Experiencing God Personally

There are Christians who hold on to biblical truths, but they are not enthusiastic about spiritual experiences or strong emotions.

It is true that our feelings cannot be a reliable basis for our faith, but God is love. Without strong feelings, love is just an abstract theological idea.

The foundation of our faith is the Bible. The Holy Scriptures are from God himself. We must understand the clear theological statements in the Bible as authoritative, but it is a big mistake to focus only on theological statements.

In the Bible we also find the experiences of faithful Jews and Christians who loved God. These experiences are just as important as theological statements. They belong together, like flesh and blood, like truth and love, like light and life.

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? Ps 42:1–2 NIV

When we try to separate feelings and experience from truth, we go completely wrong.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness and self-control… Gal 5:22–23 NIV

This is a theological statement. Kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control are not feelings, but virtues.

Love is also a virtue, but not just a virtue. Love without feelings is not love.
Peace without feelings is not peace. Joy without feelings is not joy.

In Psalm 42, the psalmist speaks of his longing for God's presence in the services in the tabernacle or in the temple. Where God reveals his holy presence, we experience something.

There is a big difference between a map and a beautiful fertile landscape. Theological statements are our indispensable map, but God's direct presence is our promised land.

I have experienced wonderful blessings in church services. Hopefully you have too, but we no longer live in the Old Covenant. In the Old Covenant, God's tangible presence was mostly found in the temple, but 50 days after his death on the cross, Jesus sent us his Holy Spirit from heaven.

Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”
By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. Jn 7:38–39 NIV

It's wonderful when you experience a fresh refreshing of the Holy Spirit in a blessed worship service, but sometimes it's even better when you can feel and enjoy God's glory in your daily life at home or on a walk in the park.

Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me. Rev 3:20 NRSV

This is not just an invitation for the unconverted, but an invitation for Christians to enjoy a tangible communion with God in our everyday life.

Does God have Strong Emotions?

 Some men make fun of women because they have strange mood swings on certain days. Women make fun of men because they are grumpy or moody when they are hungry or sexually frustrated.

God is not moody like us. God is not ruled by emotions and is not driven to and fro by hormones.

In the first centuries of the Christian era, many educated Greeks converted to Jesus. They tried to explain biblical revelation with the logical thinking of Greek philosophy.

In the Bible we see that God's character is perfect and flawless.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. Jas 1:17 NIV

If God is unchanging, he should not feel strong emotions. Those who react emotionally to experiences change as a result. So goes this philosophical train of thought.

But everywhere in the Bible we find that God reacts to people with joy, sorrow, tender love or anger.

The LORD your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” Zep 3:17 NKJV

God is not moody like us. He is not driven back and forth by his feelings. He remains unwavering in his character, which is unchanging, but God is love.

Without strong feelings, love is merely a theological concept. God is not made up of theological ideas.

God is not an abstract idea. God loves you. His love is an eternally blazing fire.

Feeling Love and Experiencing God

We read in the Bible: ‘’God is love‘’. We believe this, but often only in theory.

And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. Ro 5:5 NIV

How is it possible to receive strong love without experiencing tender feelings?

We hold to the truth of the Bible with conviction and determination, but when it comes to experiencing God's love, feeling His tenderness, many Bible-believing Christians shy away.

... to search for God, if perhaps indeed they might feel around for him and find him. And indeed he is not far away from each one of us, Ac 17:27 LEB

According to the Bible, we may find God by feeling around.

This should shake Bible-believing intellectuals out of their theological world of thought.

The Holy Scriptures tell us in plain language that we can feel God.

O God, you are my God; I will seek you diligently. My soul thirsts for you; my flesh longs for you as in a dry and weary land without water. Ps 63:1 LEB

My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Ps 84:2 NIV

Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. Ps 34:5 NIV

Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. Ps 34:8 NIV

They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. Ps 36:8 NIV

The Song of Solomon is intended to illustrate the love of God.

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth— for your love is more delightful than wine. So 1:2 NIV

We also read in the New Testament that extreme emotions are quite all right.

You have sorrow now, but I will see you again and then you will rejoice; and no one can rob you of that joy. Jn 16:22 The Living Bible

Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 1 Pe 1:8 NIV

KNOWING THE HEART OF GOD

God loves you completely. He wants only the best for you. 

He created you to be a wonderful person, just like himself. Because He loves you, he wants you to be happy and healthy.

• Most of all, he wants you to be just like his son, Jesus Christ.

For from the very beginning God decided that those who came to him

—and all along he knew who would

—should become like his Son, so that his Son would be the First, with many brothers. Romans 8:29 (TLB) 

We all need to be transformed dramatically to be like Jesus, all of us. 

If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 

But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 1 John 1:8-9 (NLT) 

The man who wrote these words was the disciple whom Jesus especially loved, the man who wrote the Gospel of John.

• A good leader knows he too is a brother or sister and not a superior holy being.

That doesn't mean a preacher must always be available for everyone who wants his attention. 

• Many people cry for the preacher’s attention like babies for their mother. 
• Because preachers and leaders are only human, they need time to rest, think and listen to God. 

Don’t expect a preacher to give you what only God can give, to give you his complete and undivided attention, to give you perfect wisdom and to love you as his own child.

Once someone rang up our pastor after 2 o’clock in the morning because he couldn't sleep. 
The pastor answered: “Now there are two of us who can’t sleep.” 

But God never sleeps and when you can’t sleep, he is there with you.

God sees the end from the beginning. 

Before your grandparents were born, he looked down the centuries to come and saw you choosing to love him and trust him with your life. 

• He saw you learning to know him and experience his deep affection, to know the intense devotion that he has for you. If you belong to Jesus, God is your FATHER, the perfect Father who adores his children. 

• A good mother adores her baby and the love of God is even stronger.

Sing for joy, O heavens; shout, O earth. Break forth with song, O mountains, for the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion upon them in their sorrow. 

Yet they say, "My Lord deserted us; he has forgotten us."

• "Never! Can a mother forget her little child and not have love for her own son? Yet even if that should be, I will not forget you. Isaiah 49:13-15 (TLB)

What is God like?

But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 1 John 4:8 (NLT) 

Who can understand what this means? 

A child can understand best of all. A child knows what the love of a good mother or father feels like.

Then he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. Matthew 18:3 (NLT) 

When it comes to understanding THE LOVE OF GOD, scholars and teachers often become confused.

• In one usually good commentary I found this strange contradiction.

For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:8 (NKJV) 

“How desperately the minister and church need such tenderness and affection for each other!” 

I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. Philippians 1:9 (NLT) 

“ ...love in the Bible never focuses upon good feelings...The focus of love is knowledge.”  Preacher's Outline and Sermon Bible - Commentary.

God is not controlled by his emotions but he feels intensely. 

He wants you and me to know His heart and feel what he feels.