Becoming One With God

“Learn to love God first.  Being single with God is learning to become one with God and essentially that’s what marriage is too. The two shall become one flesh,” (Genesis 2:24). This is the final quote from a video I saw on Youtube called “Don’t Waste Your Singleness” by Joe Solomon.  I watched this video before preparing to go bed and the becoming one with God is the part of the video that really stuck with me. And I began to wonder how this is possible. So I’m slipping into bed, I’m like its late, time to get some rest and God would not let me go to sleep and He begins to show me how…He shows me how to become one with Him and how it is very much the same as a married couple would become one. When you are one with someone you are existing, acting or considered a single unit, entity, or individual (In this case I am referring to the first two). I’m just going to dive in...

I thought this was a given, but I am going to include it anyways. Before you can become one with God, you have to accept His proposal. He desires a committed relationship with you. You accept His proposal when confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and then you are saved (Romans 10:9) and have entered in to a relationship with God. Now, here is what God showed me…How to become one with God.

1.      Expose Yourself Completely. Bring all your mess to the table. No secrets! A couple weeks ago I was having Quiet Time and I was reading and studying in the book of Genesis chapter 2 verse 25, which says, “Now the man and his wife were both naked but they felt no shame.” I have an NLT Life Application Study Bible and the commentary for this verse straight went in! I’m just going to summarize it, for the entire quote, check out the picture below. My bible started off by talking about how innocent children are to nakedness; they feel no shame. It goes on to say this was how Adam and Eve were before they sinned. But after they sinned they felt shame and awkwardness and this in turn created barriers between them and God. They even had a physical barrier they created to hide themselves in fig leaves. The commentary then talked about how ideally there should be no barriers in marriage but barriers are often experienced in marriages. After reading that commentary God hit me with this, “Have you exposed yourself completely to me or do you still have on your fig leaves?!?” #completelywrecked We can never become one with God if we refuse to show Him all of us and insist on hiding those parts of us we are to ashamed to show Him. My older sister and my brother-in-law told me once that when they got engaged they sat down with one another and put everything on the table. They discussed their debt, the credit scores, etc. They put everything out there so they could prepare for their life together and so there would be no secrets between them and no surprises down the road. God is saying that if we want to be one with Him, we have to expose ourselves completely to Him and stop hiding, and to come to Him with everything out in the open. He is saying show me every compartment of your heart, bring me your impure thoughts. He knows that we hide because we feel shame and we don’t want Him to see this ugly part of us, but He is the only one that can clean us up. Also remember that He makes all things new y’all (II Corinthians 5:17). Let Him create within you a clean heart (Psalm 51:10), and allow Him to renew your mind (Romans 12:2) and change your way of thinking. But for him to make us new and clean, for Him to transform us we have to expose ourselves completely to Him. And this in turn also brings us closer to Him and to becoming one with Him.

2.      Stop Operating As If You Are Independent And Submit. So this one has two parts. I’m gonna start with the first part…When you are independent you are not influenced or controlled by others in matters of opinion, conduct, etc., you are doing the exact opposite, you are thinking or acting for oneself. You can never become one with God if you continue to operate as if it’s just you and there is absolutely no consideration or consultation of God. His opinion is of little importance to you and you just act based on what you think and what you feel. You are concerned with your will, not God’s will for your life. To become one with God we have to live by Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do and he will show you which path to take.” King Solomon is clearly trying to impart some wisdom into us. Stop depending on yourself and what you think you understand and seek God’s will in all that you do. If you were married or are married it just wouldn’t work if one of you insisted on acting as if you were still single…not consulting the other and just making decisions based on your preferences and not taking your spouse into consideration. The same is true if we desire to be one with God. We must submit. We must yield to God. We can’t be one with God if we have two different agendas.  You and God need to be on one accord.

3.      Communication and Quality Time. Communication is vital to any relationship. You commune with God through prayer. You can’t expect to be one with God if your prayer life is nonexistent! You must communicate with God and allow Him the opportunity to speak to you. Prayer is not a monologue, it’s a dialogue. A huge part of communication is listening. You can’t hear God when you’re always the one talking. Sometimes you need to just be still and listen. Effective communication is a two-way street that leaves both feeling that they were heard. **Added bonus: You will never become one if the person you communicate the most with concerning your relationship is someone outside of your relationship (a third party). You have to talk to God. Quality time goes hand in hand with communication. You must spend time with someone if you are ever to become one with them. You can’t go days and weeks and months without spending quality time with God in prayer, bible study, praise & worship, etc. and then expect to be in a growing, thriving relationship with Him. Don’t deceive yourself. Time spent together is so important.

4.      Stick It Out. You and God have got to weather through some stuff together, some trials, some storms, some tribulations, some ups and some downs and you have to refuse to forsake Him because He will never forsake you. Instead of running away and abandoning God when things get hard, you have to choose to remain faithful. Divorce cannot be an option, if we are to become one and stay one. That door must be closed and in essence not even exist in your relationship. Situational changes shouldn’t pull you apart, but draw you closer to one another. There is nothing like those friends that have been with you through it all and have stuck with you and rocked with you through every season. They have simply been faithful and loyal to you. I have found that those are the people that I am the closest to. Here’s something to think about…Would God call you faithful?!? Is that a word He would use to describe you? That question stopped me in my tracks. I know for me that is something that I need to work on and I will get there with the help of God. But God showed me that if I can’t remain faithful to Him, what makes me think I’m ready to get married?!? If I can’t weather some storms with God, how can I possibly weather some storms with a husband?!? God is still molding, pruning, and shaping me y’all. God then showed me that for so many people, when it comes to marriage cheating is a deal breaker; it’s something they can’t get past. But how often do we cheat on God?!? We should work our hardest and call on God to help us to remain faithful and develop that characteristic within us.

5.      Let Go Of Lovers. Your lover, your sidechick, your lil boyfriend, your mistress, etc got to go! Who or what are your lovers you may ask? Your lovers are anything that rivals and competes for your attention and affection and hinders your relationship with God; they keep you from becoming one with God. Just like God instructs a husband to leave his mother and father and cleave to his wife (Genesis 2:24), you must leave to cleave. There are some things, people, behaviors, habits, etc you have to leave behind in order for your relationship with God to work and for the two of you to become one. You have to leave the things of this world behind and cleave to God. You can’t be joined to God if you refuse to let go and leave your sin behind. You can’t ever become one with God if the devil has custody of part of you. “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other…” (Matthew 6:24). I was having my Quiet Time when God smacked me in the face with this, “How can we be joined if polygamy is going on?!? How can we be joined solely to each other when there are third and fourth parties involved. Just look at the result of Jacob being married to both Rachel and Leah. Sisters became competitors and rivals, each desiring the love and attention and children of their husband Jacob (Genesis 30:1-24). There was no way for Jacob to ever be completely one with either of them because the other was always waiting in the wings.

Becoming one with God is possible, but it’s not something that will happen overnight, it comes with sticking with God through it all, the good, the bad, the hard, and the harder. I pray that this blessed you. I love you all so much! 

Mariah

P.S. I talk about my girl, Steffany Frizzell-Gretzinger all the time, so I decided to share some videos of her leading worship at Bethel Church. She is a true worshiper and she will have you on your face crying out to God and just worshiping Him!!! The first video is Stef singing Stronger and the second one is her singing Show Me Your Glory. Also be sure to more of Joe Solomon's videos on YouTube (His YouTube channel is Chasegodtv)! He is an awesome man of God! All is videos are based in the Word.