Robert E Rasmussen.com

To believe in God as He presents Himself in the Bible is an act not of understanding but of submission. Here is an odd way I came to see this more clearly…

On a lengthy plane ride not long ago, I had a good conversation with a guy I now consider a friend. His name is Mohammed, not THE prophet of Islam, but a Muslim adherent. He and I, a follower of Jesus (Isa in the Qur’an) had a stimulating dialog about Isa and God being one.

When we think of God using only our limited minds, we cannot fathom Him. But “God is the greatest” (Allah Akbar) and of another kind than us, so we should not be surprised that we cannot fully understand Him. That is why Jesus had to come to earth. He revealed Himself and the Father and the Holy Spirit. God is so great that He has loving fellowship eternally within Himself, three persons, each divine, together one God. To believe in this Tri-une (three-in-one) God, accepting Him as one yet three, requires faith beyond knowledge. Even to believe in God as He presents Himself in the Bible is an act not of understanding but of submission (Submission is the first pillar of Islam, and an expression of Love in the Bible).

Here is what my friend Mohammed helped me to see. If I say God cannot be three but must only be one, then I am insisting that God conform to my requirements. After all, a God who is strictly one is acceptable to my way of thinking. Conversely, I can understand there being three Gods, for I can then merely set the three in a row and pray to each of them according to their preferences. Hindus make this system work for 330 million gods, so the multiplicity of gods is acceptable to the human brain.

So the mind readily understands one God, three gods, or millions of them. These concepts do not require a submission of my heart and mind to a reality I cannot comprehend. No, they are very palatable to my natural way of thinking.

Only the God of the Bible asks me to surrender my heart and mind to the highest concept of God, one that rises above human understanding, and asks me to accept God as He is, not as I define or understand Him. Yes, even the belief in such a God, three in one, is a profound act of faith which is the first step in pleasing Him, and the first step in receiving all the benefits of knowing Him forever. For He invites us to join the loving fellowship within Himself for all time and eternity, not as gods ourselves, but as sons and daughters who inherit His Kingdom and worship Him forever.

[Picture attribution: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/]

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It was on our last day of meetings in Ethiopia that I had an experience I will never forget. During our closing prayer time, all the church leaders were praying and we who had come from the States to teach were moving among them laying hands on them and praying for them individually. The day fell on my father’s birthday and I had been mindful of his legacy on my life all day, especially since I was in Africa teaching the Word of God, two ways in which my life intersects so deeply with my dad who passed away two years ago.

So I was praying for men one by one as I moved from the back of the sanctuary when I came to an older man praying to himself. I laid my hands on his shoulders from behind and suddenly a strange sensation came over me. In my mind, I felt as if I was praying for my own father. Emotion began to well up within me as I suddenly missed dad so much. I prayed for the Ethiopian man, for his family and ministry. It was cathartic as I felt like I was being given a chance to touch my dad and pray for him. The experience seemed to transpire somewhere between earth and heaven. I even prayed that this man would greet my dad in heaven when they were both there together!

After this, I needed to move on to pray for others. Tears were now flowing, and I wanted to hug this man. I needed to hug him, and when I did, I wept like a child, tears running down my face, my body jerking slightly with crying. We held each other for a couple minutes, tightly. He knew I was weeping, and began to pray for me in English. I’m sure he wondered why this guest speaker from America was so emotional! But I felt God was strongly in that episode, and gave me a gift to treasure.

When our team had finished praying for all the participants, we took our  seats again and the chairman asked some of the Ethiopians to come up and lay their hands on us and pray. Several did this, and it was a great encouragement as I sought to regain my composure. But God had a double blessing for me. I heard that familiar voice, and felt on my shoulder and arm the hands of that same older man who had made his way from the back to touch my life one last time. When he finished praying, I placed my hand on his and squeezed my profound thanks for the unexpected gift God had given me, His son, in Ethiopia.