Having more of God in your life (conclusion)

We all would like to have more of God in our life, more of His power in our lives and in our gatherings. There are times when we come together as a church that the Spirit of the Lord just seems to come in like a flood, and then there’s other times when we seek the Lord with much effort to find Him. Entering into His presence in a corporate way is a different dynamic than doing so as an individual. I believe there are times when the Lord through His love and mercy just decides to flood us with His presence. The times that God presence seems a struggle to find isn’t because He is no longer loving, but He’s waiting to see if we will make the effort to align our hearts properly to approach Him. The things we do outside our corporate gatherings has an effect on what happens when come together and whether or not we will readily enter into His presence. If our daily life is out of sync with God then it should come to no surprise that a gathering of believers would experience a “groping effect” of trying to find God

Let’s bring this down to a more personal level. Is there a key to having a closer walk with the Lord? A key to having more of God’s power in our life, and thus in our gatherings? We recognize (and if you don’t you should) that any real transformation of our life, any real development of the fruits of the Spirit, the character of God in our life is because of the Lord’s doing. So does this mean we just sit back and wait for the Lord to pour it on us? That somehow if we just wander through life aimlessly trusting in God’s ability to do all things that someday we will wake up and find ourselves molded in God’s image, having the character of God developed in our lives? Does “trusting” in God equate to no effort on our part? Does being in tune with God just come without any exertion on our part?

I believe there are disciplines that we are to do to draw us into a closer walk with the Lord. These efforts in and of themselves don’t produce the character of God in our life, they don’t transform our heart, they don’t  produce the fruit of the Spirit, they don’t even teach about God in an intimate way. But what they do is cultivate our heart in such a way that we are then open to having the Lord work within us, to having Him speak to us and reveal His will to us, to show us a little more of Himself. Like any relationship, our relationship with the Lord requires work and effort to maintain and grow more intimately. There’s a story of a couple who was having marital problems and they went to the counselor for help. He asked the husband when was the last time he told his wife that he loved her. He responded, “The day we got married”. The counselor replied, “Why only then?”. The  husband responds “Well if it ever changed I’d let her know”. This is a cute little story that drives home the idea that relationships require maintenance. A relationship is built upon interaction. If there is no interaction, then there is no relationship. Before I go any further I want to add this – law bound disciplines breath death. Once you make any set of actions a law to follow you immediately dismiss the personal offering of willingness to seek God’s face  that’s so pleasing to God to respond to. You can not reduce fellowship with God down to a formula to memorize. He is a living Being, to result to such things is insulting and those efforts won’t amount to much more than rote discipline. You will never go beyond the initial meager human effort and find the awesome living God. He won’t respond to such “dead” works.

So what can we do to not only maintain our relationship with the Lord but even have it blossom into an even more intimate fellowship? Well here’s a few things that I’ve observed our Lord Jesus and his disciples practice as recorded in the Bible. One discipline is prayer. We should daily be in conversation with the Lord. Sharing our needs and burdens, our hopes and dreams, our fears and failures. 1 Thess 5:17 says to “pray without ceasing”. A way that’s helped me to understand what this is saying is this: there are some things we have done from birth and have never stopped doing, like eating and drinking. Every day we eat and drink something. Col 4:2 admonishes us to devote ourselves to prayer. Philippians 4:6 says we are to bring everything to the Lord in prayer.  James 1:5 tell us that if we lack wisdom talk to God about, He will more than meet your deficit. Finally Luke 11:9-12 assures us that the Lord will respond to our efforts.

Another effort we are to make on our part is praise and worship. This will draw us into the presence of God, remind us of who we are and how great God is, and for just a brief period of time get our minds off ourselves and our own condition and glorify God for who He is. Philippians 4:4 instructs us that rejoicing should be a daily occurrence. Ephesians 5:19 tells us we are to sing  and make melody in our heart to the Lord if we want to be filled with His presence.

A third discipline we can do is read God’s word . We are to become acquainted with what God has spoken. Matt 15:18 says that “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks”. If you want to know God’s heart then read what He has spoken. Look at how God has dealt with humanity. When Jesus was faced with temptation (Matthew 4) the word of God He committed to memory helped to keep him from evil. Psalms 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible. Every verse makes reference to God’s word via statute, judgment, precept, or law.

Meditation should be another habit we develop. We are to think about the things of God, Philippians 4:8 encourages us in what things we are to dwell on. Isaiah 1:18 tells us that God would like to reason with us. He wants us to think deeply about things. Finally Mark 12:30 tells that love our love for God is to be made up of our whole being. We are to devote our minds to thinking on the purposes of God and the many good things He has to say and has done.

Still yet another discipline that Jesus and his disciples did frequently is fasting. There are several different things you can fast from to condition your heart to hear God. Food is usually the first thing that comes to someone’s mind when they think of fasting but also consider other things that you might give up to focus on God. Do you like video games? Television? Facebooking? Whatever might satisfy a desire in your heart, put it away for a while and see how your hunger for God and receptiveness to Him will grow.

Finally but certainly not the least discipline we should do is service. By giving of ourselves to the needs of others this creates an opportunity for God to talk to our hearts. First of all, the way we serve our spouse and children will have an immense impact on our spiritual growth. 1 Peter 3:7 clues us in that our relationship with our family definitely has an impact on our relationship with the Lord. Its because the Lord desires that our homes reflect the great mystery of how Christ sacrificially loves the church and gives Himself for it (Ephesians 5:25-33). So servitude should first begin at home. Then we should look to the  poor and needy, for they have a special place in God’s heart. God is a champion of the weak, destitute and distraught, and He pours his blessings out on both the good and evil. Jesus showed us that didn’t He? How many times did He heal people who never did turn to follow Him? Still yet He continued to have compassion on others. Jesus said that what we do even unto the least (whoever you think would be the most undeserving), is the same as doing it unto Him. So by looking to the needs of others and not just ourselves (Philip 2:4) the Lord will speak to us through these things.

In conclusion I would like to for us to ask ourselves this question, “Why do we feel the need for more of God, the need to draw closer to Him?” It’s because He placed that feeling there and He wants to draw closer to you. Believe it. Jesus said that no one can come unto me expect the Spirit of the Father draw Him. That same One who drew us initially hasn’t stopped drawing us. He wants to be with you. Another place it says that we love Him because He first loved us. Yet still in another place it says while we were still helpless, while we were enemies to God He loved us and gave His most beloved Son for us. If we will but move out in faith towards God, doing what we can, He will meet us. And the reason we want more of God in our life will become clearer than ever.

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