Maneuvers - No. 5
How to
Experience God
Have you ever encountered an uncomfortable silence in a conversation? Even when it’s with a friend, those moments of silence can make us feel anxious, like we need to fill the void with more words.
So what do we do? We quickly blurt out the next pleasantry we can think of. Anything to fill the silence!
But we don’t just feel that way with our friends and acquaintances, do we? Sometimes we feel that way with God.
Have you ever asked God a question in prayer, waited a moment or two, then moved on to your next request? I know we (Jennifer and Justin) have! We can be so eager to fill the silence, even in prayer and Bible study.
But what happens when we’re scared of silence is that we don’t give God room to talk back, to ask us questions.
Studying God’s Word, listening to others’ spiritual insights, reading devotionals—these are all good things. But when we focus primarily on knowing about God, we can forget to truly know him.
The thing about our Father is that he doesn’t just want us to know a lot of information about him. He wants us to experience him. Deeply. Fully. Intimately.
When we give God room to speak, the most beautiful things happen. We allow him to tell us things we could never have known. We let him ask us uncomfortable questions that draw us closer to him.
Today, we’d love for you to join us in the silence. The pockets of time with Jesus where, instead of rushing to the next thing, we’re waiting on him, listening intently, simply being with him.
Let’s listen to him speak.
01.
The Message
“So many questions about me. I love them. I love to answer them. But knowledge doesn’t mean knowing. Information about me will not make you closer to me. Not in the way you think. Information about me acquired at a distance from me will keep you distant from me. It is that simple. Why do you place so much value, so much importance, on knowledge versus experience? Isn’t it about maintaining control?
“This is what the lie of control will get you: distance from me. Your staying aloof, watching me from a vantage point where you can observe but not feel, taking in a moment through witnessing but not being in it, will only get you so far. Observation can trick you into thinking you know me, you are with me, you desire me, you love me, but it only proves your curiosity has a limit to it. You want me only so much. You want to be with me only so much. You want to be a friend who pops in for a limited conversation, where you ask the questions and desire answers. But you don’t want to stay too long for me to ask you some too. You don’t want to get too close.
“I am missing you when you do this. I am missing being with you. And you are missing me too. Let me teach you about life and about love and about hope and about joy by getting a little closer to me. Yes, read my Word; yes, listen for my voice; yes, let’s have a conversation. But make the words be something, mean something, through your acting on them. Because my breath is action, my words are action, love is a living, breathing action. It is how you live, really live, with me.
“I am with you everywhere, in all moments. Will you come closer now? Will you surrender knowledge for experience? Will you let me show you I am not as dangerous as you think I am? I am good. I am gentle. I am kind. I am the one response, the one answer, the one choice. But it is not just your mind that needs to know this—but your body and your heart. Be, be, be with me.”
02.
Listen
Let’s read this passage again from this week’s message: “Knowledge doesn’t mean knowing. Information about me will not make you closer to me. Not in the way you think. Information about me acquired at a distance from me will keep you distant from me. It is that simple. Why do you place so much value, so much importance, on knowledge versus experience? Isn’t it about maintaining control?”
How does your heart react when you read these words? What response is Holy Spirit stirring up within you?
03.
Think
“This ‘knowledge’ puffs up, but love builds up” (1 Corinthians 8:1).
1. What are some ways you’ve fallen into the trap of observing God instead of experiencing him?
2. In what ways have you been reading God’s Word but not living it? As we answer this question, let’s avoid the temptation to judge ourselves, since that will make it harder to be completely honest. Let’s put down our guard as we write our answers.
3. What Scriptures is God putting on your heart right now for you to act on and experience? Write them down.
04.
Trust
Sometimes we confuse knowledge with experience, which is understandable… they’re meant to go hand in hand. Both are important when it comes to our relationships with God.
Yet we can easily slip into the mindset that reading God’s Word alone (knowledge) is enough.
Of course, the Word of God is living and active. It’s his living, breathing, powerful Word! But reading it, and even studying it, is not the same thing as experiencing and loving God himself.
Let’s look at the definition of “experience”: “practical contact with or observation of facts or events.”
When we read God’s Word and see Holy Spirit move in our world, we’re getting the second half of that definition, which is observation. But we can’t neglect the first half: practical contact.
So how do we do that? How do we get “practical contact” with God and his Word? James offers us some insight into that question:
“Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like” (James 1:22-24, MSG).
The best way to experience God is by living out what we discover in the Bible. When we read his Word and act on it, amazing things happen. Because the truth is, we can’t obey God’s Word on our own. Holy Spirit has to do it in us, with us, through us. He’s our constant helper, our intimate friend, our holy comforter.
As we obey God, hand in hand with Holy Spirit, we get that practical contact. We get experience with God. And it starts with letting him lovingly put his finger on the areas in our lives that he wants to touch.
But remember… he’s not eager to scold us. He is lovingly inviting us into this rich, deep experience with him. He won’t force us. But his hand is open. Will we take it?
Today, as we get alone with God, let’s take the time to let him speak, to go beyond the flurry of requests, to embrace the uncomfortable silence… and wait. Let’s allow Holy Spirit room to ask us questions and highlight practical ways he wants us to obey and follow him. Always hand in hand. Never alone.
In this attitude of openness, let’s pray…
05.
Pray
Father, my heart is open to you. I don’t need to fill the silence with my own words. I won’t be afraid to hear what you have to say, what you have to ask. I’m listening.
I admit to you that there’s a part of me that’s been keeping you at a distance. I’m scared you’ll get too close sometimes. I’m scared to trust.
Yet you keep pursuing me. You keep tapping on my heart’s door, inviting me to hear what you have to say. I want to hear it, God. I truly do. So right now, I’m quieting my heart and I’m just listening. Say what you want. Lead me however you want. I’m open.
(Take some time and wait on Holy Spirit here. Even if he doesn’t speak to you right away, choose to wait. Choose to listen.)
Holy Spirit, thank you for your presence, your comfort, and your power. Walk with me and guide me as I live out what I see in the Word today. I love you so much… so, so much.
In Jesus’ name, amen.
Waving the banner with you,
