Getting To Know God Better 8

"Sometimes we are so emotionally distraught or in some kind of personal or family turmoil that getting to know God better doesn't seem as important as getting to know our self better.

There are a couple of ways to bust through and make a quick work of this dilemma. Of course there is always the, stagger through life with a chip on your shoulder expecting all the changes needed to make you happy to come from outside of yourself sources. But that is the slow and painful route. To bust through and make a quick work of getting to know your self better, here are some suggestions

Access your situation the best you can, all of it, the good, the bad and the ugly; make what minor changes that you can think of to better your situation and then that leaves the remainder of things, (those things working against you from outside sources) and some things that might require your attention to work out from the inside of your self.  The things working against you are minorly out of your control and should be set aside as those things that you cannot change of your own volition.

There are those things that you can work from the inside of your self. These things are the things that bring us back to the subject of getting to know God better. The best case scenario of finding your true self is through allowing God to reveal you through God's eyes. If you saw yourself through God's eyes you would be far less disappointed with the things in life that go wrong. God not only knows about them all, but He is intimately involved, on your behalf to provide you with everything you need to succeed in knowing your self and being very satisfied with who you are.

In order for your to really enjoy life and to get the most out of it you will have to juggle the mix of yourself (what you can do from the inside of you) and (the influences of those around you.) Here is my final analysis of how to integrate the two together with God in the middle. At night when all is quiet I contemplate the outside forces/people/issues. I don't try to figure any of it out during this session with God, I just want to gather the forces/people/issues into one package/thought.
Then I say to Jesus, "You have said to me to bring you my burdens and here they are." I am not worried at all that I will overwhelm Jesus with the quantity or the complexity of the forces/people/issues. But neither do I give them any more of my time or thought until I wake up in the morning.

If you don't believe that Jesus has this power/authority to take what you lay down and make something new out of it, then don't bother with the exercise. It won't work for you. And if you feel that what you lay down at Jesus feet you have to pick it up again and again and again to make sure it is adequately dealt with, well that doesn't work either.

This process of laying your burdens at the feet of Jesus is Biblical and it works. Jesus can handle it. It doesn't matter if you present it correctly or if you have mentioned everything that needs dealt with or even if you are absolutely correct in all your assumptions. It only matters that you lay down your burdens and that you believe that Jesus will take them on to Himself. Think about it this way; Jesus took on the sin of all humanity so that you could be saved from sin and stand before God justified/reconciled as a child of God and you will receive full benefits, now and in the great beyond. If Jesus has done that for you why do you think your particular burdens are so difficult for Jesus to handle of you? Remember Jesus handled the sin of the whole world for you. He can handle your burdens also."  

Getting To Know God Better 7

"Of the many ways to get to know God better, one way is to get to know Jesus better. Jesus was just as much God when He was a baby, a toddler, a teen, a young man as when He was an adult. Just as you were just as much chosen to be a child of God even before you were born. Getting to know the baby Jesus will help you understand the significance of why God, in His wisdom, chose to be the baby in Bethlehem. This was no accident. It was foreknown by God that Jesus would be born and grow up, like any other child, suffer the consequences of the social system of the time and make choices that would determine His destiny.

You have had the same opportunity that Jesus had to start out as a baby and go through life making decisions that would affect your destiny. The choices that you have made along with the outcome of the social surroundings of today has brought you to where you are right now.  I know what you are thinking; "But Jesus was sinless and I am not," how can you compare the upbringing of Jesus with mine? Well if you are certain that you did not have the same chance to make right decisions as Jesus because He was protected by God and the angels then let's just look at life from the time that you would call the age of accountability.

There were many times when a simple action or choice that Jesus made could have altered the plan of salvation. Take for example when Jesus was tempted by the devil. Three times the devil made a play for the actions of Jesus to be compromised but Jesus did not compromise. I hope you don't think in your heart that Jesus couldn't have compromised if He had wanted to. He was every bit a man as you are a man or a woman, with all the same physical and emotional frailties as you and me. Jesus did not succumb to the offers of the devil, but He could have. There were  many other times that the way that Jesus handled Himself was indicative of a man utilizing God-thinking.

