What Is Spending Time
With God?
Building A Relationship With God
Building Your Faith
There are
many Christians who do not have an intimate, personal relationship with
God. There are two easy ways to identify such people:
· they usually
try to do things for God instead of trying to do things with God
· they usually
seek to have God's blessings instead of God's presence
Indeed, many
Christians would have trouble imagining what it might mean by "doing
things with God" or "having God's presence". But we can do
better and reach higher than settling for God’s grace alone. Knowing about
God has saving value. But intimately knowing God is just as
possible and much more important.
God is
everywhere, but not equally from place to place. The Old Testament speaks
of the Shekinah glory of God: God's manifest presence
in his cloud, or above the ark of the covenant.
Scripture also mentions God "turning his face" towards places or
people meaning that they have His favor. In other words, just because God
is everywhere does not mean we always have a spiritual connection with God.
Spending time with God means
spending time being spiritually connected with God.
Why do
you spend time with God?
Scripture
shows that people were created in order to have relationships with God, to give
God glory and worship. That's our primary reason for being, and should be
our top priority in life. Overall, the
human race, may have gotten away from this, but having
a relationship with God and giving Him glory and praise is of paramount
importance.
“They are my people-- I
created each of them to bring honor to me." (CEV, Isaiah 43:7)
For by
him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and
invisible, whether they are kings, lords, rulers, or powers. All things have
been created through him and for him. He
himself existed before all things, and by him all things hold together. (ISV, Colossians 1:16-17)
”…because you created all things, and they came into existence and
were created because of your will." (ISV, Revelation 4:11)
According to worldly thinking, this is foolishness.
“Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the
weakness of God is stronger than men.” (KJV,
1 Corinthians 1:25)
We are trained to think, "me first!” To some people
worship appears to be a waste of time. It often seems better to be
working, earning money, helping others, or pursuing our own desires. Even
believers with the fullest relationships with God can be ensnared by this
worldly thinking. Can you think of Bible
examples, for example, David’s sin with Bathsheba or how King Saul fell from
favor with God.
In both cases, these servants of God abandoned His divine
principles because of worldly thinking. We
need to spend time with God because God wants us to do so and created us to do
so. Looking at scripture or actually experiencing this makes that truth
clear. Looking at the world, or experiencing sin and iniquity, hides that
truth and makes it hard to see.
How do you spend time with God?
Scripture tells us that we should try to always be with God.
“I will always show you where to go. I'll give you a full life in
the emptiest of places-- firm muscles, strong bones. You'll be like a
well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry.” (MSG,
Isaiah 58:11)
So your
gates shall be always open; they shall not be shut day or night, so that men
may bring to you the force of nations, and that their kings may be led. (LITV, Isaiah 60:11)
Yet I was
continually with You; You have taken hold of my right
hand. (LITV, Psalm 73:23)
Why should I always be with God?
Jesus’ prayers in the upper room describe how we should have
intimacy with God:
"For
I'm no longer going to be visible in the world; They'll
continue in the world While I return to you. Holy Father, guard them as they
pursue this life That you conferred as a gift through
me, So they can be one heart and mind.” (MSG, John 17:11)
Paul's writings explain "being one" with God in another
way:
“Don't lie to one another. You're done
with that old life. It's like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you've
stripped off and put in the fire.” (MSG, Colossians 3:9-10)
“My assumption is that you have paid
careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we
have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance,
everything--and I do mean everything--connected with that old way of life has
to go. It's rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an
entirely new way of life--a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and
working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in
you.” (MSG, Ephesians 4:21-24)
If you are trying to "fix up" the old personality with
good old time religion, you are on the wrong track! If you are trying to
use psychology to fix up yourself, you are on the wrong track! If you are simply using positive thinking to
fix yourself up, you are on the wrong track!
You cannot truly fix up your old self, but God can! By spending time in God's presence, God
continually renews the new self he wants you to be and allows you to grow in
fuller measure!!
How do I begin to spend time with God?
What works for one person as spending time with God might for
another person only work as doing something for God. Pray, asking God how
he suggests the two of you, that is God and you, spend your time together!
