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For the Love of the
Family Ministries
Missionaries to
America’s Forgotten Mission Field, the Family
How to Have A Real
Relationship With God
Dr. Terry L. Coomer,
Pastor
Ministry of Elwood
Bible Baptist Church
P.O. Box535
504 North 12th Street
Elwood, Indiana 46036
765-552-1973
TLCOOMER@juno.com
These messages may be copied in their entirety to help
Christians in the rearing of their children for God,
strengthening their family, and their marriage. They are not
to be changed in any manner or to be sold. This header must
be on any copy. If you have any questions, please feel free
to contact the author.
I want the following article to be an encouragement to all
who read it. It might be one of the most important articles
that has come out of our ministry here at For the Love of
the Family. It will contain some life changing material and
I hope it will change the lives of many who have the
opportunity to read it and pass it on to others. Our desire
is to help people who truly need and want help in their
lives and in their homes.
My wife, Kim, and I do For the Love of the Family meetings
at different churches through out the year. We also have a
book table where we provide a wealth of information for
those needing help in their lives with their marriage,
children or other matters of the Christian life. We hear
from hundreds of people around the world on a regular basis
who need help in these areas. Our church, Elwood Bible
Baptist Church, of which I am the pastor, has a counseling
center that is open to people needing help. In our meetings
for For the Love of the Family, it never fails that after a
service; a parent of a wayward child comes up and shares
with Kim or I the painful demise of their child. It is
always the same story only a different person. The pain and
the agony of these parents breaks my heart. What is the
answer here, why so many young people are growing up in an
independent Baptist church and then going out of their
parent’s home and living a disastrous life? I hear this
story hundreds of times a year. Many times they weep and ask
Kim and me the answer.
Many times I have heard a statement like this, “Pastor, I
just do not know what happened. Our son or daughter grew up
in this church. They attended the Christian school or they
were home schooled. We had family devotions and we made sure
they read their Bible. In fact they memorized many Bible
verses. I just do not understand, can you help me
understand?”
The painful answer is yes, I can. The short answer is your
child did not have a real relationship with God. Parents
still do not understand when I give them that answer. There
is a woeful lack of understanding today on the subject of
what Proverbs 22:6 means. Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child
in the way he should go and when he is old (means when he
departs the house) he will not depart from it.”
Let me start by giving a bit of my personal testimony on
this. I got saved at the age of 19, just a few days short
of my 20th birthday, and neither one of my parents were
saved. I did not come from a Christian home. After I got
saved I began to attend an independent-fundamental Baptist
Church. I was on fire for God in the sense that I wanted to
do something (very important statement you will understand
later in the article). I began to run a bus route, and saw
several children make professions of faith. I heard my
pastor say, "read your Bible through in a year." So, I made
an effort to read my Bible. As a young Christian I started
in Genesis. I realize the Bible says “all scripture is
profitable." However, some scripture is more profitable than
others. It was not the place for me as a young Christian to
start reading and after awhile I became spasmodic at it, but
still making an effort. I tried to pray and turned in a long
list every day to God. Did I get answers to prayer? Not
really. After about a year, I was discouraged and defeated.
Maybe there is something wrong with me. Maybe I am not
saved, I thought. I knew I had repented of my sin and asked
Jesus into my heart. But still doubts lingered and I talked
with my pastor several times. He was virtually no help
except to say “read your Bible.” In fact he was given to
many doubts and fears as well in his life. Many of the
families in our church lived worldly lives. Oh, they dressed
properly, but were ungodly in many ways they lived. The
young people did not exhibit godly lives. They were
interested in fun and activities but not a real relationship
with God. After awhile of defeat, I stayed home from work
one day. I wanted to pray about what the answer was. Later
in the afternoon, Kim sent me to grocery store. I was
desperate and virtually cried out to God to help me. In this
particular store, there was a small display of Christian
books that spun around in a rack. I stopped to look at it.
As I was looking at it, I noticed a book called “How to
Study the Bible”. God said there is your answer. I bought
the book and devoured it. It gave me thoughts I had not
considered about my relationship to God’s word.
