Communicating With GodCommunicating with God, starts with a little insecure prayer, and only God knows when you might stand in confidence before him.
Starts with PrayerIs
it possible to really be communicating with God?
This must be one of the most important questions in the world today. But why is
that question more important today than before? Because God, Christianity, and
the Christian values are under attack like never before. Maintaining faith in
the One True God and his Son will become a matter of ‘we say – they say’ for
those who have not discovered that communicating with God will answer questions
once and for all. Is it possible for man
to be communicating with God, face to face? In order for this to happen, to
"communicate with God face to face", there are some requirements that
must be fulfilled: 1.
There must be a God. 2.
This God must have an actual face (and, of course, all other body parts; in
short, a body). 3.
This God must be interested in man. 4.
There must be at least one man who is interested in God. 5.
This man must be worthy to enter into the presence of God. If any of the above links are missing, this communicating with God
cannot, or will not take place. Let’s start by looking back in history; Has anything like that
ever happened? Actually… it has! 11 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. 12 And Moses said unto the LORD, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this
people: and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou
hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight.
(Exodus 33:11-12) In this beautiful
passage we get to see Moses communicating with God, face to face. We only get
so listen in on a very little part of it, which is only fair. After all, Moses
had paid a high price to be there! He lived righteously, he obeyed the voice of
Jehovah, he sacrificed a
privileged life in the royal courts of By
this passage we know that there is a God.
We know that he has a face, and therefore, most likely a body. We know that God
is interested in man. We know that if a man believes in God, follows his
commandments, and in all things obeys his voice, he can, in fact, enter into
the presence of God. Was Moses the only person who received an invitation to
meet with God? Indeed not; Even
our first parents in the Garden of Eden entered into his presence,
communicating with God: 9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and
said unto him, Where art thou? 10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the
garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. 11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I
commanded thee that thou shouldest
not eat? 12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I
did eat. 13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done?
And the woman said, The
serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. (Genesis 3:9-13) Did this transgression make them
unworthy of communicating with God? Obviously not, since they were not
consumed by fire in his presence! In absolute terms it didn’t make them
unworthy, since they made a choice between two commandments, to the best of
their ability. They had to break one of them! They chose to obey the
commandment to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. In order to do
so, they had to break the commandment not to eat of the fruit of the Tree of
Knowledge of Good and Evil. God was not disappointed. He was not wroth. He was
not in a punishing mood. But he could use this one transgression for his own
wise purposes. Read more about this in Original
Sin. If,
Since Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses and others were communicating with God, is
it not likely that Peter, James, John, Paul and others also were communicating
with God? When
we are communicating with God in prayer, we are asked to pray unto the Father, in
the name of Jesus. We should understand this, that
Jesus, our Mediator with the Father, pleads our prayers before Him. And in the
same manner, whenever the Father wants to communicate with man, he will do so
through the same Mediator, even Jesus Christ, (or Jehovah). 14 Thus saith the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of
Israel; For your sake I have
sent to 15 I am the LORD, your Holy One, the
creator of Who is the Lord, the Redeemer, the Creator,
the King of the Jews, and the Holy One of Israel? No other than Jesus Christ, Jehovah of the Old Testament, the only
voice of Deity after the fall of Adam (with only a couple of special exceptions
that we will discuss another time). If
God was willing to let worthy servants be communicating with God in times of
old, is he willing to do so now? 8 Jesus Christ (is) the same yesterday, and
to day, and for ever. (Hebrews 13:8) We should find comfort in the knowledge that
Jesus never changes, but is no respecter of person. However, those who are
blessed to see the Lord in our time, and talk to him, face to face, as a man
speaks to his friend, hold this experience to be sacred, and will not reveal
what is seen in the burning bush for a world that is
not willing to take of their shoes to enter holy ground. In
his goodness the Father has ordained ways to communicate with God that are open
also to struggling people, people who wouldn’t even
dare approaching the physical presence of Deity. There are millions and
millions of people who needs-, and wants-, their communicating with God. Let’s
look at how we can approach the Lord in prayer, and look at the different ways
that those prayers can, and will become man's communicating with God, not just a monolog. Jesus taught us to turn unto the Father at the beginning of the prayer (not to Jesus). Errors in translation have messed up the true
wording of the beginning of the Lords’ Prayer. Of course it shouldn’t be: Our
Father which art in heaven. He was
talking to his real Father, a personage with a face, with a voice, who could sit upon a throne, upon
who’s right side Jesus were seen. He is not an object. It should have read: Our
Father who is in heaven. Now, the Lords’ Prayer is a public prayer, not a
personal one, but it showed us how to begin a prayer properly. A private prayer
will become closer to the Lord when private terms are used. ‘My Father in
heaven’, ‘Dear Father’, ‘My Heavenly Father’, or words of that nature, are all
appropriate ways to start a prayer. After addressing the Lord properly, as shown above, we give expression to
all the things that fills our hearts of gratitude. The
Lord explains to David, the Psalmist, the
key to a wonderful and fruitful personal prayer: 14 Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy
vows unto the most High: 15 And call upon me in the day of trouble:
I will deliver thee, and thou shalt
glorify me. (Psalms 50:14-15) If we don’t have gratitude in our heart, then
we do not have the spirit of prayer, and we need to take time to count our
blessings until a feeling of gratitude comes creeping up on us. This is a good
time to start praying. By expressing gratitude unto God, we become set in our
minds to commit/recommit our lives unto him (pay our vows unto the most High). All things up to now have prepared us for asking
the Lord for the things we stand in need of.
