Scripture: 2 Corinthians 3: 11, 16-18, Luke 15:11-32 (emphasis on 29-32)
In Genesis 1: 26, God made the decision to create man in his image and likeness. The rationale behind this creation was so that man will be with him and spend time with him. It was for relationship that he designed man, and the goal was so that man will resemble or look like him. However, the degree of this resemblance was to be determined by the quantum of time we spent in his presence and the understanding of our identity in him.
In Luke 15, we are told the story of two sons who were born to the same father, who was pleased to have them both and made all that he had available to them, even upon request. As the story progressed we see two sons who had no idea why their father was always willing to give of himself; we see a younger son who thought that being in his father’s image was so he could get what he wanted from his father’s treasury.
We also saw an older son and brother who even though he had the privilege of his father’s image, didn’t realise that it was meant to confer on him the audacity to be able to reach in and take whatever he wanted but more importantly; that face time was more about how he looked than what he got.
As I meditated on the story about the sons, I began to realise how everything we do is hinged on; first who we think we are and secondly whose we realise we are. I find that once we are able to settle our identity issues and we take being in God’s images seriously; we begin to see that the relationship confers on us the authority to carry God’s enduring glory wherever we go.
However, let’s define AUDACITY; what is it?
Audacity is extraordinary boldness, a willingness to challenge assumptions or convention. Audacity is impudence – lack of respect in somebody’s behaviour toward another person.
So what can we learn from the two sons?
- The younger son first displayed the audacity that manifested as impudence. He woke up one day and asked his father for a third of his assets. He asked for his inheritance; what could have come to him upon his father’s death. He wasn’t willing to wait for his turn, and this kind of request takes extraordinary boldness to make. However, it was also grossly disrespectful of his father’s personality and all he had worked for.
- Upon receiving his share, he set out and blew it all on ‘riotous living’. What do I see here; I see how when we become Christians we are quickly taught the power of prayer and how we can use it to receive stuff from God. However, those who teach us forget to let us know that the greater power isn’t in the things we take as much as it is in the relationship we develop. This son had done a bit, but he doesn’t realise the purpose of the time he had with his father and uses it instead to get what he wanted.
- Upon squandering his inheritance and falling upon hard times, we find that he is unable to get even the most basic kind of treatment that he would have received had he remained within the confines of his relationship with his father. No one paid him heed, and no one cared enough to be able to replenish what he had lost. Every time we take from our father God and stray into the world, and what it holds, we lose the ability to sustain our inheritance. The world has no idea how to handle spiritual placements and allocations. Consequently, we are bound to lose all we received.
- Coming to this realisation, the son decides to return to his father. He now recognises the importance of remaining where he has access. His eyes open to the fact that he will be received as long as he was home; regardless of how low he has sunk. Spending time in the Presence is the opportunity we have to come home and tap into heavenly realities that mirror our true identity and reality in time.
- It turns out that all this while he was away the father was waiting for him, longing and pining for him to return. He stationed himself at a window watching for hisreturn. Upon sighting him from a distance, he quickly takes him in and begins a party to acknowledge his return and express both his relief and the importance of his son’s return home. Irrespective of what we have taken and wasted, our father still awaits us and will receive us in style as long as we are willing to return.
- Then there was the older son, who never abused the audacity, but also never explored it. He remained home all that time, and had unlimited access to his father but somehow never realised to what end he had the opportunity of time with his father. We also can be like the older son; we have authority to speak and decree, to handle serpents and drink poisons. We have the audacity to order and reorder life around us to align with God’s perspective, to bring down his glory but we have no idea how powerful we can be so we sit down and do nothing with the authority and audacity conferred on us.
The essence of this article isn’t to bore you with a message you have heard so many times in the past. Instead, it is a call for us to consider how we deploy the power we receive in the relationship we have with God.
It is a call to look deeply again at how we spend time with him, to recognise the importance of that time we spend but more importantly, it is a call for us to realign, double our effort re-time we spend in his presence and consequently deploy our power in the right direction, to transform us to look like him, and to become change agents upon the face of the earth.
The thrust of this message is to point out the benefits of remaining in God’s image via dwelling in His Presence and to remind us to utilise the opportunity well; as we should every other spiritual advantage that we have. Those who understand the power in spending time with God have gone on to do great things and are still pushing wondrous works.
The kingdom is not about meat; it is about a demonstration of the power of God. In this season more than ever before, people need to begin to see signs and wonder to believe. The responsibility lies with us to bring this power to the fore, but as long as we misunderstand why we need the power even when we get it we will deploy it for those things that do not endure.
Spending time with God is not so we can get inheritances that we can squander it is so we can put the glory of our God and father on display. It is so we can point others to the love, security and power available to them in God.
Dwelling in the presence is the ability to get with God in secret to display his power in the open that the world may know that our God truly is a great God.
Do you know who you are? Do you know that whatever you have now, you are better than? God’s best for you does not compare to anything you have ever seen or experienced.
The younger son came to this realisation at some point in his journey, and he did the most sensible thing – a turnaround; back to his father and his source. Note that when he returned his father gave him the following things:
- Royal robes. A validation of his true identity and greatness.
- A signet ring – stamp of authority
- Sandals – the authorisation to go forth and make disciples of others.
Then the best livestock was slaughtered so that a celebratory party was held in his honour.
Every time we recognise the place of our God, and we return, he restores us to a place of honour higher than we could ever have gotten by ourselves. All of this is birth on the foundation of spending quality time in God’s presence.
Tell me, how long has it been since you stepped into the Presence?