Relationship with God
To study God's word, requires the presence of the Lord through his Spirit. It is then we obtain his counsel, guidance, insights and personal revelations. This is necessary for us in order to overcome our mortal limitations of thought and perception. Access to his Spirit, requires us to create and develop a one to one relationship with the Lord, and as with all relationships that are good and successful comes many benefits and blessings. Yet, a relationship is usually viewed as something tangible, one that a person can outwardly relate with and experience an interaction, but a relationship with God begins as an inward one (Ps. 5:9 / 2 Cor. 4:16 / Rom. 2:29), which is where faith begins and ends.
What many have not understood is that a relationship with God requires more than just a belief, that it requires an active role. To merely believe in Jesus Christ is not enough. As a result, many failed to understand that their salvation depends on how they "relate" with God, how they take an active role with their faith to do their part in a relationship with him. Without this active role and exercise of faith, it becomes dead (James 2:17,20,26).
A relationship with God is the same as "faith with God". IN this context, faith and relationship mean the same. It is a simple precept. Poor faith means a poor relationship with God, good faith means a good relationship, then perfect knowledge gained from a good relationship with the Lord, with nothing doubting, is where faith is overcome. The veil is then lifted and one sees God. (Ether 3:19)
Ask yourself some serious questions. What is the nature of your relationships in life? Are you controlling, demanding, pushy, haughty, greedy, selfish, self-centered (prideful), or money hungry? If you have a family, are you loving to them, are you a loving husband or wife, a good spiritual leader to them, a good teacher, understanding, patient, tolerant, longsuffering and forgiving? (Gal. 5:22 / Eph 5:9).
Are these relationships fruitful, peaceful and have the Spirit of God in them, or are they full of contention, mistrust, control, strife or many manners of sins and transgressions? Your relationships in life depicts the relationship you have with God. What you do unto others, so shall you do unto God. How you relate to others, in your work, your life, even with yourself, depicts the type, pattern and nature of your relationship with God. Just because you believe in the Lord, does not mean your character and personality is suddenly changed.
It is said by God that what you sow, so shall you reap (Gal. 6:7), and do to others as you would have them do unto you (Matt 18:35 / Luke 6:31) . This not only applies to what you do with and to others, but these principles also apply to what you do to God. It is also said ( I paraphrase), that what you do in little, you shall also do in much. Explained further, it says that what you do in one thing, you also do in another, and the separation of body, place or time has no bearing on it. If a person chooses to act selfishly, and does not seek the Lord to change, then he/she will continue to be selfish "in all they do". What you do in little, you shall also do in much. (Luke 16:10) , then what you do in relationship to another, so shall you do in your relationship with God.
Ponder it, and consider what you do to the Lord if you walk around condemning others, even the weak, meek and sick; or act in a wicked way toward others, giving not charity (kindness, help & humbled service). Is this not the basis of God's word when he says that do to it to the least of them (Matt. 25:40,45), ye shall do it to him? Does this not say, "How you relate to and treat others, that is what you also do unto the Lord?" The truth of what we sow so shall we reap is not about money, work, or any other temporal things, for these are merely extensions of what life is about. What we sow and reap is about life (John 6:63) here on earth and about our spiritual life. Life is about how we relate to it, that is the true application of sowing and reaping. To relate is to have a relationship, and to have a relationship comes from how we feel, think, choose and do.
So many people think, that being a Christian is about denomination, which speaks of a group identity. A Christian is to follow Christ, and to follow Christ is to live his words in spirit and in life (John 6:63). This means, that a Christian is to feel, think choose and do in a godly manner, one that follows the precepts of the Lord. This glorifies God, because we made our "life" as his and his as ours. Without this basic element within us, there is no way we can become a true Christian. To have his life is also to relate or to have relationship that is also of his and his as ours. Therefore to be a Christian is to live as Christ teaches us to live. Is this not the meaning of the first and second commandment (Matt 22:37-40) of God? To have a relationship that is truly the fruit of the spirit in every way? Is it not true, as you look at what God asks us to do, reflects the very thing called "relationship"?
How wonderful our friendships would be, our marriages and family relationships also. How wonderful, fruitful, joyful, peaceable, and loving our lives would be. How all this now depicts the kind of relationship we would have with God. This is what speaks of a true Christian, a true disciple of Christ. Then, with all of these things so wonderfully fruitful in our relationships with life, how our preaching of the gospel would then be the same. Where is denomination in this? Did God teach denomination or is he teaching the manner called "love"? For it is not denomination that determines a loving relationship with God and others, it is a choice of the heart and mind to have such a relationship. Oh how divisional man is, how segmenting his will sees, how territorial man causes things to be.
Now do you see the meaning of "one faith, one spirit"?
(Mosiah 18:21)
The time when Jesus Christ knelt down to the ground, writing in the dirt, as he left the rabble (Pharisee's and Scribes), with this question, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." (John 8:3-11) . What did Jesus show them? Yes he showed the manner of wise judgement, but he showed much more. The Pharisee's and Scribes showed the manner of rule, the application of the law, as to strike with a rod, without understanding and wisdom, but Jesus showed them the manner of "relationship." Jesus showed the manner of mercy, compassion and forgiveness in his judgment. How he "related" to the adulteress and to the Pharisee's and Scribes. These are things of the heart, which speak of the fruits of the spirit. The rule, as shown by the Pharisee's and scribes was the manner of the letter only, being absent of the spirit, of the heart, which makes it have nothing of God in it. Why? It is because the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life (2 Cor. 3:6) , and life are all things of the spirit being mercy, compassion, forgiveness, temperance, and so on.
How much less a person has become, when he or she puts the letter of the word first, failing in the spirit of things. How much would such a person loose in the crucial things of Christ. How the rule or the manner of the rod has caused people to loose the true meaning and life of God's word and laws. How the Lord shows the very things of the heart in the "Good Samaritan" parable. (Luke 10:30-34). Which would you do to others in your family when they are down? Would you be as that priest and pass them by, or be as the Samaritan, kneel down and help? Which would you do to others in the world, who are also down in life? Would you hit them with the rod, as the soldiers did to Jesus, or would you lend a helping hand?
Charity, is one of the most important principles God teaches and he made it clear, that those without charity are none of him as such has no salvation (1 Cor.13:3 / Moro.10:21). So what does it matter, if you follow the rule, extend the rod, but have no charity in you and give no charity from you? A person without charity becomes nothing (Moro. 7:46), because charity is the exercise of the first commandment, by way of the following, "For inasmuch as ye do it unto the least of these, ye do it unto me." (D&C 42:38). All of these things are aspects of relationship, how we relate to others and even to ourselves in our lives. Charity calls upon the highest spirit, far more and greater than those who merely follow the rule or the letter of the word.
To exercise faith is to exercise proper relationship, because it is the heart felt things of the spirit that Christ speaks and teaches. Christ teaches us the manner of expression and manifestation (sow to reap), one that depicts a high wisdom of the heart. How to take his rules and laws and apply it into life, which is why he said, "...the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life."
Mark Warbinek
