7/31 Talking with Jesus Today – a Testimony for Christian Foundations

The following is s Guest post by my husband, Daniel.  He wanted to share his experience in learning to hear from the Lord Jesus.

Today I would like to encourage you to pursue an intimate relationship with God.

“We have been in ministry for over 25 years in Christian counselling and teaching and can forcefully proclaim that the biggest impediment to successful living is not having a two-way relationship with Jesus.  You have the right to hear your Heavenly Father’s voice on a daily basis!

“I don’t know about you, but when I hear the word “prayer”, I often get the impression of someone who is petitioning God – a one-way monologue.  Why is this impression so common place?  Did you know that the root word for the English word “prayer” comes from Latin (precarious – Collins) and means “begging”?  I am sure Jesus is very saddened to know some of us limit our relationship with Him to “begging”.  I will use the word talking instead of prayer.

“When Jesus died on the Cross for us, He proclaimed that we could have a relationship with God on a personal basis and call God “Abba” for ourselves.

Mark 14:36, Romans 8:15, Galatians 4:6 

“As you might know Abba means “daddy”.  It is an informal word for Father and implies a loving, caring, intimate relationship, where words are spoken between Father and Child.  What loving Daddy would not speak to his children on a daily basis?

“There are many impediments to pursuing an intimate relationship with Father God, but the biggest one is not believing, that you can have such a relationship.

MY TESTIMONY

“Let me give you an example.  You are allowed to laugh if you find this amusing.

“When I first married my wife Susan, I was an atheist and she was a backslidden Christian.  After we had immigrated to Australia from the USA, she started going to a church in Ringwood.

“One day I heard her talking aloud in the shower.  When I enquired what she was doing, she said she was talking to God.

“Well, I couldn’t believe it!  As an atheist psychologist, I actually thought she had a mental illness.  I literally looked in the Yellow Pages for a psychiatrist to check out her mental state.

“Then I confronted her with the following argument: 

“1. There is no God and 2.  If there were a God, however, he wouldn’t be interested talking in you.  It would be like an elephant relating to an ant.” 

“I think she just smiled and let me have my rationalist mindset.  However, this incident helped lead me to Christ and later to be able to dialogue with God.

“I know a lot of Christians have a similar mindset, that God is remote and would not be interested in the details of their life.  He would not take the trouble to talk to them.  Therefore they reason, why bother learning how to hear from God?  How wrong they are, He just loves to talk to His children!

“Lately I’ve been reading John.  I wanted to see what God Himself says about how He is going to talk to us, from John 16:12-15 NIV

“Verse 12  Jesus had much more to TELL them.  He had only “discoursed” with the disciples a small portion of His wisdom.  But they couldn’t handle anything more at this time.  In His compassion, in the future, He would send another guide (the Holy Spirit) to continue where He left off.

“Verse 13a  When the Holy Spirit came, He would GUIDE all Believers into all Truth.  The Spirit would “point the way” by giving us His instructions in the journey of Life.

“This guidance is still for us today.

“Verse 13b  The Spirit SPEAKS the Words to us that He hears the Father and Son speak in unity.  Furthermore, the Holy Spirit was also going to SHOW the disciples (and possibly Believers today) things to come, i.e. “announcing future events in detail”

“Today we can still hear the Holy Spirit speak to us the Words that He hears.

“Verse 14  The Holy Spirit was also going to “ANNOUNCE in detail” to the Believers aspects of the wisdom and knowledge that Jesus possessed.  This would bring glory to Jesus.

“The Holy Spirit still reports to us things today that the Father has given to Jesus.

“Verse 15  Of course Jesus Himself received all that He had from the Father, who gave Him everything.  Then the Holy Spirit would take from that storehouse and declare it to us today.

“As you can see, there is a lot of communicating going on between Father and Son and now between the Holy Spirit and us.  We are entitled to hear God for ourselves.  It is not only a privilege, but mandatory for successful living.

“I encourage you to go further in your relationship with God by hearing His voice, and responding to it, daily.”

Susanne Fengler, Blog Author

www.christianfoundations.jesus-treeoflife.info

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