Week 5: Experiencing God
God Speaks, Part 1
It’s week 5 of my online Bible study group. Here are some of the things I took away from the fifth week.
My Thoughts:
On Sunday I began with day 3 of Unit 4. I’m going to be behind a little until another week or so but I’m determined to not miss any more days.
I had such a beautiful time this morning. I woke super early which at first was a bit inconvenient as I was so exhausted, but when I opened my curtain, I saw it was blue hour and that made me so happy. After an hour trying to get back to sleep, I ended up getting up to do my morning pages. When I looked out the window again, it was golden hour and I spent that time doing my study.
There were so many points that stood out to me today but the amazing part is that they were things I had just come to the conclusion of for myself, so I knew exactly how those points related to my life. I knew it was God speaking to me, asking me to trust Him which I’m ashamed to say I don’t 100%. I guess this is my time to really just go in blind faith and “test” Him. I know He will never fail and that His ways are higher than my ways and His thoughts different to mine (Isaiah 55:8-9). I want to think like Him. I want Him to fill my heart and remove the emptiness and loneliness I’ve been feeling. I also knew I was feeling this way because I’ve been so distracted by other things so now I can realign.
On day 4 I learned that we cannot know what activity is Gods unless He takes the initiative to reveal it to us and instead of forging ahead, we should watch and pray to see where He is working and ask Him to reveal it to us. Not only should we ask and wait, but once it’s revealed, we should immediately respond by following Him. That’s the part that I need to ask Him to help me with.
The last day of Unit 4 made me realise just how little I had actually prepared myself to work with God. I can say all the right things and pray the “right” prayers, but if I’m not going to follow through then what’s the point, especially if I’m not going to keep watch for His answers?
I read that many times people miss God’s answers because they are not watching for them. This reminds me of when my dad was telling my brother and I that prayer is like a phone call. It’s never just one person speaking (unless it’s a spam call) and as soon as you’ve asked for everything you want and said all you want to say, you hang up before the other person’s had a chance to say anything. This is like how a lot of us have been praying to God; hanging up (saying amen) before He’s had a chance to respond. This is something I’m really going to reflect on because I know we’re supposed to be in constant, consistent prayer (pray without ceasing - 1 Thessalonians 5:17), so how much have I really been missing out on because of my sporadic prayer life?
It’s day 1 of Unit 5 and it was another beautiful day. I should have remembered and realised that every time God speaks, that is an experience of His presence. I have been experiencing God without even really realising all this time.
No matter how many times I go through this book, I’m always having new revelations.
Day 2 of Unit 5 was the longest one I’ve been through since the beginning of this study. One of the tasks was to read back through all the other units, all the revelations I had and the tasks. At first I was a bit overwhelmed as I had written so much, but I couldn’t deny that reading the prayers I had written was really special. It was even more of a highlight to see the journey God has brought me on so far and it was really nice to see that I wasn’t praying about all the same problems over and over, which means that God has helped me through those!
I had found myself getting a little shy of being vulnerable when it comes to sharing my faith and I have no idea why. Well actually, maybe I do. People are hurting and they can get very defensive and combative whenever God’s name gets mentioned. I have to remember also that there is a spiritual realm too that is fighting as well and that our battle isn’t against flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12). Whatever attacks I may endure isn’t directed at me but the one whom I’m trying to follow. I should pray for those who hurt me because I know that they have a hard battle themselves in whatever that may be. Jesus was hurt many a times to save us, so I can endure whatever I may face in His name because He did so for me.
It’s day 5 of Unit 5 and I showed up so tired today, I’m surprised I managed to get through it all in a short space of time. I still got a fair amount out of it and was shocked awake when I saw an 8 legged foe walking across the wall (sorry God, I know You made them but I just can’t…). Regardless, my main take away today was that I can’t rely on other peoples interpretations or relationship with God, I need to have my own personal relationship with God and to get to know Him for myself. “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). “Study to shew thyself approved” (2 Timothy 2:15) All these things reinforce that no matter what, always come back to the Word and test things against the scriptures.
The Meeting:
We had a good meeting today. A new face joined which was so encouraging! I found myself talking a lot more than I usually do, which felt like an improvement as I tend to go into my introvertedness at times (if that’s even a word).
I’m looking forward to seeing if others have gone through the studies next week and what they will share that God has shared with them.
✨ Nadine