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                              7 Truths from Experiencing GOD       In tonight’s class we are going to explore 7 Truths from The Study Experiencing God.  In doing so, we will be doing a self check.   As in an old rap song, “Check yourself before you wreck yourself.”  In exploring what this study shows each of us in our spirit we will be able to more effectively help the Lord help and minister to others.  I must let you know that if we are extremely truthful and honest with one self, together with the Lord the chaff can and will be burned away and fruit will grow.   For some of us this will be a renewing of what in our spirit we already know.  Now keep in mind the old saying that is true with any teaching, “Don’t take my word for it, and take the word’s word.”     Tonight we are going to go over 7 points from a summary of the Study Experiencing God.  The 7 points we are going to cover are: God is at work around you, God Pursues a Love Relationship with You, God Invites You to Join Him, God Speaks to You, Your Crisis of Belief, You Must Adjust Your Life, and You Can Experience God.  Now today we will lightly touch on these subjects I urge you to further search for what the Spirit can show you through prayer, fellowship, and the Word!  Truth 1: God Is at work around youGod knows who you are!  In John 1:48 Nathanael asked Jesus “How do you know me?”  Isn’t that an amazing question for someone talking to God!  Do you honestly know that God knows you?  He has known since before creation itself!  In the Book 7 Truths from Experiencing God Pastor Henry Blackaby reminds us of several points some Christians seem to overlook.  None is more apparent than what he told his University Students who had been trying for over a year to start bible studies at the local College.  “One Sunday I pulled our students together and said, “This week I want you to go to the campus, watch to see where God is working, and join Him.”  They asked me to explain.  God had impressed on my heart these two Scriptures:  “There is one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God” (Romans 3:10-11).  “No one can come to me {Jesus} unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John6:44)” This in itself may not seem remarkable, until you add what the Spirit added next.  “I explained, “According to these passages, people don’t seek God on their own initiative.  They won’t ask about spiritual matters unless God is working in their lives.  “When you encounter someone who is seeking God or asking about spiritual matters, you are seeing God at work.”   “I also told our students, “if someone asks you spiritual questions, whatever else you have scheduled, cancel your plans.  Go with that individual and look to see what God is doing in that person’s life.”  I will not spoil what happens next, but instead let us take some time to explore what this means to each of us, iron sharpens iron.  First let each of us answer some key questions that have been addressed.  First of which is:  Do you honestly know that God knows you?  Secondly I know that I am guilty of this but think is there sometime where you felt God calling you  to do something but either made up your own plan or instead of honoring what the  spirit tells us we are too busy with a task at hand, if so what was or is it?  Let us ask ourselves where we would be if Jesus never stopped and did wonders on his way to the Cross.  Have you ever noticed the pattern in Scripture which is that we submit ourselves to God, then we wait until God shows us what He is about to do, or we watch to see what God is already doing around us and join Him.  Now ask yourself what has God done when I completely submitted?  I’m sure you will be shown a lot of instances maybe more than you can count.  Truth 2: GOD Pursues a love relationship with you       Especially now with us coming to the End Times it seems like we are all living a life of Job,  where the enemy is taking away and tormenting us with surgeon-like precision.  Sometimes we question God, because when Jesus died and the veil was torn we have a direct line to God, but we should never think, Lord these things are happening because you don’t love me anymore, why?  There is one amazing, fundamental truth God has and will always love us.  If you do not fully understand this I urge you to look in a mirror see yourself good, bad, and the ugly, now let the spirit show you directly behind you Jesus bloody, battered, dead on the Cross.  Ultimate sacrifice now if that is not unconditional love I do not know what is!  Some of us have thought or may be thinking right now those sins or sins of the past keep us from God.  Only if you do not lay them down at the Cross and walk away.  Let us see God’s forgiveness and renewal in the truth that which is the word in Ezekiel 36:25-26 “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.  I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”     Love leads to reconciliation.  All through the word scripture shows us that God has a heart for reconciliation, none more apparent then Matt. 5:23-24.  How do we follow God in this Ministry of Reconciliation? (2 Cor.  5:18-21) “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.  We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.  We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.  God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  You may ask the question, what if people don’t respond to our attempts to reconcile with them?  Think back were you reconciled with God the first time he sought to be reconciled with you?  God continues to reach out to the world out of his grace and Love for us.  