What Does God Want?: The Pursuit for Unbroken Communion

Ever wondered about the divine blueprint for humanity and our place within it? This episode, inspired by Dr. Michael Heiser's profound insights, peels back the layers of ancient scripture to reveal a narrative that stretches from the dawn of time to an Edenic future. We're not just walking through a historical gallery; we're entering a living story where tabernacles and temples symbolize a deeper yearning – God’s pursuit to reside with us. Through the lens of Heiser's "What Does God Want?" we examine the transformative power of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, unlocking a direct, unbroken communion with the Creator.

This episode is a call to realign our self-perception with how the Almighty views us, simplifying our lives to focus on what truly matters. We invite you to lean in, share your thoughts, and join us on this heartfelt journey to comprehend and embrace the ultimate relationship that God offers each one of us.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

If you're like me, there came a point in your life, or there will come a point in your life, where you ask one of two questions. Number one is what is my purpose in life? And number two is what does God want from me? So today I'm going to kind of cover that question or try to answer that question for some of us, what does God want from us? This fundamental question has driven humankind for millennia as we seek meaning and purpose in our life. And if you listened to the last episode, I spoke about one of my favorite biblical scholars, dr Michael Heiser, and in this episode we're going to kind of talk a little bit about another one of his books, which is has the same title what does God want from us? And I love the way he lays everything out. So he really tackles this question head on and he provides insights into God's nature and his will, which ultimately, once you find that out, you'll find out what is it that he really wants out of our lives. So grab your notebook, grab your cup of coffee or a cup of tea, get relaxed and even grab your Bible. We are going to get right into it.

Speaker 1: 1:47

So in the last episode I gave a quick introduction on Dr Heiser. If you didn't get a chance to listen to that, I'm just going to do a quick background. So he is an academic biblical scholar, was a professor and also worked for the logos app that company that created the all these logos tools. That has helped a lot of pastors, ministers, professors, experts in biblical study they provide. If you have gotten that tool, it has just all kinds of Bibles and all that stuff. So he worked for them and as an academic expert in ancient languages and biblical theology, you know Heiser is uniquely qualified to explore a lot of these topics and he usually gives a just a basic knowledge of ancient languages, culture, understanding, communication, all of that stuff so that we can understand the mindset of the writers in the Bible. So we know that the word of God is inspired by God. But we also have to remember when studying the Bible that these people lived in a completely different culture and time than we are living in today. So when they're speaking about certain things, certain events, when they are using certain types of languages, they are doing that through their point of view. So the lessons themselves are universal. They live on their living because the word of God is living and they apply to us today. In order to understand the original meaning, we have to understand their language and their culture, of just all these Bible characters, these people who wrote the Bible. So by examining key Hebrew and Greek words and passages, heiser unveils a pattern through Scripture, revealing God's ultimate purpose.

Speaker 1: 4:04

So the recreation and restoration of Eden on a universal scale is the overall theme Heiser is saying of the Bible. Height and REVIL are the twoMarkos of God. So the ultimate purpose of of God creating man and and and going through the flood situation and all the sacrifices and the tabernacle, and God calling us to him and and Calling Israel to him and loving them and getting mad at them, and that just back and forth relationship leading up to Jesus Coming on to the scene and dying on across all of that, all of that culminates Into the fact that God wants to restore that utopia of Eden. God wants to dwell with us as he wants to dwell with Adam and Eve in this perfect World, because when God made the world it was perfect, right and in his relationship with Adam and Eve was Perfect in the beginning. So the whole theme of the Bible and every act that he does is Coming out of love because he loves us.

Speaker 1: 5:23

So Heiser explains how the tabernacle and temples of the Old Testament point toward this truth that God wants to restore that Edenic relationship, right? So these structures, the the temple, moses's temple, davids or Solomon's temple, depending on you, know who you're talking to. These structures were designed as the habitation of God's presence on earth. So if you're familiar with the Bible, you would know that, okay, god met the people in the tabernacle in the Old Testament. So he would go into the holy of holies and the priest would actually go in there and do the sacrifices and and there was a whole ceremonial thing that they had to do in order to Invite the presence of God to meet them there so they can hear from God. So Through them, through these, these, these structures and all the rituals, god sought to live among his people on her, on earth.

