Experiencing God- Lesson 6- Seven Realities of Experiencing God
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Amos 3:7 (KJV) Surely the Lord God will do nothing, But he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.
Illustration- Angola Prison- Christian warden who implemented Bible Studies and then prisoners were changed, congregations were started, some were called to ministry, other called to missions specifically transferred to other prisons to being Bible studies.
The Scriptures testify that when God prepares to do something in our world, He reveals to His people what He is about to do.
Then God accomplishes His purposes through His people.
The Bible is designed to help you understand the ways of God and then when God starts to use your life in the same way He worked in the Scriptures, you will recognize that it is God.
When God Speaks
When God Speaks
Throughout the Bible when God involves men and women in His work God would speak to them. When God spoke:
They knew it was God
They knew what God was saying
They knew what they were to do in response.
When we examine scripture there are common experiences that we can see in the lives of those whom God used. These will be referenced in this lesson as the seven realities of experiencing God.
These do not comprise some type of formula for knowing God’s will. You can’t accomplish these steps on your own. They do however identify ways God works with a person or group to involve them in His activity. This lesson will provide a basic overview of these seven realities.
Moses’ Example
Moses’ Example
Today we will look to the life of Moses as somewhat of a pattern where these seven realities are seen.
Reality I: God is Always at Work Around You
Reality I: God is Always at Work Around You
God did not create the world and then abandon it to function on its own. He has been actively involved in human affairs throughout history.
Because of sin, humanity has been separated from God and God has worked and is continuing to work to bring about the redemption of those who are alienated from Him and are facing imminent judgment and destruction.
The Father is working through Christ to reconcile the world to Himself.
2 Corinthians 5:19 (KJV) To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
In God’s sovereignty, He has chosen to accomplish His work through His people.
As He carries out His mission, He seeks to move people into the mainstream of His activity.
God was already at work around Moses’ life when He encountered Moses at the burning bush.
Even though Moses was an exile in he desert, he was right on God’s schedule and he was in the middle of God’s will for that moment.
Many years earlier, God told Abraham his descendants would be in bondage, but that He would deliver them and give them the promised land.
Genesis 15:13 (KJV) And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
God was watching and waiting until the time was right toe carry out His purposes for Israel.
The time came in Exodus 2:23-25
And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.
When God was preparing to deliver the children of Israel from bondage, the overriding concern was God’s will for Israel, not God’s will for Moses.
God was at work with the nation of Israel and He was preparing to utilize Moses to play a key role in redeeming His people.
God is actively working among the people in our community as well even when we do not recognize or clearly see it.
Only God can open our eyes and reveal to us what He is doing, otherwise we will remain blind to His presence and work.
Reality 2: God Pursues a Continuing Love Relationship With You That is Real and Personal
Reality 2: God Pursues a Continuing Love Relationship With You That is Real and Personal
God created mankind for a love relationship with Him.
More than anything else, God wants us to love Him with our total being.
Mark 12:30 (KJV) And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
He is the one who pursues this love relationship with us because we do not naturally seek Him on our own initiative.
Everything we experience from God comes in response to His invitation.
He reached out to us in dramatic fashion by sending His son as a demonstration of the love He has for us.
Romans 5:8 (KJV) But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
This love relationship with God is intended to be both extremely personal and practical.
This is probably the most important factor in knowing and doing the will of God.
We must realize that if our love relationship with God is not as it should be, nothing else will be in order.
God took the lead in inviting Moses into a dynamic relationship with Him.
Moses led the sheep he was tending to “Horeb, the mountain of God”.
There God interrupted Moses’ plans by initiating and encounter with him at the burning bush.
God told Moses that He would go with him into Egypt and various other scriptures illustrate how God pursued a continuing love relationship with Moses throughout his life. (Exodus 24:12-18)
Time and time again God invited Moses to talk with Him and to spend time communing with Him.
God initiated and maintained a growing relationship with Moses.
This relationship was based on love, and God daily fulfilled His purposes through Moses.
The relationship with God was extremely practical as God guided and provided for His people under Moses’ leadership.
Reality 3- God Invites You to Become Involved With Him in His Work
Reality 3- God Invites You to Become Involved With Him in His Work
God is the sovereign ruler of the universe. He does not ask us to dream our dreams for Him. He does not invite us to magnificent goals and then pray that He will help us achieve them.
He already has His own agenda when He approaches us.
God’s desire is to get us from where we are to where He is working.
He leads us from being self-centered to God-centered.
When God reveals to you where He is working, that becomes His invitation to join Him in His activity. This is the time to respond to Him.
In Moses’ story God’s purpose was to rescue the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and to establish them as a nation in their own land.
Moses was the one through whom God intended to accomplish His plans.
God invited Moses to become involved with Him in His work. (Exodus 3:8-10)
Exodus 3:8–10 (KJV) And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.
It would never have crossed Moses’ mind to do something of this magnitude had God not invited him.
Yet suddenly Moses was being summoned to join in a work that God had been preparing for centuries.
