Experiencing God-Lesson 21-God Reveals Himself

Isaiah 55:8 (KJV) For my thoughts are not your thoughts,Neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

Psalm 86:10–12 (KJV) For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: Thou art God alone. Teach me thy way, O Lord; I will walk in thy truth: Unite my heart to fear thy name. I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: And I will glorify thy name for evermore.

There are many people who have a difficult time understanding the nature and character of God as a loving heavenly Father because their perception is shaped by their experience with their earthly father. Some have had fathers who were harsh and demanding, others have had fathers who were distant and uninterested, others have been abandoned or abused by their earthly father. All these experiences naturally affect their perception of God as a Father.

One of the roles of the Holy Spirit in our lives is to help us to know God’s nature.

The Spirit also helps us understand the ways of God, for God often does not act as we would expect.

Finally, the Spirit helps believers understand the purposes of God so that we will come to know what He intends to do.

God Reveals His Character

When God speaks by the Holy Spirit to you, He often reveals something about Himself.

Examples:

Genesis 17:1 (KJV) And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.

Leviticus 19:1–2 (KJV) And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy.

Malachi 3:6–7 (KJV) For I am the Lord, I change not; Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?

John 6:51 (KJV) I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

God speaks when He wants to involve people in His work and He reveals His character to help them respond in faith.

People can better respond to God’s instructions when they believe God is who He says He is and that God can do what He indicates He will do.

God identified Himself to Abram by the name God Almighty. Abram needed to know that God was all powerful so he could believe that God could give him a son in his old age.

God revealed His holy nature to Moses and then through Moses, God told His people that He was holy. God’s people had to believe He was holy so they would respond by being holy themselves.

God spoke through Malachi to Israel emphasizing the fact that He is unchangeable and forgiving. God revealed His forgiving nature so the people could believe they would be forgiven if they returned to Him.

Jesus called Himself the living bread and the source of eternal life. Jesus declared that He was the way to eternal life so people could believe and respond to Him to receive this life.

God makes Himself known to increase our faith and so that we will obey Him.

When God discloses something to you about Himself:

You will have to believe God is who He says He is;

You will have to believe God can do what He says He will do;

You will have to adjust your thinking in light of these beliefs;

You will then be called upon to obey God, demonstrating your trust in Him:

When you obey, God will do His work through you and demonstrate the He is who He says He is:

You will then know God by experience;

You will then be absolutely convinced that He is who He says He is.

For example Abram came to know that God is almighty when God did something in His life that only God could do giving him a son when he was 100 years old and his wife Sarah was 90 years old.

God Reveals His Purposes

A small church with little funds began to pray and seek the Lord. Ukranian immigrants began attending the church. One of them offered to give the church a family home in a city of 650,000 people in Ukraine. God then called a man to go to Ukraine to being ministering from this base to the surrounding community. God immediately opened doors of opportunity to minister to large groups of people in the community and before long many people were being saved and many lives were being changed. A Bible college was started, more churches were planted.

God always has far more on His heart to accomplish through our lives and churches than we could possible imagine.

Ephesians 3:20 (KJV) Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,

It is tragic that we are often so preoccupied with our own plans and strategies that we do not even take time to hear what God intends to do.

Consider the Apostle Paul as an example:

Saul of Tarsus had specific plans he intended to accomplish for God.

He was intent on hunting down and arresting any Jewish people who embraced Christianity.

Then the risen Christ intercepted him and revealed what God’s plans for his life were.

God intended to use his life to carry the gospel to the Gentiles around the known world.

To this day the world still feels the impact of what God did through who we now know as the Apostle Paul.

God’s Purposes Vs. Our Plans

Many believers dream their dreams of what they want to do for God, formulating plans based on their own priorities.

Then they pray and ask God to bless their best efforts and to help them to accomplish their goals, even attempting to mobilize fellow believers to make their schemes successful.

What is actually important, however, is what God plans to do where we are and how He wants to accomplish His purposes through us.

Psalm 33:10–11 (KJV) The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: He maketh the devices of the people of none effect. The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, The thoughts of his heart to all generations.

Proverbs 19:21 (KJV) There are many devices in a man’s heart; Nevertheless the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand.

If your agenda is not the same as God’s, you will not experience God working through you.

The Lord foils the worldly plans of men, but His plans always succeed.

Planning is a valuable exercise, but it can never become a substitute for hearing from God.

Your plans and mine really only have merit insomuch as they are based in what God has told us He intends to do through us.

The biggest problem with planning is when we try to carry out in our own wisdom what God alone can do.

