Where is Waldo?

I remember these books with the huge color pictures of hundreds of cartoon people in a scene and you were supposed to find the one guy who wore a red and white stripped shirt named Waldo. These were a great distraction, when I was at the Mall, while family shopped in stores, I had no interest in.
Sometimes, finding God can feel like this. Where is the Kingdom? How do I connect with God in a real and meaningful way.

Prayer has always come easy for me. Maybe because I have always believed that the spiritual realm, is here but only invisible. I was once praying with a friend before he and I was to minister in a church. After the service on our drive home he asked me a question. He said, "Mike, how is it when you pray you seem to go right to God and it takes me a while to get passed myself and pray through?"
(pray through- a term used in Pentecostal circles which meant praying until you finally felt like you had reached God.)

I answered him by saying,"I had never really given it much thought, but I believe that God is present everywhere and when I close my eyes, I am in God's presence."

Jesus taught that the Kingdom of God is within us. Which simply means God Abides in us, we are God's temple, God's house. To talk with God, we simply must give him our attention.

This may sound too simple, and that is the reason my friend had to pray through. He wasn't praying through to reach far into the Heavens and maybe he would get God's ear. No, he had to pray out of his own doubt, guilt, unworthiness. Which was his perception, not God's.

We are our own hinderance. God is desiring a relationship with each and every one. Our own false image and ego keep us from what God has prepared and made available.

Many believe this will all become theirs after they die and go to Heaven. Heaven is real, but it is not a place the way we often think of it. We think of it in terms of space and time. Heaven is eternal and available now. It is not limited by space, distance or time. We are spirit, we have a mind and we live in our body. We live in this life on earth because we have a body, but our spiritual life is because of our spirit. We touch Heaven by our spirit. Heaven is real, God is real, our spirits are real.....we find them inside...we carry the presence of God inside us. Christ in us...our hope of glory (God's presence.)

I am not saying that Heaven is not a place we go to when we die. We do, that is when we leave the limitations of our body and enjoy the fullness and limitlessness of eternity and Heaven, which is total access and connection to God. However life is not meant to be a journey to God, but a journey with God.(paraphrased from The Enoch Factor by Steve McSwain). Eternity is timeless is is now. God's presence is timeless and eternal and so is Heaven.

I don't know if Waldo is still around or where to find him, but I do know where I can find God....even without the red and white stripped shirt.




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