How to Have a Personal Relationship With God
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One of the more amazing things you discover in Scripture is how God relates to mankind on a very personal level. How we can have a personal relationship with God.
He walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day (Genesis 3:8).
He had a dinner meal with Abraham (Genesis 18:1-8).
He met with Moses and spoke with him face to face as a man who meets with his friend (Exodus 33:11).
King David would meet with God in his stronghold, the Cave of Adullam, and received personal instructions how to go to battle with his enemies (1 Samuel 23:1-5; 2 Samuel 5:17-25).
Heavenly Father greatly desires a personal relationship with his sons and daughters who are created in His own image, however, sin and self-willed living separates His children from Him.
The prophet Isaiah declared, “Certainly, the hand of the Lord is not so short that it cannot save, nor His ear so dull that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He will not hear” (Isaiah 59:1-2 MEV).
How to Have a Personal Relationship With God
Our Heavenly Father revealed His heart when He spoke through Jeremiah.
“For I know the plans that I have for you, says the Lord, plans for peace and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you shall call upon Me, and you shall come and pray to Me and I will listen to you. You shall seek Me and Me, when you shall search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord…” (Jeremiah 29:11-14 MEV).
God is knowable and He greatly desires to have a personal relationship with you.
Therefore, He did a truly startling thing to make that happen.
It is the one thing that distinguishes Almighty God from all other gods.
He came to mankind “seeking to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). There is no other god who has made himself knowable and seeks a personal relationship with a human being.
Hear these amazing words, “And if I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to Myself” (John 12:32).
God has sought personal relationship with human beings in two amazing ways.
1. He came to earth in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. He was born in a stable on the outskirts of Bethlehem and raised in the Galilean community, Nazareth. He began public ministry when He was thirty years old.
Three years later He was crucified, buried and rose from the dead. Jesus Christ was one hundred percent human and one hundred percent God.
“In Him dwelt all the fullness of the godhead bodily, and we are complete in Him who is the head of all principality and power” (Colossians 2:9-10).
When Jesus Christ was crucified, Heavenly Father laid upon Him all the sin and iniquity of mankind (Isaiah 53:6, 2 Corinthians 5:21).
2. Through His death on the cross the wages of the sin of mankind was paid (Romans 6:23).
When Jesus Christ was buried the sin and iniquity of mankind was buried with Him so it would no longer live (Romans 6:1-4).
When Jesus Christ rose from the dead, He made it possible for mankind to live a whole new life free from sin and iniquity and live as a new creation (Romans 6:4-5, 8:11, 2 Corinthians 5:17-18).
Knowing the heart of mankind is ever sinful, seeking our own way, Heavenly Father sent the Holy Spirit to convict the heart of men and women of their sin and iniquity and of righteousness and judgment to come (John 16:5-8).
A significant part of Holy Spirit’s assignment on earth is to draw people to Heavenly Father and to convict their heart so they will turn to God and repent of their sin.
Indeed, a person cannot even come to God if the Holy Spirit does not draw them.
Did you full grasp what Father has done?
He came to earth seeking you out. Then He sent Holy Spirit to earth to search your heart and to draw you to Him. Almighty God has does everything necessary to make it possible for us to live in a personal relationship with Him.
What would motivate Almighty God to such action, when mankind has been so rebellious?
There is only one motivation: His deep and abiding love for you and for me.
He is a holy God and He cannot abide with sin.
He is a just and a righteous God and He must punish sin.
He is also a loving and merciful God who greatly desires a personal relationship with His sons and daughters who are made in His image.
He has taken it upon Himself to redeem those who have been taken captive by the powers of darkness and become slaves to sin and iniquity.
He has redeemed them (paid the ransom price) through the death, burial, and resurrection of His own son, Jesus Christ.
He has redeemed them (taken them from the slave market) by the blood of His son, Jesus Christ, so they are no longer sinners but saints.
He has redeemed them (taken them from the slave market, never to return again) and adopted them into the Heavenly family and made them kings and priests unto their God.
All of this received as an absolute free gift through the grace of Almighty God.
It is an unbreakable covenant (Hebrews 10:15-17) that we can live with Him and walk with Him daily. He will speak with us face to face and manifest His presence in our life.
It is an eternal covenant that we will live with Him forever and ever in His Kingdom in a new heaven and new earth (Revelation 21:1).
Heavenly Father is highly relational.
Heavenly Father is knowable.
Heavenly Father desires a personal and intimate relationship with you.
Do you know Him in that way?
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