From Head to Heart

I was recently asked how to get away from a head knowledge of God to a heart relationship with Him.  It was a little ironic since I asked someone the very same question a few weeks ago.  However, it got me thinking about it and I have come to see some big changes in my relationship with God.  I know that many people wrestle with the same issue, so I wanted to share some of my journey and some thoughts I have about it. 

I can recognize in myself a new level of relationship with God since being on this World Race.  I see many changes in myself, and I feel a lot more at peace with God.  I have a better ability to see Him working in everyday situations, and I have been growing a lot with Him.  I don’t feel awkward about discussing the things of God with people anymore.  This whole experience is doing wonders for my relationship with God.  It hasn’t been easy, it is definately a struggle, but it is necessary and so worth it. 

I think the first most important thing for moving beyond your head is this: community.  I have been able to grow and learn so much from living in community with all of these other believers.  It is so important to surround yourself with other people who believe the same things as you, who are struggling with or have struggled with the same issues as you regarding faith, and together you can all encourage one another, and hold each other to a new standard of living.  It is a safe area in which to test new ways of living, a place where messing up is ok.  A good example of this is the early church in Acts.  We have been learning a lot about this way of living.  The early church is the original way that believers lived.  This is the example of “church” that we all should be following.  The entire book of Acts is good, worthy of study.  I will just highlight a couple of verses here.  
      Acts 2:42-47 They spent their time learning the apostles’ teaching, sharing, breaking bread and praying together.  The apostles were doing many miracles and signs, and everyone felt great respect (fear) for God.  All the believers were together and shared everything.  They would sell their land and the things they owned and then divide the money and give it to anyone who needed it.  The believers met together in the Temple every day,  They ate together in their homes, happy to share their food with joyful hearts.  They praised God and were liked by all people.  Every day the Lord added those who were being saved to the group of believers.  
   Acts 3:32 The group of believers were united in their hearts and spirit.
A good book that demonstrates community living is Irresistable Revolution by Shane Claiborne.  It is really good.  Amazing really.  Living in community, intentionally making time to have with other believers in fellowship (not just sitting beside someone in church) is probably the most important thing to have your Christianity come alive. 

Two other ways to move from the confines of your mind are to recognize your free will and to get out from under the law.  You are not obligated to anything.  Praying should not be an obligation, reading the Bible should not be a chore.  If you don’t feel like doing something, then don’t.  No one wants to talk to someone who isn’t interested in the conversation.  God doesn’t want to spend time with you if you are only doing it because you have to.  You are under no obligations- you are free fom the religious laws that say you must do this, and you must not do that.  Let loose and let your relationship with God come naturally through seeking His face.  You have free will, no one is trying to force you into a relationship with God, least of all God.  Anything you do in search of Him is your choice, and you have to keep at the forefront of your mind that this is what you are choosing.  Ask God to give you the desire to know Him more.  Ask God to give you an honest yearning for Him.  Ask Him for the motivation to seek Him. 
It says in James 4:8 Come near to God, and God will come near to you. 

It is only in the last couple of months that I really feel like my relationship has really moved beyond my head into my heart, since being in Swaziland.  What happened was that I realized that the more I studied the Bible, and the more head knowledge I got about God, the more difficult it was to cram that all into my heart.  So I decided to stop reading my Bible as much and to focus on praying.  Instead of starting my devotions with reading the Bible (which usually then made me run out of time to pray) I started with prayer, and if I made it to reading the Bible then good.  If not, well then so be it, at least I was able to talk to God.  I made the choice to skip from gaining head knowledge in the Bible to praying with my heart.  And amazing things happened.  My prayers got dramatically longer, I was being lead by the Spirit about what to pray for, I prayed a lot for others and not so much for me, and at the end my spirit and my whole self felt strong and edified and fulfilled and satisfied.  It was really quite incredible.  Amazingly enough, I seemed to always have time to read the Bible as well.  By praying first you can get responses to your prayers when you then read afterwards.  The other day I prayed asking God to make me ready for when judgement comes and then about 10 min later I was reading the Bible, and decided to begin 1 Corinthians which says in chapter 1 verse 8 Jesus will keep you strong until the end so that there will be no wrong in you on the day our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.  What a sweet promise in direct response to my prayer.  Also in Swaziland when I was wrestling with God I was able to move towards a more heart relationship.  I had it out with Him one morning while my team was worshipping.  I blogged about it, about how I was out in the wilderness instead of getting married and the result was my discovery of free will.  From that I think 2 important things happened.  The first being the recognition that I have chosen to follow God, and the second being that God answered me in a deep and meaningful way.  He and I have had conversations before, but this was something else.  He responded to my yelling and whining in such a way that could get through to me (basically yelled back) but all the while I felt His presence of love.  So don’t ever doubt that God will respond, you just need to give Him a chance (this is called listening prayer).  I felt refreshed.  I am not suggesting that it is always necessary to have it out with God, but if there is something really bothering you, really on your heart, don’t be afraid to tell Him about it, He is big enough to handle it.  More than that, it will get your emotions involved and it is a step to having an intimate relationship with God in your heart (emotions are fickle and you can’t base your whole relationship with Him on how you feel, but you can’t feel nothing and still have a heart relationship with someone.)

Two last things that may help.  I just finished reading the book The Fear of the Lord by John Bevere.  Of all the books I suggest this is the one I would most highly recommend.  It says on the front cover that reading this you will discover the keys to intimately knowing God,.  When I was part way through I really enjoyed the book and was learning from it a lot, but I wasn’t sure how it was the keys to relationship.  He tied it all up in the last chapter demonstrating how the two people who God called Friend in the Bible had both demonstrated the fear of God first.  By fearing God you show complete obedience to Him.  When God has tested your obedience and you pass, the He will reveal things to you, and you will be able to know His ways, and His reasons and know HIM instead of just knowing about Him.  You will begin to have a deep heart relationship with Him.  It is quite eye opening.  Really read it, and take a lot from it.  It is a few years old (about 10) and it is telling about things to come soon that I believe are now happening (I have a blog about the outpouring in Florida). 

In church today the speaker said “Prayer is a conversation.  You can’t pray without listening first (you have to inhale before you exhale).  It isn’t about the length of your prayer but the accuracy of your prayers”.  He also said “you can never go to church, only become church”.  To have a heart relationship you must become the church.  Don’t rely on others.