How to Build and Maintain a Relationship with God Part 1

How to Build and Maintain a Relationship with God Part 1

October 6^th, 2015

Teacher: Tory Spring

Tonight Tory delivers a heart seeking message about how your spiritual house: the house you building with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is a representation of your relationship with God. All believers new and old will find this message encouraging and find themselves wondering what is the condition of my house and how can I improve it by investing in my relationship with God? Tory begins by explaining the condition of our relationship with God represents who we are as people and how much we value our relationship with God. The first principle or point we must learn is…

1.     If you want to build a relationship with God, know the hard part has already been taken care of. Jesus Christ for those who have accepted Him as Lord and Savior has already laid out the foundation for you to have a relationship with God. There is no rite of passage, no hazing period, no secret code, when you accept Christ, your accepting Him as the foundation and cornerstone of your life “Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Zion A chief cornerstone, elect, precious, And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.” (1 Peter 2:6 NKJV) You don’t have to pay for your sins, your sins are already paid for. Therefore, we as believers can stop trying to rectify our wrong doings or earn God’s love or favor. There is no way we can atone for our sins and even if we could there would be no reason for God not to love us. God’s love and favor is undeserved and it is expressed and demonstrated through the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son Jesus.

2.     If you want to build a relationship with God, then examine if your heart is in the right place. A good relationship is established on principles of love, faithfulness, and transparency with oneself and the person of interest. Although we can fool others and even ourselves we cannot fool God. “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” (Galatians 6:7 NKJV) You get what you put in, especially when it comes to a relationship with God. You put in a 110% with your relationship with God, your bound to get His everything and then double the effort and amount you put in. He is the reader of all hearts and minds, and we all have friends and family who developed a relationship with us but with ulterior motives. So when God turns to you, and asks, “Why do you want to build this house?” What do you say?

a.     It is essential we understand our motivations as to why we’re seeking a relationship with God. For you never get to the “How” before you can fully understand the “why.” Because the “why” is your motivation, your fire, your desire for seeking God, and we as humans proclalim, we love God one minute and then the next minute we’re acting unfaithfully. With the same mouth we pray to God and bless His name the next moment, we’re cursing with our friends, swearing up and down. Our “why” as to “why” we build and maintain a relationship with God should never come from a selfish, self centered place. The more we realize our why and how are not that apart the greater fellowship we will have with God in the building and maintaining our relationship with Him.

Reasons to consider: Why should I have a relationship with God?

1.     Your relationship with God is the source of your everything

§  4 And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. (John 6:35 NKJV)

2.  Your purpose is revealed to you through your relationship with God 

§  And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28 NKJV) The more intimately you get to know God, the more faithful your actions and your decisions and your choices are to Him, the greater your revelations will be when you have conversations with God.

3.     Your blessings come from your relationship with God

§  For You meet him with the blessings of goodness; You set a crown of pure gold upon his head. (Psalm 21:3 NKJV) (1-4)

4.     Your help comes from your relationship with God

§  May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble; May the name of the God of Jacob defend you; May He send you help from the sanctuary, and strengthen you out of Zion; (Psalm 20:1-2 NKJV)

These are verses to give us motivation and not just motivation but context. These verses provide a lens as to how much we need God. It is by our relationship with God we live, we breathe, we move, we have our being that affirmation isn’t it only a saying. It is a testament, a privilege we can all say, because of our relationship with God.

3.     If you really want to know if your relationship with God is on the right track. Test it. An easy test is to see if God is comfortable in living within your heart. Is your heart a dwelling place for the King? Consider John 14:20-23 (NKJV), “At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. 21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.” Do you recognize God when He reveals himself through His Son or through people? A simple indication is, do you keep the commandments of God. We keep looking for some divine light, some divine angel to come from the heavens and tell us and to let others know that we are or this person is a friend of God. When our actions, our demeanor, our private and public lives should be indicators of the King we claim to love and serve. Can someone boldly proclaim you as a friend of Jesus.?

a.     Remember you know two people are friends by the way they communicate with each other, their knowledge of one another, how much they spend time. We always want God to manifest Himself into our situations, our problems, or predicaments, but have we really been a faithful, good friend to Him?

4.     If you want to build a relationship with God, then approach Him as a friend. Yes, He is Alpha and Omega and He is your Abba, Father but He also is your closet friend. To approach God as a friend, of course you are being respectful but you are also abiding in Him. “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” (John 15:5 NKV) Abide. Abide means to “dwell,” “endure,” “sojourn,” but one definition that sticks out is not necessarily a definition but a statement. In the Revised Bible Version, it reads, “abiding places,” which means “the soul of the true disciple and heaven are dwelling-places of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit”. Is your heart a place God, the Son, the Holy Spirit can call home? You can tell if your relationship with God is on track when He can freely enter into your life, uninvited, because that is what friends do. It is a friendship, Jesus has called us friends because servants don’t know their master’s business, and when you have a friend, you really care about and treasure you don’t mind if they come into your home, and eat some of your food, drink your water, and spend a night. Because that is what friends do. To build a relationship with God you have to be willing to be a friend. And to be honest it is a lot harder to be a friend to God than to be a servant. Because a servant obeys, there is little communication between master and servant, a servant is judged on his performance not on strength of their relationship.

5.     So if you want to build a relationship with God, stop treating it like a short term relationship, or a summer fling. Invest in your relationship with God. Set goals for your relationship with God, For example: okay so this semester I want to try at least 2-3 times out the week to have devotional time with God. Investing in your relationship with God

a.     Bible studyà Getting to know about God (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

·      Make a schedule. Schedule gives you structure but more so it gives you the opportunity to make God first in your life every time.

·      Choose a devotional. I encourage devotional especially to people who don’t know the bible very well, consistency in a devotional increases your growth every time.

b.     Prayerà Conversation, listening skills  (Phil 4:6-7)

·       Make a prayer list or prayer journal

·       Pray with other believers

c.     Worshipà Adornment, admiring God for who He is (John 4:21-24)

·      Sing unto God, Read Psalms unto Him

·      Meditate on the Word of God

d.     Fastingà If you want to strengthen your relationship with God to the extreme, fast with the King seek His face above all (Matthew 6:16-18)

·      Fast about overcoming temptation or fears

·      Fast to increase your fear and love of God

6.     So if you want to build a relationship with God, understand your relationship with God is completely different than someone else’s. Everyone is different. All of you guys not only have a genetic makeup: hair, skin, eyes, but you also have a spiritual makeup, a spiritual fingerprint that only you can match. Because the end goal is God wants everyone to have a closer relationship with Him this is a general statement but what does your relationship specifically look like what He is asking for you to do. That is a question only you can answer.

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD? How does your spiritual house look if you have any concerns or questions write them below.