Philippians 4:1 “ Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.” This episode talks about how much God loves and longs for us. It also talks about how we can hear the Lord talk to us and how we can get to know Him more intimately. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
God Loves and Longs For You, Yes You!
Philippians 4:1 “ Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.”
Did you know that the Lord longs for you? Over the years I have hear a lot of talk about how the Lord desires to have an intimate relationship with you. Have you ever heard this? Did you understand what they meant whey they said it? At first, I had no idea. How do you have an intimate relationship with someone that you can’t talk to? Well, you can talk to Him, but He doesn’t talk back. Isn’t that one sided? How do you get to know someone that doesn’t talk back to you? How do you have an intimate relationship with someone you barely know? These are all the thoughts that went through my head. Now that I have grown in my faith I can see how I was so wrong.
Joining the Charismatic Renewal really helped me see that God does talk to us, we just don’t usually sit and listen for it. We don’t expect Him to talk to us so we don’t give Him the quite time to just sit and listen. We are all pretty good at asking God for things, especially if we are in an urgent or desperate situation. However, if you sit and just BE with God, He will talk with you. Probably not in an audible voice, like you and I could talk. More of thoughts in your heard, or some people get visions. The reason it took me joining the Charismatic Renewal to learn this is because I got to see this in action. Most of us learn better with examples. You can tell me how to cook a turkey all day long, but until you show me, and I get to try it on my own, I won’t remember. The same is true with hearing the Word of God.
When I would go to these prayer group meetings, every week, there would be words of prophesy. There would be people that could hear what the Lord wanted to tell us and they would tell us what they heard. Unfortunately, often times seeing is believing. When you see people every single week hearing the word of God, you start to believe that if they can hear it, you can too! Also, I took a course to become a spiritual coach from the Life Coach Institute. The director Fern Gorin taught us an exercise where you write a letter to God, and then you ask the Lord to speak through your pen and you write a letter back to yourself. I have integrated this practice into my prayer journaling and it has been amazing. Learning to listen to the Lord’s voice takes practice and it takes trust. It is easy to second guess yourself and wondering if you are just making up these things. This is when it is important to remember that God has told us multiple times in the Bible that if we ask He will answer. We need to trust that if we asked He is answering.
The other thing I had thought was how can you have an intimate relationship with someone that you don’t really know that well. I had this thought before I began reading scripture. If you read scripture, you will get to know God very well. When you read the Bible you learn all about who God is, the things He has done in the past, and everything you could want to know about Him. You get to know the Lord more intimately than you know most other people. You get to see how consistent He has been over thousands of years. You can see how He reacted in various situations and with various people. You get to see what makes Him, angry, happy, sad, all the different emotions. How many other people in your life can you say that you know that well?
The reason I knew this was the verse for today was because of a phone call I had yesterday. The prayer group I belong to has been around for 50 years. That is a long time. There was an article in Pentecost Today, a publication about all things Charismatic, about our group celebrating the 50th anniversary. A man from Texas called to ask some questions as that is a long time for a group to still be meeting. Among the many questions he asked, one was about having an intimate relationship with the Lord. I thought about how I have grown in that area and I attribute my growth to going to the Charismatic Prayer groups. I knew just from reading the scripture and doing Bible studies, along with conferences, that Jesus loves me. I knew that God is Love. That is the best way that I could describe God. God is love. Sometimes we get all caught up in the religion of it all, but at the end of the day, God is love. I feel that with my whole being.
However, it wasn’t until I started attending this Charismatic Prayer Group that I realized just how much God loves us. I know many of you that are listening do not attend Charismatic Prayer groups so I want to explain briefly what I am talking about. Imagine each week you go and sit with about 15-20 men and woman who spend 30-40 minutes praising and worshiping the Lord. Then they spend about 15 minutes just sitting and listening to the Lord. They not only listen, but they are obedient to share any words of prophesy that He gives them. If you sat in a room each week and every week the Lord showed up to talk with you, how could you not see how much He loves you? An intimate relationship just forms almost on its own, after hearing what He has to say each week.
The reason I wanted to share this verse with you today is because I don’t know if many of you realize that the Lord not only loves you, He longs for you. It says so, right here in the Bible. Here is an example of the a word that we heard at one of our prayer groups, “Your praises reach the throne of the father, who pours out his love on you. Be at peace my loved ones. I am well pleased with your praises. I long to commune with you. Come more often to me and speak your heart. I am always here longing and waiting and longing to hear from you.” Imagine hearing things like this each week from our heavenly Father. These words are not just for those of us in the group. The Lord longs to hear from each one of us. He is longing and waiting for you. Try to spend some time this week, even just five minutes a day listening to what the Lord has to say. If you give him the time, He will talk with you.
Another example of how much the Lord loves us as a whole, but then also individually is something that happened yesterday at prayer group. We have a member who has been sick with COVID since December 5th. She is still having trouble breathing, she has trouble sleeping, she is anxious and just all around tired from three months of all of this. During our time to listen yesterday, the very last thing the Lord gave someone was a scripture verse. Job 11:18 says, “Having hope will give you courage. You will be protected and will rest in safety.” Do you see how He gives personal messages out of love. Our friend is having so much trouble breathing and the Lord is telling her, “You will be protected and will rest in safety.” She really needed to hear this and He knew that. Now before she sleeps she can turn to Job 11:18 and find comfort.
Another example someone in our prayer group had yesterday. She has macular degeneration and so if something falls on the floor she can’t find it. She dropped the tiny backing to an earring the other day. She prayed to her guardian angel to help her find it and the next step she took she stepped on it. God is so good! He knows exactly what we need, when we need it!! God loves you, He longs for you. Spend some time getting to know Him. Whether it is just sitting with Him, or whether it is listening to scripture and learning more about Him. He longs for us to grow closer and closer to Him. Let us not keep Him waiting. Let’s spend time with Him today!
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this podcast today. Lord, you are amazing and we love you. The fact that you long for us, is hard for us to comprehend sometimes. You are so wonderful and we are a broken people and yet you long to commune with us. You long to spend time with us and Lord we ask that you help us to make that a priority. We ask that you help take away any distractions and help us put our focus where it belongs, which is on you Lord. Help us grow closer and closer to you and help us give you time where we just sit and listen to what you have to say. We love you Lord, and we are so grateful for everything about you. Lord we also ask that you be with all those that are fighting in Europe right now. Lord, we ask that you protect all the innocent and give them whatever they need to live through this awful situation. We ask that you place a bubble of protection around them. Lord, we know that you are the God of the Impossible and that you can make a way even when we don’t see one. We are asking for you to end this conflict quickly and without any more casualties. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen
Thank you for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to spending time with you on Monday. Have a blessed weekend!