QUIET TIME – That Precious Time Alone With God

This is the phrase commonly used by believers to describe that period of time one spends with the Lord away from every form of distraction and/or noise. This is that time when we listen to God more than we talk opening up ourselves to Him that He may do in our hearts or mind that which He needs to do that we may be more like Him. This is where we behold the glory of The Father and are changed to be like Him drawing strength from Him also to facilitate this change. This is time that no believer can succeed without in any area of life. It should not be the practice of ministers or clergy only, but something every believer does. Our God definitely wants to spend time alone with every one of His children. It is indeed a privilege; one that must not be taken for granted as we are inclined to doing.

Mathew 6: 8 “But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.”

God is the source of our strength. The closer we draw to Him, the more good we receive from Him; we are also better able to deal with life. Drawing close to Him is both physical and spiritual. The physical bit is the deliberate act of “locking out all others for this time allotted to Him alone” and the spiritual bit is having one’s spirit in absolute control of their mind and body at this time as the Holy Spirit interacts with the person. Satan prefers that we don’t have this alone time with God; so our flesh would normally give us all the excuses in the world to facilitate our not having that time with God. He would rather that we don’t go there because we reject him every time we go into that private communion with God. He can’t be part of this meeting as long as we shut him out unlike when believers gather to fellowship. Spending time with God sounds so simple yet it is tough for many and that is because there is an enemy fighting us and trying to ensure we don’t do it because as we draw closer to God, He draws closer to us.

James 4: 8 “Come close to God, and God will come close to you.”

In this time, we may study our scriptures, worship and praise God and/or even ask God for things we need, discuss the issues that trouble us or just remain silent savoring God’s presence. At this time, God is the focus and not us. My suggestions is that we leave asking for things to the end when one is done with just adoring God. I have observed that when our needs are the main topic of our discussion as we spend alone time with God, He ceases to be the center of our quiet time; instead, that need becomes the object of the quiet time and we don’t really listen for God anymore. The more time we spend with God, the better we are at identifying His voice. Identifying God’s voice is one of those things that get better with practice; and now more than ever before, there is the need for every one of us to hear the voice of God

John 10: 4 - 5 “… and they follow him because they know his voice. They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.”

Hebrews 5: 14 “… who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.”

This ought to be a daily practice and can even be several times daily. If however, one misses out on a day, it’s not the end of the world.  It is still okay to make that time as soon as it is possible to do so. To miss out on this time alone with God consistently is to deliberately set out to destroy your walk with God. It is like shutting out your nose and mouth so that you can’t breathe and hoping to live. Indeed the Spirit of God on the inside of us will keep prompting us to spend time with God until one gets used to doing the contrary and the Holy Spirit goes quiet. How does one know God except they rub minds with Him? Why would a God so great be willing to honour you so highly by choosing to spend time alone with you if it was not important? God is so desperate for this time that I have found that if you choose a particular location consistently to spend time alone with God, after a while you will find that God is there waiting to spend time with you when you get there.

John 15: 5 – 6 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, will produce much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers.”

If Jesus Christ needed to spend time alone with God as frequently as He did, then we need to do the same and even more so. It sounds very simple but very impactful. It is also worthy of note that after every victory, Jesus made the effort to spend time alone with God. If Jesus needed to be refreshed and replenished, then we certainly do.

Let Us Draw Near To God

It is definitely not news to most believers that we are in the “end times” since this is one of those things that we talk about often; but, do we really believe it? It seems like the more we say it, the more lightly we take it. I guess we have heard it so much it sounds like a cliché because a lot of us carry on with such a lazy disposition toward God and the things that pertain to Him, that it is obvious we don’t really believe it and largely, because we have not thought on it enough. The relationship such persons have with God is so dry and lacking in luster that they make God appear boring when the real problem is the fact that they barely engage Him and as such are unable to glean from Him and radiate His glory. A believer’s relationship with God only thrives to the extent that one is ready to make the effort. Most of us only engage God, when we are overwhelmingly burdened and as soon as our issues are resolved, we return to status quo; it ought not to be so. Engaging or cultivating a vibrant relationship with God takes a deliberateness on our part. Unless and until we make the effort to work at this relationship, it remains boring or even dead which said state is often reflected in the believer’s life.

