 Experiencing God is rarely how we think it will be. We hope for a booming voice, maybe an eye-popping miracle, or even an instant solution to all our life problems. What actually happens is something quite different.
This all-wise, all-powerful Ruler of the Universe does indeed touch the lives of his followers, but in this day and age, he typically does it in a way that is very private and very personal.
When it comes to people experiencing God in the Bible, we think of Jesus' miracles, the parting of the Red Sea, or Daniel surviving the lions' den. We tend to forget a very odd occasion when the prophet Elijah was waiting for God:
"Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave." (1 Kings 19:11-13, NIV)
Elijah hid his face because he knew the Lord was in the gentle whisper. If we are wise, we also will listen for the gentle whispers in our lives, because that is when we are most likely to experience God.
To hear and encounter God, you must first respect Him by obeying His words. Experiencing God in an intimate, personal way takes patience. The more you read the Bible, pray, and surrender yourself to him, the more Jesus will move in your life. But we cannot force this to occur. God works in his own time and in his own way.
When it happens, and it will happen, you will know it. You will know, without a doubt, that it was not your imagination or some odd coincidence. You will be stunned at the depth of God’s love for you, and your life will never, ever be the same. Are you ready for the encounter?
 Friends, did you know that heaven is not for good people? Some of you when read this probably shocked. Heaven is for a redeemed and forgiven people. How do we know that? One story found in the Gospel gives us that idea. When Jesus was hung on the cross, he had a little time talking to one of the thieves that was hung with Him. What did Jesus say to him? "And He said to him, "Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise." - Luke 23:43. Who was he? According to the Bible, he was a murderer, most likely, but he was forgiven!! And anyone can be forgiven if they will turn to Christ.
And just as heaven is a real place, hell is real too. We can’t deny it. The Bible teaches on it many, many times. There are only two kinds of people in the end: Those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ Which are you? All who are in Hell, choose to have their will be done. Without that self-choice there could be no hell.”
So let’s get over the notion that God is so cruel in sending people to hell. God poured out His wrath on His own dear Son so we wouldn’t have to go to hell. That's what the Bible tells us. He loves us very much. He is so compassionate toward us. And the last thing God wants is for anyone to perish. But if we are bound and determined to reject His offer of forgiveness, then it is really on us.
The Bible tells us that God “does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent” (2 Peter 3:9).
So we can’t change the script, and we can’t rewrite the story. Albert Mohler, Jr. wrote, “We have no right to determine which ‘story’ of the gospel we prefer or think is most compelling. We must deal with the gospel that we received from Christ and the Apostles, the faith once for all delivered to the church.”
Our job is to deliver what God says—not to edit it . . . not to change it . . . not to add to it . . . and certainly not to subtract from it.
 There is a famous story about a Spartan king who was boasting to a visitor about the walls of Sparta. The visitor looked around, however, and could not see any walls. “You see, in Sparta, every man is a brick,” the Spartan king told his guest, pointing to his army. “These are the walls of Sparta.”
When it comes to the church, every believer is a brick. And we are described in the Bible as living stones: “And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple . . .” (1 Peter 2:5).
We should not be spectators in the church; we should be participants. It is easy to play armchair quarterback. But it is another thing altogether to be down on the field with the team. And that is where God wants each of us to be.
President Theodore Roosevelt said, “It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming. . . .”
It is easy to stand back and criticize, but the credit goes to the man or woman who goes out and does the work of God’s kingdom. Maybe they make a mistake here. Maybe they don’t get it right there. But that's OK. it is better to try and make a mistake than never try at all.
As each part of the body of Christ does its special work, it helps the entire body. The key is every one of us doing our part.
 Although Jesus was God, he experienced human limitations like we do. Not only was He hungry, not only was He sleepy, not only was He weary and lonely, but He also was tempted. Jesus felt the presence and pressure of temptation just as we do. He didn't have a sinful nature, but He experienced temptation.
Now why is it important for us to be aware of the fact that Jesus was tempted? It was so we could know that we follow a God who understands what we're going through.
As the apostle Paul wrote, "In all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people" (Hebrews 2:17). Jesus also left us an example to follow as we face temptation. He occupied ground that we, too, can occupy.
It's important to note that Jesus did not meet Satan with His considerable supernatural power. He could have said, "I don't want to fool around with you right now. I have other things to do." And He could have disappeared. He could
have called on the angels to intervene. He could have even overruled Satan because of His clear authority over him. Instead, He met the devil with the written Word. He countered every temptation with Scripture (see Luke 4:1—13).
You and I are also called to live by God’s Words. Only with the Words of God we can overcome our temptations.
 In his poem, "The Second Coming," William Butler Yeats wrote, "The best lack all conviction, while the worst are fullof passionate intensity." What a summary of the times in which we are living today.
While the church today struggling with liberal concepts and even questions the authority of the Word of God, the world outside our doors is running in rush into sin. When we, as people light will wake up? When are we going to get out there and get the gospel to the world? The world is pursuing its wickedness like never before.
It is amazing how some people who believe in wicked and dedicate their lives to the promotion of those concepts. Meanwhile, there are so many Christians who know the Bible more than adequately, but won't even lift a finger to get the gospel out to someone who lives right next to them.
