So you opened this article because you desire to experience more of God. More of what?
Can I suggest that the more is an awareness of God’s presence – not just around us but from our inner being. Not once in our lives but a regular ongoing awareness. It’s not knowing more about Him but experiencing Him (which involves our whole souls – thinking, feeling and choosing)
It’s regularly experiencing everything about Him…
- his love – so I can love
- his peace – so I am calm
- his joy – so I am living in delight…and we can go through all nine fruits of the Spirit
We all recognise our need for more.
But we are unsure on the ‘how’ to more. If we dig deeper into our inner life, we will probably find an unconscious searching for more of God which we are satisfying with earthly things – food, drink, relationships, entertainment, hobbies, changing jobs, moving house etc. But they don’t fully satisfy and we keep turning to new things to bring that contented, full feeling back.
Here are 2 ways, that I have discovered, to bring more of God into my life:
1. If I want to experience more of God….I need to explore a Lifestyle of Praising Him
But you are holy, you who inhabit the praises of Israel. Psalm 22:3 WEB
There is a direct correlation between life and praise verses death and complaining.
Remember what happened to the rescued Israelite slaves, those who complained – they died. They didn’t recognise what wonderful blessings they had in the hard wilderness place. In the end they didn’t experience the promised land.
The Hebrew meaning of inhabit is to dwell and to sit in one’s home. God loves to dwell and be present in an atmosphere of praises, thanksgiving and worship. The purpose of the tabernacle and temple was praise and worship. It’s the environment to host the very presence of God.
How am I making God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit feel at home in my life? This is a very interesting question.
Paul prays for the Ephesians that God would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Ephesians 3:16-17 ESV
Sounds amazing? God strengthening the inner man. Explosive power. Christ dwelling in me. But what about normal life? This sounds like what happens on a Christian retreat. Warm fuzzies. Special experiences. What about the everyday life of a working mum or struggling student or tired marriage? What about an illness that won’t go away or debts that are piling up? In the mess of everyday life can we experience the fullness of God?
Yes. Yes. Yes. The messy parts of life are the perfect places to experience God’s fullness. Until we empty ourselves and surrender to His love, we can’t experience His fullness.
Paul goes on in Ephesians 3, “may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” verses 18-19 ESV
I share in my free book 21 Prayers of Thanksgiving, the power of thanking and praising God. I explain how thanksgiving seems to create a shift in the soul to where you are fully connected with the Father which flows into your environment.
Action Step: Take time out to train yourself towards a thanksgiving lifestyle and discover a deeper connection with your Heavenly Father.
2. If I want to experience more of God…I need to learn the Art of Stillness
I have written in the past about “being still and knowing that God is God” (which I have decided has come up enough times in my life to be promoted to my Life Verse – Psalm 46:10) but I know that I am only at the surface level still. I suspect there is a lot more to discover that I am only just tapping into you. I listened this week to a podcast by one of my author mentors, Jeff Goins. He reveals his discontentment with life, trying to be ‘enough’ and gain success in life. He discovered that it wasn’t what was happening externally in his life that brings contentment but his inner life. Taking time out to be still brought inner contentment and connected him to God in a way that nothing else did (see the link in the resources below).
Stillness was common when I was younger, before the age of the internet and even more common before the age of the radio and the car. It took longer to go from A to B. We walked more. We stood in line more. There was times of quietness. There was waiting time. Waiting time wasn’t filled with swiping through Instagram posts or listening to podcasts. Waiting time was just that – waiting time. Stillness. Time where your soul could catch up with life. This is what is missing in our culture now.
Action Step : Actively create Stillness. Some people call it margin. Time to just sit and be. Time to ponder God and His promises. Time to look at the stars and surrender the day’s concerns to the Almighty.
Please check out the resource below – things I have read, podcasts I have listened to, that lean towards experiencing God more.
Feedback: Please take the time to comment below if this has been of help to you. Which of these 2 ways resonates with you? Have you discovered another way to experience God more?
Please share this article with your friends and family if it resonated with you.
Keep Leaning into God
Rachel Larkin
This Week’s Resources:
BOOK – Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God by Henry T Blackaby I highly recommend this book for every believer who wants to experience more of God. It is very practical and explains how God relates to us and how we can relate to him. It should be the required reading for every new believer and to be read once a year for life!
PODCAST/ BLOG POST – The Most Transformative Year of My Life Had Nothing to Do with Success by Jeff Goins very insightful on what really is true contentment and happiness. What resonated with me was the concept of stillness and my life verse “Be Still and Know that I am God”
PODCAST – Welcome Silence by Emily P Freeman. 14 minutes. If you can’t listen into this very short podcast then Emily has a transcript that you can download for free. If you want to know more about being still this is a good place to start.
BOOK – Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus by Nabeel Quereshi: this book made me think about the why of my faith. I realised that I have just taken everything the church and my parents have said as fact and haven’t searched it out for myself. How do I know that the Bible is the inspired word of God? How do I know that Jesus is the son of God? Is it ok to just accept these things from what people have told you? Nabeel describes his searching journey, which helped to confirm the reasons why. Great insight into how a Muslim thinks too!
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