I realized I needed to make a change in my life. However,
let me say here that many Christians read their Bible daily,
but do not have a real, intimate, personal, passionate,
relationship with God.
I decided that I was going to have a time with God daily.
Near the plant I was working at there was a park. I had an
hour for lunch. Kim fixed me a sandwich daily and I went to
the park for lunch. I parked my car under a tree and while I
was eating my lunch, I listened on the radio to a Bible
teacher, who helped me immensely. He helped to understand
some things I did not know. After about 10 to 15 minutes, I
would turn off the radio and begin to pray. I would ask God
to show me if there was any sin that stood between Him and
me that day. God, the Holy Spirit would speak to my spirit
and show me my sin. I would confess that sin and turn from
it. Then I would ask God to speak to me and give His message
to me that day. As I would read, God would minister to my
heart. Many times the Holy Spirit would stop me in my
reading and show me a truth and speak to my heart about that
truth. Many times, I would weep over that truth and thank
God for showing it to me. God’s word came alive for me. I
would ask God what he wanted for me and what He wanted me to
pray about. The relationship between God and I became
intimate, personal, and passionate. I began to grow by leaps
and bounds. I devoured my Bible. I looked up the meaning of
the words and God continued to minister to me. In that car,
under that tree the God of the universe changed my life. It
started me on the development of an intimate, personal, and
passionate relationship with the Savior. I look back on that
time and the Lord was gracious in so many ways to me.
Virtually, the Holy Spirit of God taught me and I am forever
grateful. It energized my Christian life which up to then in
the first year had been miserable.
As I have studied down through the years, I now want to
share some very important truths with you about that
relationship that I have learned about now being saved 33
years. I have been preaching and teaching the Bible for more
than 28 years.
I had tried to read the Bible before, but failed to get much
from it. Many of God’s people seek to read their Bible
daily. It is important to understand that the Bible is not
an information book it is a book for transformation. “And be
not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the
renewing of your mind…”, Romans 12:2. There it is folks that
word, transformation. God wants your life to be transformed.
He wants it to be changed, and to develop a real
relationship with Him.
Let me ask you, how many times have you read a chapter in
your Bible and then got down to the end and did not know
what you had read? Many people will make the effort to read
their Bible through in a year. They do not get much out of
that. They sit in church half paying attention and they get
some information about God. Folks, this is a huge spiritual
danger to your children. Many of God’s people are giving
their children a considerable amount of information about
God. However, there is no development of a real relationship
with God. This is the greatest tragedy that any Christian
home can have.
I have known Christians who have memorized many passages of
scripture and lived like the devil. I can hear someone say
they must not be saved then. I do not think that is the
answer. I know the answer is the real relationship with God
is not there. I will explain in detail later how to have a
real relationship with God.
Here is the child who grows up in a Christian school, the
family has family devotions, they have their children read
the Bible daily and yet there is this disaster when the
child leaves the home.
What happened here?
Do you realize that prior to getting saved, the devil, the
adversary of your soul, sought to stop you from getting
saved? However, once you did get saved, the devil now wants
to derail your relationship with God. “But grow in grace and
in knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” II Peter
3:18. Growing means change. The word here for knowledge does
not mean to have knowledge about God, but the knowledge is
to be transforming. Dear friends, many people graduate with
years of knowledge about God from Bible colleges, Christian
schools, or home schooling and live a wicked and vile life.
Their knowledge is not transforming. The devil wants to stop
you from having a real relationship with God and folks; he
is subtle and has done a marvelous job in derailing the
lives of God’s people. “Be sober; be vigilant, because your
adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about
seeking whom he may devour.” He is speaking to Christians
here. Who does the devil devour? Those who do not have an
intimate, personal, passionate relationship with the Savior.
It is important to realize that man is three parts, body,
soul, and spirit. Just because you got saved does not mean
the devil is no longer interested in you. In fact, dear
friend, the battle is on. So are you going to win, have
victory in that battle, just because you read the Bible and
do not get anything out of it? Or you pray and do it
faithfully and never see answers to prayer. The relationship
is not a real relationship! It is self-righteousness, living
the Christian life in your own power.
