Category: Experiencing God

God’s Plan vs. Our Plans

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In  the Bible we must remember who accomplishes these great acts… who delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt? We tend to say Moses, but it was actually God who delivered them (Psalm 81:10-12) using Moses to do it. Moses tried to assert himself and be the deliverer (Exodus 2:11-15) and failed. It was 40 years later that God sent him back to bring God’s people out.

Understanding what God is about to do where I am is more important than telling God what I want to do for him.

God’s way is always the best way. When God reveals what he is up to, it is our responsibility to adjust our lives to what God is about to do.

The prophets had a two-fold message:

  1. The desire of God was to call the people back to himself.
  2. The people are closer to the time of judgment than ever before.
    1. Tell the people what I have been doing.
    2. Tell the people what I am doing.
    3. Tell the people what I am about to do.

So, how do we adjust our lives toward what God is doing in our personal life, family life, church life, work life, community and nation?

Martin Luther went against the established church when he came to understand that the just shall live by faith, and what it means to be saved… and brought about a great Reformation.

Charles and John Wesley prevented a bloody revolution (like in France) by initiating a sweeping revival in England.

When God wants to interrupt your life for something great, we often react with a self-centered way by declaring, “I’m not trained, so I can’t do it…” This focus is totally on SELF. We try to give God all the reason that he has chosen the wrong person for the job.

God-centered vs. Self-centered

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The essence of sin is the shift from a God-centeredness to a self-centeredness. To know God’s will, we must turn away from self-centeredness. Look at it this way:

To be self-centered: life is focused on self, we are proud of self and your own accomplishments, we have confidence is in self, a dependence on self and our own abilities, seeking acceptance from the world and its ways, selfish and ordinary living.

To be God-centered: we have confidence in God, dependence on God and on his abilities and provision, life is focused on God and his activities, we have humility before God, denying self, seeking first God’s kingdom and his righteousness, and seeking God’s perspective in all circumstances, holy and godly living.

In the Bible we don’t see God asking people to dream up what they want to do for God. The pattern is to submit, wait, watch and then join him.

Our goals for experiencing God, basically to know and do the will of God…

  1. I must deny myself and return to a God-centered life.
  2. I must reorient my life to God.
  3. I must focus my life on God’s purposes and not my own plans.
  4. I must seek to see from God’s perspective rather than from my own distorted human perspective.
  5. I must wait until God shows me what he is about to do through me.
  6. I must watch to see what God is doing around me and join him.

The Seven Realities

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Here are the seven realities of experiencing God:

  1. God is always at work around you.
  2. God pursues a continuing love relationship with you that is real and personal.
  3. God invites you to become involved with him in his work.
  4. God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal himself, his purposes and his ways.
  5. God’s invitations for you to work with him always leads you to a crisis of belief that requires faith and action.
  6. You must make major adjustments in your life to join God in what he is doing.
  7. You came to know God by experience as you obey him and accomplish his work.

We tend to ask questions trying to determine whether we really heard from God…

  1. How can I know it is God speaking to me?
  2. How do I know where God is at work?
  3. What kind of adjustments will I have to make to be obedient?
  4. What is the difference between adjustment and obedience?

Here are three similarities in the lives of biblical servants through whom God worked:

  1. When God spoke, they knew it was from God.
  2. They knew what God was saying.
  3. They knew what they were to do in response.

Let’s look at the seven realities of Experiencing God in the life of Moses:

  1. God is always at work around you. The people groaned in slavery, cried out to God, and he heard them, he looked on and was concerned (Exodus 2:23-25) .
  2. God pursues a continuing love relationship with you that is real and personal. Moses came up to the mountain of God and talked with him, and told Moses of his plans for deliverance (Exodus 24:12, 15-16, 18).
  3. God invites you to become involved with him in his work. God said he was sending Moses (Exodus 3:8, 10) to do the work of God.
  4. God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal himself, his purposes and his ways. The lord appeared in the flames of the bush, and later while Moses would visit God face to face (Exodus 3:2-8, Numbers 12:6-8).
  5. God’s invitations for you to work with him always leads you to a crisis of belief that requires faith and action. Moses gave five excuses why God could have picked a better person for this job (Exodus 3:11, 13, 4:1, 10, 13).
  6. You must make major adjustments in your life to join God in what he is doing. God said GO and Moses started back to Egypt (Exodus 4:19-20).
  7. You came to know God by experience as you obey him and accomplish his work. Moses came to know God more intimately through his obedience (Exodus 14:15-17, 21-23, 26-27, 29-31).

