Why God Doesn’t Just Show Up
Here’s Why God Doesn’t Just Let Us All See Him and Take Away the Faith Factor
God has some really good reasons for not showing up and letting us all see Him. In just a minute I’ll give you Three of them.
“I Looked and Looked but Didn’t See God”
In 1961 the Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin said after his return from space, “I looked and looked but I didn’t see God.”
Many God doubters have used similar logic to validate their unbelief. If I can’t see something, it must not exist. (*Funny that everyone, even scientists believe a lot of things that they cannot see: black energy, black matter for example).
Even as Jesus followers, I can’t imagine anyone not wondering at some point, “God, why don’t You just show up, let everyone see You so there would be overwhelming proof of your existence and everyone could receive your love and life?”
I know I used to wonder about it, but a while back I got some answers that solved this issue in my mind.
In short form, here are 3 of them.
- God Values Our Freedom.
You can’t read more than a few pages in the Bible to see how much God values freedom and the ability to make choices. After all, He put two trees right in the middle of the Garden of Eden and told Adam and Eve they could eat from every fruit bearing tree, just stay away from one of them.
Why would He put that forbidden tree in the paradise He gave that could ruin it all if eaten from? The only possible reason is because God values freedom more than pleasure and lack of pain. He gave them the choice of believing Him or not.
He knew we would blow it, but He still considered all the pain, suffering, and death that the ability to choose would cause ( the result of not believing His words, eating from the tree, and releasing the power of death in the world) of higher priority than unfree paradise.
And remember, His judgement is perfect and everything He does is out of love.
What does that have to do with Him staying invisible? C.S. Lewis said that if God showed up He would overwhelm us and take away our ability to choose Him or not. God is so big, glorious, majestic, powerful, and full of light that, in a sense, we would be forced to bow to Him.
But God is love. God knows that love cannot be forced and so in His love, He stays hidden for a time, to give us the freedom to choose Him or not.
2. God Wants Us To Learn Faith
Along with love and freedom, faith is one of THE MOST IMPORTANT virtues and values of God’s way of life.
Just about everything in God’s kingdom on earth functions through some expression of faith.
We are saved by faith in Jesus, not works. (Ephesians 2:10)
We receive answers to prayer by faith. (Mark 11:24)
All God’s promises are received by faith. (2 Corinthians 1:20)
We overcome the world by faith. (1 John 5:4)
We endure by faith. (Hebrews 11)
Page after page in Scripture, especially the New Testament emphasizes how important faith is in following Jesus.
Hebrews 11:6 even tells us that “without faith it is impossible to please God.”
We are by nature doubters.
Because we are all spiritual descendants of Adam, we are all natural “God doubters.” If we don’t doubt His existence, there is some aspect of following Him in which we do battle doubt. All of us battle itin some area of our lives.
How many times did Jesus call people, even His disciples, “you of little faith?” Why did He say that, because without connection to God, our level of faith is really, really small. All of us have to work through areas of doubt and unbelief on our journey.
But God wants us to learn how to live by faith (Romans 1:17) because faith in Him opens up the realm of His reality and power to us.
Faith is “the evidence of things hoped for, the conviction of things NOT SEEN.” Hebrews 11:1
God wants us to learn to live in another dimension beyond what we see with our physical eyes….that means learning to live by faith in Him and His words.
As we gradually learn to base our lives on Him and what He says, we progressively step into new dimensions that are not possible any other way.
Again, Jesus said things like….
“All things are possible with God” and “All things are possible to him who believes.”
If you believe what you say will come to pass and don’t doubt, you can move mountains with your words (Mark 11:23)
When we believe that Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead, we experience a spiritual rebirth and step into the new dimension of God’s kingdom.
God wants us to learn the invaluable lessons of living by faith and that is only possible when we do not physically see Him and rely on His words, His evidence, and His works in the earth.
We learn to walk by faith and not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7)
3. Seeing Does Not Always Lead to Believing
Seeing God would convince a lot of people that He exists (but not everyone). But believing He exists is not the main point. The book of James tells us even demons believe in God.
The point is connecting with God, receiving from Him, and loving Him back. That is what brings eternal, abundant life. Relationship with God is eternal life; not just believing He exists. (John 17:3)
There are several times in Scripture where people physically saw a measure, a dimension, a part of God and still didn’t open their lives to Him.
In the garden of Eden Adam and Eve saw God and still chose to believe the enemies words over God’s….resulting in Satan’s dominion and the release of death in the world. They saw God, but still didn’t trust Him, obey Him, or keep walking in relationship with Him.
When Jesus walked the earth, thousands of people saw God in human form. Hebrews 1:3 tells us that Jesus was the exact representation of God’s nature. Jesus said, “if you see Me, you’ve seen the Father.” (John 14:1–7).
People saw the most amazing miracles in the history of the world in incredible numbers: quantity and quality. Blind eyes opened, crippled people walking, deaf hearing, lepers cleansed, food multiplied, walking on water, and even the dead coming back to life.
With those undeniable miracles, they also heard wisdom that had never been heard before. They saw love perfected.
Yet, most people still did not come to God and receive the life and love He has for them in Jesus. They saw, but did not receive.
We see more with our heart than with our eyes.
God knows this and in order to teach us the way of faith, the way of evidence-based faith, faith that allows us to receive abundant, eternal life…He stays invisible for a while.
The Bible says one day we will get to see Him and it will be incredible, it will transform us. For those who love Him it will be wonderful. But for those who haven’t received Him, it will be terrifying.
In His love and wisdom, God intentionally stays invisible to us for now. Why?
- He Values Freedom So Much
- He Wants Us to Learn to Live by Faith
- He Knows Seeing Alone Does not Lead to Believing
If you want more resources in living a Jesus-centered, Jesus-empowered life check out www.TruVineMission.com
If you want help in clarifying and living your God-given purposes take a look at www.MarkFurlongCoaching.com
