Reality: 7 Truths From Experiencing God

Before, whenever I am asked how I came to know our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I would always answer that, “I guess I have always known him.” I knew him as a child. I grew up attending church, though it is of a different religious belief. I was taught about him and what he did when he came down from heaven to earth. I was taught about God and that He is powerful, kind, and loving. I know that He is there for each and every one of us.

But the 40 days I have spent reading, reflecting, and discussing the 7 Realities made me realize that what I know about God is just a fraction of who He truly is and who He can and should become in my life. This discipleship session had made me fully aware that God doesn’t want just a relationship with us; He wants us to have an intimate fellowship with Him because it is only through that level of fellowship will we be able to truly experience and know His magnificence, His provision, His faithfulness, His forgiveness, His mercy, His grace, and His incomparable love.

God is Always at Work 

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." - Isaiah 55: 8-9 (ESV)

This is the first Reality and indeed, He is! God uses everything in our lives to point us toward Him. Every situation, person, and conflict we encounter is an opportunity to experience Him and glorify His name. No matter how ordinary or inconsequential they may seem they provide an occasion to have a more intimate fellowship with our Heavenly Father which leads us to the second Reality.

God Pursues 

"And the Lord said to me, "Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins." - Hosea 3:1 (ESV)

Because of His great love for us, God takes the initiative in pursuing a real and personal love relationship with us. He wants to be part of our everyday lives, to be our strength in times of trouble, to be our comfort and source of peace in times of difficulties, to be our constant source of joy, to be our guide in every decision, and to be our disciple/teacher to correct us if needed be. He wants to be our loving father so He continuously sends reminders in the form of people, disagreements, problems, and even provisions so we’ll know that He wants us to grow closer to Him.

God Invites 

"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." - 1 Peter 2: 9 (ESV)

In pursuing us, God invites us to be part of His grand plan for humanity. He gives us assignments. These assignments can either be big or small in terms of the world but they are always something only God can do through us. And He promises that He will enable us to accomplish His goals.

God Speaks 

"Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by His Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world." - Hebrews 1: 1-2 (ESV)

Once God issued an invitation for an assignment, He will speak to us to confirm His will for us. God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstance, and the church. So it is our responsibility to be receptive by reading the Bible, by praying to Him, and by attending church. Most of the time, God uses all of those ways to verify His desires for us.

A Crisis of Belief 

"For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control." - 2 Timothy 1: 7 (ESV)

A crisis of belief occurs when we question God’s will for us and our response to it will reveal our belief and faith in Him. For a while now, God is impressing on me to pass on my knowledge and experience about Him. As my 11 years of teaching career has proven, I know that a lesson will become deeply ingrained in me when I am also teaching it to others. As I talk or write about it, I know, the more that lesson will be internalized. But I must admit that I am afraid.

I am fearful because God is not impressing on me to share my knowledge and experience about Him to church mates or strangers who will get to know me as a Christian already. He is impressing on me to share this with my family and friends; people who knew the sinner that I was. I am scared that they might not believe in what I’m saying or be angry at me for being “holier-than-thou”. It is my prayer that they will come to know Christ in their lives and I kept asking God to use others for this purpose but as time passes by, God is not sending others because I think it is me whom He wants to send.

I believe that no one is beyond saving. I have heard several stories of unlikely people that came to know Christ; probably number one on that list is the apostle Paul. I know that it is in God’s power to call my family and friends as His children. What I am doubtful is whether I can be the hand that God uses for that purpose. But as Henry Blackaby, the originator of the Experiencing God message, has answered to others, “God doesn’t intend for you to do it; He intends for you to let Him do it.”

In Matthew 7: 9-11, Jesus reminds us that our Heavenly Father will not ask us to do a job and then not help us accomplish it. He said, “Or which one of you if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

God is going to ask us to go with Him in dimensions that require more faith and activity than we have ever used before. It is the only way for our faith in Him to grow. We have to accept the next assignment, which is always greater than the previous one. 

Philippians 1:6 promises us, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” God will enable us so we can trust Him to see us through on whatever assignment He will invite us to do. This is why I am assured that God will enable me to share the Gospel with my family and friends despite my unworthiness to do so.

Major Adjustments 

"Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint but blessed is he who keeps the law." - Proverbs 29: 18 (ESV)

Once we have overcome our crisis of belief, we must now make adjustments in our life to join God in what He is doing. Adjustments may come in the form of moving to another place, joining and participating in a local church, lowering our standards of living, continuously giving, letting go of our pride, or changing our perceptions and reactions. As a disciple of Christ, we must decide, desire, and dedicatedly deny ourselves and take up our cross daily before we can follow Jesus.

Knowing God 

"And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning so that you should walk in it." - 2 John 1: 6 (ESV)

This is the seventh and final Reality of experiencing God. The highest level and most demanding Reality of experiencing God is obedience. We will come to truly know Him when we obey Him and He accomplishes His work through us. Obedience is costly but as well as disobedience. Instead of focusing on the cost, we must continually remind ourselves of the rewards of obeying God. 

God revealed Himself as the I Am. It is because He can be anything, anyone we need and want in our life. So there is truly only one choice for us and that is to put our trust and confidence in Him.

"For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom He predestined He also called, and those whom He called he also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified." - Romans 8: 29-30 (ESV)

In the end, wouldn’t it be wonderful to have Him say to us, “Well done, good and faithful servant”?

Yours, 

Lady