Relationship...

     This past week we studied the topic, "Hearing the Voice of God," and intercession (praying for change). The most important thing I learned over this last week was actually about relationship. God desires to have relationship with us.
"Come near to God, and He will come near to you." James 4:8
In Exodus 33, God speaks with Moses, and later in the chapter, God even shows glory to Moses!
"I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you." John 15:15
There are a ton of other verses that speak on this topic as well. God speaks about being our King, Shepherd, Friend, Heavenly Father, and our True Love. (Galations 1:10, Psalm 23, Proverbs 18:24, 1 John 3:1-2, Hosea 2:16).
    It should also be our desire to have a personal relationship with God. However, there are things in our lives that will stop us from having that kind of a close relationship with God. This week as we learned about hearing God's voice, and realized that there were a lot of things holding me back from having a close relationship with God. First of all, my focus was on God for the wrong reasons. I have always read my Bible and prayed and put focus on God in the past, but in reality, very little focus. When I started this DTS, I began to focus on God like crazy. I really wanted to hear God's voice, find out the next step. My intentions for spending more time with God were for me. I wanted to hear His voice, I wanted to know the next step, I wanted God's blessings in my life. Sometime we even treat God as if He is a dog. "Tell me this, guide me here, bless my job, I need this God, do that." Too often we only pray to God to bless us, and rarely do we ask God to draw us closer to Him, or to lead us in His direction, even if its not the direction we really want. I realized that I should be pursuing God not because of what He can do for me, but because of what He has done, and because of who He is. (Don't get me wrong. Hearing God's voice and finding out His plan is a good thing, but focussing on God just because you want those things isn't right).
     Other things that will keep us away from God are: anger, bitterness and ongoing sins in our lives that we don't want to remove. When we are angry at someone for a long period of time, that anger will begin to soak into us. Hatred is like a disease. It will begin to show itself in other areas of our lives, in other relationships. We will slowly become filled with hate, and it will pour out in any way it can. It will harden our hearts to God, and to the people around ourselves. It is the same with bitterness too. In fact, bitterness is a sign, that we have not truly forgiven, and are still holding someone's sins against them. We, (and when I say we, I include myself), often feel justified in our bitterness. Someone has done something against us, or something to hurt the people around us, people we care about. We decide to forgive the person, but we hold on. When past situations come into our minds, we focus on them, and our anger and bitterness come back up. This is a tough place to be in, because we know we are called to forgive, but sometimes we just aren't really sure how, or we don't even really want to.
     Coming into this week of lectures, I had bitterness in me. There had been people who I had been hurt by. (Not to mention, I'd hurt them as well). I had gotten over the hurt, and told myself I had forgiven. But in reality, I hadn't truly forgiven. I tried to put it behind me, but I was still bitter at the person. This showed through my actions and my speech. I treated the person decently, but put in no effort to heal the relationship. I decided it was more or less too late, and when I saw the person around I'd be nice, but that was about all.
     Over the last couple of weeks, I felt like there was something keeping from being close to God. This past week, God clearly showed me that I was still bitter, and I had to let go and truly forgive. And, heal the relationship that was broken. It wasn't exactly easy, and at points I wasn't sure if I wanted to. But, I know that God has forgiven me, which is incredible. We really don't deserve God's forgiveness, but He does forgive us! I've done so much over my life against God, and If God, who is perfect, and could choose to ignore and punish me forever, chooses to forgive me, then I must forgive those who sin against me. God also calls us to forgive.
"For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." Matthew 6:14-15
     God helped me to forgive and begin to make the effort to rebuild the broken relationship. Sometimes however, it doesn't happen that quickly. We feel like we cannot forgive. This is when we have to ask God for His help, to work in our lives, and help us to forgive. Sometimes, we have to forgive on a daily basis. Every time the hurt that person has caused us comes into our mind, we need to choose to forgive again. It can be a long journey, but with God's help, we will come to a point where we really can forgive.
     When we are living in sin, and consistently choose sin over God, God will not grow close to us. We all know that we cannot stop God from loving, but God does have emotions. The Bible mentions numerous times how He was pleased or displeased, angry, glad, rejoiced ect. We can please God with our actions, and we can displease. For example, the church in Laodicea was no longer living for God, but had become lukewarm. They were choosing things of this world over God. God says, "I am about to spit you out of my mouth." Revelations 3:14-21. God calls them wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. God is not describing people He is in a close relationship with. They thought they were doing good enough, but they chose this world over God, and when we do so, God will not draw close to us.
     The coolest thing about this situation is, God gives them a chance! God says if anyone repents and accepts Him into their life, He will be with them!
     We can draw close to God, and God wants this! We can have an amazing relationship, and even hear God's voice and find out His direction for our lives. But, it takes effort, it takes forgiveness, and it means giving up things in life that are pulling us away from Him. But as live for God, and draw close to Him, He will draw close to us!
    Just so you know, I am not writing this to tell people how they are bad and sinning, I just want to pass on the amazing things I'm learning here on DTS, and hopefully those who read can also learn with me!
     Jonathan

First Lecture :)