It's OK that you have not passed all the tests of life with the perfection that Jesus did and it's Ok that you have made wrong decisions that altered what could have been, but don't ever think that you couldn't have done it differently. That's why we need Jesus as Advocate. Jesus through His life and choice has chosen to take on all your sin/s, all your indiscretions, all your bad choices and to wash you clean of the guilt and the payment for your actions.  When you confess your sin to God and accept the free gift of salvation, in essence you are trusting the baby Jesus just as much as the adult Jesus. You are trusting that Jesus has gone before you from childbirth to death and then to resurrection to make a way for you to be reconciled to God forever.

One way I get to know God better is through the eyes of the Bible as told by the life and times of Jesus starting at Bethlehem.
Mat 1:18  "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise:..."


   

Getting To Know God Better 6

"Are you sure you want to do this? Are you sure you are open to being unraveled, disclosed, unveiled, exposed, made bare? It's not a negative thing for this to happen when you are in the presence of God and God does not reveal His findings to people, so if that is the reason for you saying no, then it just won't hold up.

The reason that these things happen to you in the presence of God is because God designed you this way. Look, you can be religious, visit church or the synagogue, pray, talk about religious things, talk about God, do good things to others, all without getting to know God better or getting into the very presence of God. I think of it this way. Finding out there is a God is religion. Getting to know God personally is true Christianity.

Acknowledging that God exist and being part of a group of like minded people is good. But God made you to be able to communicate with Him and listen to Him and abide in Him and overcome your circumstances through an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit. If your relationship with God is partitioned off by the need for a mediator, you can be saved, and you can be religious, but you can't get close to God. You do not need a mediator to come/go to God. The Holy Spirit within is the mediator, not any man or any woman.

I know it is easier to lean on your church, pastor, priest, or rabbi, or even a saint than it is to go to God direct. But the only reason that you might believe that is because you have been conditioned to believe it. It has not come to you through experience or inspiration. Relying on a mediator for your relationship with God/Jesus/The Holy Spirit is religion, not relationship. Learn to let go and let God. Unlearn the behavior that has kept you apart from a 2-way communication with God alone. Re-train yourself to get into the presence of God and let God have His way with you for a season. You will not like everything you learn about yourself, but you will grow in Christ and stop relying on others go to God for you. In due time you will learn to enjoy the unraveling, disclosing, unveiling, exposure, and being made bare. With it comes the strength, courage, power and authority, forgiveness and authenticity to operate under the influence and guidance of the Holy Spirit and to co-create/bring to pass the will of God in your life."
John 14:26  But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

Getting To Know God Better 5

"You might have wondered, why would God allow it to be up to us to determine how much we want to get to know Him? That's a great question. God embedded in you certain inherent knowledge, a likeness, but there is more to God than can discovered even if you had centuries to discover.  The point is that God did disclose a great deal of information about Himself in these ways:

1. Creation itself discloses God as creator. I know there are those who would like to disagree, but to be honest with you I don't have the inclination to take on those fights, unless they come to me.

2. All of mankind were created and embedded with a likeness of the mind of God. This fact is denied by those who have never given God any recognition for their existence, but it is still true. It is this likeness of the mind of God that when housed in the natural man (unsaved) causes a battle of sorts between what the body is craving and what the conscience is guarding against. Even though their is a likeness to the mind of God in every human, there is no direct spiritual connection that is placed in the inner man.

3. Once saved there is a spiritual connection in the inner man between God and man. Here is where the saved individual can hear the small still voice of God. Here is where the battle for the final decisions are made, because the inner man expects the Holy spirit to guide him/her with the supernatural influence of God. Only the saved individual can communicate in this way with God, because only the saved individual has a spirit that has been borne/made alive.