Speaker 1: 6:30

So it wasn't like, okay, after Adam and Eve sinned, or even after the flood Happened and kind of wiped everybody out, god was like, okay, I'm done, I don't want to deal with these people anymore. Even after all of that, he still wanted to dwell among us, but then is always continuously blocking God's presence. Right, and that is what Necessitated Christ redemptive work. So now, after Christ, jesus Christ comes on earth, you know God in flesh he comes, he sacrifices his life. Now, through faith in that sacrifice, god can finally have an unbroken dwelling With people through the gift of the Holy Spirit. So we don't have to go through all those rituals anymore, crunch country to to to most belief. You know, we don't have to go through a priest to meet or converse with God. We can do that Directly through the gift of the Holy Spirit. So the almighty, sovereign God humbled himself To be like us, walk with us, talk with us and die a and excruciating death so that he can be among us, so that he can fellowship with us, he can love us, we can talk to him, we can just have that one-on-one, true, pure relationship with him. So he wants to live with us forever. He does not want to leave us, he does not want to forsake us. He said actually that he will never leave us or forsake us, and the Holy Spirit he's sending to be our comforter. So now the Holy Spirit is our guide, he helps us to even communicate with God so that we can always be in fellowship With him. So he's done all of that right.

Speaker 1: 8:24

There are so many other choices, of which most of us would have taken if put in the situation where we have to sacrifice our life for people that didn't really even want to Be around us or commune with us or anything. Because technically you know the, the Hebrews, israelites there was like this constant rejection of God. There was this constant back, a fourth of yes, we will follow you, lord, yes, we will follow you, yes, we will obey, and then, when trouble came, they would run off to worship other gods. So there was this constant Just to mulcher what's relationship that they had with him. But he still reached out, still to the point of dying on a cross, which shows his love for us. But if you really sit back and think about it, you know that really just shows God's love, that he would die. He would die for us.

Speaker 1: 9:21

So let's get into a, the, the, the topic of. Okay, let's explore a little bit about what, what God, what else God may want from us outside of that relationship. What else does God want? So hyzer analyzes the intriguing divine counsel described in certain Old Testament passages, and if you listen to the last episode, I go a little bit more into that. So this group of spiritual beings, this divine counsel, thirst and Carries out God's will in the heavenly realm. So last time we talked about them as the sons of God, right? So the divine counsel is covered extensively in hyzer's book the unseen realm. If you go to Stacy Camille calm, I have a link there in the show notes where you can Directly get that book. I'm telling you it will change your view of just a Lot of things. Okay, it's, it's a really wonderful scholarly work.

Speaker 1: 10:26

So In this book hyzer posits that these sons of God are spiritual Beings and they operate like a well organized celestial army fulfilling God's purpose under his Authority. So these are not other gods that sit beside Yahweh, the supreme God, and they're all working together to you know, to do God's will. No, no, no, it's. God is a supreme authority and these sons of God, these spiritual beings, angels and other beings that God has created, they all work together Cohesively to execute the will of God. So God makes the final decision. He is supreme overall, but he does have this spiritual Kingdom that exists that do his bidding his will so astoundingly has.

Speaker 1: 11:23

Hyzer suggests that God is now drafting believers in Christ Into his imperial hive through in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. So when you receive salvation, repentance, baptism in the name of Jesus Christ and you receive the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues, now you are a part of this Kingdom. Okay, and now your job is to execute God's will on earth so, as his divine counsel Mediated his will in the spiritual realm, god wants Christians to represent him and carrying out his will on earth. So we have. God wants to have a relationship with us. He wants us to have that perfect relationship commune with us through the Holy Spirit and he has given us these assailants that we need to execute on earth. All of that is done through Obedience and we need to always be connected with him in order to know what is his will, so that we can execute that Right. So the mission behind our existence let's cover that.

Speaker 1: 12:33

So what is God's will that he wants to accomplish? What is that? Number one is the proclamation of God's glory and name across the earth, make his name famous. Okay, we are to preach the gospel. If you look into the New Testament, paul talks a lot about spreading the good news, spreading the gospel, talking about salvation, getting people to believe, winning souls to Christ, right. So we must proclaim his glory, his name Right. Number two, the redemption and salvation of humankind from sin and death we talked about that. Number three, the restoration of God's reign over the whole earth. And number four, the dwelling of God with his people in the new Eden. Revelation has talked about the new Jerusalem Right. So we will be resurrected and we will meet him in the air, but we will come back with him to earth to reign and to judge. So all four of these points align with God's original purpose for humanity to bear his image by reflecting who he is. We are to reflect Christ here on earth. So this constitutes the mission behind our very existence. We exist to bear his image. As we walk in relationship with God, we will intuitively advance these purposes, his purposes and everything that he wants to achieve. Alright.