So, today we had our first lecture, and dove into the topic, The Character and Nature of God.
     We started off by remember how life is about God. Its like a movie, where God is the main character, and we are basically one of thousands of extras, who are only seen for a moment. However, as we play our tiny part, we often begin to think that the movie is about us, when really it is all about God.
     The question was asked, do we truly know God. Not do we have knowledge of God, but do we know God on a personal level, in a relationship type of way.
     Sometimes people misrepresent who God is, and distort our view of Him. We need to allow our misunderstandings of who God is to be corrected by God. We need to grow to truly know God on a personal level. The Bible tells us constantly of different characteristics of God. This helps us to understand a bit of who God is, and that is very important. However, there is a huge difference between knowing who God is, and knowing God on a personal level.
     God wants us to know Him, to have a relationship with Him. However, to know God on a personal level takes persistence. God doesn't just reveal Himself to us because we prayed for an hour a couple nights in a row or fasted for a day. For example, when we want to build a relationship with someone around us, we need to take time to get to know them. Its not just going to happen over night, in a couple of conversations. We need to spend hours talking, asking questions, listening. Once we have built a relationship, we don't just stop communicating. We need to continue talking with that person, listening to their views, struggles and advice. If we stop spending time with that person, the relationship will fall apart. The same is true in our relationship with God. We aren't going to come to really know God, and have a relationship with Him in a couple of hours. Yes, every time we read, we will learn more about God, but to grow in a relationship takes persistence. On top of reading, we need to spend time praying, asking God to work in our lives. Not to make our lives perfect, and to provide us with all we want, because after all the movie isn't about us. We need to ask God to build us into people who can be used by Him for His good. We need to ask God to point out areas in our lives that need change. We need to confess our sins, and actually Try to rid them from our lives. We will never be perfect, but when we don't care and simply continue sinning, living life however we want, this will drag us away from God. God looks for a willing heart, a heart that wants to follow, a person who pursues God and pursues purity. We also need to take time to be still and quiet, and simply listen for God's whisper. When we pursue God persistently, God will reveal Himself to us. He will show us His characteristics, and we will experience Him.
     Today, as one of the leaders Matt was waiting on God, Matt felt God speak to him. Matt felt God tell him, that we wanted to reveal Himself as a healer, on a personal level. A few minutes later Matt saw a girl on base who had sprained her ankle, and began to pray with her for healing. When he was done praying, the girl stood up, walked around and her ankle was perfect! God had healed her! How awesome is that?
     God didn't reveal himself as a Healer to Matt after only a couple of days. Matt has been persistent in pursuing God for years. Over these years, God has revealed different characteristics of Himself to Matt. Through this, Matt has gone from simply having knowledge about God, to actually knowing God! To having a personal relationship with God!! And God is so many more things than just Healer. He is a true Father, Friend, King, Comfort, He is our Hope, Joy, Peace and so much more.
     God wants to for us to have a relationship with Him. God wants us to experience His love, joy peace, healing, friendship and so much more. Will we be persistent in our pursuit of Him, so that we might truly know God on a personal level? Yes, we can have knowledge of God and accept Him as our Lord and Saviour, and one day we will be with Him. But how much more amazing it would be to have a relationship with God while still on this earth! Rather than going our own way on our own strength, would it not be so much better to be able to listen to God and follow His plan? If we follow God's plan, we don't need to go on our own strength, because God will be with us. He will use us, and we will be able to see a positive result of our actions.
    Many churches in Canada and the U.S. today are dying. The problem is, people are no longer following God's direction. They are coming up with their own plans and doing what makes sense to them. However, God wants us to rely on Him, not ourselves. God's plan doesn't always make sense to us, but in the end it is right, and it is effective. We have lost our effectiveness because we our choosing to go our own way on own strength instead of God's. The only way to know God's plan for our lives and as a church, is to dive into a relationship with Him. As we do so, we need to wait upon God, and listen for His leading. If we follow His leading, even when it doesn't make sense, God will use us, and we will once again be effective for Him. We will once again see people coming to know Christ, and giving their lives to Him. And not just one or two, but many!
     God wants to have a relationship with us, and He's got an amazing plan for our lives! Will we take the time to grow close? Will we be persistent?

ps. sorry if I was too repetitive :P

Healing!!

So, theres tons of stuff I want to post, but I only have a few minutes so I thought I'd share a cool thing that just happened. At the end of our lesson today, one of the leaders, Matt, felt God telling him that God wanted to show Himself as a Healer. As Matt walked down the steps from the lecture hall he saw one of the girls on base who had sprained her ankle and was on crutches. He asked if he could pray with her for healing, and when they were done, she stood up and walked around, and felt no pain! Her ankle was perfect! God had healed. So, I just thought I'd share that with you for a minutes, because it is pretty darn amazing!!

Travelin'

hmm. Soo. due to the encouragement of Melissa :P   I will actually post something :)  So, I stayed with David and Holly in Santa Barbara for two days on my way down. Twas swell, getting to check out a bit of California! Drove along the coast line on our way from the L.A. airport, and spent some time at a local beach--->
    I'm now down under, settled into the YWAM base in Brisbane. All the flights and such went well, (except for the one I missed due to customs in Sydney tearing everything I own apart). But, they rebooked another flight free of charge. :)    I'm sharing a dorm room with 11 other guys. They all seem to be pretty stellar guys. Tonight there is an orientation dinner, and tomorrow more orientation, and then things get rolling! Just catching up on some sleep over here, we're 14 hours ahead all you guys back home, so my the sleep pattern is pretty much wacked. Anyways, I'll post more as things start happening!!