Divine Ignorance

In being born into a fallen world and if that reality has been hidden from us which it has, is it any wonder we dumbly resist any so called alternate certainty that speaks contrary to its veracity?

The following quotes are from the movie The Matrix, which beautifully express what I am trying to illustrate.

“If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.”
“I see it in your eyes. You have the look of a man who accepts what he sees because he is expecting to wake up. Ironically, that's not far from the truth.”
“I know *exactly* what you mean. Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but its there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I'm talking about?”
“The Matrix.” “Do you want to know what it is?” “The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us, even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work... when you go to church... when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
What truth? That you are a slave, Neo, like everyone else you were born into bondage, born into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch a prison for your mind.”

“For the god of this world has blinded the unbelievers' minds [that they should not discern the truth], preventing them from seeing the illuminating light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, Who is the Image and Likeness of God.”

God has called us out from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, but this illumination will not circumvent or usurp our ability to freely and fully choose to trust Him to solidify in us an substance and evidence not founded upon so called outer evidence.
If there is one constant I am learning it is this, nothing is as what it appears to be!

I want to share some thoughts (from Bill Landon’s book, The Devil You Don’t Know) I feel enhance our choosing to go on with the Father in spite of all that would try to keep us safe and lifeless.

“There are times in every Christian’s life when we are offered the opportunity by the Father to go on with Him. These times represent an offer from the father to grow both in our understanding of Him in our relationship with Him. The growth in understanding and the growth in depth of relationship are linked. We cannot increase the depth of our relationship with the father (or with anyone else for that matter) without an increased understanding and vice versa. Ironically, this growth begins with a sort of ignorance. At those times when we choose to accept the Father’s offer for a greater level of understanding we do so without a firm idea of where the journey will lead us. This is not a bad thing and it is certainly nothing to be ashamed of. The Father never gives us the entire story at the beginning of any period of growth because such a revelation would rob us of the opportunity to walk by faith. The operation of faith is both a blessing and an essential element of our spiritual growth. On a darker note, we are not given the whole story at the outset of any opportunity to grow with God because if we knew some of the places we would have to pass through we might well opt not to take the journey.

What I mean by the opportunity to go on with God is this: we are given some revelational insight and are asked by God if we would like to go deeper in that understanding. When we answer “yes” to this offer it is almost always an answer given without having any understanding of where the journey will take us. I use the phrase “almost always” instead of “always” only to shy away from using absolutes.
Nevertheless, you should know that I believe that the Father never gives us a complete revelation at the start of any journey. Our ignorance in these instances is not a subject for judgment or of shame. We cannot possibly know beyond what we are shown. In these cases we are sharing in the experience of Abraham: “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.” (Hebrews 11:8)
It is incumbent to a life that is to be lived primarily by faith that we be able to say yes to God’s proposals without knowing all (or, possibly, any) of the details. This is why I call this kind of lack of information a divine ignorance. As I mentioned before, if we knew some of the places we would have to go through to take the journey we might very likely stay at home. I know that is true for me as I am not by nature a great risk taker.”

Rich