Building a Relationship with God (Part 2)

Picking up the thread from where we left off last week, there are a number of things you can do to build a solid relationship with God. Let us look at them one after the other:

  

   Through regular study of the Word. I have said this before, and I will definitely be revisiting this subject again and again, that I am sure of. Notice I said through regular study of the Word, not daily study of the Word. The study of the Word should be something you do on a regular basis, not necessarily on a daily basis. This means you could study in the morning, in the afternoon and in the night, and even in-between these periods. The truth is, you can never have enough of Him, and the more of Him you glean from His Word, all the better for you! You’ll come to discover that the Word builds, strengthens and edifies your spirit, as can be seen in the following Scriptures:

Every Scripture has been written by the Holy Spirit, the breath of God. It will empower you by its instruction and correction, giving you the strength to take the right direction and lead you deeper into the path of godliness.

Then you will be God’s servant, fully mature and perfectly prepared to fulfill any assignment God gives you (2nd Timothy 3:16-17, The Passion Translation, emphasis mine).

 

And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified (Acts 20:32, King James Version).

  

    Through meditation on the Word of God. Meditation can simply mean to pause and think about what you have just read; or to ponder upon what you have read; and, to an extent, to commit to memory what you are reading. Meditation has been defined by The Sage Dictionary as the “continuous and profound contemplation or musing on a subject or series of subjects of a deep or abstruse nature”. It goes on to define meditation as a “contemplation of spiritual matters (usually on religious or philosophical subjects)”.

Now, you will agree with me that the contents of the Word of God are deep and abstruse in nature. You don’t just take what has been written on surface meaning or interpretation. Rather, you must spend time in meditation so as to glean everything the Lord is saying to you at that material time. Surely this would help build you up. It is the reason God told Joshua:

This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success (Joshua 1:8, King James Version). 

  Through spending time in prayer. Now, while praying is so important and a good practice, observe that I said to spend time in prayer. This is something you grow into gradually, so do not think of jumping the loop, to avoid discouragement along the way. I grew from mumbling a few words within a minute or two in prayers to God every morning before getting out of bed; to praying for five minutes; to praying for thirty minutes; to praying for one hour; to praying for three hours… Twice, when I was in school, I had reason to lock myself up for three days in my room without going out, without food, or doing any other thing, just to pray and seek the face of God about a matter. This is why I said spending time in prayer. And I have my uncle, Pastor Amos Austine Adoghe, my mentor and spiritual father, to thank for helping me build this lifestyle; a lifestyle he doesn’t play with.

The Book of 1st Thessalonians 5:17 (King James Version) admonishes us to “Pray without ceasing”. The Passion Translation puts it this way: “Make your life a prayer”. Imagine that! But why is this so important?

Prayer builds up your spiritual immunity and sensitivity. It has to do with communication with God. This means it is more of a dialogue than a monologue. It is a two-way thing: you talk to Him and He talks back to you. Imagine having to have God speak to you! Spending time in prayer can make this happen. This, too, though, is something that could be developed with time, and may not happen all of a sudden: God could choose to not say anything to you when you pray – and this too could be subject to your openness to even hear Him. Well, I’m not here to preach prayer, but I believe what I have said is explicit enough to enable you understand the concept and what to do.

      Through obedience to the Voice of God. This is so key to building a solid relationship with God. Obedience to the Voice of God is something He cherishes in His children. If God speaks to you through whatever means, whether in the place of prayer or while you are about your daily business, what then do you do with what He says to you? 

      I believe God speaks to us every time, and it is left to us to choose to obey. When you obey, you enjoy the benefit of obedience; but when you fail to obey, there are consequences that are not pretty. God would speak to Philip to go to the road that leads to Gaza (Acts 8:26), and then would speak to him to join himself to the chariot of the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:29). As meaningless as this may sound, if he hadn’t obeyed, the Ethiopian eunuch may never have heard the gospel of Jesus preached. This is just one example out of several throughout Scripture.

Once, many years ago, I was travelling to Benin-City from Agbor. I was at the park at Uromi Junction to board a bus. I heard the Spirit of God say to me, “Do not go with this bus. Alight and join the next one.” I didn’t like the idea. I wanted to be in Benin-City as early as possible, and this bus was almost full. If I should alight, it means I’d be the first person on the second bus. I liked that, since I’ll have to sit in the front with the driver. However, it also means that I’ll have to wait for the first bus to be full and watch it take off, and wait for the second bus to be full; and this could take another two or more hours as we wait for passengers to come. I didn’t like that at all, but I had no choice. I didn’t know why God gave the instruction, but I obeyed, and I thank God today that I did. When our bus finally took off, we passed the first bus along the road, fallen on its side, with the passengers all out, most of them wounded as far as we could see as we sped by. We don’t know if any died in the crash. I wonder what would have happened to me if I hadn’t obeyed the voice of God. This is how important obedience to His Voice can be.

In the Book of Jeremiah, God summarises this nicely for us:

I also explicitly commanded them: "Obey me. If you do, I will be your God and you will be my people. Live exactly the way I tell you and things will go well with you." (Jeremiah 7:23, New English Translation)

 

When all of these are in place, you are a different person, seeing things with new eyes only the Lord can give. When you understand this truth, you enter the world as a giver, a distributor, of His love, rather than a taker of the love the world gives (What kind of love is there in the world to take anyway, really?) His Love, embraced by you, becomes extended to others. This is the kind of life you want to live in the world, I assure you! Then you would be ready. Now, imagine finding someone like that, a partner, who is also ready! Both of you together would be explosive! Ah! But we are still exploring this. See you next week!