Back to Beth-el

"Then God said to Jacob, Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau." - Genesis 35:1

If you're a true believer in Jesus Christ, you've had a Beth-el experience. Beth-el was the place where God introduced himself to Jacob in a very real and personal way. You can read Jacob's experience with God in Genesis 28. After receiving a vision and a promise from the God of his fathers Jacob awoke, built an altar to God and named the place Beth-el which means, "house of God" in Hebrew.

After a lifetime of choices, both good and bad, God spoke to Jacob in Genesis 35:1 instructing him to "go to Beth-el". God's desire was to reintegrate Himself into Jacob's life in order to bring Him into his divine destiny. For that to happen, Jacob had to remove the physical contaminants that had infiltrated his household. In Genesis 35:2, Jacob instructed everyone in his realm of influence to remove the false gods and idols.

What Beth-el represents is a place of holy identification, sanctification and specification. It is place where God orders our steps, gives us our divine identity and equips us to move into His destiny for us.

Far too many of God's people are perpetual wilderness wanderers. The "wilderness" is that spiritual emptiness where our prayers are empty, our bible study is empty, our service is empty. This emptiness in the "inner man/woman" cannot be filled by going through the motions of church attendance or service. To a wilderness wanderer the house of God can become a burden instead of a joy. Attending church becomes a chore, a duty or, in the case of ministers, a job instead of a calling. I know as a pastor I have found myself so busy planning programs and managing ministries that I lose all sense of spirituality. Like Martha, we can become so busy serving that we cannot receive any spiritual renewal.

You throw a lifetime of wilderness wandering at someone and you can easily see why there are so many empty, miserable "Christians" in our churches. I've been to many churches that were filled with miserable Christians. As a young man I puzzled over this phenomenon; how could an experience like true Christianity produce so many unhappy people? After all, the Word of God is supposed to be a beacon of hope, a source of joy and a life-changing message of grace, love and eternal life. How could so many people profess to believe the words in this book only to live in a state of perpetual unhappiness?

Then I found myself in the wilderness. No, scratch that, I actually passed up the wilderness and descended into my own personal hell. As a matter of fact, it has been exactly ten years as of this writing since my life took a horrendous turn for the worst.

Ten years ago, I was one of these miserably redeemed souls. I had no joy, no hope and no future as far as I was concerned. I was depressed beyond words, suicidal to the point of very nearly carrying out my darkest thoughts. The demons of hell had been unleashed to torment me and I found myself immersed in a world of darkness that I thought would never end.

All of this was happening to me while I was serving in the body of Christ. I was preaching and teaching the word of God to others but was not anywhere close to walking or believing any of what I was speaking. I was living a lie. You may be surprised to know there are quite a large number of God's servants living this same lie; unable to reconcile what they have seen and experienced in life with the words they read in this book. If God truly loves us then why...

God instructed Jacob to return to the place where He had introduced Himself to his wandering servant. The context of the initial meeting is summarized for us in Genesis 35:1 with these words: "...who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau." Jacob was on the run because of His own choices and actions. Jacob had no one to blame for his predicament except himself. He had lied, cheated and stolen what was not his to have. He was fleeing the reaping of his personal whirlwind when God showed up. God didn't show up to rescue him from his brother's wrath; God did something better. He gave him a future. He showed him his divine destiny. He gave him hope, faith and peace in the middle of a very difficult storm.

God's done that with most of us. All of us can point to our own Beth-el experience with God. The place where God shared His future for us. The place where God was transformed from an impersonal, faceless deity figure in the spiritual realm to a personal savior ready for a relationship with you.

It is amazing how life can dim the memory of our Beth-el. It's amazing how fast we can forget what God has revealed to us. It is equally amazing how fast we can fall from building altars to Jehovah to filling our lives with false gods and idols.

I had a return to Beth-el experience last week that I want to share with you. God blindsided me with an experience that I'm honestly still processing. So stay tuned true believers; it may be time for you to join me in returning to your own personal Beth-el...