Message Magazine’s Online Devotional for Tuesday, May 30, 2017
Listen to “Thoughts in Worship 05.30.2017” on Spreaker.
“For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” (2 Peter 1:16).
When you have a real experience with God, nobody can convince you to relinquish your faith in Him.
So many people are confused and grasping at straws to bolster a great argument to validate the existence of Christ in their lives. They pull together Web related resources, commentary, and third-party validation to self-assure, and then convince others. Did you catch the way I constructed the last two sentences? They were stilted, dry, listless, contrived, and robotic. They were lifeless and impotent. The outcome of the efforts I described would be just as lifeless. For who by searching (merely) can find out God?
This is Real
The Holy Spirit is alive and well. He is providing very real encounters with God for those willing to trust in Him. God is answering prayers for healing. He is opening people’s minds to truth they would otherwise reject. He is revealing Himself in the Word of God. He is coming divinely near to those who mourn. He is changing the paradigms of proud people, thieves, murderers, and child molesters. He is making liars honest, abusers meek, and narcissists self-abnegating.
Peter walked and talked with Jesus. He experienced times when Jesus healed the sick and raised the dead. He saw Jesus glorified. He saw Jesus crucified. He saw Jesus after His resurrection. He experienced Jesus’ forgiveness. Do you think anyone could convince Peter to abandon His trust in God after all that? Do you think anyone could convince Peter that Jesus was a farce? No!
Solid Bond
When we, like Peter enter into a relationship with God and begin to have real communion with Him, nobody can take away the zeal that comes from such experience. We must seek our God on the experiential level. When those experiences line up with His Word, we have a solid bond that no man or woman can break.