When you got saved, the Holy Spirit of God came to indwell
you. Up until that time your spirit was dead. But when you
got saved your spirit was made alive. Now the Holy Spirit of
God can speak to your spirit. Something to remember is God
always deals with our spirit through the Holy Spirit through
His word. Romans 8:9-11, 13-14, 16 “But ye are not in the
flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God
dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ,
he is none of his, And if Christ be in you, the body is dead
because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of
righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus
from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from
the dead shall also quicken (revive again) your mortal
bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. For if you live
after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit
do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many
as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we
are the children of God.” I John 4:13, "Hereby know we that
we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of
his Spirit."
This is pretty plain that the Spirit of God lives in us and
bears witness with our spirit and God wants to control our
body through His Spirit. Folks, the Spirit of God always
work from the inside of us to the outside of us. The devil
always works from the outside to the inside of us. Remember,
I said we are three parts, body, soul, and spirit. The devil
desires to control our soul. God always works through His
Spirit to our spirit. If God controls our spirit then, he
also controls our soul and body. The devil always desires to
put outside pressure on us to try to control our soul and
body. In essence, if the devil controls our soul which is
the seat of our mind, emotions, and will, he controls our
body and that means he controls what we do. He cannot
possess a Christian, but he certainly can and does oppress
the Christian with outside pressure.
When the devil seeks to pressure your life from the outside,
if you are not walking in the Spirit you will cave into that
temptation because the devil will continue to put pressure
on in different forms. He does this in three ways. I John
2:15-17, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in
the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father
is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the
flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is
not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world
passeth away and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the
will of the God abideth for ever”.
The devil operates with the three ways mentioned here:
1. The lust of the flesh, which is an
overwhelming desire to do something. The devil preys on the
Christian’s mind here.
2. The lust of the eyes, which is an overwhelming
desire to have something. The devil preys on the Christian’s
will here.
3. The pride of life-which is an overwhelming
desire to be someone or something. The devil preys on the
Christian’s emotions here.
The devil operated in the same way with his outside pressure
on Adam and Eve. When for the first time that Adam and Eve
had pressure put on them from the outside from the devil in
the Garden of Eden they fell. They caved in. Men and women
have been caving in the same way ever since. So, just
because you are saved doesn’t mean you will not cave. If you
do not have a real relationship with God you will cave and
the devil will control what you do.
Through our counseling ministry, I have spent quite a few
hours with a former pastor who has had a horrible life
because of his failure to have a real relationship with God.
When I went through this process with him, he said, “I
graduated from a Bible college and I had no idea. I have
lived after the dictates of the flesh and the devil has
controlled my life." Unfortunately, by the time he got to us
he had already lost his oldest child and we have been able
to help with other children. No one in the family had a real
relationship with God, nor did they know how to have one.
The family has had great disaster. Folks, I have found this
to be extremely common among God’s people. You see most of
God’s people understand that they cannot work for their
salvation. However, they think they can live the Christian
life in their own power by their good works. By the way that
is living for the dictates of the flesh or
self-righteousness. There are three ways Christians seek to
live the Christian life, in unrighteousness, self-righteous,
or righteousness. Unrighteousness means they are given over
to the lust of the flesh, eyes and pride of life. Self
righteousness means they are seeking to live the Christian
life in their own power. Do they go to church three times a
week or more? Do they read their Bible daily? Do they pray
from along list they want to pray about? The answer is yes
to all the above. However, they do not have a real
relationship with the Savior and it leads of to destruction
and much pain in their life and in the lives of their
children.