Speaker 1: 14:15

So in a time when many question traditional faith, I want to say that Heiser's academic expertise kind of lends a rare credibility. It all helps. It helped me at least, line up everything perfectly and gave me a clear vision as to what my purpose is on earth. So there's not this shifting with every wind and doctrine. It really affirmed what I already believed. So, like I said, this book in particular what does God want? It really represents a must read volume. I don't promote many books or many authors because sometimes they'll have like one point that's like really really good and the rest of the book kind of just goes off into the abyss. But this was a really solid work. So again, I'm promoting that. Check it out.

Speaker 1: 15:16

You know, this book really makes clear what God wants is relationship. He wants relationship, not rules to be followed, not traditions to be followed. Even it really does align with the Bible, because there is many times, there were many times, that God told his people okay, I gave you these rituals and these laws for you to follow so that you don't end up being like the other nations, so that you will be in line with what I want you to do, you will be in line with my will. But you've taken these rules and these rituals way too far. Now the rules have become your God right, so you know you can sacrifice all day long, but your hearts are not right. There are many times in the book of the prophets where he's spoken to the people about their acts. Okay, they follow all these rules, but their hearts just were way off. So the point is, if you're doing all of these things, and I'm gonna say it, especially Apistols.

Speaker 1: 16:26

You're wearing your, you know ladies wear skirts all the way down to the ground and you know your neck is covered. You even wear gloves and boots, whatever it is, to cover up yourself. But you're a gossip. You're contentious, you're filled with jealousy and envy. You're clicky, you know you talk about people. You're not very friendly, guess what. You're out of line with God's will, because that's not how you should treat other people. Now I say that to say that type of behavior does not Help build relationships with God's people and it does not build relation. It doesn't help you build a relationship with God or allow God to have a relationship with you, because you're living the way that you want to live and not necessarily how God wants you to live.

Speaker 1: 17:18

And I've seen it myself. Churches have. You know they start out right, everybody's friendly, everybody's great, everybody Loves you, but then eventually they become a club where you have these little cliques. And you know you're, you're not from where I'm from, or I have a apostolic heritage, quote-unquote but you don't. So you go sit over there and I sit over here, or I'm a minister now so I cannot, you know, interact with you, or I don't say hello to you just all kind of weird human behavior. That is so that contradicts what, how the Bible says that the church should be. We don't look Like the biblical church, so it's just a weird thing. And when you don't look like the bride of Christ, he's not going to have that relationship with you. It's, it's. It's so black and white point blend period. So Let me get off my soapbox and just let you know that Clearly, clearly.

Speaker 1: 18:19

God does all these things. He did all of those acts dying on the cross, constantly calling out to us, constantly giving us his Holy Spirit in dwelling in us so that he can have a relationship With us. He wants to restore the intimate fellowship with humanity that was forfeited after eating Through Christ. God empowers us to partner with him in transforming the world to reflect his ideals. Right, that is our job. That is why we exist. So embracing this divine calling gives our lives deeper Meaning and direction. That is what we're here to do.

Speaker 1: 19:07

So the bottom line what does God wants more than anything? God wants you, god wants me. Okay, simple as that. Simple as that. I hope this was helpful. I Know sometimes, when things are too simple, explanations are too simple, that we. We have a hard time accepting that because we want to over complicate things as humans. But a lot of times it's just simple as black and white. It's just simple as black and white, and this is just one of those times. Once you accept that and absorb that, then everything else will become clear, because you'll let go of all the other distractions to building that relationship with God.

Speaker 1: 20:02

And Let me just say this your next question might be well, why would God want to have a relationship with somebody like me? See that, that, that little statement right there, somebody like that is Coming from a world Carnal type of view that is not God's view. So when you Find yourself saying that phrase in your head somebody like me that is you judging yourself or you accepting the judgment of the world or the enemy getting in your head. It's not about who you are, it's about who God wants you to be, who God has made you. And if you are obedient to his will, he will transform you. And if you are saved already, if you receive salvation, he has already started that transformation. So you just need to be in alignment and and ask God to change your vision, your view of yourself, so that you can see yourself like he sees you and focus on building Relationship with him, as opposed to being what others want you to be or what you think others want you to be. It makes your life a whole lot simpler.

Speaker 1: 21:19

I hope this was helpful. This should be Really good Valentine's Day episode for you. Love yourself because God loves you. If you haven't already check out the other Episodes in the podcast, I have more coming because, of course, I'm getting into a lot more Community work and and and ministry work, so I'm gonna share those things with you in the future. But please share this podcast. Share the link on your social media platforms, please like and subscribe. I would really really appreciate that. And if you would like share your opinion of these episodes are they helping you or they not check me out on Twitter? Send me a DM. I will definitely respond. God bless you. Have a great week. I.