And perhaps it is with the asking that the actual communicating with God can
start! Is it selfish to ask God for help with our lives? No! But there is a
line which one should not cross. The Spirit will teach the meek where that line
is, but this much is clear, the line is crossed when we ask: Oh Lord won’t you
buy me a Mercedes Benz… We should call upon him in the day of trouble. We
should ask for health. We should ask for our daily bread. We should ask for
wisdom. We should ask for guidance. We should ask to be lead by him. And he has
promised that he will answer us: 5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of
God, that giveth to all men
liberally, and upbraideth
not; and it shall be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, nothing
wavering. For he that wavereth
is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. 7 For let not that man think that he shall
receive any thing of the Lord. (James 1:5-7) When we ask of God, and we try to do it in
faith, believing that he will answer our prayer, remember the pattern of the
Lord throughout history; He
has always been merciful unto all those who have
sought him. And we need not fear the baggage of our past
lives, for God promises not to upbraid. He will scan our heart and see what we
intend with our future. If our heart is right with him for the future, mercy is
what he will deliver. You will find that pattern over and over again in holy
writ. This is the nature of God. You can have faith in this. We end our prayer by saying: “In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen”. The reason why we do this is that since the fall of Adam we do not have
direct access to God the Father. So in order for our prayers to reach the
Father we must have an absolutely sin-free advocate, a mediator, who will plead
our case with the Father. This advocate and mediator is Jesus Christ. By not
ending our prayers properly our prayers will drop to the ground unheard. How
will he answer your prayer? It depends on many
different things. It depends on who you are. He wants you to sense the reply,
and will probably use the modality that you are most comfortable with, or most
receptive in. He will not answer your prayer in Latin. If it will ever be
through a voice, it will be in your language. If he can reach you through your
heart, that’s where he will answer you. If it is easier for you to listen
through your mind, well, that is where the answer will come. He knows everyone
of his children, and communicates with them on their terms. But one thing is
sure, if you expect great, powerful, sensational answers, you open yourself to
be deceived. God isn’t much for the spectacular. See the wonderful insight in
this passage: 11 … And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a
great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before
the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake;
but the LORD was not in the earthquake: 12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the
LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. (1 Kings
19:11-12) We live in a world of sensational impressions
on our senses. God will not compete with the thunders of i-pods. He will never overpower the wind of the
internet. He will not attempt to take the place of the fire of alluring DVD’s.
But when the i-pod,
computer and DVD is turned
off, and everything is quiet, that is when God will speak. And he does all the
time! And the people of our time hear it loud and clear, hates the
responsibility it comes with, and therefore they step right out into the storm,
thunder and fire; for in these – God is not! In answering prayers God will use the nature, a baby, your
neighbor, your friend, a stranger, your brother or sister, your mother or
father, your memory, the newspaper, the radio, or whatsoever thing he sees fit
to use that will find its way into your prepared mind. And when you recognize
His hand in all things, and rejoice in the answers he gives you, you will find
that he, from time to time, starts using other, more direct means. You can hear
a still, small voice in your bosom. You can be overpowered by an impression to
act a certain way. Your mind can be enlightened with an understanding that you
know is above your own. And if you are so blessed to find a man with the
authority of God to bestow upon you the Gift of the Holy Ghost, you will find
that you will be led, warned, comforted, cheered, enlightened, reminded and
invigorated daily. Then it is the Holy Ghost, the third member of the godhead
who will be your every day voice of the Lord in your communicating with God. Oh
what a gift that is! Then you truly uphold communicating with God, and you will
be guided through this deceitful world. Return from Communicating with God - to Home
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