By PASTOR MARK MOLINA
Living Waters Church
Pastor Mark Molina
Special to the NEWS
How does God communicate with the ones He knows? What might the God of all creation, power, and might reveal to the one He sees as righteous? Have we ever thought about that? Is God some far off mysterious being that we will never know? Is it really possible to know Him, His thoughts and His ways? Or is hope of that kind of relationship with Him just a distant fantasy?
In the Bible we see a portrait of the relationship between Noah and God. There is a viable, discernible exchange between the two.
“And God said to Noah, ‘The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.’” (Genesis 6:13 NKJV).
“And God said to Noah…” The exchange between God and man in this time frame of wickedness on the earth was one of revelation. God immediately, directly and personally revealed his plans to Noah. It wasn’t a feel-good, sugar-coated, easy message of, “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” God made perfectly clear to Noah how he was going to deal with the people on the earth because of their corruption.
Why would God have this kind of conversation with Noah? “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.” (Genesis 6:8 NKJV) Why did Noah have this grace? “…Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God.” (Genesis 6:9 NKJV).
If you want to know the mind of God you have to walk with God! It is not just reading the bible, praying and going to church. There is a legitimate, intimate, meaningful, living, vibrant, and personal relationship we can have with the God of all creation, power and might! We should read our bibles, pray and go to church. But if we do that with a religious mindset it can be nothing more than a mechanical, mathematical formula with the idea of a prescribed outcome. This is not what God has for us. There is more. Much more.
However, there are some conditions to having this type of relationship with our Heavenly Father. It has to be one based on truth. The word “just” in the verse stated comes from the Hebrew word “sadiq” which means, “just, lawful, righteous.” There are conditions we should have in our heart, soul, mind, and body to walk with God in integrity.
The word “perfect” in the above-stated verse comes from the Hebrew word “tamin.” This means: entire (literally, figuratively or morally); also (as noun) integrity, truth;-without blemish, complete, full, perfect, sincerely, sincerity, sound, without spot, undefiled, upright, uprightly, whole. This is who God knew Noah to be. This is how Noah is described Biblically. There can be a difference between how God sees us and how we see ourselves. Our concern should be to have “truth in the inward parts” which means to not walk in self-deception of our true spiritual condition. God is never deceived by it no matter how comfortable we have become with it. We can fool others. We can fool ourselves. But we can never fool Him.
Noah found the grace of God based on truth. He knew his true spiritual condition as revealed by God himself. Today in the church across America we hear, “Grace, grace, grace, grace!” We are hearing less and less about, “Truth!” The church wants the grace of God for everything and in everything. However, it wants the grace of God in spite of the truth of the spiritual condition.
This is where error comes in. The grace of God covers our sin so we can receive forgiveness. The grace of God is not an alibi for our sin so we do not have to experience truthful confrontation. If we are sincerely walking with God there will always be truthful revelation of our true spiritual condition.
If we want to know the mind of God like Noah did then we must be as Noah was, just (“sadiq”) and perfect (“tamin”), to have this privilege. What price are you willing to pay to have this type of relationship with Him? There is a price!
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