Prayer & Experiencing God--Part 2

Introduction

Last week we continued our look at prayer and we began looking at Henry Blackaby and Claude Kings’ Seven Realities of Experiencing God. We got through the first three. They were:

God is at work around us!

God is pursuing a love relationship with us!

God invites us to become involved with Him!

I honestly thought I could cover the next four realities in one sermon, but I really cannot do them justice. So this morning we will look at the next two realities.

Reality number 4 is:

God Speaks Through the Holy Spirit, Bible, Prayer, Circumstances, & the Church to Reveal His Purposes

If you have your Bibles I want to encourage you to turn with me to . If you don’t have a Bible you can use the one in the rack in front of you, or they’ll be on the screen.

John 8:47 NIV84

He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”

I’ll tell you this is an interesting verse. Look at it again. The one that belongs to God hears what God says. But Jesus doesn’t stop there. He goes on to say the reason people don’t hear God is because they don’t know God.

Question: Are you hearing God? If not are you sure you know God?

You see it is important that we hear and see what God is doing all around us. Otherwise we cannot join with Him, and He is going to accomplish His purposes with or without us. Look at .

Proverbs 19:21 NIV84

Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.

I don’t know about you, but I find that I have all kinds of plans. I want to do this, that, or the other thing. The problem is that not everything is good for me to do.

You see you and I are limited by time and space. We can only be one place at a time. And we really only have this moment, and we’re not guaranteed another one. So one of the things that we need to work on is choosing what is best.

Look at .

Philippians 1:9–11 NIV84

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

First, Paul wants our love to abound (grow) more and more in two things: Knowledge (knowing facts); and Depth of Insight (knowing how to use those facts)—this is sometimes called wisdom.

The more I love and am involved in loving God and others the more knowledge I gain, and the wiser I become.

Now Paul wants this to happen so we can “discern what is best.” Now think for a minute. If there is a “best” then that implies that there is a good, better, and best. It also implies that there is a bad, worse and worser.

The best is always joining with God where He is working.

This brings us to reality #5.

God’s Invitation to Work with Him ALWAYS Leads to a Crisis of Belief that Requires Faith & Action.

Notice the wording. God’s invitation ALWAYS leads to a crisis of belief.

The first thing we need to define is what is meant by a “crisis of belief.” Basically, it is answering this question:

Question: Do we believe God can and will do what He says?

And the second question:

Question: Will I use my resources to join with Him.

You see, a crisis of belief can be a crisis about money. It can be a crisis about time. It can be a crisis about the people we work with. It can be a crisis of family. The key is when God invites us to come and work with Him we will ALWAYS face a crisis of belief!

When we face this crisis of belief it will lead us to exercise faith and put action into work!

is our memory verse for this week. Look at what it says:

Hebrews 11:6 NIV84

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Sometimes my crisis of belief is a faith issue. I don’t have the faith to believe God!

James saw people in his day that were struggling with faith. In he wrote:

James 2:18 NIV84

But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.

God’s invitation for us to work with Him means we will take action! We cannot sit on the sidelines any longer. We must act!

SO WHAT?

What do we take away from this study? We’ve already seen:

Reality 1: God is at work around us!

Reality 2: God is pursuing a love relationship with us!

Reality 3: God invites us to become involved with Him!

Now we add the next two realities:

Reality 4: God Speaks by His Holy Spirit, through the Bible, Prayer, Circumstances, and the Church

Look around you. Where do you see God working?

How is He trying to speak to you this morning? Do you routinely hear Him speaking to you? Do you hear His Spirit?

When you read the Bible do you hear God speaking to you?

When you pray, do you hear God speaking to you?

When you life throws you a curve ball to you, do you hear God speaking to you?

When you come to church, do you hear God speaking to you?

For today we learned those who belong to God will hear what God has to say.

God’s Invitation to Work with Him ALWAYS Leads to a Crisis of Belief that Requires Faith & Action.

What kind of Crisis of Belief are you going through today?

What kind of faith do you need to accomplish the great things that God has for you to accomplish?

And finally, what kind of action is God wanting you to take?