Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
In a dream, I was in my bed at home asleep. I woke up (in the dream) and discovered a very large diamond in my bed. The diamond was so large that I thought no one would believe it was real.
To me, diamonds speak of knowing the Lord on a personal level. You know the saying, “Diamonds are a girls best friend.” In this case, the girl is the church and the best friend is the Lord, Himself.
As a young believer, I experienced a very crushing and tragic season in my life. I was in a very dark place. In that place God spoke to me and told me His face had many sides to it like a diamond and I should spend my life getting to know Him as He chose to reveal Himself to me.
Up until that time, I only knew the Lord through others and when He began to reveal Himself in a different way than what I was taught, my theology about God crumbled. I really did not know the Lord personally; I had a theology about God, but not an experience with God. But that night everything changed and my life’s greatest quest became to truly know Him.
Looking back over my life since that time I have stayed true to the quest most of the time. The thing that amazes me is the further I walk with God, the more I realize how little I truly know Him. I believe that was why the diamond was so large. There is so much more to who God is than any of us can ever fathom. Yet, we know Moses knew God like a friend and John the Beloved had a very close relationship with the Lord. So we can be close to Him.
My heart is not necessarily to tell you how to have a relationship with the Lord, but rather to encourage you toward Him. I have learned a few things that have helped me over the years with my relationship with the Lord that you may find helpful.
First, you have to believe that God is available. He earnestly desires to have a relationship with you. God loves you and cares about you deeply. He is pleased with you. You have to believe that and continue believing regardless of what is happening in your life. Practically, that is what drawing near to God looks like. As you simply believe His goodness and love toward you, regardless of your circumstances and feelings about yourself, God will draw near to you.
Next, you must know there are enemies to face that we need to be careful about. If we are truly to have closeness with God it means we will have to keep our distance from some other stuff. “Demas hath forsaken me,” wrote the apostle Paul, “having loved this present world” (2 Tim. 4:10). We can’t be in love with the world system and what the world offers and have a love relationship with God. God highly values fidelity. He is a jealous God.
And there is religion. Religion may be the worst enemy to relationship with God because it seduces you into believing you are close or far from God based on a code of conduct or rules. Religion removes the experience with the Lord and without the experience there is no relationship.
As the Amplified Bible brings out in Romans 1:28, God is truly worth knowing. He really is.
Many Blessings, BW