Anyone can get to know God better from any of these three starting points. Even the unsaved person can get to know God better by study and examination, questioning the processes in creation and responding to the inherent likeness to God through inquiry or thought.

All that being said, I have found that not many born again Christians have a real interest in getting to know God any better than they did ten or twenty years ago. When new light is shown on them, they draw back like it is the enemy coming at them, because they have lost the day to recognition of the indwelling Holy Spirit. They have stopped noticing the little things that prove the day to day inspiration, communication and supernatural intervention that god provides. Not recognizing it is kind of like not getting/receiving it. If you get a package in the mail and never open it, you have it, but it is no no benefit to you.

Inside of item 3 above are many ways and stepping stones to get from one place with God to another place with God. It is better to get to another place with God than you have been before. Keep in mind that even if you did grow spiritually everyday and get closer to God every day, it is not like you are going to run out of  wonderfulness. Yes it is better to say to yourself; self, I do want to get to know God better. Just look up (in your inner man) and ask God to reveal more of Himself to you.  God always wills to do more than you can ask or think."

Getting To Know God Better 4

"If you have had any experience like I have, you have come to the point of understanding that you are not God and you will always have a finite view of God. Along with that wisdom is also the inner knowledge that you are a steward of the things that God designed, included but not limited to:

• Manipulating all the components of the natural realm to create and sustain life her on earth. 
• Working inside the parameters of prophesy; in other words you are at least understanding that what God prophesied will come to pass and you are willing to participate in bringing to fruition what God has already foreordained.
• Preparing an abode for the Holy Spirit to live in. That's right, the inner man houses the person of the Holy Spirit and you are willing to accept the responsibility that comes with the indwelling Holy Spirit and you also understand the blessings associated with such a relationship. 
• Accepting the requirement from God to be spontaneous as well as learned and organized. Of course study and practice are hallmarks of the developed christian life, but you must also be willing to say YES to the Lord when called, during the day, maybe this day, to do the impossible, without the necessary tools or knowledge, because you have come to the place where you believe that you can co-create with God. You supply what you do know coupled with what will require the hand of God and the impossible comes to pass.   
• Simple faith. You have not over-spiritualized the work you were called to do with religious observances that slow down the immediacy of the moment. You can listen to the small still voice of God while in the midst of the lion's din. That's right din not den. You have seen the face of God even while looking through the many walls and doors and veils that religion has placed in your way. You are open to the threshing floor even though you fully understand that might mean that you cannot hide behind the chaff anymore, like a lone reed shaking in the wind, for all to see. You have entered into the Holy of Holies and you understand that you must lay it all down, (even that which is most precious to you) in order to enter in and that by entering in, you are no longer in charge of the outcome. How easy it is to say "I lay it down," at Mass or in Church,  as long as you know in the back of your mind, when no one is looking you can pick it up again. 

Getting to know God better might require an unveiling of sorts of the things that you hold to so dearly.
You will find out things about yourself and your religion that you don't like too much.      
You will have to respond in a moments notice, without the aid of a scheduled program, at least occasionally.
You will have to admit that no one religious order contains all the light of God.
You will have to ...???

Getting To Know God Better 3

"Getting to know God better requires you to think in ways that are congruent with God's original design/intent. It does matter the way you think. This is key. It is not as important what you think as it is the way you think. The reason is that what you think can be changed easier than the way you think. Both what you think and the way you think are borne from all previous/past conditioning.

If you are satisfied with seeing God as a distant character in the game of religion, you will not be interested in continuing with reading this blog.

The whole of the universe is currently working off of the original design by God, not changed, not altered. We, our society and technology has evolved, but not the resources and the elements that we use to create. Our evolution of sorts is that of changing with the times, new discoveries, new technologies, even new understanding to things that always were. But God and His design, the how to's of the universe have not changed and won't.

Here is one of the biggest hurdles for people today. They want God to change with the times, to honor the dishonorable, to give a thumbs up to the lesser things that have trapped us all. Many people want an evolving God, one that goes along for the ride with us and our indiscretions and declining morality, one that makes provisions for our pathetic and paltry view of God, a god that jumps through any hoop for us to ordain our practical and religious view of God no matter how far form the truth we have strayed.