The easiest way to spend time with God is by worshiping God in music and song.
This is what my wife, Ruth was called to do twenty years ago and has done
this ever since. When you worship God
with music and song your attention is almost wholly upon God, so there are few
distractions. From a worldly viewpoint, music and praise is an unproductive
and useless activity. However, this
aspect of worship is no less important in our lives than any other activity for
the Lord.
Another easy way to spend time with God is asking for God's spirit.
God has promised to send believers his spirit when we ask (Luke 11:13).
We can also ask for other things, but God's spirit, one aspect of his manifest
presence, is something we can ask for without questioning its
appropriateness. In fact, we cannot be firmly rooted in Christ without
His manifest presence. Ask for God to
increase your need and desire for him! While worshipping, ask God to
manifest himself so strongly that you can feel it! Do not doubt or give into unbelief. Ask for His divine presence and believe it!
Another easy way to spend time with God is simply listening to God. Almost everyone
who prays spends too much time talking or singing, and not enough time
listening. Listening for long periods of time takes practice, but
listening just a little more than you did before is good way to practice.
Some people are even called by God to spend so much time focusing
on one aspect of His spirit that they may be limited in doing many other "good works"! For example, it is
possible that God makes it a priority with you that you spend time with Him. The early apostles had this calling and dealt
with the needs of the early congregation in this way:
In those
days, as the number of the disciples was growing larger and larger, a complaint
was made by the Hellenistic Jews against the Hebraic Jews that their widows
were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. So the twelve called the whole group of
disciples together and said, "It is not desirable for us to neglect the
word of God in order to wait on tables. Therefore,
brothers, appoint seven men among you who have a good reputation, who are full
of the Spirit and wisdom, and we will put them in charge of this work. Then we will devote ourselves to prayer and to
the ministry of the word." This
suggestion pleased the whole group…” (ISV, Acts 6:1-5)
The apostles had found
that they were consistency short of time and could not pull themselves away
from doing certain things with God, so they made arrangements for assistance
with other aspects of the ministry.
What are other ways of spending time with God?
Studying scripture can be done with God, as well as for
God. How much better that we do this
with God, as we will receive even more from the scriptures than we otherwise would.
Often we desire to be with God, but we don’t know what to
say. Using the gift of speaking in
tongues allows us to worship God when we do not know what to say, or
when we are busy doing something that takes enough attention that we cannot think
what to say.
According to Matthew 25:40, serving each
other can also be a way of serving God. However, be careful viewing service as worship.
If we do nothing else but serving others needs, we are not balanced and need to
refocus on doing other things to spend time with God. It is easy to fall into the enemy's snare of
doing things for God instead of with God. God doesn’t need you to do
things for Him, however He truly wants you to do
things with Him to glorify Him.
As we advance and mature, we often discover that we have other
gifts as well. These are outlined in 1
Corinthians 12.
By exercising the spiritual gifts that we were given when we
received the Holy Spirit, we find there are other ways to be with God. 1 Corinthians 12 tells us about the spiritual
gifts:
“And there are differences of gifts, but the
same Spirit; and there are differences of ministries, yet the same Lord. And there are differences of workings, but the
same God is working all things in all. And
to each one is given the showing forth of the Spirit to our profit. For through
the Spirit is given to one a word of wisdom, and to another a word of
knowledge, according to the same Spirit; and to another, faith by the same Spirit,
and to another, gifts of healing by the same Spirit, and to another, workings
of powers, and to another, prophecy, and to another, discerning of spirits, and
to another, kinds of languages, and to another, interpretation of languages. But the one and the same Spirit works all
these things, distributing separately to each as He wills.”
(LITV,1 Corinthians 12:4-11)
As God’s servants we can have any or all of these gifts in some
measure.
The gifts that we receive are determined by the Holy Spirit and
our willingness to accept these gifts in our walk with God.
© Copyright 2004 Bible Vision
International. All Rights Reserved.
“CEV” is the Contemporary
English Version
“KJV” is the King James
Version
“LITV” is Literal Translation
of the Holy Bible
“ISV” is International
Standard Version
“MSG” is The Message
Translation