Stepping Out of Our Comfort Zone
Borrowing from Rod Sterling, The Twilight Zone—
“You are about to enter another dimension,” TG continues “A dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land of imagination. A land of immeasurably more opportunities, never before experiences. A land of the physical coexisting with the invisible, both real Next stop, the The Kingdom of God!”
You know, something that is invisible is still some thing. Wind and air are actual things, invisible things.
Since I was introduced to God, or rather, He introduced Himself to me, I had a conviction that has never left me. I was determined to Not have God simply prescribed for me or described to me. No, I was determined to see for myself, to be an eyewitness to know Him not as He might be told to me but as He actually is. Eyewitness versus secondhand, hearsay.
This began and continues as a great adventure of exploring and discovering Him. Yes, using the Bible as a proving ground and others as tourist guides but the Holy Spirit as my Tour Director. And since He is endless, the expedition will go on for all my days.
But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; He will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come John 16:13
When I speak to people, the reason for writing My Running Thoughts it is Not to tell others what to do, not to prove I am right or the the Bible is true. No, it is always to invite any and all along for the exploration, to discover for themselves whether He Is or is not because we have to ‘go to know’. My voice is not a scolding but rather an invite to join me. Come and see, with me.
Are we open? is a great question when we decide to explore to discover. Are we able to step out of our comfort zone of the traditional, the safe, the acceptable, familiar knowledge and bring that knowledge into a world of potential unknowns, or discoveries? Are we willing to go, explore and discover things we never anticipated?
Cmon, cmon, cmon….come with me.
Let’s not miss out on all we are invited to enjoy and enabled to discover just because others do not come along or it seems too mysterious. We ought be on a search for truth…and yes, it can be found in God. Note- I’ve not been told this, I have discovered this. Come and see.
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6
Too Good to be True
You’ve heard the saying, “that’s too good to be true”. It really makes no sense at all does it? If something is ‘too good’, well then it already is. And, yet I think we unknowingly live our lives under this banner. It explains why so few of us experience anything that is unreasonable from our own conditioned perspective.
Pre-Fall, before sin entered the world. All was perfect, as it should be and never has been since….
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day,
Genesis 3:8
Life as it was originally intended had mankind and God in a close interactive relationship. He walking with them. Then sin broke up this relationship separating mankind from God. The world and mankind became fallen. The kingdom of God replaced by the kinfdom of earth where the evil one reins. And then, God so loved the world He created, that He sent Jesus as a remedy, a remover of sin. For those whose sin is forgiven and relationship restored, we are invited and authorized, right now into the Kingdom of God restored. The closeness of God and the peace peace of Eden ours for the living in the here and now. For now, until time does end, the Kingdom of God resides within the fallen kingdom of earth. When Jesus returns, the only Kingdom remaining will be God’s Kingdom that we’ve been experiencing, in part, within the constraints of this fallen world.
The discovery? We can know God as He Is, right now and live in close communion with Him on Earth as it is in Heaven. Eden restored. A table prepared for us in the midst of our enemies.
Too good to be true, yet true! 
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge —that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:17-19
The discovery? We can know and experience a love from God that surpasses all knowledge! Wow
Too good to be true, yet true!
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7
The discovery? I can speak with God, I can draw close to Him on all matters and He will provide for me a peace that transcends all understanding!
Too good to be true, yet true!
Seeing is Believing?
For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. Colossians 1:16
The discovery? God created real ‘things’ – visible things and invisible. They are both equally existing.
Believing is seeing.
“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:18
The discovery? We should not ignore that which is unseen, it will endure forevermore. Grace, mercy, peace, love are all unseen realties.
Believing is seeing.
This is a story of a servant of Elijah what was afraid as he saw armies and chariots surrounding them for attack. A hopless situation. Then God put on him some spiritual vision goggles and he saw throngs of invisible warriors there to protect them.
When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” 16 He said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” 17 Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha 2 Kings 6:15–17
The discovery? The Bible tells us that everywhere we are, He Is. That He has angels watching over us. When we feel nearly crushed, are we able to ‘see’ Him in our midst?
Believing is seeing.
Super natural
I’ve been reading through the Psalms and New Testament monthly for a while. Not only has this turned into a healthy spiritual breakfast for me but it has opened by eyes, piqued my curiosity and has me thinking that I’ve limited my knowledge of God and experience with God because I’ve been negatively influenced by counterfeits or by those who espouse that supernatural is spooky, hocus-pocus or just for theaters
We live in a world, at a time when it is getting increasingly difficult to know what is real and true. We have become cynical, untrusting, fearful, careful and understandably so as opinions are stated as facts, fake news suffocates actual news and AI can have me surfboarding a large Pacific wave carrying pizza in one hand and a tray of drinks in the other while balancing a dog on my head. Look! There’s me! 
We rule out, don’t consider that which seems out of our realm of experiences. “Mystery is bad” we think, so we are limited to things we can explain. If we cannot understand it, it is not true. We dismiss things with “No way, I don’t get it, can’t fool me.”
And yet, as I read daily though the New Testament and the Gospels I find that the supernatural is actually super natural to God. These gospels are written by eyewitnesses and what they saw and experienced are things we might distance ourselves from, question, disbelieve if they occurred today.
I am one who has always been skeptical in response to the theater and fraudsters I’ve witnessed on chrisitian tv. Now I am wondering if I’ve thrown the baby out with the bath water. Another trite saying! Have I closed my heart and mind to the supernatural as a result of abuse and forgery?
Then Isaiah said…Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. Isaiah 7:13-14
The discovery? a virgin, Mary can give birth
Supernatural…super natural
Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. 42 They all ate and were satisfied, 43 and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. 44 The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand. Mark 6:41-44
The discovery? God is not limited by what is at hand, what we can see.
Supernatural…super natural
He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” 40 But they laughed at him. After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41 He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). 42 Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished.
Mark 5:39-42
The discovery? God is powerful to heal and even raise those who have died.
Supernatural…super natural
And many many more as we turn the pages. This was somewhat normal in those days. Yes, super natural.
Leaves me wondering and prayerfully exploring. Why not today? Perhaps today? Might some of this super natural power still be available for our living? Since God has never ever changed and never will – well then, yes this may be available to us. But, not if we do not go to know and test to see. I am getting more antsy and excited as I am asking the Holy Spirit teach and show me whether I have expected and experienced the power of a garden hose when I have a power hose at my disposal.
That’s is for June’s Running Thoughts
My prayer is that we would become willing explorers.
That we would not dismiss what is unseen simply because it is unseen.
Perhaps God is nearer than we think.
So let’s go and find out.
Let’s go to know.
I will continue exploring, and I’ll let you know what I discover.
Available to assist, TG