue to explain how
these two factors interplay to prepare us for fellowship and
wholeness.
If any of these writings bless you, feel free to post
a comment or share a testimony with us. Others may be blessed
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Our genuine desire is to assist you in your search for meaning
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