Realizing God's Reality II

Knowing and experiencing God - that is what life is all about! God created us to have a relationship with him. The essence, the core of eternal life is that we know God and Jesus Christ whom he sent. Knowing God does not come through a program or method, but through a relationship with a person. As the relationship develops, we come to understand and experience the reality of God.

How does God speak?

God speaks through the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances and the Church to reveal Himself, His purposes and His ways. "For the word of God is living and mighty, and sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the point of dividing soul and spirit, even marrow and bones, and being a judge of the thoughts and senses of the heart" (Hebrews 4,12).

God speaks to us not only through prayer, but also through his word. We can not understand His Word unless the Holy Spirit teaches us. When we come to the Word of God, the author himself is present to teach us. Truth is never discovered. Truth is revealed. When truth is revealed to us, we are not led to an encounter with God - the is an encounter with God! When the Holy Spirit reveals a spiritual truth from the Word of God, he enters our lives in a personal way (1. Corinthians 2,10-15).

Throughout the Scriptures we see that God spoke personally to His people. When God spoke, it usually happened to every person in a unique way. God speaks to us when he has a purpose in mind for our lives. If he wants us to participate in his work, he reveals himself to respond in faith.

Will take the will of God on us

God's invitation to work with him always leads to a crisis of faith that requires faith and action. “But Jesus answered them: My Father works to this day, and I also work... Then Jesus answered and said to them: Truly, truly, I say to you, The Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the father doing; for what he does, the son also does in like manner. For the father loves his son and shows him all that he does, and will show him even greater works, so that you will marvel (John 5,17, 19-20). "

God's invitation to us to work with him, however, always leads to a crisis of faith, which requires faith and action on our part. When God invites us to join him in his work, he has a task that has a divine format that we can not create on our own. This is, so to speak, a crisis point of faith when we have to decide to follow what God tells us to do.

The crisis of faith is a turning point where you have to make a decision. You have to decide what you believe about God. How you react to this turning point will determine whether you continue to be involved with God in something divine, what only he can do, or if you continue on your own path and miss what God has planned for your life. This is not a one-time experience - it is a daily experience. How you live your life is testimony to what you believe about God.

One of the most difficult things we Christians have to do is deny ourselves, take upon us the will of God, and do it. Our lives must be God-centered, not me-centered. If Jesus became the Lord of our life, he has the right to be Lord in all situations. We need to make major adjustments [realignments] in our lives to join God in His work.

Obedience requires complete dependence on God

We experience God by obeying him and doing his work through us. An important point to remember is that you can not go on with your life as usual, stay where you are now, and go with God at the same time. Adjustments are always necessary and then obedience follows. Obedience requires complete dependence on God so that he can work through you. If we are willing to subordinate everything in our lives to the Lordship of Christ, we will find that the adjustments we make are truly worth the reward of experiencing God. If you have not spent your whole life in the reign of Christ, now is the time to make the decision to deny yourself, to take up your cross, and follow him.

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Comforter to be with you forever: the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, for it does not see him and does not know him. You know him because he stays with you and will be in you. I do not want to leave you orphans; I am coming to you. There's still a little time before the world will see me no more. But you shall see me, for I live, and you shall live also. In that day you will know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me. But whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him" (John 14,15-21).

Obedience is an outward visible expression of our love for God. In many ways, obedience is our moment of truth. What we do will be

reveal what we really believe about him
determine if we experience his work in us
determine if we get to know him in a closer, familiar way

The great reward for obedience and love is that God will reveal Himself to us. This is the key to experiencing God in our lives. When we are aware that God is constantly working around us, that he is in love with us, that he speaks to us and invites us to join him in his work, and that we are ready to practice faith and to act By making obedience to His instructions, we will come to know God through experience while doing His work through us.

Basic book: “Experiencing God”

by Henry Blackaby