Underestimating God

The human mind cannot fully contain or understand the greatness of God. Believers and unbelievers both have this disability. Unbelievers underestimate Him to a far greater degree and they do not even know that they do it. When God converts an unbeliever into a believer he gives them an eye-opening in which He removes a smidgen of their ignorance. As they grow the Lord removes smidgen after smidgen of their ignorance.

Isaiah 28:10: For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:

Jesus described the condition of unbelievers as spiritually blind.

John 3:3: Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

The phrase he cannot see establishes the fact of some kind of blindness. The phrase the kingdom of God establishes that he is blind to a very specific thing. We have probably all met people who are color blind and some who are only blind to certain colors.

John 3:5: Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

The pitiful once-born blind man cannot see NOR enter the kingdom of God. The greatness of God is visible from within His kingdom in ways that it is not visible outside of it.

Luke 17:21: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

Alas! Not only can the pitiful blind man not see the kingdom of God from the outside or the inside, but he cannot see it within the believers around him. Unbelievers cannot accurately estimate something that they cannot see.

The eyesight of a newborn baby is not unlike the spiritual sight of a newborn Christian. When he has been born he can see things that he could not see before. But at first he doesn*t understand what it is that he sees. After a few decades of seeing he understands what he sees a lot better. That is much like the process that the born-again go through. Even the spiritual vision of the born again will be somewhat blurred until they go to heaven. We are helped if we look at everything through the lens of the Bible.

1 Corinthians 13:12: For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

Even though Christians see through a glass darkly those of us who have personally experienced the miracle of the new birth have no excuse for underestimating God. We ought to be aware that God has made miraculous changes in our person and our lives. A genuine Christian will have experienced something like Oswald Chambers describes:

*Come unto Me.* The last thing we do is to come; but everyone who does come knows that that second the supernatural rush of the life of God invades him instantly. The dominating power of the world, the flesh and the devil is paralyzed, not by your act, but because your act has linked you on to God and His redemptive power.

Our underestimating God will be proportionate to an undersized faith in Him, an underdeveloped ability to worship Him and unfulfilled enjoyment of Him. His power will be proportionately less apparent and available to us and we will be proportionately weak and runty instead of strong full-grown Christians. By underestimating God we shoot ourselves in the foot. Our underestimating God is unbelief. It undermines His work for us, in us, through us and around us.

Matthew 13:58: And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.

We need a God who is immeasurably greater than we can understand. Halleluja!!! We have such a God!!!!

Ephesians 3:20-21: Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

Isaiah 55:9: For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Romans 11:33: O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

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