At every meeting, each party comes with something to ask, share, or do. Meeting with God is much the same thing. So, what are the things to bring along to this meeting?
1. Your time:
The first thing that you need to bring is your time. This is very important. If you don’t give God enough time, you won’t get the best of Him. Do not come into God’s presence with the intention of hurrying away. God has all the time in the world for you, why not give Him enough time as well.
2. Your heart:
At the place of meeting, ensure that your heart is there connected to God and not distracted. That’s why you need to meet in a place that distractions will be absent. A distracted heart won’t connect to God’s heart and the purpose of the meeting won’t be achieved.
It’s not the time to start thinking of other things. Constantly check your thoughts and drag them back to the meeting at hand in case you find yourself distracted.
Another thing is to ensure that there is no sin in your heart. Ask for forgiveness because God won’t answer you if there is sin in your heart. The Holy Spirit can reveal to you, certain wrong acts while in His presence. Do well to yield to this revelation by asking for forgiveness immediately.
If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear: Ps 66:18, ASV
Why do you need to meet with God? The reasons are many and can never be overemphasized, nor are they clichés. Let’s see a few.
1. God created you and only He can provide His reason for creating you
Facebook is a social media platform created by its founder to help people connect socially online. So also God created everything and everyone for a reason. As you read the word of God regularly, you will begin to understand the reason behind your existence, know if you are living according to your purpose of existence and if not, how to start walking in that purpose.
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. – Jer 1:5, KJV
2. Time spent with God increases your spiritual muscles
Constantly being in God’s presence is one way to deal with the move of the flesh. You put the flesh under the check of the spirit. Learn to meet with God.
3. Helps you know what matters to God
Spending time with God reveals to you what truly matters to Him. God cares about people a lot. He doesn’t want anyone to perish and wants you to tell people about Him.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. – John 3:16, KJV
4. You get an understanding of your identity as a child of God and the type of God you serve.
You are the child of a King – a mighty king, who made the earth so beautiful and full of many wonderful things for your benefit.
May the Lord reveal Himself more to you at every meeting time. Amen.
Prayer: God, thank you for the benefits of spending time with you. Help me spend more time with you and at every meeting time, reveal more of you to me. Amen in Jesus name.
Action point: Think of other benefits of being in God’s presence. Which do you like the most?
Declaration: I am decided for Jesus. I spend quality time in his presence.
How often do you praise the LORD? During family devotion in the morning? On the assembly ground at school? Sunday school?
“I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name for ever and ever. Everyday I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever.”
Psalm 145:1
You must have a personal time where you praise God.
There are so many ways to do this. Some ways are:
1. Reading psalms of praise from the bible. 2. Play and sing along to praise songs. 3. Sing from your heart praise songs. 4. Write love letters to God telling Him how much You love Him. 5. Write poems of praise.
When you praise God, you are exalting Him over everything and everyone in all the earth and heaven. You are acknowledging Him as your Lord. God enjoys our praises. He delights in them, and he wants us to continually praise Him.
Only God deserves your praise. Make it a daily habit of praising God. You don’t have to spend long hours at it unless you are led to do so. And ensure that the time you have put aside for praising God is used for that. Don’t allow distractions.
Focus on God and His mightiness and splendor. He wants to hear you praise Him always.
Hanging out with your friends can be a great way of having fun, especially if they are friends that bring out the best in you and help you to smile when you feel down.
You also have to be a good friend to others. If you make hanging out with you interesting, then you will probably have loads of friends wanting to be friends with you.
Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.
Prov 27:17, KJV
There are cool ways to have a great time with your friends. One of such is playing bible games with them.
There are loads of games you can get from the bible. It’s a book filled with many characters that did some fabulous and not too fabulous things.
You could try learning the books of the bible alphabetically and say what each book is about. For example, the book of Proverbs talks about wisdom, Genesis is about creation and how man began to fill up the earth.
You could also have a game of bible heroes- discussing what these heroes did, how they did it, where it happened and so much more.
Another fun game from the bible is searching for who said what in the bible, why they said it, and what it meant.
Acting out events from the bible is also a great way of having fun. Think of the story of David and Goliath – you could act that out with your friends. What about the story of Elijah, Elisha, Gideon, and loads of other characters? Think of costumes, props, lights, and action.
You are not only having fun by doing this, but getting to know your bible back to front, and learning the bible in a fun way.
Also, you are acquiring more knowledge about God.
You are learning about how things were in the bible, how people dressed, what they ate, what they did, and more.
It’s also a good way of bringing unbelievers closer to God. Think of it as a mini form of evangelizing.
So, the next time your friends come around or you go visit them, how about suggesting one of these games to them?
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. He is our friend and comforter. In the place of prayer, He enables us, especially in tough situations.
You need Him to function perfectly as a child of God. When Jesus was going to leave the earth, the disciples were sad to hear this. He said that he had to go for the Holy Spirit to come. The Holy Spirit had to come for us to receive the spirit of God.
How do you receive the Holy Spirit?
The first thing is to accept Jesus Christ as the Lord and Saviour of your life. This means that you confess all your sins because you believe God sent Jesus to die for your sins. After this, you renounce all sins and make a decision not to go back to them again.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Rom 10:9, KJV
The next step is receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit either by the laying of hands or by the Holy Spirit himself coming on you. The manifestation of this is the evidence of tongues. Some kids might choose not to speak in tongues, probably out of fear of what their friends or classmates might think or say about them. Others could just be afraid of what is happening to them.
Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.
Acts 8:15, 17, KJV
I beg you not to be afraid of what people around will say or think of you. Do not be afraid of what is happening to you. The Holy Spirit is not harmful in any way.
After this, you need to start practicing the tongues you have been given. Do so as often as you can. This is a great way to pray as it enables you to weed out distractions. It helps your spiritual muscles grow.
For which cause I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee through the laying on of my hands.
2 Tim 1:6, ASV
Having the Holy Spirit is one of the best things that will happen to you as a Christian.
May the Spirit of God bless you with tongues. Amen
Prayer: Sweet Spirit, come bless me with tongues. Thank You. Thank You.
Action point: Try to speak in tongues for 30 minutes today if you have received the Holy Spirit.