When God is about to do something, he reveals to a person or to his people what he is about to do. Points to remember are that God sees, hears, cares, acts and has a plan for this people. When God reveals what he is about to do, that revelation becomes an invitation for us to join him. The great part is that God is already at work in the place he is going to send us!

God uses ordinary people to accomplish his purposes. We often think of Elijah as an extraordinary person of faith, but the Bible actually tells us he was ordinary (James 5:18-19). Peter and John were nothing special to the rest of the world (Acts 4:13) but were used in a mighty way by God. This is God’s pattern to use the weak to accomplish mighty things (1 Corinthians 1:26-31). When people don’t measure up to human standards, God is still at work in their lives.

When you believe that nothing significant can happen through you, you have said more about your belief in God than you have said about yourself. – D. L. Moody

Learning to be a Servant

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Jesus came as a servant to accomplish God’s will in the redemption of humanity. Here are two classic verses regarding the obedient servanthood of Jesus:

  1. Philippians 2:5-8 (servant, humility, obedience)
  2. Matthew 20:26-28 (greatness, service, example of Jesus)

As the Father had sent Jesus, he also sends us (John 20:21). The master never allows the servant to run out on his own to do whatever the servant wants to do for the Master. That is not a biblical servant.

Here are two concepts regarding a servant (Jeremiah 18:1-6).

  1. The clay must be molded.
  2. The clay must be in the potter’s hand.

A clay pot or cup cannot do anything on its own; it must submit to the will of the potter. So, a servant can do nothing on his own, when God works through a servant he can do anything… as long as he is moldable and remains in the potter’s hands. The Master alone makes the clay into the vessel he chooses (John 15:5).

Use Elijah as an example (1 Kings 18:15-39) when he was going to prove once and for all who was the greater God. He was outnumbered 850 to one. Had Elijah run in and did all this on his own, he would have failed.

  1. At whose initiative did Elijah offer this challenge (1 Kings 18:15)?
  2. Who brought the fire down from heaven (1 Kings 18:38)?
  3. After is is all said and done, what did Elijah have to do? He was to be obedient to God and focus on the task or mission he was given.

Sometimes we think that we should NOT just stand there, but do SOMETHING. This is not the way it is with God. He often wants us to stand still until he leads, then we go and do the work he has for us. God wants us to adjust our lives to him, and then he will accomplish great things through his servants.

Jesus is Our Model

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Jesus watched to see where the Father was at work and joined him in that work. The same is true for us, we must listen to what God says and how he works through the Scriptures. We must then make our decisions and evaluate our experiences based on biblical principles.

Our own experiences cannot be our guide; they are way too subjective. The Bible is our guide in life. Many Christians become disoriented to the Bible and turn to worldly programs and methods that appear to be the answer to spiritual problems.

When God called Moses into service (Exodus 3 and 4), he was not told any details. We often ask a question like, “What is God’s will for my life? when the proper question is to ask, “What is God’s will?” Then we must align our lives to that will. It is the difference between being self-centered and God-centered.

The example of looking for where God is moving and acting accordingly is found in John 5:17, 19, 20. In this passage we discover Jesus was not just going around doing his own work. The Father was at work, because the Son can do nothing on his own. The Son does what the Father is doing, and the reason the Father shows the Son what he is doing is out of love. This is one of the clearest statements on how Jesus knew what to do in life.

  1. The Father has been working up until now.
  2. Now God is working through Jesus.
  3. Jesus can do knowing on his own initiative.
  4. Jesus watched to see what the Father was doing.
  5. Jesus did what he saw the Father already doing.
  6. The Father loves the Son and shows Jesus shows him everything that he himself is doing.

The challenge is to watch and see where God is working and join him there.

Jesus is Our Way

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The church is going through the Blackaby classic study called Experiencing God and I intend to post my insights along the Journey.

When Jesus comes into your life, we are called to seek his will in all matters. We are not supposed to just live our lives as we have been before receiving Christ. We take this journey one step at a time, growing in the faith and knowledge of Jesus Christ and his ways (John 14:6).

Jesus does not tell us that he is A way to God but THE way to God; or that he will show us the way, or even give us a road map to find our destination. He guides us all along the journey.

There is also a difference between a headlight and a lamp. We desire to use a headlight to see down the path, when God provides a lamp, which allows us to take steps toward our destination. We walk by faith ant not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).

Abraham followed God one step at a time (Genesis 12:1-5). Notice that God told him to GO, but not really a destination… a place that God WILL SHOW him at a later point. The same is for us, to walk step by step without knowing all the details.

The priority in life is Matthew 6:33-34).