Living with a value for God’s presence
Sociologically, a value is the "ideals, custom, institutions, etc., of a society toward which the people of the group have an affective regard. These values may be positive, as cleanliness, freedom, or education, or negative, as cruelty, crime, or blasphemy." [1] Ethically, a value is "any object or quality desirable as a means or as an end in itself." [1]
Everyone has a set of values (sometimes most easily discovered by the intensity of our emotions or need). An important question to consider is, have I named my values? Have I thought about what ideals are essential to me and what positive or negative effects they have upon me and others? What values are desirable both as a means to a life of significance and as an end in itself? What core attributes are essential to me, my family, my profession, and my calling? Core values serve as an objective third party designed to hold everyone accountable for a way of thinking and being. For example, when we examine the life of Jesus, His teachings, and repeated themes, we discover many of his values, such as love (of God, self, others, enemies), generosity, faith, obedience, abiding, etc.
From the beginning, we are created for intimacy because it’s the nature and love behavior of the Trinity. (Genesis 1:26-28). We govern, live, and lead from the place of love. It determines the quality of our responsibility because love is the highest motivation. Fast Forward to the days of Moses, we find him encountering the glory of God and asking for His presence to continue to go with them. God's presence is goodness and fullness of joy (Exodus 33:12). Fast Forward even further to the days of Kings and Judges, and we find Israel’s greatest King, the man of authority and power, known for bloodshed, extravagant worship, adultery, etc., crying for ONE THING, “to gaze, to seek and to behold” (Psalm 27:4). Go more forward several hundred years to the days of Jesus. Challenged by the law experts, they ask Jesus what the Greatest Commandment is. Jesus says it is to love God and others as you love yourself (Matthew 22:34). We find Jesus articulating his role in establishing a new lifestyle, the abiding life. We are in Him, and He is in us. His word is in us, making us clean (John 15). John repeatedly said that when we see Him, we see the Father. He is the exact representation of the Father (Hebrews 1:3). The role of the Holy Spirit, found in John 14-16, is to awaken us to our position as Sons and Daughters of God. With a relational inheritance, we no longer live as enslaved people but as children of God (Romans 8:15-17, Galatians 4:4-7).
In summary, the role of the Father is to reconcile us to live in intimacy with Him. The role of the Son is to save us and model a life of intimacy with God. The role of the Spirit is to awaken our dead spirits, baptize us in Christ, and guide us into the truth of the new life as sons and daughters in the Kingdom. God will transform us through the Spirit of wisdom and revelation to reveal God's love. He empowers us to live as adopted sons and daughters of God with the capacity to disciple and reproduce this Kingdom life. Let’s live a life that demonstrates our unrelenting value for God’s presence.
[1] iPad App for Dictionary.com