We have been in a series titled “Knowing and Experiencing God” because, truth be told, many times in our Christian life we are just going through the motions. Perhaps we go to church on Sunday, maybe we do our daily devotions (reading the Bible & praying), generally we try to be a good person, do the right thing. But if I were to ask if our Christian life is characterized by personal experiences with God, in other words tangible evidence of God’s presence and work in our life, what would we say? Are we experiencing God on a personal level? If not, why not, because the experience of Christians in the Bible and down through the last 2000 years is one of personal experience and relationship with God.
During the series I’ve been focusing on three possible problems: 1) We might have a relationship problem with God. God’s first priority for us is knowing Him, by that I mean having a close personal relationship with God through Christ. We were created for a loving friendship with God. This isn’t knowing about God, it is real and it is personal relationship with our heavenly Father. 2) We could have a hearing problem. Perhaps we don’t know how to listen to God’s voice, or God communicating his truth to us, or we aren’t spending the time we need to listen and be attentive to God’s work in our life or around us. Hearing God’s voice is important because the only way we can know the truth about God and his ways, and what he wants us to do is when he reveals it to us.
1) When God Speaks it is Our Invitation to Join Him
Over the last three weeks we have looked at how God communicates with us. There are lots of ways God can speak to us, but God primarily “speaks” to us through the Bible, prayer, circumstances (like coincidences and open and closed doors), and other Christian believers. God doesn’t communicate with us just to give us warm fuzzies. The purpose of sharing these truths is so that we will grow in our relationship with him, and so that we will follow his plan. In fact, when God “speaks” to us he is typically inviting us to join him in his work. When we look in the Bible, virtually any time we read of God speaking to people he is inviting them to join him in what he is doing, or what he is about to do. When God reveals something to you that is your invitation to get on board with God.
3) Lastly, we could have an obedience problem. This is when we know what God wants us to do, we’ve felt the prick of our conscious, God has placed something on our heart, we have read something in Scripture which has touched our heart, but we have been unwilling to step out in faith and make the adjustments in our life to do what God wants us to do.
2) Our Invitation Usually Leads to a Crisis of Belief which Requires Faith and Action
a) Crisis of Belief
When God speaks to us and invites us to join him in his work it usually brings us to a crisis of belief that requires faith and action because whatever God asks us to do will seem impossible to us. In the Bible, when God spoke and directed people in what he wanted them to do, the task usually seemed impossible by human reason and understanding. Because it seems too difficult it led to a crisis of belief. In last week’s lesson God directed the Apostle Peter to proclaim the Good News of Jesus to Gentiles (non-Jews) for the first time. Peter’s crisis of belief was his prejudice against Gentiles. In order to follow God’s plan he had to get over his belief that Gentiles were unclean, impure, and untouchable. When God invited Moses to be the point man to speak with Pharaoh and lead the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land in Canaan, Moses faced a crisis of belief. Would he return to the land where he was wanted for murder? Why would the Israelites ever accept him as a leader? What about his lack of speaking skills? In our Scripture this week Gideon faced a big crisis of belief. God picked Gideon, who was from the weakest clan of his tribe, and he the least in his family (Judg. 6:15). God asked Gideon to gather an army to defeat the enemy forces marching into their territory numbering over 135,000 men strong. Gideon gathered an army numbering 35,000, but God thought that was too many even though they were outnumbered almost 4:1. God felt he would not get enough credit if they were victorious so God whittled the number down to only 300 men…against 135,000! How could Gideon possibly defeat an army 500 times larger than his own? Impossible…by human ability.
When God speaks to us, he frequently invites us to do something which we cannot do on our own strength or ability. It is a God sized assignment which, because of its size, leads us to a crisis. Perhaps the reason we don’t see God working in our life and church is because when God reveals his plan it seems too big and so we settle on doing only what think we can do on our own ability. However what God challenges us to do requires his help, otherwise it will fail.
Illustration: The building of New Hope.
Over ten years ago when the members of the Pellston and Levering UM churches decided to merge and if that wasn’t enough they felt God was leading them to build a new facility which would cost over $400,000 when they had hardly any money in the bank, and only a combined attendance of 60-65 it brought them to a crisis of belief. By all outward appearances it seemed impossible, it cost too much money, and there wasn’t enough people to support it. At least that is what human logic would tell us. They were at a crisis of belief, and they had a choice to make, would they step out in faith and do what they believed God wanted them to? Obviously we are here because the members did step out in faith, and now we are in our seventh year after construction and we have less than $43,000 left on the mortgage.
