Good morning! It’s been a while since I have checked in. I know that I need to get better at consistency. Life has been hectic for me and very emotional. I am not writing about that tho! I wanted to ask you a question. How do you experience God?
I was thinking this morning about how we don’t really teach our children to recognize the presence of God. Have you ever thought about that? Do you know how to share what it feels like to have an encounter with God with others?
One day years ago, we were doing a home church with our kids. As we worshiped, I heard God say, “Your kids don’t recognize when I am in their midst. You need to teach them.” So we stopped what we were doing and talked to them. I said, “We are going to put the music back on and I want you to notice what you experience during the time the music is on.”
Five minutes later, we stopped the music again and just asked them, “What did you notice?” The answers ranged from “I felt peaceful”, to ” I saw pictures”. We were able to then discuss that and show the kids that they were having an experience with God. The pictures are God’s language that he uses to speaks to us.
So often we take for granted that others know what it feels like to experience God. The reality is that a lot of people don’t know. They haven’t been taught. Experiences they have had, they haven’t recognized as being from God. It’s like the Christianize that we fall into. We use words and assume that others understand what we are talking about. It’s the same when we say we experienced a manifestation or the presence of God and for many people that is if we are speaking Greek. We don’t actually teach about this, nor do we talk about it.
Several years ago we had a meeting in our home. The emphasis was on worship. When the music stopped, we point blank asked, “what did you experience, what did you see?” At first people were afraid to share, but once we got people to talk about their experiences, they realized that they had communicated with God. We discovered we all encounter him a little differently but in similar ways. We discovered in a corporate setting, that there was a theme and we all had a piece of what God was telling us.
So often when we speak about experiencing God or hearing from God, people are confused and feel left out. Unfortunately they haven’t been taught to recognize that they, too, can hear from Him. Let’s be more intentional in teaching, training people and particularly children to recognize God’s voice and how He communicates with us all. Nobody has an exclusive line, we just “hear” differently. For some it’s the peace, which God brings, for others it’s pictures, for some an audible voice, for others it’s in his written word, or even an impression. They are all valid ways God communicates with us. We just need to be aware and seek to understand how he speaks with each of us individually. Don’t fall into a trap thinking God will only speak one way to you, he can use many ways, including though another person.
Enjoy your encounters with God, but be bold and share with others how they too can embrace and experience what God has for them too!