Reality 4: God Speaks by the Holy Spirit, Through the Bible, Prayer, Circumstances, and the Church to Reveal Himself, His Purposes, and His Ways
Reality 4: God Speaks by the Holy Spirit, Through the Bible, Prayer, Circumstances, and the Church to Reveal Himself, His Purposes, and His Ways
The testimony of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is that God speaks to His people.
In the present day, God communicates to us through the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit will use the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church (other believers) to guide us.
When you hear God speak to you through a verse of scripture, its always best to verify what you heard through prayer, other believers, and your circumstances.
If you hear God say the same thing through each of these sources you can proceed confidently.
God will draw you into a deeper and closer walk with Him so you can trust Him and have faith in Him. He will reveal His purposes to you so you can become involved in His work rather than merely pursuing your own goals and dreams.
He reveals His ways so you can accomplish His purposes in a manner that glorifies Him.
Isaiah 55:8–9 (KJV) For my thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways my ways, saith 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.
God’s ways are not our ways and we cannot discover these truths about God on our own apart from God revealing them to us.
God used the unique experience of the burning bush to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways to Moses.
Numbers 12:6-8- God came and spoke to Moses about His will.
God wanted Moses to go to Egypt so He could deliver the Israelites.
He revealed to Moses His holiness, His mercy, His power, His name, and His purposes to keep His promise to Abraham and to give Israel the promised land.
When God spoke, Moses knew it was God, he knew what God had said, and he understood what he had to do in response.
Reality 5- God’s Invitation For You to Work With Him Always Leads You to a Crisis of Belief That Requires Faith and Action
Reality 5- God’s Invitation For You to Work With Him Always Leads You to a Crisis of Belief That Requires Faith and Action
God wants a watching world to come to know who He truly is. He does not call you to get involved in His activity merely so people can see what you can do.
He will call you to an assignment that you cannot accomplish apart from His divine intervention.
This does not mean that God does not ask us to undertake mundane, seemingly ordinary tasks, but when God is involved in anything there are always eternal, divine dimensions, implications, and possibilities.
When God asks you to do something that you cannot do, you will face a crisis of belief.
You will have to decide what you really believe about God. Can He and will He do what He has said He wants to do through you?
How you respond to His invitation reveals what you truly believe about God.
This major turning point is where many people miss out on experiencing God’s mighty power working through them. If they cannot understand exactly how everything is going to happen, they won’t proceed.
So often we want to walk with God by sight, but God desires that we would walk with Him by faith.
Hebrews 11:6 (KJV) But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Faith is more than just belief but requires action.
James 2:14 (KJV) What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?
God doesn’t merely want you to believe what He sats but to also obey what He commands.
God’s invitation for Moses to work with Him led to a crisis of belief that required faith and action.
We can see Moses in the midst of this crisis in Exodus 3:11-4:5.
In each objection Moses doubted God’s power more than he was questioning his own ability.
Moses was forced to face the question: Is God really able to do what He says?
God finally convinced Moses to become involved in delivering Israel from slavery as He answered each objection.
Reality 6: You Must Make Major Adjustments in Your Life to Join God in What He is Doing
Reality 6: You Must Make Major Adjustments in Your Life to Join God in What He is Doing
To get from where you are to where God is working often requires significant adjustments in your life.
These adjustments may relate to your thinking, circumstances, relationships, commitments, actions, and beliefs.
You can’t stay where you are and go with God at the same time.
Moses had to make major changes in his life to join God in what He was doing.
Moses had to return to Egypt, and leave behind the life that he had become accustomed to.
Moses made the required adjustments to orient his life to God.
Moses had left Egypt under threat of judgment many years earlier and it was a big deal for Moses to return there.
Moses was taking a great risk to follow God’s leading but it was his belief in God that led him to do so.
Reality 7: You Come to Know God by Experience as You Obey Him and He Accomplishes His Work Through You.
Reality 7: You Come to Know God by Experience as You Obey Him and He Accomplishes His Work Through You.
Once you have determined to follow God by faith and you have made the necessary adjustments you must obey Him.
When you do what He tells you, no matter how impossible or bewildering it may seem, God carries out what He purposed through you.
Not only do you then experience God’s power and presence, but so do those who observe your life.
Moses came to know God by experience as he obeyed God and God accomplished His work through him.
God spoke to Moses numerous times and each time that Moses obeyed God brought him into a deeper understanding of who He is.
As Moses obeyed God, God accomplished through him what Moses could never do on his own.
Exodus 33:11 (KJV) And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.
Moses had the opportunity to know God like few others have because he was willing to trust Him and obey His commands.
Summary: God is at work reconciling the world to Himself. Because He loves you, He wants to involve you in His activity. He begins by pursuing a love relationship with you. He then invites you to become involved with Him in His work. As He relates to you, He discloses Himself, His purposes, and His ways. If you want to experience God’s mighty power at work in and through you, you must walk by faith, make major adjustments, and obey whatever God tells you to do.