Expanding the Soul

Your heart is going to grow for the kingdom, more and more as you mature, which allows us to receive more and more of God and enjoy so much more of the life he’s giving. But this can be very disorienting if you don’t understand what’s taking place within you. Just as you reach a place where you feel satisfied, it seems you need more. That’s because your soul is expanding, which is a very good thing.

Some of the old habits, even the old comforts, just won’t work anymore; some of your old relationships won’t either, nor will certain religious associations. You no longer fit. We can think there’s something wrong with us, when what’s happening is that we are being healed towards heaven, towards Eden. As our soul is restored, it will fit less and less into the madness of this world and this hour, which, sadly, has infected Christianity quite deeply. No judgments, no need to make a scene. But you’re not a moral failure because you don’t fit; you’re being healed.

Time to move on.

The second caution comes to us through the Old Testament story of manna. The entire nation of Israel is ransomed from Egypt “with a strong hand and powerful arm, with overwhelming terror, and with miraculous signs and wonders” (Deuteronomy 26:8 NLT). Stepping through the sundered waters of the Red Sea, the people find themselves in a roundabout trek, zigzagging across the arid desert of the Sinai Peninsula (with no annual rainfall to speak of). Masses of people wandering barren wasteland are going to die for lack of food and water in a matter of weeks, maybe days. Forty years is out of the question. So God provides his people with the bread of angels every morning. They couldn’t store it, they couldn’t hoard it. They had to go out each morning and gather it. And it was always there, delivered silently, gently.

Now, why did God give us this unforgettable parable?

Because no matter how much of God we’ve finally been able to partake of, the surprising “ah ha” is that we need it again tomorrow. I always thought that for some reason, I could get to a place where I was tapped into God in such a way I didn’t run out. But we need to sleep again every night; we need to drink water every day; we need to breathe again every single moment. Our life is a beautifully dependent existence, like the tree and the forest. You’re not failing because you need God again tomorrow. You’re not a spiritual disaster because you need so much more of him. This is the nature of things. We simply come and ask. “Give us today our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11).

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