The will of God is not determined by human wisdom but must be revealed to us by God through our relationship with Him.

God intends for us to depend upon Him for direction, and He wants to equip us to do the assignment that He gives.

If we try to iron out all the details of His will in a lengthy planning session, we will have a tendency to neglect the need for a daily, intimate, fellowship with God.

We may accomplish our objectives, but miss out on the opportunity to experience God through this relationship.

This life is our opportunity to experience Him at work in us and in our world.

Planning is not wrong in itself, just be careful not to go beyond the revealed will of God in your planning.

Be willing to let God interrupt or redirect your plans at any time He wants to.

Be sure that you remain close to Him so that you remain sensitive to His voice when He begins to speak to you.

The best “planning meetings” are prayer meetings where we spend time with God finding out what He is up to and how we can get involved.

If as a church we are really serious about doing God’s will, we must spend more time seeking God and less time arguing and debating about what each member thinks we ought to be doing.

Illustration- there are many pastors and churches who are weighing competing models for church growth attempting to determine which model to pursue. In reality there is not a particular model that is worth pursuing to grow a church. Instead we ought to pray and ask God to tell us how to grow His church. We should cry out to God as a congregation and ask how He wants us to reach our community. Remember God has promised that He will build His church. Matthew 16:18

Matthew 16:18 KJV 1900

And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

We must let God be the head of His church and not attempt to usurp His authority to pursue our own plans, however good we may imagine them to be.

God Reveals His Ways

Even the casual reader of the scriptures can easily recognize that God’s ways and plans are different than man’s.

God uses kingdom principles to accomplish kingdom purposes.

God’s ways are redemptive, loving, and compassionate and bring cleansing, forgiveness and edification.

God does not simply help us achieve our goals for Him, rather He desires to accomplish His own purposes through us—and in His own way.

Isaiah 55:8 (KJV) For my thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

We will not carry out God’s plans by adhering to our own methods. This is one of the basic sin problems that people face.

Judges 17:6 (KJV) In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

Proverbs 21:2 (KJV) Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: But the Lord pondereth the hearts.

It is foolish to think that we can accomplish God’s work by using the world’s methodology and values.

Our ways may seem good to us and may even bring some measure of success, if we measure success purely by the number of people attending or the financial security of the church.

Yet we must consider the fact that many secular organizations and non-Christian religions are growing in numbers, buildings, and wealth, though they are obviously not pleasing to God.

The world’s philosophy says you should never commit to do anything that you cannot afford, yet God says without faith it is impossible to please Him.

Hebrews 11:6 (KJV) But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Is it possible that God would direct us to do something that we do not presently have the resources to accomplish expecting us to step out in faith believing that He will provide the resources we need?

The world’s philosophy is to value hierarchy and a chain of command while God seeks to give His people one heart and one mind to unite to accomplish His purposes.

The world reveres the powerful while God has said “Blessed are the meek.”

When we attempt to do the work of God in our own strength and wisdom, we will never see the power of God in what we do.

We will only see what we can do through our own creativity and ingenuity and in the end this will never suffice.

God reveals His way to us because that is the only means to actually accomplish His purposes.

When God achieves His purposes in His ways through us, people will come to know God experientially and God will be greatly glorified.

People will quickly recognize that what has happened can only be explained as a work of God and thus He alone will receive the glory.

This reality is demonstrated beautifully by the feeding of the multitude in Luke 9:10-17.

The disciples solution to the hunger of the people was to send them all home so they could eat.

Jesus instead had His disciples organize them, and then He distributed food to the disciples who in turn fed the multitude, and ultimately there was enough food that twelve full baskets were required to collect the leftovers.

This allowed the people to witness the power of God first hand.

Had the disciples done it their way, the people would have been sent home empty and hungry and would never have had this wonderful opportunity to see God work.

Every time we minister to people in our own strength rather than in God’s power, the people we minister to lose out.

The disciples witnessed this kind of mighty work on numerous occasions as they walked with Jesus.

They had to learn to adjust their thinking to align with God’s plans and purposes rather than relying on their own wisdom.

There are times when God is moving us in a certain direction that we feel the need for validation and confirmation of His will.

Too often we seek validation from our peers and we unconsciously—or consciously at times—depend on them rather than on our relationship with God.

It is a healthy thing for us to seek counsel from godly people in our lives, and yet in the end we must go to the Lord and seek clarification and validation from Him as to what He is instructing us to do.

When our relationship with God is healthy and vibrant we begin to discover that God can and will lead us in a very clear and personal way.

He is more than capable of making His ways known to you!