Acting God

Acting God? This sounds ridiculous! Understanding this phrase is crucial to be saved from being misunderstood. This "Acting God" is not in the sense of an actor acting a role in a play or a movie. The right connotation here is the living out of God in oneness with God to the extent of exprerssing and representing God. In fact, this is the very purpose God created man for.

In Genesis 1:26, God created man in His image according to Himself so that one day man can receive God and express God as acting God.

Gen. 1:26 And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of heaven and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.

In the Bible, Moses is a good example of an acting God. He represented God in meeting with Pharoah and had twelve conflicts with him (Exo. 5-13). In the first eleven times of speaking what God asked him to speak, there seems to be no result at all Rather an opposite reaction seemed to occur. But he did not give up and he kept representing God as long as God told him to do. If he were to be so subjective and weigh his action based on the result he could perceive every time he acted out God, he could have been in doubt if God really sent him. The natural response would be, if God sent a person there should be a substantiating result as well. In the first eleven encounters with Pharoah, there seems to be no substantial result according to what God spoke. For God spoke through Moses for the release of His people out of Egypt. But all eleven times a request for release ended up only in the opposite response. But as an acting God Moses did not deter, he faithfully spoke what God wanted him to speak. And at the twelfth time, the great result expected came to fruition. In fact, all the eleven times, God purposefully hardened Pharoah's heart so that He could deal with Pharoah and the people of Egypt including its land. Here is a good example, the Lord showed me how and what I need to learn from Moses.

I have been shepherding a couple of families in Gurugram. I earnestly waited for the result of my shepherding that the new ones would fully come into the church life. Well, that's the goal of my shepherding to anyone. When this goal is not accomplished I tend to give up and questioned if my time spent and labor on the new ones were really worth it, if it were not for the church life. Well, I may be right in my own logical sense, but the Lord chastised and corrected me. I should simply and faithfully continue to shepherd all the new ones as the Lord would. Though I may look forward to the result I must not be result oriented. God has His timing and He is a righteous God, in due time He will give the needed result. Like Moses, I still must shepherd the new ones for ten years, even twelve years if need be. And leave the result to the Lord. He knows best.

I was much shepherded with this new light from the Lord. In the New Testament, the apostle Paul as an acting God spoke God's word with faith despite the circumstances he was in.

Ac 27:22 And now I advise you to cheer up, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship.
Ac 27:23 For this very night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood by me,
Ac 27:24 Saying, Do not fear, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who are sailing with you.
Ac 27:25 Therefore, cheer up, men, for I believe God that it shall be so, even in the way in which it has been spoken to me.

With such confidence in the face of imminent death due to a thunderous sea storm, he spoke by faith the word of God, not his feeling or opinion. He truly represented God as an acting God in the midst of the stormy sea. With these patterns before us, we can as well be the same, the acting God wherever we are. As being born of God, we have God's divine life and nature, the qualification to be an acting God.

1 Co 6:17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.
Pp 1:21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

This was also my prophecy yesterday in the meeting. The Lord freshly shined on me and showed me what a shepherd I should be as an acting God. Now, my concept has changed, and I would no longer give up on people so easily. As long as the Lord leads me, I will continue to shepherd the new ones, as long as it takes. The result is up to the Lord. 

Just be an acting God. God will do what He needs to do, and I just do what I need to do and be what I should be, an acting God.