It Starts Small

How do you share with others who God is? HOw do you tell others the way to building a relationship with their Heavenly Father? A good friend asked me this question this last week. They were struggling. Feeling completely abandoned by God. They were questioning His existence and why he was not fixing “things.”

I had been in this very spot so many times. To the point in my early years I all together gave up on the notion that there was even a God. I wished I had this amazing road map to pass around to others. I wished there was a simple step by step process. It is sort of like marriage. Everyone can give you advice, but no one really tells you how to have a perfect marriage… well not everyone but God does and even then He says there will be troubles.

But how do we get to know God? We hear over and over it’s about our relationship with Christ and our Heavenly Father. How do you get to know someone you can not see face to face? It all starts small with an invitation.

I am not a crafty person. I think that gene skipped and was abundantly given to my kids. I can not come up with my own idea or have inspiration to create something without first looking at a million examples of other people’s work. I can not simply just sit down and craft something without being inspired by someone else. It was just how I was made. It is something I have had to recognize about myself. I believe it comes by not having confidence in myself.

The same has been true for the understanding of God. I looked at how others viewed and spoke of God and in turn adopted their ideas. I did not know how to just sit down and discover God for myself. That sounds crazy to the mature Christian, but no one could really tell me how to do that. They could tell me who God was and his mighty works, but I did not know how to experience God for myself. How could I sit down and be in the presence of God?

I have come to the conclusion if there was a road map, a checklist, then it would not be a real relationship. It would be simply checking items off a list and no real meaning would come to it. I think legalism treats God this way. You check the boxes and somehow you are right with God. You may be right in a sense, but there is no real relationship there. Again, how do we grow a relationship?

I believe it starts with a moment of true redemption. A moment of complete eyes wide open to understanding who you are as a person. We can not do anything outside the Holy Spirit. It is through Jesus, our Father is revealed, and through the Holy Spirit Jesus reveals Him. In order to hear and see through the Holy Spirit, we have to be completely turned around. It is a moment of attitude and motivation. A moment where you shed your death clothes and decide I am not going this way any more. I am not going to lean on myself. I am not going to straddle the line between Heaven and the world. It a moment where you truly confess yourself and confess that you will never get to where God wants you until you are completely surrendered to Him. It’s acknowledging you know nothing and receiving the Spirit of truth and help.

Something begins to change within you when that happens. The hunger grows and the motivation turns to seeking. The knowing becomes believing and the believing turns into seeing. I have long known the fruit of the Spirit. But since having had that moment of redemption, that head knowledge turned into believing in my heart, that opened my eyes to seeing. We believe to see, not see to believe. I had been living a life that was I will believe when I see.

While studying the fruit of the Spirit, I started to see that the only way to have love, joy, and peace, was by receiving it through the Holy Spirit. Legalism teaches you can only get those through works. Only those who practice dogmatic religious rituals are given peace, love and joy. You can not work these characteristics of God in your life. These are a gift of grace. You can only receive them and you receive them through the Holy Spirit.

All of the fruit of the Spirit is the mighty power of God within us. These are nine characteristics of Him that he wants to give to us. We learn exactly who God is by truly understanding the magnitude, depth, and height of Him. I know I could not embrace what each “flavor” was until I truly understood who my Heavenly Father is. I can not tell anyone how to build a relationship with Jesus or our Heavenly Father, except to say it starts by true redemption and opening your heart to seeking and discovering Who God is, not What he is. As he begins to show you himself, his heart, his desires for you, he begins to fill your heart with the gift of grace.

It starts with a small invitation of Him inviting you over for a cup of coffee. To sit with Him in prayer and reading his word. He does not expect perfection and automatic understanding. That is where you grow your relationship with him! He reveals little bit by little bit truth and understanding.

The key to maturity is to discover and grow your relationship with God. Discovering who he is, helps you to discover who you are. That’s the launching pad for transformation and allowing the SPirit to work the beautiful character of God through you and in you. I answered my friend by telling them I believe the first step is redemption. A true desire and taking action of completely turning away from your old nature. By putting death to who you are, you open the door for the relationship to begin. Once you have made this decision wholeheartedly, you turn to Jesus and get into the Word to find who God is. For me, it was learning that the character of God is revealed in the fruit of the Spirit. God wants to give us his character.

I think a better question we can ask is where do I begin?