Imma Be Where I’m At
There is a saying from either a TV show or a movie. I just looked it up. It comes from a standup comedy routine that was made into a movie called Raw, by Eddie Murphy. I believe that he was speaking about his mother when someone, possibly him, asked her “where you gonna be?” She replied “Imma be where I’m at!”
She was demonstrating to whoever it was asking the question that they had absolutely no right to question her schedule and whereabouts at a specific time in the day. She essentially told them that she was an independent, free willed human being, and an adult. And she had the right to autonomously set her schedule as she saw fit. Finally, she was expressing to the person asking the question that they had no right to even ask her that question.
God also created us with free will. Sometimes it prevents us from getting closer to God. That is, in those instances where our will, and not His Will takes precedence. We are fully functioning, autonomous beings who have the right to check in with God and submit our lives, schedules, and all other things to Him and to His Will. We also have the right not to submit our will to God’s Will and Plans. God set it up that way.
There are some examples in the Bible where people completely submit their free will and choices to God’s Will, Plans, and Purposes for their lives. There are many more examples where the people in the Bible did not willingly submit or “lay down their lives” for their friend, God.[1] Thus, in those instances where they did not submit at all. Or where they either submitted eventually or partially, they reaped the consequences of their delayed submission. However, those who fully submitted, were also Blessed as a result of their submissive act.
Similarly, there are instances in the Bible and throughout history where people willingly submitted to the: Monarch, Office of the President, or some superiorly ranked person in the workplace. The rule of thumb is that if you submit to a superior, and the superior is a good superior and person, then you should achieve positive results.
The converse of the previous statement also generally holds true. If you willingly disregard the advice or directives of a person who holds superior rank to your own, then bad things are likely to occur. I will also add to this discussion by saying that if the subordinate person is trying to reach a goal that the superior person is leading them to, then the chances of them reaching that goal while rolling their neck and eyes at the superior, and saying to them, “you cant check me, I’ll do what I want, and imma be where I’m at!”, are severely diminished.
Adam’s Staying Power
Adam in the book of Genesis is a perfect example of the negative results associated with submission, obedience, autonomy, and the expression of free will. From the outset Adam was Created with free will. However, in the beginning of their relationship, Adam was quite willing to submit to the directives and mandates of God.
He named all of the animals in the Garden of Eden.[2] He also obviously, and implicitly, fellowshipped closely with God, because in Genesis chapter three, the Bible says that Adam, along with his wife Eve, recognized the sound of God walking through the Garden in the evening or during the cool evening breezes of the day. Unfortunately, they had just come off of a situation where they were operating in a full on expression of disobedience.
God created Adam so he could rule over the Garden of Eden and the Earth. So, he made Adam in His Image. When they were in the Garden together, obviously fellowshipping and during a time when the Superior Creator God was giving instructions to the subordinate created man, God warned Adam not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil or there would be consequences. Those consequences being, you will absolutely die.[3] Although, God did not tell him what type of death it was that he would suffer.
The Superior Creator God has a lot of “imma be where I’m at!”, in Him.
Similarly, He often leaves us, the progeny of Adam, in the dark, and without explanation. We are tasked to follow, submit, obey, and walk by Faith until God decides to show us the rest of the plan.
Later in Genesis chapter two, God decided to create a helper who was perfectly fit and suited for Adam. Her name was the aforementioned Eve. Eve received the same orders regarding the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, as did Adam, most likely through Adam. So of course, what does she do? What all of us subordinate humans do!
… We eats of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil after having a convo with a serpent …
Then she decided that this was such a good idea that she should go ahead and give Adam a taste of the fruit from that forbidden tree.
What happens next …
They die …
Just as God said that they absolutely would.[4]
Being Where God Told You To Be … Getting What God Promised
Now I am not here to discuss the finer points of what happens after you disobey God. I am here to discuss the idea of: “Being where God Told you to be, when He told you to be there.” God does not give us directives for His health. He is Eternal and could be doing other things. He gives us directives and mandates in order to put us in the best position to succeed.
The main idea is that if God told you to be in a certain position. Then you are supposed to be where He left you, … where He told you to be, … and not to: “be where you at!”
If God gives you a Word that provides: direction for your life, a Promise for your life, and a location or posture to remain in, until you see that Word manifested, then He does what God does and did to Adam … meaning that He gives you orders but does not fully explain everything to you that will happen in between the time that He gave you the Word and the time that you see it manifested. But if God did give you a Promise, then your job is to stay where He left you until He comes back with additional instructions. Or until you see everything that He Promised, come to pass in your life.
