GOD CHASING ME!
John 14;23”Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.”
I wondered if I can translate my feelings and experience in words regarding the above scripture! It is too wonderful and personal as well, it would sure raise eye brows among a few; but I would like to share my experience so that scores of people are blessed! Let us come out of dead religion and get intimately close with Him? Are you ready? Jesus said, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." (John 7:37,38) A divine experience with God starts with a forceful thirst for Him!
During my initial days of salvation, as I was getting to know God intimately, and also as I was craving for the infilling of the Holy Spirit, on a particular day when I was fasting and praying the above scripture created an ‘explosion’ in my heart. Father, Son and Holy Spirit living inside me brought waves of pleasure inside me! I kept thinking of it over and over again! If God was going to dwell inside me then I can speak with Him at any time and all the time and He would also know ‘all’ about me. No privacy anymore. Such intimacy with God does carry a price tag of total surrender; yet I wanted that very much!
I was working then, I had to go to the basement after work to get my scooter, as I went to pick up my scooter I was alone in the scooter parking area and I could tangibly feel the physical touch of God on/in me. Jesus said: I will love him and manifest Myself to him! (v 21) Am I experiencing that physical manifestation of God on me? Again the words kept ringing in my ears, ‘We will come to you and make Our home in you!’ I knew then God was speaking with me! I wept right there in the parking area. God was dealing with me, He was after me. He was drawing me near to Him. He was tugging my heart closer and closer to Him. It was something too adorable to bear! I was filled with joy and His touch throughout the day. Later I got to read a lovely book of author Tommy Tenney that revolutionized my life, titled ‘The God Chasers’; however, here my God was chasing me. God chose to chase me! Hallelujah! Very soon after such intimate experiences with God, I surrendered myself to work for God in the mission field. We have encounters with God not for excitement but for divine assignment!
After the above experiences, I got filled with the Holy spirit and also received the blessing of speaking in tongues, I did not stop here; I aggressively launched out to read the Word of God passionately, read good spiritual books and also spent my time listening to good sermons. I kept moving deeper and deeper…..God does not take lodging inside you to keep you static but takes you to deep waters.
Now it is my turn to chase Him! As of this date, in the midst of all my preaching, writing, preparing sermons, teaching, cooking, baby-sitting my Abide School kids, I was able to completely read the Bible twice. I praise God! I know of a hindu woman, who wakes up at 4 am, has a bath, picks up flowers and walks to the nearby temple and makes a garland for the hindu deity everyday. When asked why, she said, ‘I love to do this for my god.’ A stone gets such attention while our Christians snore away to glory! I want to raise some true lovers of God!
