Several years ago, Henry Blackaby and Claude King wrote a book that became a best seller. I think it touched a nerve that many Christians have wrestled with — a desire to experience God.
The prophet Amos wrote, “Surely the LORD does nothing unless He reveals His secrets to His servants the prophets.” (Amos 3:7)
A careful study of the Scriptures will show that when God gets ready to do something, He always reveals to a person or His people what He is going to do. One of the reasons that God longs for intimacy with us is because He always accomplishes His work through His people.
· Are you a born-again believer?
· Are you developing a growing intimacy with God?
· Are you aware that God is at work in you?
· Are you aware that God’s plan is for Him to work through you to accomplish His own holy purposes? Paul, in Philippians 2:13 wrote, “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”
· How is God using your life?
· Do you serve Him working through you?
Henry Blackaby, in his book, lists “Seven Realities of Experiencing God.” Let me share these with you.
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 invitation for you to work with Him always leads 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 come to know God by experience as you obey Him and He accomplishes His work through you.
Let me focus on Reality #1.
Some believe that God created the world, set it in motion and went off to leave it function on its own. That is pure nonsense. God has been actively involved in the history of the world and people’s lives ever since the beginning.
The sin of Adam and Eve certainly interfered with God’s plans, but even there we see Him taking an active role in rescuing them when He clothed them with the skins of animals. (Genesis 3:21, “And the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife.” GOD WORKED IN THEIR BEHALF.)
The children of Israel had been in Egypt for many years. Ultimately, they became the slaves of the Egyptians and their lives were miserable. In Exodus 2:23-25 we read, “Years passed, and the king of Egypt died. But the Israelites continued to groan under their burden of slavery. They cried out for help, and their cry rose up to God. God heard their groaning, and He remembered His covenant promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He looked down on the people and knew it was time to act.” (NLT). (I get goose bumps reading those verses because God was already at work around His people.)
· He saw to it that a baby boy named Moses was spared from the Pharaoh’s edit that all baby boys, two years and younger were to be destroyed. Exodus 2:1-6.
· God saw to it that Moses was adopted by the Pharaoh’s daughter, but in his formative years, he was fed and nurtured by his very own mother. Exodus 2:7-10.
· After he was grown, one day on a walk he saw an Egyptian beating up on an Israelite. He killed the Egyptian and the next day when it was obvious his deed was known, he fled to Midian. Exodus 2:13-25.
(There he settled into the Medianite life, married, had a family and became a shepherd.)
· Now, years later, when the Israelites began to cry out for help, God appeared to Moses and spoke to him from a burning bush and revealed His plan for Moses and the deliverance of the Israelites. God had been at work around Moses the entire time. Even his job as a shepherd was to prepare him to lead two million Israelites from bondage to freedom. GOD IS ALWAYS AT WORK AROUND US.
(He knows who you are. He knows where you are. He knows what you are going through. He cares about you. He already has a plan on how He is going to meet your need. Count on it!)
Let me close with this personal story.
I had always enjoyed Steve McQueen’s movies.
I did not know there was a hunger in Steve’s heart.
Nor, did I know that God was preparing me to become Steve’s pastor.
It was God’s plan that on a certain Sunday morning in one of our services, when I invited people to receive Christ, that Steve would do so.
A few days after that decision, Steve told me how he had invited Christ to be his Savior and Lord. I did not know that it would be my privilege to disciple Steve, but God did.
I did not know that almost a year later, Steve would be diagnosed with cancer.
I will never forget the day when he told me of the diagnosis and how he said, “Leonard, now that I am a Christian, I want to beat this thing, but if I don’t, I know where I am going.”
Later, he made me promise if he didn’t survive that I would do his service.
I was scheduled to leave on a Monday morning for a mission’s trip to Romania. I was quite sure that Steve would pass while I was gone and I wouldn’t be able to keep my promise to do his service.
Early on Saturday morning Barbie, his wife, called to let me know Steve passed. She said, “Leonard, Sunday afternoon at the ranch, in the corral, I’d like you to conduct a memorial service for Steve.” I did and left Monday, as planned.
Talk about experiencing God. All the time He had been at work around me and through me to accomplish His will. HE ALWAYS WORKS THROUGH PEOPLE TO ACCOMPLISH HIS PLANS.
Dear friends, I assure you God is working around you. It is His deep desire to work in you and through you to accomplish His will.
· Are you listening?
· Are you available?
· Are you willing?
I pray that every day every one of you who reads this meditation will experience God.
For His Glory,
Pastor Leonard
