He doesn't act like that, does He?

I got this this morning in my email. It was right up my alley at this time in my life. There is a door that has been opened just a crack. And the colors and music that are coming out, are the most amazing things I have ever seen or heard. From the darkened room, that I have sat in for years, I find this new wonder draws me in ways I don't always understand. Sometimes fear keeps me from going to the door and throwing it wide open. One day it will be opened all the way. Until then I will try and not limit what lies on the other side because of my limited sight. Let's not put Him in a box.

Changing Our Paradigm of Experience

TGIF Today God Is First, by Os Hillman

So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight-why the bush does not burn up." - Exodus 3:3

Have you ever heard someone say, "God doesn't work that way? He would never do that." Well, there are times when God chooses to confound the foolish in order to change our paradigm of experience. Moses had never seen a bush that burned but did not burn up. It got his attention and it drew him to God.

When Jesus appeared on the water in the middle of the night during a storm, the disciples exclaimed, "It's a ghost!" They had never seen a man walk on water. This led to a great miracle--Peter walked on the water, too. When Jesus asked Peter to catch a fish and get the coin from its mouth to pay their taxes, you can imagine what Peter must have thought about those instructions. When Moses got to the Red Sea, he ran out of options. God had an unexpected solution to the Israelites' problem--He parted the Red Sea to demonstrate His power and allow the people of Israel to cross over to flee the Egyptian army.

Each of these new paradigms was a stepping-stone of an encounter with God so that the individual would experience God in a new way. God used these times to enforce the principle that His ways are not our ways. Whenever we try to predict that God will act in a certain way, He changes the paradigm to keep us from becoming our own little gods.

Have you ever been guilty of judging someone for an experience they've had that you've never had? Did you dismiss it as extreme or something not of God? God is in the business of changing our paradigm from no personal experiences to God-experiences. However, if you operate on a level of rigid logic, you may never have the privilege of having the God-experiences. Keep your heart free to experience new paradigms with God today.