God is the great initiator. Romans 3:10-18 clearly outlines our condition prior to salvation. We are utterly lost. We are not looking for God. "There is none righteous, no, not one" (Ro. 3:10). In this lamentable state of spiritual darkness, how is it that we ever came to God? How is it that something in us ever found Him or believed in Him and clung to Him? It happened because God is the great initiator.

Isaiah 65:1 says, "I was sought by those who did not ask for Me; I was found by those who did not seek Me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am.'" God reveals Himself to our hearts, screaming "Here I am, here I am," even when we don't want Him. He sees us in our pitiful state and initiates a glorious meeting. He knows that our fallen hearts don't understand that we need Him, so He gets things going. He begins the relationship. He starts the journey. He ignites the fuse. He draws close.

Why is it important to understand God is the great initiator? Because we must interpret His initiations not as the fullness of a matter, but as the invitation. When we experience moments when God breaks into our situation and saves us, we can't sit around and wait for another breakthrough. We can't willfully drift back into sin and blame God that His deliverance was not real. He initiated the process and left it up to us to steward what He initiated.

In Luke 19 Jesus tells a parable to teach that the kingdom is advanced through stewardship. In the parable, a nobleman gives out sums of money to his servants. When he later checks the servants, he finds one multiplied the money by ten, one by five, and one not by any. The good stewards are rewarded, and the one who didn't multiply his original gift is judged.

The message is clear that Jesus intends to initiate something in us with the gift of salvation. He intends to provoke our hearts. When He returns, if all we have to give back to Him is the original gift, it won't be good. He's looking for someone who will labor to multiply the fire, passion, and zeal that He ignited. He's looking for someone who will labor to multiply their salvation into other salvations. Because God is the initiator, He expects us to respond to His initiations. When He shows up and screams, "Here I am, here I am," He expects to us to answer, "Here we are, here we are!"

God the great initiator is looking for someone who will chase the initial touch.

-Micah