A survey among evangelical Christians revealed that 95 percent of those polled had never led another person to Christ. Yet Jesus commanded us to make disciples for all nation (Matthew 28:19—20). Do you see something missing here?
As people of God, we have order from our commander-in-chief, and it isn't merely addressed to clergies. It's addressed to every man or woman who names the name of Christ.
 We all want to hear the good Word of God and long to discover His vision for our lives, right? But when pressures or persecutions come because of the word, that vision, hope, and instruction that God has given you, what is your response?
Do you lose heart? Do you let the vision, the dream, the word God gave you slip away? Are you faced with that right now? It is an hour of testing and testing comes before deployment. Here is why many of you have let go… “You have no root in yourself”.
The reason the Word develops no root is NOT because of any lack or deficiency in the quality of the Word. It is because we have not allowed the Word to penetrate deeply into your heart. Your heart is the soil and you must allow that Word to work deeply within you. If you fail to do that, there will be no root and you will fall away from the Word
God gave you.
Here’s how you can do that…
Write it out: Writing it out and reviewing it often helps us to remember the Word.
Apply it: This is where so many fail… This takes effort but results in transformation (Rom 12:2) When it says, “Thou
shall not steal” for example, do you ever ask the Lord to show you how that might apply to you? Do you steal time,
paperclips or photocopies from your employer? Do you rob God by not tithe? Do you allow the theft of your time?
Speak it: We steer our course with the words of our mouth (James 3). We tend also to believe what comes out of our
mouth and it is self reinforcing to speak the Word.
Ponder it: Direct your mind to the Word and ask the Holy Spirit to teach you.
 Whenever you hear the Word of God speaks to you, Satan comes immediately to steal that word. Commonly this is done by distraction so subtle that most of the time you don’t even realize what happened. You were reading the Scripture and then the next thing you know, you are at the end of the chapter and you have no idea what you just read.
While reading, your mind was flooded with suddenly important reminders of what you must do that day or perhaps an unresolved argument from the night before. The devil comes to steal that word because he is afraid you might actually believe what you read, gain faith and thus be saved from your trial.
If he can’t distract you, he will attempt to confuse you and block your understanding of the word. Satan can’t physically stop you from picking up the Bible and reading, but he will try to distract you, confuse you or make you not understand what you just read.
When you find this happening, stop reading for a moment, ask the Holy Spirit to help you and declare out loud if necessary, that today you will read and you will hear and you will understand the Word of God. Furthermore, you will not be a forgetful hearer, but an obedient hearer who does what the Word instructs. Let faith arise and give the devil
an aneurism today!
 _Back in the 1950s, there was a lot of talk about the future. There seemed to be a utopian dream here in America in which we thought things in the future would be better and that technology would solve our problems. Well, we have lived long enough to know that this is not going to happen. Technology won't save us. No manmade solution will deliver the answers we are looking for.
As Christians, we are here on this earth for a mission. We have tasks from heaven that we need to fulfill. So how should we be living in light of that fact? What all of us should desire to be doing is to live our lives well.
If you had one year left to live, how would you live? Would you live your life any differently than you did the year before? This is something we have to come to grips with because we want to deal with reality of life in the future. It isn't morbid to think about death; it is realistic. The tragic thing is that many today are living shallow, wasted lives. Are you?
What have you done with your life the past 20, 30, or 40 years? Most spend their lives for themselves... this is a wasted life. At the end of the day, the only thing that count is what have you done to serve the purpose of God in your life.
Friends, don't waste your life anymore. Don't waste your year. Don't waste today. Make every day count. Make this year count!!
 _Sometimes people on road crews are not very popular. It seems they always do things at the worst time, like during rush hour. They block off the entire freeway, while, they are way over on the other side doing their work. Some people get rather angry with them.
John the Baptist was on God's road crew. He was described as "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight... "(Luke 3:4-5). The word for "crying" could be translated "howling." He had a job to do, and he realized that he had a relatively short period of time to do it. His job was much like that of a herald who went ahead of a royal procession.
John was there to prepare the way for the Lord. He was on God's road crew, leveling the mountains, bringing up the low places. It was his task to prepare the nation for the Messiah and then to present the Messiah to them—and he wasn't very popular for it.
In a sense, that is our job as Christians as well. We need to realize that like John, our time is limited. We have to make every moment count. We don't want to waste time. And like John, we should be doing what we have been called to do.
 _There are people today who say, "I am a Christian," but they are out getting drunk. They say, "I am a Christian," but they are having premarital sex or being unfaithful to their husband or wife. They say, "I am a Christian," but in their business, they lie to people every single day. They distort things. There are a lot of people today who think they are Christians but are not, because they have not really changed. They are not living according to what the Bible teaches.
I am not saying that a Christian cannot sin. I am not saying that a Christian won't slip up. But I am saying that there is a big difference between a person who slips up, sins, is sorry for it, and wants to change and a person who lives in continual, willful, habitual sin.
The Bible says that if you live that way, you don't know God. They think being a Christian is just having Jesus along for the ride. They don't realize that He wants to be their Lord and wants to lead and guide them. Jesus Christ wants to be the Lord of every aspect of your life. He wants to be the Lord of all. And if He is not Lord of all of your life then He is not your Lord at all.
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