The interesting thing is that what we do after we sense God leading us and we face a crisis of belief is very important because it reveals what we really believe about God. We like to think we believe everything the Bible says about God, but when God challenges us to follow him based on that belief what we do next reveals our actual belief.
Examples:
Let me give some examples of these crises and how they apply to our personal lives. God reveals to you that you should tithe 10% to the church or give a certain amount of money to a particular mission, but you look at your checkbook and it seems impossible to give that much. You are at a crisis of belief. What are you going to believe about God? Do you believe he is truly your Provider? Or God places a burden on your heart to do a ministry in the church or community you’ve never done before, it seems beyond your ability. Do you believe God will give you the skills, the abilities, the resources, and the time to do it? Or God reveals to you that you need to quit a habit or turn from a particular sin, like a sharp tongue, or gossip, or anger. You’ve tried several times on your own to do it before without success. Do you believe the Holy Spirit will give you the ability to resist the temptation if you make the first move? Or perhaps God reveals to you he is working in the life of someone near to you and he is inviting you to share your faith or testimony with that person, but you don’t know what to say and it makes you nervous just thinking about it. Are you going to believe the Holy Spirit will give you the words to say and the courage to say it? Perhaps God reveals to you that he has given you the job and influence at work you have so you will help move people closer to Christ. Will you trust that God will care for you in the midst of pressure to conform to everyone else? God may convict you about loving an enemy, forgiving someone who has wronged you. All these things seem impossible without God’s help. What you choose to do next will reveal your true level of faith.
God creates these crises of belief in our life 1) because his plan is best, but 2) because he wants us to move beyond believing certain things about God in our head to actually experiencing him personally in that way. You can believe God is your Provider but God wants you to personally experience him in that way. You can believe God is your Comforter but God wants you to experience him as your Comforter. But we can only experience him in this way if we follow him when he invites us.
b) Stepping Out in Faith
This is where faith comes in. The Bible’s definition of faith is found in Hebrews 11:1:
NIV Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
Faith is trusting in God to provide a way even when we cannot see how it could possibly happen. Faith is looking into the face of impossibility
c) Faith Requires Action
Faith can’t just be something that remains in our head though, it requires action. You can’t just say you believe it, you have to act as though it is true. Like the tightrope walker who asked a man in the crowd before he went across the Niagra Falls pushing a wheelbarrow, “do you believe I can push this wheelbarrow to the other side,” which the man wholeheartedly agreed. So the tightrope walker said, “Than if you would please get in the wheelbarrow to help me demonstrate.” He didn’t get in. Faith must be supported by action. We step out in faith when we act according to what God has revealed to us.
Jesus’ brother James tells us in his letter in the Bible:
James 2:14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 18 But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.
Henry Blackaby tells the story in his workbook Experiencing God about the time his finance committee in his church challenged him. They came to Blackaby and said, “Pastor, you have taught us to walk by faith in every area of the life of our church except in the budget.” They went on to explain, “Well when we set the budget, we set the budget on the basis of what we believe we can do. It does not reflect that we expect God to do anything.” Their recommendation for setting next year’s budget was to prayerfully determine all that God wanted to do through them in the next year. Then figure out how much that would cost and then set a budget based on that number. Their normal annual budget was $74,000. They prayed and asked God wanted them to do, and once they discerned God’s answer they came up with a budget of…$164,000. Talk about a crisis of belief! They had to step out in faith trusting God would provide the extra $90,000! It seemed impossible but they did it because they believed it was what God wanted them to do. At the end of that next year guess how much the church had received…$172,000, because they started with what God wanted them to do, and trusted God in faith to provide for their needs.
Perhaps the reason we don’t experience God working powerfully in our church and in our lives is because we are only obedient in doing what we think we can do rather than praying and asking what God wants to do through us.
What Will You Choose?
Conclusion:
Have you been listening to what God is speaking to your heart? Are you at a crisis of belief because you know what God wants you to do, but you don’t know if you can do it? How will you demonstrate your faith in God through what you choose to do next? If God is leading you to do it, God will not let you down.
