Hanging Out With
God
" truly our
fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus
Christ." (1 John 1:3, NKJV)
Most of us pray in
order to get something from the Lord or to get Him to do
something for us. As said last week, we should not so
much try to get God to do what we want but rather we
should get our will, mind and heart in line with His
will. But, would you be happy if your spouse or children
only spoke to you when they needed something? I know
some children do just that, but it is not right or
normal. We all want to communicate with our loved ones
at other times than when they need something from us.
Don’t you think
God is the same? Does He really only want to hear from
us when we are in trouble or when we have a shopping
list, or does He want to hear from us just to spend time
with us? Again we have this biased tradition that
equates prayer only with asking. The Greek word
translated prayer literally means “to ask” or “to plead”
and to ask is an important aspect of prayer. But it is
not the only purpose of prayer and, in fact, it was not
the original intent of prayer as practiced by Adam in
the Garden of Eden. Did Adam have any needs or problems
that he had to ask God for help with? I don’t think so.
Everything was perfect until Satan came on the scene.
Adam had no requests to bring to God, nor did he need to
intercede or do any of the other things that make up
most of our prayer time. In spite of this it seems that
God and Adam would commune.
Of Moses it
says that "… the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as
a man speaks to his friend." (Exodus 33:11). Friends
speak about a lot more than just their problems and
needs. The nice thing about good friends is the fact
that one can just kick back and talk about anything or
nothing at all. There is no need for ceremony or to be
careful how we phrase something or to make sure that we
are politically correct. When we are with friends we can
truly be ourselves and express ourselves about the
weightiest and the most trivial of matters. Good friends
don’t even need to be saying anything except to just
enjoy one another’s company.
Yet how many of
us have that kind of relationship with God where we can
speak to Him and He to us, just like two old good
friends? I suspect that most of us have a much more
formal relationship with Him. We are careful that we
address Him correctly, that we pray politically correct
prayers and worse, we babble on incessantly displaying
our discomfort in His presence. If a heathen person who
did not know anything about God heard you pray, what
conclusions would he come to? Would he conclude that you
are speaking to a friend? If not, there is something
wrong with your relationship with your Father.
David is
probably the most wonderful example of a man of prayer
and indeed “a man after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel
13:14). Look at his prayers in the Psalms. He would
worship God and make is requests know, but he would also
rant and rave at God for the unfairness of life. David
held nothing back but bared his whole being before his
Lord. His frustrations, fears, discouragements, joys,
hopes and struggles were all expressed to his God and
his friend.
If we take a
second look at Exodus 33:11, you will notice something
very interesting. It does not say that Moses spoke to
God (we know he did that), but that God spoke with
Moses! That’s the part that is most likely missing in
our prayer life. We are so concerned about making God
hear what we have to say, that we don’t stop until we
say amen and rush off to our business. I am not speaking
about hearing voices, seeing visions or some other
ecstatic or esoteric experience. But if we are to have
fellowship with God, it is going to mean a two-way
relationship. And no, God does not only speak to us
through the preaching on Sunday. He first speaks through
his Word. We should be praying with an open Bible, or
even better, we should be so steeped in the Word that we
don’t even need to have it open in order for Him to draw
our attention to a pertinent section. David spoke about
meditating on the Law day and night. It is wonderful to
have the Lord make a passage of scripture come live to
us as we wait on Him that clearly addresses some topical
issue in our lives. Yes, sometimes it comes through
preaching or formal Bible reading, but it should be more
than that. It should be part of our ongoing communion
with our Lord.
Secondly He
speaks through the small voice of His Spirit. This comes
in many ways. Sometimes it could be almost as clear as a
voice, but mostly it will be through a recurring
thought, or an idea that suddenly casts light on
something we have been struggling with or a vague
awareness or impression in our spirit of some fact or
direction. Of course these should always be in agreement
with the letter and spirit of the written Word. But I
also need to sound another warning here. Never tell
someone else that “God told me”. If the Lord did indeed
tell you, when you communicate the message with someone
else, or do what you believe the Lord wants you to do,
it will be very evident to others around you that this
is indeed the Lord’s doing. When we say “the Lord told
me”, we are arrogant and condescending and we place
undue pressure on the hearer to agree with us, when we
may have gotten the wrong message. Always leave it to
others to judge for themselves if this is God or not.
So, when last
did you simply hang out with God? Sometimes fellowship
with a friend involves just sitting together staring at
the fire but often friendship means walking, driving,
fishing or working together. How often do you go walking
or fishing with God – just to spend time with Him. I am
sure He misses those moments more than we do. Enoch,
Noah, Moses, Jacob, Jesus and many others walked with
God. Isn’t it time we took God out of the closet and the
sanctuary and began walking, eating, sleeping and
working with Him as the disciples did with Jesus?
Anton
Bosch
antonbosch@sbcglobal.net
www.abcd.co.za/offi
www.abcd.co.za/plumbline
Tel 818 846 5520
Fax 818 846 4357
3310 West
Magnolia Blvd
Burbank, California
91505-2907
USA