Knowing who you are hinges on knowing whose you are

If you are anything like me, you grew up in a tongue talkin’, bible believin’ church that was all about experience and little to no focus on theology. I remember being told and believing that theology would lead to a “pharisaical spirit” because knowledge puffs up, so expertise is terrible. Know, that being said, I do believe that knowledge without experience is awful, but it is by no means worse than experience without knowledge.

The truth is we all have a theology; sinners and saints alike all have a belief of who God is, what he is like, and so on. Whether our theology is good or not, it is nonetheless theology.

Who you believe God is, is the foundation for your spiritual life and will ultimately determine what kind of Christian you will be. I felt for years that God is a good God and that he performed miracles and the cool stuff you hear of him doing, but I also saw him as distant and as a God that withholds. I knew he loved me, but whether or not he liked me was up for debate; that was my theology in a nutshell, “ God is good but not to me.” That was the lens through which I viewed everything in scripture. So my Doctrine was tainted.

 It wasn’t till I experienced God as he truly is that I was able to see myself as he truly sees me. I didn’t know myself until I met him. And it is from there that I began to see the freedom I was aiming at, and the funny thing is I started to aim at the relationship, and from there, the release came. We love him because he first loved us. Or in other words, because I know he truly loves me, I feel free to love him back.

Now it isn’t about rules to follow. It so much more than that; holiness is achieved not by aiming at purity; it comes from a place of an authentic relationship with Abba. He loves the hell out of me daily.

So having good theology is the foundation for the right relationship (righteousness) with Abba. Knowledge without relationship leads to the futility of religious duty, the fruit of which is the fear of not be good enough (Romans 8:15). Aim for a relationship with Abba, and you will inherit the holiness you have strived for but never could achieve.