Article written By: Matthew Robert Payne
Many people that are saved would like to have a very close relationship with Jesus Christ. Many hear of people seeing Jesus in visions, going to heaven and meeting God, people doing healing and all sorts of signs and they want this sort of life for themselves. In this article I am going to discuss 5 tips that will get you to the place that will bring great rewards.
Tip 1 - Faith in God
There is a verse that says, "Without faith it is impossible to please God." The difference between a nominal Christian and one that walks in the supernatural all the time comes down to the amount of faith a person has. I read a book once on faith and out of twelve authors that contributed; the first four said that the number one contributing factor to their strong faith was the trials that they had been through. They said that in the midst of trials they developed strong faith and the more trials that they experienced the stronger their faith grew. I think that is a very interesting thing as we live in a world of Christianity that says that you are blessed when you are trial free, but the opposite seems to be true. James says we should rejoice with trials in our life.
So is it possible to develop strong faith without a lot of trials. I guess that it is possible; however the short cut is going through hard times and enduring them with your faith in God. Not everyone that endures trials has a strong faith, but many who have a strong faith have exercised their faith in the trials they have been through.
Peter had faith when he stepped onto the water that day. Peter had a trial when he denied Jesus three times after Jesus prophesied that he would. Jesus said that Satan had wanted to sift him and that he would endure. We hear a lot about Peter denying Jesus three times and a lot less about how Peter's shadow healed people. Peter used to go on a daily walk each day when he was free and take the same route and people used to bring their sick out to the road and line them up and Peter would merely walk past them. That sort of thing doesn't happen much today, that was where Peter's faith was by the time he was an apostle.
Faith is an integral part of healing, doing signs and wonders and walking in the supernatural. Many people mock me when I say that I walk with saints from heaven on earth, their faith does not allow them to think that was possible for me. Instead they think that I am being deceived by familiar spirits. That is sad for them and still hurts me in a way that they mock me.
You have to know that all things are possible for those that believe. Because when you really do believe that all things are possible you suddenly start to walk in the impossible.
Tip 2 - Knowledge of the Word
One day in the year 2000 as I read the New Testament and found that Paul's writings were really annoying me as they were hard to understand, I heard Jesus tell me that I should start to read the Gospels only and that I should ask myself a few questions as I read it.
I was to ask what Jesus was feeling like in this situation. I was to ask what Jesus meant when he said that And I was to ask why did Jesus do or say that.
Jesus said I was to only read the Gospels and I was to stop reading them when He told me. This went on for three years.
About a year into the reading schedule I met a homeless man and I fed him. He asked me if I wanted to hear what he thought Jesus meant when he taught on earth. I was immediately interested. He commenced speaking and it was so rich and profound what he was saying that my mind could not handle anymore after a minute. I knew that if I let him keep on speaking that I had no hope of remembering anything and I was tempted to tell him to be quite so I could remember a paragraph of what he had said. You have to remember that I had been reading the Gospels for a year by then every day and it was subject I knew well, but still with all that reading what this man said was so profound that I had my head filled up to capacity within a minute. The man went on for ten minutes, every minute as profound as the first.
He went on later to do a few signs that were impossible to do and then at the end of the forty five minutes we spent together he disappeared into thin air. I had been in the presence of Jesus Christ in the flesh that day.
You can only come to know Jesus well when you know the Jesus of the Gospels and you can only know Him not through books on Him but through reading the Bible yourself and asking the Holy Spirit to teach you.
The whole Bible speaks of Jesus so it is important to know the whole Word and the promises of the Bible that speak to God's character, but it is imperative for intimacy with Jesus to know the Gospels.
Tip 3 - Humility
The Bible says that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. The Bible says that we are to humble ourselves under God's mighty hand and in due time He will lift us up. These two verses teach us that humility is a key to a close relationship with Jesus. You simply can't be close to God and be proud. We are called to humble ourselves but God can and will humble us if He sees a purpose in our life where humility is needed.
Tip 4 - Prayer
I had a prophecy once by Jesus and it said in the future people will look at the size of my ministry and say that they want a ministry as big as that. Then they will hear that my ministry got so big due to two reasons. The trials of life and the time I spent in prayer. Then the prophecy said that when they hear that many of them will not be prepared to put in the work.
I talk to Jesus and the Father all the time. Well so regular that you would call me crazy if you could hear me speaking out loud as I walked down the street. You will never be close to Jesus if you don't talk to Him a lot and hear Him speak back. One easy way to get to know Him well is to ask Him questions about all sorts of things.
Prayer does not need to be formal. You simply need to chat to Jesus and let Him speak back to have a very good prayer life. Walking in the supernatural is just not possible without an active prayer life.
Tip 5 - Obedience
There exists a favorite chorus of mine that is really old. It says "Trust and obey for there is no other way, to be happy in Jesus, then to trust and obey."
Trusting is having faith and obedience is doing everything that Jesus commanded us to do. Also obedience involves doing what the Holy Spirit tells you to do or what Jesus tells you to do. You cannot go a long way toward intimacy with Jesus if you have no idea what He taught and are not doing it.
We don't need to obey in a legalistic sort of way. We obey because that is what loving God and your neighbor really is, to obey the commands of Jesus. Jesus said in John 15 that we are His friends if we do what He commands us to do. Therefore if you are not doing what Jesus taught you may be saved but you are not on a friendship level.
No comments:
Post a Comment