1 We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old.
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
Many people may have read about God in the Bible but have not yet experienced Him personally. God is more than a record of Him in the pages of the Bible; He really wants you to experience Him one on one. Knowing God begins with reading about Him in the Bible, but it doesn’t end there. You must go a step further by acting on the Word to experience Him for yourself. When you go to God in prayer and acknowledge Him as God according to the Word, that is, acknowledge Him for what the Word says He is by thanksgiving, you will experience Him firsthand. The revelation of God has been given to us in His Word, however, our experience of Him consistent with the Word is as a result of acknowledging Him as God by thanksgiving. Prayer is the place where we practice, where we put the Word to work. You have learnt the Word in Bible Study, now you are experiencing God in prayer, and as you begin by giving thanks to God for what His Word says He is, you are putting to work now what you have learnt. As you do this, you experience God; you walk in the light of who God is. Your spirit is introduced to God and He is introduced to your spirit. That’s how to have spiritual knowledge of God that is experiential and personal.
What you have learnt of God in the Word forms the foundation upon which you can build a personal experiential knowledge of Him. In prayer, as you exercise your faith in God’s Word, acknowledging who God is to you, God manifests Himself to you such that you know that God is in you and that you are in Him in an organic and inseparable oneness; God has come home to you and you are home with Him. In the place of prayer, you service your consciousness of your oneness with God; you bask in the awareness of His love for you, and vice versa. Observe the way Jesus was praying to His heavenly Father in the Book of John Chapter 17. It seemed as though the Father was right next to Him. The Lord was talking to the Father one-on-one, literally, and that’s the beauty of prayer. This eliminates carnal, physical, ritualistic protocols. It brings you into the consciousness of oneness with your heavenly Father that is natural and authentic. Now you know assuredly that in Him you live, you move, and you have your being. The confidence you have in Him is so robust and rock-solid. This in turn will impact on your outward appearance such that when people look at your face, they see God’s glory. Hallelujah!!!
MY SOLID FRONT (YOUR CONFESSION): In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I practice the awareness or consciousness of God’s presence by acknowledging Him, abounding in thanksgiving always! Amen!
Further Meditation:
John 17:1-26; Acts 17:28.