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No Rules - Just Relationship!

Galatians #11


Galatians 4:8 - 20

I think Paul’s slogan to the Galatian church would have been: “No Rules - Just Relationship!”  

1. Our walk with God is not about rules – it’s about relationship.

You can know all the rules of marriage, but not have a connection to the soul of your mate.  You can know all the rules of raising your child, but not be connected to the heart of your child.  It’s possible to be obey the rules – do the right things – yet remain emotionally detached from a relationship with God.

“But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?”   - Galatians 4:9

God wants to get personal with you.  It’s not just you knowing God – it’s God knowing you.  He knows the number of hairs on your head.  He knows you better than you know yourself.  He didn’t draw you into His kingdom to get another rule keeper – He desires a relationship with you.

2.  Life is birthed – it cannot be manufactured.

Paul understood that Spiritual leadership is about carrying people in your spirit until Christ is formed in them.  He understood that he would have to, in a sense, give birth to the church he carried inside of him. 

“I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.”  
– Galatians 4:11

“My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you.”   – Galatians  4:19

Anything of value – anything that contains life – is birthed.

Birth is a manifestation of intimacy.  It is a manifestation of an inward previous work taking place. 

Out of our intimacy with God something gets born.

There is a time of conception – the voice of God, often coming in an idea.  There is a time of gestation – the vision growing in you, awaiting the appointed time.  There are labor pains, and then, finally, Life passes through you.

Your future is gestating inside of you now.  God wants to free the prisoners, feed the poor, reach the nations, bless the children, impact the teenagers, save the lost – these are not programs organized by the church office.  They are born out of people –people who carry other people in their spirit until Christ is formed in them.

A close relationship with God – and not rule-keeping – will give birth to great things!