God’s Three Questions
There are three questions that God is consistently asking us. Each question acts as a gateway to the next, and the answers to these questions bring us to breakthrough and blessing in our lives. Christian life is a process. Following Christ is a journey. God uses these questions to get us through challenges, help us grow and move us from place to place. As such, we need to be happy when we face challenges and see it as an opportunity to grow in God.
God does not respond to our needs. He responds to the faith we have inside us that God will help us overcome our needs. Even in a place of blessing there will be pitfalls and obstacles (i.e. consider the serpent in the Garden of Eden). There will be things that can cause us to backslide when we aren’t managing our lives and seeing into the future - seeing through God’s eyes and with vision.
There are times in our lives when we face things that cause us to backslide and pull away from God’s presence. When God speaks to us in these times, He gives us a pathway to come back to Him and come back into the right. When we do something wrong, God doesn’t hide Himself from us: we hide ourselves from Him. The three questions take us on the path back to Him.
Question 1: Where are you?
Genesis 3:1 - In that moment, we need to choose to hear God, move toward Him, and overcome the things that are holding us back. We need to respond “I am here Lord. This is where I am.” Once we open our hearts and hear Him, we move to the next level.
Question 2: What do you see?
We need to choose very carefully what we can see with the eyes of our spirit. We need to choose to look higher and see things as God sees them. We need to choose to see above and beyond our problems, circumstances or where we are right now. We need to look to the future, have vision and see breakthrough. We can’t be shortsighted and focus on the present. We have to keep moving and see a goal. Have a vision. See the vision and run to it. As God said to Ezekiel: “Can you see these bones live?” In other words, what do you see for your life? Do you see things changing? If you don’t see change, it will never come. A vision in our heart of where we are going will give us the power to keep moving.
Question 3: “What do you want?”
Story of Bartimaeus (the blind beggar) - Jesus said to the blind man, “What do you want me to do for you?” When Bartimaeus heard the sound of Jesus’ voice, he cried out to Him for help. Although it may have seemed obvious what His need was, Jesus still wanted Him to speak it. Jesus said to him, “Get up and throw off your cloak.” This cloak was the mark of a beggar, and symbolic of his life and circumstances. Jesus told him to throw it off - shed it. Are you hiding from God? Are you connected with God? Throw off the covering that is hiding you - hiding what is inside. Stop hiding from God and others. Make the decision to change by throwing off your covering. Make a decision to move forward - move away from it. Your need is not the obvious motivating factor to God in your life. He wants us to identify our needs and make a decision to overcome them. The only limiting factor in this situation is our response to God’s question. Are we going to step out in faith into something bigger than ourselves? Or are we going to stay focused on what we see around us? There is no restriction in God. It’s all about faith.
Where are you?: What’s going on?
What do you see?: Do you have a dream for your life?
What do you want?: Do you have the faith to believe in something big?