You have to resist the temptations of being overly anxious and acting out of free will. That will result in some form of leaving the Place that God said the Word would manifest … and going off to “be where you at!”
Maybe you are going off to make it manifest yourself. Maybe you just got tired of waiting. Maybe some serpent came along, walking upright and gave you some offer that was too good to pass up. That snake offered you sweet nothings, candy, doughnuts, and fruit like you have never tasted in your life, as well as justifying his offer of something tasty by saying that “surely God did not say …”
… surely God did not say …
… exactly what you absolutely know God Said …
And if you wait you will see the Word of God come to pass. Both the part that He told you and the parts that He chose not to reveal. God is the Creator and Progenitor of free will! He just chooses! He alone chooses what parts of the Promise to reveal and what parts of the Promise He does not want to reveal. Our job is to just wait it out! And to “Be Where He At!” Or “Be Where He Left You!” Because if you don’t you will surely die.
You may not physically die. But you may witness the thing He gave you via His Word and Promise slip right out of your hands. Much like my favorite pitcher in my Fantasy Baseball league just did. He was on waivers, and I did not check one day! And I completely missed him, and he went to the rival team. Death of a dream can take many forms.
But you will not miss it if you “Be Where He At!”
And “Be Where He Left You!”
Back to Adam and Eve … What happened was that God then decided to take a stroll through the Garden in the evening in order to check on Adam and Eve. He wanted to see if they were gonna “be where they at?” Or if they were gonna “Be where He left them!”, observing the Word, Directives, and Mandates that He had issued them.
Of course, they hid themselves when they heard Him coming.
Funny how disobedience makes you immediately afraid to face the Superior.
God then asks Adam, not Eve, because He gave the Directives, Words, and Promises to Adam, who was then to pass them along to Eve. God asks Adam “where are you?”[5] Now of course God knew … God made ‘em … God knew what the humans would do. Adam replied out of fear and regret, “I heard you coming, and I hid among the trees and bushes.”
Where Are You?
God should never have to ask you “where are you?” God should always know, that you, out of obedience and reverence to Him as the superior and to His Word, “are exactly where God left you and told you to be.” God should never have to come looking for you. He gave you explicit instructions.
No matter how long it takes.
No matter how bad it looks.
If God made you a Promise, your job is to “Be Where You At!” Until He either gives you further instructions or until you see the entire thing Manifest and come to pass.
God then asks the second question that he should never have to ask. Adam, who was, as we say, backpedaling or hustling backward, while he was “beeping like a garbage truck in reverse”, felt the need to further explain his disobedience. What did your parents used to say about telling a lie, and then doubling down by having to tell another one? Adam not only said to God “I was afraid because I heard you coming.” He went on to explain that he was afraid because he was, “naked.”
Now God had never revealed that tidbit of information to Adam. Adam was naked like everything else in the Garden, sans the fur on the cows. Adam never knew anything different. Nor did he have any reason to be anything other than naked.
Adam had just uncovered some brand new knowledge. Knowledge that he had gleaned from a source other than God. He got that knowledge as a result of ingesting fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
All of a sudden, as a result of Adam succumbing to temptation, he now learned new things from a source other than God. He did not know what fear was before he ate the fruit that God told him not to eat. Thus, had he not eaten that fruit, he would “Be where God Left Him”, standing on the Word that God gave him, without fearing. Fear which leads to rebellion. And that fear is the enemy of Submissive Obedience.[6] Thus it is the enemy of the Manifestation of the Promise.
So God asks Adam, “who told you that you were naked?” This second question is the one that sends a chill up my spine. Of course, God knew the answers to the questions that He was asking Adam. But these questions, this one in particular, sends a chill up my spine because God was essentially asking Adam “why would you go to ANY source other than I AM who Created you, in order to gather information about life and the world in which you live? The same world that I AM Created. All you ever had to do was listen to I AM and Obey. Everything that I AM Promised you, you would have seen, and more. … But now … you will surely die …”
God never told Adam that he was naked. God told Adam what to do. God gave Adam a Promise. God expected Adam to remain exactly where he was and to stand on that Promise until he saw ALL of it come to pass. God also told Adam that if he disobeyed that he would absolutely die! No do overs!
A Simple Process
If you want to see the Promises of God, spoken directly to you, come to pass in your life, all you have to do is;
“Be where you at!”
[1]John 15:13
[2]Gen. 2
[3]Gen. 2:15-17
[4]Gen. 2:18-3:7
[5]Gen. 3:7-12
[6]1 John 4:17-18