No matter what our circumstances are or what life brings our way God’s love never ends and never changes!  Therefore we can and should never question his love, but rather ingrain it into the full armor of God and march on embracing the Love Relationship God has for each of us!  Truth 3:  God invites you to Join him       God is a provider.  Let us think back to a time even if it is in the present that we had a great need and the Lord provided that need.  God Reveals himself all the time but sometimes we as Christians fail to see him.  What do I mean?  Well we are called to pray without ceasing, however God also calls us to action!  Let’s be totally honest with the answer to this next question.  How many of us have had something put before us and have said “I don’t know let me pray about it.”  We make this statement even though the Spirit has already told us in our hearts the answer.  By the time we pray the opportunity to join God is gone.  Now I am not asking you think about failure but your growth and realize that time is past but God gives us many invitations throughout our lives.     Now you may ask how than can we truly know when an idea our invitation is of God?  Well the answer we already know.    Through scripture, The Holy Spirit, and by simply asking for discernment.  Unless God opens your spiritual eyes, ears, and creates in you’re a clean heart, how then can we know when he is truly at work.  Please join me in this simple prayer: Dear Lord please give me spiritual eyes to see, spiritual ears to hear, and a clean heart, in Jesus name Amen.        God wants us to worship and follow him however he does not want us to do this blindly.  The word is filled with prophecies and the fulfillment of those prophecies, God also does this in our own lives.  All we have to do is ask him probing questions like what, where, why when, and how.  We may now like the answer or timing but the Lord will always answer.  Many times we pray to be blessed,  I say no! How can I say this?  Well think about this do not think about ways God is going to bless you, but rather look for ways God is going to reveal himself by working through you and beyond you to accomplish his purposes, and join him.  Then watch and see how blessed you will truly be.Truth 4:  When God speaks respond       Let me ask you a question, would you not agree that a critical requirement for understanding and experiencing God is to clearly know when he is speaking?  If we do not know when God is speaking then we are in trouble at the core of our Christian lives.  So how does he speak to us?  He speaks to us through: 1) the Holy Spirit to reveal himself, his purposes, and his ways (John 16:13-14), 2) The Bible (John 1:1-2), 3) Prayer, 4) through circumstances and through church and believers.     Has Christians sometimes we live or try to get God to live in a box.  Maybe some of us don’t, so let us ask ourselves this:  have I ever asked our Lord to close a door if it was not his will, or Lord Stop me if I am wrong bless me if I am right.  We cannot let our lives be led by tradition, methods, or formulas.  Sometimes we take these paths because they are a lot easier than cultivating an intimate walk with God.  It is o God’s job to stop us from making mistakes, or he would not have given us free will.  If we want to know the will and voice of God we must devote our time and effort to grow a love relationship with him.Truth 5:  your crisis of belief       When we hear the word crisis we immediately think of something bad.  If you look into the Greek word that crisis comes from we learn that it means decision or judgment.  Therefore a Crisis of you belief is not a calamity but rather a turning point.  The way we respond at these turning points will determine if we become involved with God in something God-sized.  I said turning points and not point because these are regular occurrences.  The way we live our lives is a testimony of what we believe about God.  If we decide to follow God these turning points it is a complete walk of faith, because what God asked us to do we realize we could not do on our own.  Truth 6:  YOu must adjust your life       God frequently asks for changes in our lives in places we never considered or allowed to be open in the past.  If we intend for God to be Lord of our lives it requires absolute surrender.  We do not adjust to a concept, but align ourselves to God.  Obedience is costly but the rewards outweigh any cost.  Without God at work in us we can do nothing to produce Kingdom fruit. If we depend on anything other than God, (money, ourselves, our pastor, friend, etc.)  We are looking for failure in Kingdom terms.  Truth 7:  You can experience god      God is concerned with our lives through eternity allow him all the time he needs to shape you for his purposes not our wants.  Remember larger assignments take longer preparation.  Let God orient us to himself.  Be patient waiting on the Lord should not be idle time.  Instead let God use those times to mold and shape our character, purifying us making us clean a clean vessel for his service.  Whenever the Lord calls us to do something what is the first thing we do?  Make a plan.  What we fail to understand is that his ways are not always our ways.  Also he can do things we could never believe possible.  Most of the time that God shows us something it is not show us what to do, but  to show us that he is about to do something around us.  We must remember that God will never give us a task we are unable to complete.  That is what a Spiritual Gift is- a supernatural empowering to accomplish the assignments God give s you.  Remember we are weak but he is strong.  We can experience God all we have to do is surrender.  We may not always see the fruit but it will be there.