Swaddled Not Swallowed

In the book titled Whisper (© 2017, Multnomah Publishing, NY), author Mark Batterson presents the notion that God’s proximity is expressed by the Hebrew word “paniym” (Strong’s # 6440 and related Hebrew root words paneh/panah) which refer to the presence or manifestation of God, His face, His pre-position, to be in or to be before His presence.  What struck me in reading this book is that to “be in” or to “be before” God is not something we really have any part of other than that we can present or open ourselves (our hearts) to Him in moments of conscious deliberate supplication for His will to interact with ours. We are “before” Him always by default on account of His all-presence.

You are Surrounded -  Surrender!

God is all present and we just “are” in His presence always whether we present ourselves or not. In a sense He forever presents Himself to us by His omnipresence.  Batterson interprets the word “paniym” as the split second before and the split-second following – a parenthesis in time. I think I agree.

A.W. Tozer wrote this that helps illustrate this notion in a multidimensional way, “God is above but He’s not pushed up. He’s beneath, but He’s not pressed down. He’s outside, but He’s not excluded. He’s inside, but He’s not confined. God is above all things presiding, beneath all things sustaining, outside of all things embracing and inside of all things filling.”

God’s position in this sense is relative to “us”. Yes, He is the source and the true center of everything. But, God actually makes a place in His vastness that creates a free will center within each of us. This is an act of a Father. Presiding, sustaining, embracing and filling all with extraordinary respect for our independent selves. He allows me my “space”, my dignity, without expense or compromise to His sovereignty. We are like little protected islands in the vastness of His sea.

The Proximity of God

This sort of closeness or proximity is remarkable. We are immersed in Him but insulated by a film of free-will, so-to-speak. Though engulfed, we are not consumed by Him or displaced of self – of our freedom – our free will. If this is true, then there is indeed a film of separation in which the free will of a person operates, even if that separation is physical or temporal as a fraction of an instant between what is past and what is unfolding. God crosses the membrane by invitation only with His Holy Spirit to fill and work through us.

Just Do The Next Thing

I have long believed that life is about just doing the next thing and living in the moment. Such a life orientation liberates a soul from the regret and guilt often attached to the past and the fear, uncertainty and trepidation generally associated with the future. Such “proximate presence” or “paniym” brings to mind the words of Psalm 139 and especially verses 5 and 6, “You have hedged me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it.” It also brings to recollection Psalm 46, verse 10, “Be still and know that I am God.”

Be still, immersed in Me, in My creation, in the body I created for you. Be still in My face, in My presence all around you for a moment and appreciate your existence for what it is in truth.

While Tozer’s contemplation above is really mostly spatial in nature, Psalm 139 is both spatial and temporal. The hebrew word “paniym” is mostly temporal in context. And so when I combine it all together I see myself in this very thin film of a bubble of free will suspended amidst the timeline of eternity and the physical vastness of space. This is my existence – TIME and SPACE. For the moment I am physically bound by the laws of physics and so I exist in time on this planet in a physical body and subject to the reality of its associated properties and constraints. That is grounding.

God is saying, “I’ve Got This!”

I was discussing this with a Pastor friend of mine and he immediately directed me to Deuteronomy 30 where we read in verses 9 through 14; “The Lord your God will make you abound in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your land for good. For the Lord will again rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your fathers, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. “For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.”

FREE WILL vs. CLAUSTROPHOBIA

Something in my flesh rises up against the proximity of God’s embrace – hedging me in behind and before. A wave of claustrophobic panic washes over me. I feel a little suffocated and confined - restrained. That’s my fleshly reaction as a result of the rebellious spirit that I inherited from the sinful birth - my lineage to Adam.

For nine months a baby develops in its mother’s womb fully dependent on her for everything. Within the confines of that womb is warmth, sustenance and protection. There are spatial and temporal constraints in the womb. A baby cannot rush the day or hour of its birth or roam about. It is constrained for its own good and for its proper development. Resignation to this dependence is natural. A baby has a limited idea of self. The arrival of grandchildren in my life has refreshed the realities of newborns and their needy nature. It has also reminded me of our disposition of selfishness and awareness of ourselves from the moment we take our first breath outside of the womb. In their freedom from constriction babies often inconsolably wail and flail about with their legs and arms. Even a bottle will not calm them. But the counter-intuitive firm embrace of a well wrapped swaddle calms them right down. I see it and I get it, but the tight, restricting, bundling still seems suffocating to me even as an adult. It’s counter-intuitive. Nonetheless, swaddling calms newborns and bundled babes slip into blissful resigned sleep.

