Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to faithhopegodlove@aol.com In Christ, Mark
"Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the Lord, and he said: "I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it." He was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven." Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz." Genesis 28:10-19
As we continue studying Genesis, Chapter 28, we find Jacob on the way to his uncle Laban’s home to marry one of his daughters. Scripture tells us that at "a certain place" between Beersheba and Haran, Jacob decides to stop for the night. As he lays his head down on a rock and drifts asleep, he has a remarkable dream…not like any dream he had ever had before. For in this dream, he encounters the Lord and receives a special blessing from Him...an assurance that the Lord would give him the "land on which (he was) lying. The Lord also said, "Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." When Jacob awakes, his response is one of overwhelming praise as he thought, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it…How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven." What an amazing moment for Jacob…as he has a God-experience. It’s an amazing moment for us too as we learn some great principles to apply to our Christian walk.
First, how often do we have God-experiences? Now we may not have had a dream where we saw angels ascending and descending from Heaven on a stairway and maybe we haven’t had the Lord impart special blessings upon us and our ancestors, but I think I can say with full confidence that we all have had a God-experience of a different type.
For example, how many times has your conscience convicted you when you were either about to sin or after you had sinned? You know what I’m talking about. The cartoon analogy that is more true than we might want to admit has a little white angel on one shoulder and a little red devil on the other of a person trying to decide between doing right and wrong. The little white angel will be saying something like, "Now you know you shouldn’t do this. It’s wrong and you know it." Meanwhile, the little devil is saying, "Don’t listen to the angel. Do it! Do it! You know you want to do it!" Well, consider that little angel…or that still small voice…or that sense that what you’re about to do is wrong (that conviction feeling), a God-experience. The Lord is speaking to you via the Spirit and is seeking to guide you the right way.
How about another matter to consider. How many times have you experienced a miracle of healing…a good fortune…a resolution of a long standing problem…a restoral of a broken relationship. All fall under the category of blessings and they are nothing short of a special, loving God-experience.
Need still more convincing…How about prayers that you have lifted up either for yourself, your family, a friend? What do you call it when those prayers are answered? For me, it’s an awesome, amazing God-experience…and it happens all the time.
So what happens when we truly realize how many God-experiences we have in life? Well, it brings us to the place of praise…just as it did Jacob. And in our rejoicing, we should find ourselves exclaiming with joy, "Surely the Lord is in this place!" and "How awesome is this place!" with the "place" being wherever you are when your God-experience happens. And that could be anywhere because God is with us everywhere.
Question: Have you had a God-experience today? If so, did you fall before Him in praise for His presence…His goodness…His guidance…and His love. Lift up your voice and sing, "Praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise Him all creatures here below, praise Him above ye heavenly hosts, praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost." Amen
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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