Luke 18: 1 “One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up.”

Ephesians 6: 18 “Praying always”

Proverbs 3: 6 “Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.”

God desires to have a vibrant relationship with us which is why He is open to communicating with us always and everywhere. He makes it clear that He desires to be a part of our everyday life and even our decision making.  Never mind those who think we disturb God when we commune with Him; God is so interested in our lives that He takes the time to show us which path is fit when we seek His will. The onus is on every believer to either accept to have that relationship with God that He so desires or to reject His outstretched arm. Whilst it is true that God hides Himself, it is our honor to search for and find Him and as we do that, we are cultivating a beautiful relationship with Him. He makes it easy for us to find Him by giving every one of us the Holy Spirit who knows all there is to know about Him. The challenge for a number of us is the fact that we don’t even care enough about the depth of our relationship to even need The Help He provides so that the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives is just to facilitate our speaking in tongues. We must remember that uncultivated relationships gradually die despite that we may be unaware of its death and still carry on just like Samson who shook himself not knowing that his strength had left him because is head was shaved. A bad relationship is bad despite what we may like to think or believe. It is always what it is. We always get back from a relationship what we invest in it. What are you investing in your relationship with God?

Proverbs 25: 2 “It is God’s privilege to conceal things and the king’s privilege to discover them.”

Luke 6: 38 “Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full-pressed down. Shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”

If indeed these are the end times as we believe they are, then it is time to work on our relationship with God. It takes some form of “pressing” to go forward in any God related thing including even our relationship with God. When Paul says “I press on to reach the end of the race” it included even working at his relationship with God. We need to “press” that we might go forward. Of course, pressing is not passive so a lazy person will struggle with their relationship with God but it starts with a decision and grace is available. We have to wake up from a life of ease and get into serious business with God. We have to work at leaving behind us any weight that might make it difficult to enter His presence thereby stemming our maturity. Every weight should be cast aside whether they be failures, success, un-forgiveness and whatever else there is, they must be put aside that we may enjoy our relationship with God and the benefits. It is worthy of note that when we work to cultivate our walk with God, we enter into that rest can one can only have in Him. It is time to push the limits of our relationship with Him and the benefits will no doubt be immense.

Hebrews 4: 3 “For only we who believe can enter his rest.”

Philippians 3: 13 “No dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus is calling us.”

The Word Of God – WCO Prayer Conference

Thank God for our last WCO Prayer Conference where we were reminded of and taught the word of God. For me, every minute at the Conference was an experience I would like to relieve but I guess God would prefer for me to go forward with what I received instead of relieving the experience. The one thing that was certain is that God desires for us to go forward so He let us know that He is all we need to go forward. Of course that does not mean that God does everything and we do nothing; it only means that because He is God who creates and also knows all the path we could ever take as well as the end of the journey, He is able and willing to provide all we need if we could trust Him enough to seek counsel from Him and just obey His instructions and I guess this is where it gets tough because His instructions sometimes can be very confusing particularly in the face of current day realities. Moreover, we live in a world that likes to believe that God is so outdated He does not understand the present day realities. Of course to the world, those instructions are totally silly. No wonder the hymn writer says “He works in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform.”

 

1 Corinthians 1: 27 – 28 “Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important.”

 

So we were counseled to listen out for instructions from the Word and the Word is Jesus Christ the son of God. He can choose to speak to us directly or through His written word which suggests that we must pay attention to His written word. The only way we learn the voice of God is by building on our relationship with Him and there is no achieving that without building a relationship with the written word. No one who stands afar would be able to discern His voice accurately. The stronger our relationship is with people, the easier and faster we are able to recognize their voices even when we can’t see them and in the midst of many voices. Relationship definitely plays a major part in identifying the voice of Christ not withstanding how and when He speaks. Sometimes we hope to learn to discern His voice without building on our relationship with Him but that isn’t really possible. It is like saying you will know when I speak without knowing me. You have to have heard me a number of times to recognize my voice when you hear it. You can get to know me so well that even when I write you recognize me even without seeing my name.