Held Yet Free

Understanding swaddling has helped me grasp the notion of an all powerful Creator who embraces me with His glory, rules over me, but does not tyrannize me. It helps me realize the nature of my free will within His sphere of influence, power, protection and resource. I am His beloved creation who walks not on a leash but in an embrace that caresses without constricting, convicts without brain washing and restrains without shackling. I am truly free to think, mentally process, act and do whatever it is that I wish. I am free to follow Him and submit to Him of my own free will. Absent that act of my own free will, the default condition (the sin condition) prevails. This is compelling and convicting.

I do have a part. I am here to do things. I have a role to do things. In life one can live passive to all things (if one can even call that living…) and be tossed to and fro - a punching bag to circumstances. One can live in reactive mode and be directed by every next stimuli (living and acting on instinct and by impulse). One can attempt to be proactively in control of all things and find that even one’s best laid plans do not account for every possibility and adversity. And one can live a responsive life and operate at their interface with reality with discernment, integrity and agility. Passivity certainly has no place in this.

Wild, Dangerous, Unfettered, Free

I am reminded that I am made in the image of God, an image, as author John Eldridge puts it, that is, “wild, dangerous, unfettered and free.” I need to differentiate this from the other sort of unfettered nature, the sin oriented and rebellious nature, that was programmed into me as a product of the fallen rebellious world of which I am an heir by default – unless otherwise adopted into another destiny.

Centering and Willing

Most reassuringly, if I go right or left, forward or back, up or down, God remains about me keeping me perfectly centered in His grace, perfectly free to act as I please every moment in my own center.

When I lash out He gives me space. When I am still and cry out to Him, when I am still and know that He is God and invite His presence - He moves in to embrace me. The film diminishes. I walk in His will and warmth. I am swaddled not swallowed. There is always that thin separation in which I freely will to do. By the power of His Spirit (Philippians 2:13) God works to will and to do in my life. The marvel is that He does not will to suffocate me nor seek to control me like a marionette on strings. Similarly, He does not wish for me to become un-spooled and recklessly out of control. When I run off He eases the line but takes up any slack, ever ready to reel me in when I founder. God works in the moment, in our circumstances. He doesn’t need to come running when we call. He is already there.

What To Do?

What do I do with this? Like my Creator, I can hold things lightly, gently, securely but not with clenched hands. I can remember that, in regard to all things, it is, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord.”

I struggle with the notion of the “thing” that is in me that God envelopes but lovingly does not barge into in order to leave me with my free will to be heir and servant but never slave. Sin enslaves.

The unsaved person, the unbelieving person, has a free will. So does the saved believer. On either side of a decision to accept Christ and the power of His resurrection there is still “free will”. The unsaved person sins. The saved person still sins. "All" sin and fall short. One sinner is enslaved, another sinner is an heir to a kingdom because of a choice. Amazing? Yes. Amazing GRACE!

The Heart/Mind Piece

Soul destiny is the prize. The destiny of one’s soul is at stake. The soul simply “is”. The essence of what God leaves to us by His grace is the struggle of the heart/mind piece.

My simple analysis of this is that the mind is what we employ to receive, sense and discern what is about us. Hearing, seeing, experiencing, thinking, reasoning, decision making are functions of the mind. Linked to this is our heart. The heart is the fortress of morale character, standards, belief, what we hold as eternal unchanging truth, what we believe and what will override the mind’s nature to react as we live our lives and conduct ourselves in each moment.

Faith is a heart thing. Faith is not faith if it is proven. I can be certain of something unproven by faith alone. There is no need for faith in scientific fact. Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Faith of the heart will see you through things that the mind would abandon.

Regarding the pre-disposition of our hearts, the Bible says that “the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). But the Bible also says in Ezekiel 36:26, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷ I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.”

Proverbs 23:7 reads, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”  Do we think in our heart? God makes a connection there and we should struggle with that. God also discerns the heart and makes note of men and women who were people with hearts after Him (e.g. David), seeking Him, in fellowship with Him, intimate with Him, responding to Him.

The heart and the mind are strongly linked but God works from the heart to the mind. The full scripture from Jeremiah 17:9-10 brings it all together thus; “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”

Lastly, Proverbs 4 provides wisdom for spiritual tenacity and endurance. In verse 23 we read, “guard (keep) your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.”

The PARADOX

Be swaddled. Be held. Be free. Live in the moment. Live in Eternity.

Be mild/wild, Be gentle/dangerous for God.

Be swaddled and unfettered. Confound those around you with your free will submitted to God.

Blessings,

Bill