Knowing I AM

I AM. 
LORD.
Your Bible most likely has this name written in all caps. It is God’s name that was to convey that He was a personal God with a personal name. He would be rescuing a people that were personally His with a personal purpose for Himself and them based on a personal promise He made with Abraham a long time before.

I AM. This same One has extended His hand to rescue us. He's the One we get to know.  

I AM was the One Rahab was grabbing onto for rescue as well. Why did she trust His hand? How did Rahab even know about Him? What did she know about Him? 

Numbers 14:13-14 tells us that stories were pouring out of Egypt about how God had rescued the Israelites. These stories had reached Jericho, where Rahab lived, and were powerful enough to make the city melt with fear. 

Not just rumor, but true story had it that "You, O LORD, are with these people and that You, O LORD, have been seen face to face, that Your cloud stays over them, and that You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night." 

Sometimes it's hard to think that words like cloud, pillar, and O LORD from Numbers fit into our own desire to live beyond our pasts. But consider the deeper truths Rahab believed as she reached out to grab onto I AM--the God…

Who is God. Whatever her experience with gods and worship in Jericho, and whatever her heart had wanted or wondered about gods, she was now certain of this one thing. I AM, this final, real name for the real true God told her He alone was God and He did these mighty deeds which she had heard about. She declared by faith that He was over everything, everywhere. (Josh. 2:11)

Who had a people He fought for.  The stories revealed that Israel was free. They were no longer slaves that belonged to masters; they belonged to a God Who fought for them to give them this new life. Rahab "belonged" for a moment to whoever purchased her body. I wonder if the reality of Israel’s freedom and a God Who fought for them gave her faith that she would no longer have to belong to someone for a moment, or for a price, because she could be free and truly belong to Him. I AM would fight for her, rescue her, and bring her into this new life.

Who could be known. He also was a God Who seemed to invite an intimate, personal knowing of Who He was. Moses had seen Him face to face. God had openly described Himself to Moses in Exodus 34:5-7a. 

Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. 

Stop here and really consider the truths He shared about Who He is and how He relates to us int he verse above. God was in a relationship with His people—intimately knowing, and being known—and she could experience that too!

Who never abandoned or left His people alone. Regardless of what they did, He was committed to being with them. He stayed over them and went before them in every step. As a woman who had men come and go in her life, who had been perpetually exposed, and daily consumed and abandoned, her experience with Him could be radically different.

Can you relate to Rahab?

  Do you long to really know God? 

Not just what others have said or dreamed up or made Him out to be?

    

Do you hunger for Him to be real and powerful 

and more than a human conjuring of what a god might be?

     

 Do you desire to be free, living a new life where you truly belong?

        

Do you wish someone would be present and stay?

          

Do you hold out hope that you could fully know Him 

and be known for all you really are: spirit, soul, and body?

           

 Do you ache to be covered and never abandoned or alone again?

Rahab, by hearing, knew LORD, I AM, was a God that did those things. Surely if God could deliver and save them from Egypt, I AM could do it for her.

He could.

She believed.

If you have never heard it, hear it now. I am telling you, God is your personal, rescuing, redeeming God with a purpose for you that fits into His greater story where His glory gets center stage. He is the answer to every one of your longings, desires, secret hopes, and aching hungers. He is that God, and you are that person. 

Will you believe? 

Just another seed of my faith,
Ginny

Not just for others

The way vampires can't do light or the Wicked Witch can't do water, there was a time when I couldn't do "testimonies." 

It didn't matter if it was at church when I happened to have just enough courage to darken the doors of a place where I had wreaked relational havoc. It didn't matter if it was a spiritual rumor about someone “getting right with God” or even some book a well-meaning Christian passed to me or my parents. Some snippet of true story, some tale of turning back, some testimony of grace and life-change and I would wilt and shrink into the shadows half listening until the sounds of stories, where God was doing something good for a real person, finally faded. 

Like Rahab (Read here to see spiritually how our stories may mirror Rahab's), I was definitely in my own Jericho. I felt I was living in a place outside of where He was. I was far from Him and His people in life, heart, and actions. When bits of stories and truth would hum and murmur, coming closer and closer to the door of my heart, I feared that if I fully gave ear to them I was going to have to deal with the reality of where I actually was. And Who He actually is.

I also hid because I had been deceived. I knew enough about God to know that He was able to do things for others. He could save, yes. He could change people or make people better. He could forgive people. I had heard stories here and there of rescue and love and healing. But I believed deep down in the real spaces of my soul that that was for others. It wasn't available to me. Just look at all I had done and was doing.

For some of us, our Jericho was all we knew. We were just living life, when God began to reveal Who He is. It started as whispers, echoes, rumors, and glimpses. Then louder and clearer. Instead of fear, we leaned-in like Rahab, wondering if stories like this about Him are true. And if those are, could we experience such rescue, love, and healing from a God like that?

Through rumors and stories from Egypt and other nations Israel was conquering, Rahab had heard about God. Whispers and echoes about Him had swirled about until one day, through Israelite spies knocking on the door of her inn, God knocked on the door of her heart. 

How did she respond? Joshua 2:8-13 tells us. These were Rahab's words to the spies sent by God that she was hiding on her roof:  

"I know that the LORD has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone's courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below. Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and that you will save us from death."

The stories were powerful. Powerful enough to make an entire city feel fear that made them melt. Their courage failed. Yet instead of succumbing to fear, Rahab opened up. Why?

I believe it was because God had been calling to her, with ever growing clarity in the midst of the world's noise, so He could be Rahab’s God and rescue her. He reached into time and space, so she could know Him.

Rahab responded with faith: “The LORD your God is God.” She understood Israel was coming to conquer Jericho next. She believed God and used His name to go out on a faith limb. He was a God Who conquered, but also a God Who saved. What He did for them in Egypt, He could do for her.

When you have heard stories about what God has done for others, what has been your response?

Are open to hear about Him? Are you open to belief? 

Do you tend to deafen your ears or anesthetize your heart? Is that because of fear, shame, or because you feel excluded or disqualified from such goodness?

What God did for slaves in Egypt, God could do for a woman in Jericho. What God did for Rahab—for others—God can, will, and wants to do for you.

Will you listen? Will you go out on a faith limb? Will you believe?

Just another seed of my faith,

Ginny