 

John 10: 26 - 27 “But you don’t believe me because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”

 

Voice is very powerful because man is greatly impacted by what he hears. God speaks to His own and this has nothing to do with what generation one exist in but has everything to do with whether or not one belongs to Him. In every generation, there are people born of the Spirit, as a result of which they are known as the children of God, with whom God certainly communicates. These are people to whom God is Father and Redeemer and a father would definitely communicate with his children. No father consistently communicates with his child through another except if he is unhappy with the child. Sometimes we might be a little confused as to what our father is saying which is why he has other children that you can speak to with a view to getting a clearer understanding of what he is saying but he would speak to you. When we desire better understanding it is wise to speak to those children who also have a good relationship with Him but we very often prefer to speak to children who barely themselves speak to Him or have a relationship with Him; how then can they help us understand what God is saying? The mind of God is often times not revealed in one word. You put many words or sentences together to get a clear picture. You need to wait patiently to get a good understanding instead of rushing of with half a sentence.

 

1 Samuel 3: 9 “So he said to Samuel, ‘go and lie down again, and if someone calls again, say, Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.’ So Samuel went back to bed.”

 

We must listen to God in an attitude of obedience. Very often we already conceived what we want and how we will get it so that unwittingly we already put ourselves in that place of disobedience. When we make that decision to truly walk with God, we must be open to His instructions. Preconceived notions are usually a problem with walking with God. Our minds are made up in a particular direction so that it is even difficult to realize that God is saying something totally different from what we think He is saying all because of what we had assumed He would say. It is time to return to listening to God if we desire to go forward by Him. God definitely still leads His own.

You MUST Spend Time With Your Father. It's Called Praying.

“I don’t know if this ever happened to you because it happens to me from time to time. I woke up this morning, jumped into the bathroom, barely had time to get dressed and rushed out of my house. I had like a thousand and one things to do. Despite all the hurry, I am still way behind my schedule yet I already skipped some very important things like the time I spend with God.

At times like this, I say to myself that the time with God will then be at night just before my normal time for intercession. More often than not, it doesn’t happen. By the time I am done with all the things I have to do, it’s my standard time for intercession.

How do you cope with this in your daily life? Do you just give up? Or do you manage to rush through that time with God religiously? Are you one of those that have your quiet time in the car whilst driving to the office? How do you manage the children so as to find some time for just you and God?

I really don’t have a formula but I know for certain that we must strive to create time for God daily. Time spent alone with God is a must for every believer who wants to build on their personal relationship with God and conversely, their faith. Though God does not kill people for not spending time with Him, our personal relationship with Him slowly dies if we don’t and eventually our faith dies also. How can we have a father so loving and we never set aside time to be with Him?

Amos 5: 6 KJV – ‘Seek the Lord and you shall live’

Psalm 69: 32B KJV – ‘and your heart shall live that seek the Lord

It’s more than just praying. It is a time to study His word, praise, worship Him and also listen out for what He may want to say. It is indeed the time when we behold His glory which allows us the opportunity to be like Him. Do you know that if you spend time alone with God, in that time God can also correct you so that you may not need a difficult experience to be transformed?

What time in the day should I seek my God - morning, afternoon or night? The entire day belongs to God and I believe that anytime we seek Him we will find Him. However, I suggest we spend time with God in the morning. In a way, we feel better prepared to face the day; empowered afresh. Also, coming from the presence of God, one starts the day with renewed joy which is found in the presence of the father. The psalmist also suggested severally that we seek Him in the morning

We have to be deliberate about setting time aside for God. If we hope to find time for Him after we have done ‘’all we should do for the day’, we will never have time leftover to give him. Guess what! Even if you sacrifice that time for other things, there is still not enough time to do everything you intended to do anyway so please give yourself that treat daily. It is your decision. Will you do it?