The 7 Realities of Experiencing God Part 2: God's Pursuit of a Love Relationship is Real and Personal
- Jason Pluebell
- Apr 13
- 10 min read
This article series covers a book by Henry T. Blackaby and Claude V. King titled "Experiencing God: How to Live the Full Adventure of Knowing and Doing the Will of God," in which seven individual truths are revealed and discussed that must be taken into account when following God's will. Henry and Claude go on a deep search to see what constitutes "experiencing" communication with God. They have created a list of 7 general realities that we will cover in several articles. I hope this series can help you on your journey with Christ and hearing His voice.
In Part 1 of The 7 Realities of Experiencing God, we reviewed the first revelation that must be accepted to experience a relationship with Jesus. These seven realities must be considered when we approach our Holy God. With the first thing, that God is working in the Mundane, out of the way, we can move on to what God is interested in concerning you. Namely, that never-ending Love that chases us down into a Real and Personal relationship.
The 7 Realities
Provided is a short list of all 7 of the realities of experiencing God:
God Is At Work Around You
God Pursues A Continuing Love Relationship With You That Is Real And Personal
God Invites You To Be Involved With Him In His Work
God Speaks By The Holy Spirit, The Bible, Circumstances, And The Church
Invitation Always Leads To A Crisis Of Belief That Requires Faith And Action
You Must Make Major Adjustments In Your Life To Join God In What He Is Doing
You Come To Know God By Experience As You Obey Him, And He Accomplishes His Work Through You
God Pursues a Continuing Love Relationship With You That is Real and Personal
Before God created the heavens and the Earth, He was existing within the Trinity in a continuity of Loyal Love. God's love overflowed into what we are now in, but something is wrong. When God chose to create us, He chose to give us a will by His Love. This raised a possibility of rejection, which God lovingly respected, but since God cannot compromise His nature, His Love is Just. But sin did not spoil God's plan; in fact God let sin happen because only He is able to forge and shape Good out of it. We cannot achieve perfect righteousness alone, and in His love for Man created in His image, He offered a way to Himself in Jesus Christ.
In His love for you, God is always in hot pursuit of that Love Relationship that is very real, and more personal than you can imagine! God is the one who initiates this relationship, it is important to realise that this is the only way. Since God is Holy Righteous, we cannot approach Him directly without a Mediator (God Himself in Jesus). He created you for that purpose, to love Him with all your heart and mind. But this relationship is not a one-edged sword. He wants to know you, and from that flows the worship of Him. Many say that "God's interest in my worship of Him is selfish", but this is impossible because God is Good, not just a Good, but is Good itself. Good flows from His being, His nature, and He cannot be otherwise.
Jesus said, “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. (John 14:21)” If you want God to reveal Himself to you, you must love Him, and that leads to obeying Him. Jesus often stressed that "if you love me, keep my commandments". When we obey Jesus, we show that we truly love Him. When we are genuinely born again through Christ, we change in ways that we cannot understand. “But I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. (John 14:31)" Jesus demonstrated His real and personal love with the Father by obeying every command. A love relationship with God requires demonstration of said love. Do not get me wrong here, I am not advocating for a Work-based Salvation, and hearing that statement may be hard to swallow for some. But think about it, if you love your new boyfriend or girlfriend, you pick up some things from them, and you listen to them, and when love is stable, you both mutually obey each other.
There is always an outward demonstration of true love, we see that every day. If you have an obedience problem, you have a love problem, and you should probably spend time with the Lord and genuinely seek the eyes of the Kingdom. This requires Faith (The trust in things not seen by things demonstrated and evidential) and love.
Difficulty with the Relationship: Experiencing God
I would like to quote from "Experiencing God: How to Live the Full Adventure of Knowing and Doing the Will of God". "If I were to summarize the entire Old Testament, it would be expressed in this verse: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.' (Deut. 6:4-5).”
When we love God, we humble ourselves and realize where we are, and where God is. This can be scary, but there is no reason for fear. God loves us and always chases us with that love. If you haven't accepted Jesus as your Lord, maybe you feel that tug with the Word or a certain sermon. I tell you, do not resist that, Jesus said that nobody comes to Him unless the Father draws them, that tug is Real, more Real than you can grasp. But this can be dangerous left unguided, ask God to guide you, and to give you a Reason to Believe (1 Peter 3:15).
This ultimately means that God's Goodness never changes, and His promises never go unfilled.
!Big Pill Warning!
Jesus said that the most important commandment is to love God with all your heart and love your neighbor (Mark 12:30). This may be hard to hear (this series may have a lot of pills to swallow). Everything about knowing and experiencing Him; Everything about knowing his will: Everything depends on this, and everything in your Christian life depends on this; depends on the quality of your love relationship with God. Here is a list of verses to read about what God says about life: (Deut 30:19-20; John 3:16; Rom. 8:35, 37,39; 1 John 3:16, 4:9-10, 19). If you want to take some time to read and pray on these verses, feel free to spend time with the Spirit. Then come back under the eyes of the kingdom, God is reaching out to you even now, He is always working.
The Lord does not just give you life, but He is your life; He has already drawn you to Himself. He sent His substance into the world, dying on the cross bearing all sin (in his infinite divine identity) and providing fellowship with Himself once again. God loved you before you came into the world, and has kept you here since, even if you do not know him.
Seek First The Kingdom, and All Will be Added...