Getting to know God better requires that for a season, or for a little time or even for a moment, you abandon your conditioned, trained and religious interpretation of Holy God. We must start the process of unlearning the pitiful and base concepts that have brought religion to this point of such a grave mis-diagnosis of the Holiness of God. Your relationship with God, through Christ by the Power of the Holy Spirit must replace your conditioned, habituated, familiar and trained view of God. If it turns out that after a deep interaction with God you find that your church experience is assisting in developing and sustaining of a right relationship with God, then you should commend the leadership and stay and help and enjoy such a relationship. But if you find that you are being kept from the intimacy that is available between you and God by the fundamentals of your churches philosophy and you have made an attempt to share your feelings about being stifled, then it is time to move on.

It is better to move on with the hopes of finding solace through your relationship with God than to stay submerged in a religious system that doesn't let the submarine come up for fresh air once in a while. In the end, you will be responsible for your actions, not your rabbi, pastor, teacher, minister. If you are willing to go through life on the backs of others, and not search and discover truth for yourself, you will find very little new light. And yet you have the ability to reach out and touch the hand of God."

    

Getting To Know God Better 2

"The most important discovery concerning getting to know God better is to recognize that religion is the greatest barrier to a personal relationship with God. Wow! I can see the heads turning at this one. That's right, religion is a barrier to getting to know God better. don't get off on the wrong foot here.

I am not saying:

You can't find God through a religious experience/experiment

You can't get to know God better if you are a part of a congregation

Your church is keeping you back from getting closer to God

I am saying:

• Not all religions recognize God through the vicarious work of Jesus the Christ. 
• Many religions deny the divinity of Christ.
• Many religions do not recognize the need for a Savior.

OK, so now let's deal with Christian religious orders.

I am saying:

Some denominations have a mediator between you and God, thus purposely creating a barrier between you and God. You must go through someone other than Jesus to reach God. If you are in one of the denominations that have a mediator between you and God you will defend this notion of mediators because that is what you were taught, but it is not necessarily true. 1 Tim. 2:5

Some denominations have made up their own set of priorities, church polity, tenets of faith, church resolution. In these list of do's and don'ts many of the items are superfluous at best, not-biblical or downright erroneous, making the path to God hard and arduous, complicated and cumbersome, heavy and disappointing. They steer the parishioner to obligation and duty to the church and not necessarily to God. They provide formulas that work to keep the church in finances, but have nothing to do with God's economy at all. Out of necessity and fear they over-teach with add-ons that are not biblical, and they teach extra-biblical concepts to keep you coming. It is like the dangling carrot concept. Farmers tie a carrot on the nose of a mule that sticks out just a little and the mule move forward to try to get the carrot, but the carrot is always forward and the mule can't get the carrot. 

Now there are many pastor and ministers that are true to the gospel and they are bent on steering you to Jesus. They are selfless in helping you anyway they can to go higher with God. Their mission is to assist you in finding your place  in God's economy. They are willing to get out of the way and let God be God in your life. Bless them and encourage them. They are feeding the flock. There is a big difference between feeding the sheep and manipulating the sheep. Most of the pastors that are manipulating the sheep, know they are manipulating the sheep. They have no faith that you could ever talk to God without them. It is a complex that is developed through years and years of conditioning through their religious affiliation or by a personality that they have decided to follow. 

Getting to know God better is about unlearning a great many things. Don't get discouraged if I have said something that has caused you to take note. It is not heresy to question your religious experience and to seek new light. 

God through the Holy Spirit is available for you all the time.   

God has all the answers for you

God has loved you and will continue to love you always

God is speaking to you all the time

Getting to know God better will always be about you. If God is doing God's part then if there is a disconnect it will require that you open your heart and tell God about it and get the answer you need to go forward. Go directly to God. You might not be able to hear the voice very well at this time, but you will in due time.