Know God For Yourself!

I have had the privilege of traveling to many beautiful places around the world.

I love to travel to places I have never been before.

I enjoy experiencing new adventures.

Whenever you return from new adventures and experiences you try your best to relate those experiences to your family and friends. Sometimes it is very difficult to properly convey what you have seen and done.

You simply have to say….. You would have had to have been there!

To fully experience or understand what I saw or did you would have to experience it for yourself.

How can you relate adequately the experiences of the Swiss Alps, The Italian Amalfi Coast, South African Safari’s, The Holy Land, The Far East or even the beauty of Alaska or Hawaii?

The truth is ……  I don’t want to be relegated to hearing the wonderful experiences of others. I want to experience them for myself!

When it comes to your experiences and adventures with God, He never intended for you to have to hear what He is like through the experiences of others!

God never intended for you to simply hear someone else’s story.

He doesn’t want you to just see the pictures.

He wants you to experience Him for yourself.

He wants you to encounter His presence.

He wants you to engage in His power.

God can be approached.

2 Cor. 3:16-18  (NLT) But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.

There is a huge difference between knowing about God and knowing Him personally.

It is the difference between spending eternity in heaven or hell!

You don’t go to heaven because God is in your head.

You go to heaven when you have personally invited Him into your heart!

God is a living Spirit!

He has a personal presence.

We need God!

We need power not words.

We don’t need another argument.

We don’t need more scholarship.

We don’t need more opinions about God.

We need God!

We need His Power!

We need His love!

Listen to the words of the Apostle Paul:

I Cor. 2: 1-5 (NLT) When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn’t use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God’s secret plan. For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified. I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling. And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God.

Don’t merely go after an experience!

Go after God!

In Genesis 32: 24-30, we read the story of a man named Jacob that had a personal encounter with God.

Three things happened in that story that can happen to you.

1)   God will give you a new strength.

Jacob became an earthly limper, but also a spiritual powerhouse.

2)   God will give you a new identity.

Jacob received a new name. The old things in his life were done away with a new future was established for him.

3)   God will give you a new joy.

With a God-given strength and with a God-given new identity, you receive a God-given joy!

Ps. 16:11 You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of Your presence and the pleasures of living with You forever.

What is your personal story in relationship with God?

Know God For Yourself!