When you enter into this love relationship, you do not part from it. You can turn from it for a period, but if you are genuine in that love, God has drawn you. He will chase you down, and this always results in an invitation to His work, and it always requires repentance, faith, and action. That Relationship is more important than any other part of your life. “God is saying, ‘I want you to love Me above everything else. When you are in a relationship of love with Me, you have everything there is. "To be loved by God is the highest relationship, the highest achievement, and the highest position in life.” (Experiencing God; Pg 84)
There is a reason, despite the Chinese Government's conditions against Christians, that Chinese Christians are flourishing in the Spirit. There is a reason that Christianity spread so fast and wide despite the Roman authorities and Pharisees. There is a reason that Christians can go through hardships and push through untouched. It’s not that we are strong, but the God that enables us is strong. Being a born-again Christian means dying to yourself every day, and walking in a new spirit with Christ, by Christ, and through Christ
What About Silence?
We are a "doing" people, and most of us who are saved and are in an assignment from God may be expecting to hear commandments from the Holy Spirit at all times. Fun Fact: You do not need to be doing anything to feel fulfilled; you are fulfilled in the relationship with God itself. If you aren't receiving an assignment from God, Focus on the love relationship. God may be waiting until this relationship is in action to reveal His will to you.
God Initiates This Relationship
Romans 3:10-12 tells us that nobody is naturally righteous. This does not imply that people cannot be good, God is righteous, and He is the standard. So sin has affected us so deeply that no one man seeks after God on his own initiative. God must draw us; He starts the process, and He enables it all the way through. In John 6:44, Jesus says just that: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise Him up on the last day.” (Jer. 31:3 says the same thing; another verse to look at is Hos 11:4). God has drawn you even when you were His enemy, even when your faith was lacking, or not genuine. Even Jesus chose His disciples, John 15:16 displays Jesus inviting Peter, and Peter responding. God took the initiative.
Why Does He Chase Us?
God chases you with Love because He created you for eternity, not for time. Your time spent on Earth is time spent getting to know God freely. It is God’s opportunity to create a new character in you, like Him. And this isn’t for everyone, God doesn’t force anyone into a love relationship with Him. God is not a psycho-ex-boyfriend who kidnaps you and demands your hand in marriage. Some will go running the other way, and that is normal, and an unfortunate truth. If you live for and in time, you let your past shape and affect you; your shame, guilt, hiding, and pride. Paul even struggled with this issue in his letter to the Philippians. “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (See Phil 3:4-14)"
To focus on the future, we must forget the past, as in not letting it mold us. We must look at everything with the backdrop of the cross. The Love that God displayed on the Cross for you is more than eternity. God chases us because He loves us, He knows what is best for us, and He is the only guide to a fruitful future. This guidance comes as you walk in the Spirit.
This Love Needs Time
Each Morning I wake up and read a psalm and a devotional (Now I just read where I am at in my studies), and spend the rest of the morning in prayer (I am not claiming to be perfect, some mornings I am so exsauhsted from work I do not get up for devotionals). Each person should have time set aside to spend with God, for a minute, a few minutes, or an hour. Jesus often went away to spend time in prayer, and this isn't by coincidence. Jesus didn’t have solitude with the Father in order to have a love relationship, but because of it. You should pray and talk to God as a result of loving Him. The more you talk and listen, the more experience with God you get, and that in turn creates more love for Him, and a stronger desire to talk to Him. Because I love the Lord, I want to spend time with him in my free time.
This can be hard, especially since we are a "doing" and busy people. This modern day is so full of sound that hearing God can be impossible sometimes! But we need not be afraid because God can overcome all of that, and work miracles in us all. When we enter into a love relationship, we want to spend time alone with God. When you spend time with your hubby, is it because you want to find out about what he likes, or what he wants, or is it because you like him and like spending time with him? Getting info out of him is part of the process and result, but is not the reason. The same thing happens with God: you learn about God’s will, what He wants for you, how He feels, and His word as you experience Him in your life. But this should not be the only reason. It’s like a funnel, you start out at the top with all your views and feelings, and as you know God, slowly, you descend the funnel until you are drawn to the Father. This is not selfish or non-inclusive, this is the most inclusive thing ever! All people can receive this gift and love, but not everybody accepts it. This then does not put the fault on God but on the person being offered.
This is Real and Personal
This love relationship is very real and more personal than you can think. Looking back at people in the Bible, God was real and personal to them. God revealed Himself and His will to people throughout history. For Adam and Eve, God walked with them. To them, God was the most real thing ever! God was very real to Moses, and he had doubts about it. He (Moses) doubted himself. God was real enough for Abraham to abandon his family estate and head for an unknown land. The Disciples definitely thought God was real and personal. Paul was a high-ranking Jew and persecuted Christians when God chased him down with His Love Relationship. God knows your heart, so why hide anything? God loves you so much more, but that love can't do anything if you aren't willing to acknowledge it.
God is always going to chase you with His love. Whether that love is but a tug whenever you were unsaved, or a conviction of sin that draws you to His feet, God is constantly pursuing a Love relationship with you that is real and personal. If you haven’t taken some time in prayer, maybe take a walk with God. You can walk around your house, your yard, the park, the sidewalk, it doesn’t matter. God always hears and is always loving. If you do not have that alone time, take some steps toward such, each morning, read a bit of scripture, and pray. Maybe after work, or even on your lunch break. I keep those little pocket red-letter Bibles around my apartment and in my car so I can always read them when I find the time. God is not limited to Sunday worship but should be at the front and backdrop of every situation.
I pray that you can humble yourself to God's pursuit, and hear and listen to his voice in prayer. That all of us can keep every thought captive to Christ; only then can we receive true guidance towards a future that will actually last. Amen
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