Innerspace

Back in 1987 a movie came out entitled Innerspace. It was so long ago that even Dennis Quaid was young.  In this movie scientists had figured out how to shrink a person and put them in another person's body for scientific research, etc.  The comic relief of this movie was Martin Short ingesting a micro-sized Dennis Quaid and going through a series of hilarious scenes where some bad guys were trying to kill Quaid.  One of the scenes that caught my eye the most was when Quaid's character ended up at the cerebral cortex of Martin Short's character and he started talking to him from his little micro ship.  It was really a cool concept that he could communicate with the guy's mind by being positioned in an area where communication was possible.  He was in Innerspace!!  He could actually tell him where to go and what to do while in this area of the body and Short's character's steps were being guided by Quaid's instruction.  Is this new science to believers?  No!  We know all about communication on the inside and how God speaks to us through events, His Word, and impressions given to us by the Holy Spirit, who lives inside of us.  If you say this to an unbeliever they will look at you funny and say, "Yeah right!"  But we know that God communicates with us in our Innerspace and that the end result is Him leading us through the passages of life while He guides us.  If we were going to produce a movie that told how this happened it would probably be a little too anticlimactic for most.  In 1 Kings 19 the prophet Elijah found himself in what he thought was a tough spot.  He had just showed God's mighty power against the priests of Baal and God poured down power from heaven in an awesome way!!  He proceeded to kill all the priests of Baal after that great showing of God's Power and then it happened.  He started doubting God and became so afraid of Jezebel that he went and hid in the wilderness.  Now get this.  He had just called down fire from heaven and had slain the priests of Baal, and Jezebel threatens to do the same to him and he runs away scared?  Wow!  This is starting to sound like me from time to time.  I see God do something great and then doubt him in the smallest of things.   In 1 Kings 19:4, Elijah has run out into the wilderness and requested that he himself might die.  In fact he says to God, "It is enough; now, O Lord take my life, for I am not better than my fathers."  What did God do?  When Elijah went to sleep under a Juniper tree an angel touched him and told him to get up and eat and cooked some bread for him and had a jar of water also.  He ate and went back to sleep and then the angel touched him again and told him to get up and eat because the journey was going to be too great for him.  Elijah got up and ate and drank get this, "went in the strength of that food for forty days and nights and ended up at Horeb, the mountain of God.  Elijah went to a cave and camped there and God came to him and said in verse 9 "what are you doing here, Elijah?"  Elijah explained the whole thing to God and God told him to go stand on the mountain before the Lord.  Here's what happens next:  A great wind that was strong enough to break rocks came through, but the Lord wasn't in the wind, and after the wind a great earthquake, but God wasn't in the earthquake, and after the earthquake a fire, but God wasn't in the fire.  Then a gentle voice called out to Elijah and said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"  He told God the whole story again and God replied by saying for him to go and appoint Elisha as prophet to replace him.  It was from that moment on that Elisha ministered to Elijah.

How does God speak to us?  How does He communicate His will and His direction to us?  He speaks through His Word, and through the way He leads us in our prayer times.  When we grow closer to God through His Word we start to get impressions given to us by God and direction is also given with a spirit of discernment.  This spirit doesn't come immediately, but through time and growth in the Lord it does come to us and it is like an exercise for our senses.  The writer of Hebrews said in Chapter 5 verse 14, "But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."  That still, small voice that Elijah heard is the same voice that speaks to us today, not necessarily through wind, earthquakes, and fire, but through the perception that God gives us through the Holy Spirit.  It would stand to reason that if you want to hear that voice more and more, we all need to grow more and more closer to God so we can know when it is Him who is speaking.  Where does He speak?  In our Innerspace.  It's that place you cannot explain, but just know is there when He speaks.  It is a very individual and wonderful voice that you can never forget and long for day after day.  It is the voice of God!

Everything we are to do or be should come from who Christ is on our inside.  Our personal relationship with Him is just that...personal.  No one else has the same relationship, even though many parts of this relationship resemble what others have in their life.  But, once again, it is very personal to each of us.  Why did God minister to a running, scared Elijah?  Because he personally knew what Elijah needed and ministered to him at his core.  Do you have that kind of relationship with the Lord on the inside?  You can, and really, you must!  True victory on a daily basis in following God depends on it and the only way to it is through deepening your personal time with God.  You need to let Him get at your cerebral cortex and start telling you how to live your life and where to go in your service for Him.  If you will do this He will start to show you great and mighty things that you never thought possible and then He will build on that again and again until you recognize His voice, His gentle loving voice, every time.  Let Him get in your Innerspace today and start listening.  He's speaking, but perhaps your ear volume is just turned down.  He is speaking so we can speak to others as well.  1 Thessalonians 2:4  But as we have been approved by God, to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who test our hearts."  Allow God to speak to your heart from that personal relationship with Him and then speak His truth to others.  It's amazing how much God wants to speak to children, but His children need to have our ears tuned in so we can hear Him.

The Pilgrimage continues.....

David Warren