Is God’s Affection the Same as His Approval?

Brad and Wayne follow up last week's podcast by further processing Wayne's recent trip to Kenya. How has being with brothers and sisters in such desperate need affected him now that he's returned home. That leads to a larger discussion about God's disposition toward the needy and how we marginalize our involvement with their need by trying to believe that they are getting what they deserve. Then email from a listener gets them to extend that discussion by asking if having God's affection is the same thing as having his approval? Can God be disappointed with someone he loves? If would like to help financially with the needs in Kenya, please see the Sharing With the World page at Lifestream. You can give specifically toward the car, or to relief for widows and orphans.

5 Comments

  1. that was BEAUTIFUL! I loved that comment. You have my applause! The comment where you compared the natives of Africa leaving the sacrifice on the altar for blessings to what we do in the institutional church in the west! I love listening to you guys, reminds me I’m not crazy after all!
    Tipping Sacred cows, one at a time,
    Ransom

  2. Wayne,

    You said something to the effect that if people don’t understand that this is about living out of a relationship with Father, then it becomes the “Grace message” or the “Love message”. Then I believe you put it as, If it is just another message we are just living as though we are loved (intellectual assent) instead of living loved (experential). I trust I have not garbled that up too bad. I think that is tremendously important and easily missed by people who are trying to walk a new “message” out of their own understanding and strengths.
    How then did you come to get past an intellectual revelation of Father’s love to the personal relations? What do you tell people when you are trying to point them to a true relationship with Father and not just a new “idea”? Thanks.

  3. God is the one who provides. A very profound truth. Over 10 years ago I lost everything…job, home, cars…everything. At one point as I was whining to god about needinhg a job so I could provide for MY family…God interrupted me adn told me, “george, you NEVER provoded for your family. It was always me. I provided your hands, you mind, the training, the ability, the skill, the mentors, the job, the health…etc…I realized that I was taking credit for what He had always done. i was a victim of the American self made man eomplex.

    How liberating it has been to discover my Father’s love and provision for me. it is so freeing and liberating.

  4. Thanks George, I appreciate your sharing and I think I understand. I also noticed that Wayne on the blog site is talking about gaining a heart to help those who are seeking to help others learned to live loved. I will be eagerly watching for what happens next in that regard.

    I repeatedly see people saying the “right things” about this walk with Father, often I detect a sort of “well of course I understand that Jesus loves me, why would you even ask?” Yet I don’t see the evidence in their lives. So when Wayne made the distinction between trying to live as though we were loved versus actually living loved it resonated. I definitly get that this is Father’s work, but He does seem to want me to join in. For example in the last couple of weeks I was blessed to hear stories of people who have apparently decided to remain “hidden” in institutional churches looking to help others step out of religion and into a real love of Father. (My daughter upon hearing these stories, remarked “Secret agent man!”).

    The Ethiopian Eunuch didn’t get it until the Lord sent Philip, so too I believe there are lots of folks studying scripture needing a Philip to be obedient and explain it to them. I still would like to know from Wayne is experiences in that reqard. Thanks again George for your insights.

  5. I loved your comments about not allowing those in need to start seeing you as their provider because you are bringing to them finances given to them through you, having been in a ministery to drug addicts and alcoholics (up to 19 men of varying ages) who lived with my family and me in a house provided by the Lord we relied upon gifts given by the inspiration of Father and being tempted to see a person who is wealthy as a natural channel for Father to use. The trap is easy to fall into, when someone came to visit the ministry who had been used previously to supply a need I found myself looking for the bulging envelope in the top pocket and in doing so lost sight of the joy of the visit from a brother/sister in the Lord. I had to repent a few times in the 23 years of that ministry and had to warn a couple of very wealthy men not to see themselves as the patrons of the work but to be responsible in their giving and only supply as the Lord gave direction.

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