If the parents do not have a real relationship with the Lord
how can they teach the children to have a real relationship
with the Lord? The answer is they cannot, and the disaster
will be extremely painful for all involved. The devil will
control and sift their life and they will not have a clue
about what happened. When people come through our counseling
program, I hear phrases like, “Pastor, I am trying hard
here." Or, I have got to try harder." What are they saying,
“That I am seeking to live the Christian life in my own
power?” The devil is controlling their soul therefore; he
controls their body (what they do). Mark 8:36-37, “For what
shall it profit a man if gain the whole world, and lose his
own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his
soul?” Remember I John 2:15, “Love not the world nor the
things of the world”. That is the devil’s desire for each of
us is to love the world. Did you notice in Mark 8:36-37,
“gain the whole world?” You see that is what the devil wants
to do in your life with outside pressure to get you to seek
the things of the world through the lust of the flesh, lust
of the eyes, and pride of life and he puts pressure on you
to do so. If you do not have a real relationship with God,
you will cave in and you will be led by the soul (mind,
emotions, and will) which leads into sin and disaster every
time.
As hundreds of people contact us about their children or
marriage through For the Love of the Family, it is always
the same process. The devil does not have to change his
program. He has been pretty successful clear back to Adam
and Eve as to the way he has operated.
He wants to derail your life and destroy it. He makes war on
babies and he will make war on your babies.
Listen to me carefully, parent, you must have a real
relationship with God and convey to your children how to
have a real relationship with God. Exposure to information
about God will not be the answer for your children, it will
lead them to disaster. It will lead you to disaster as well.
They will be destroyed by the destroyer through
unrighteousness or their self-righteousness. You will be in
great pain as they will. The sad part is here is a Christian
who does not know how to turn their life around. They end up
in the hog pen and do not know how to get out. They do not
fit in at church, they do not fit in in the world, and they
are miserable. They are seeking pleasures through the lust
of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life
from the world. The devil continues to put outside pressure
on and the Holy Spirit continues to convict them of their
sinfulness. What a miserable wretched experience.
Many times when the Christian is seeking to live a life of
self-righteousness, they eventually tire of keeping up the
grueling self work with very little joy and they quit and
spiral down and have no answers. The destroyer is destroying
their life. So who is the devil looking to destroy, the one
who does not have a real relationship with the Lord.
Galatians 5 explains this in detail. Galatians 5:16, “This I
say then, Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the
lust of the flesh.” The answer is the Holy Spirit who
indwells us wants us to be Spirit controlled. Our walk is
our daily life. The promise is if we walk in the Spirit we
will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
So, the answer is to have a real relationship with God by
walking in the Spirit.
I want you to notice in Galatians 5:19-21 that a person who
is not walking in the Spirit will be involved in the lust of
the flesh, “Now the works of the flesh are manifest which
are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness (unbridled lust), idolatry, witchcraft (same
word we get our word drugs from), hatred, variance (person
who quarrels with everyone and everything), emulations (an
attitude of deep rage, jealousy and envy)wrath, strife,
seditions (division and dissension), heresies, envyings,
murders, drunkenness, revellings (orgies, carousing)and such
like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told
you in time past, that they which do such things shall not
inherit the kingdom of God.” Folks, if a person can
continually and habitually do these things and are never
convicted about them by the Holy Spirit they are lost.
However, there are people who are saved who do such things
and are miserable as they are convicted by the Holy Spirit.
The end result is the person is deceived. Galatians 6:7-8,
"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man
soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to the
flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth
to the Spirit shall reap life everlasting." So, if I do not
have a real relationship to God through the Spirit of God I
will have a disaster even though I go to church, read my
Bible daily, pray, and memorize the Bible. The person who
does these things without a real relationship with God is
mocking God (means they treat God with contempt).
Unfortunately, a number of people in church fall into this
category. They sow to the flesh because of a lack or a
relationship with God.
Notice Galatians 5:25, “If we live in the Spirit (we are
saved) let us also walk in the Spirit. Folks, we have to
have a real relationship with the Spirit of God to control
our walk. Otherwise the devil will control our soul and he
will control our walk. God speaks to our spirit from the
inside of us. The devil seeks to control our soul by putting
outside pressure on us.
Our relationship with God is a matter of worship. The Holy
Spirit of God speaking to our spirit. One of the great joys
of my life is to daily have God speak to my life through His
word. John 4:24, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him
must worship him in spirit and in truth.” My daily time
with God is worship.
Now, let’s talk about how to have that real relationship
with God. When I met Kim, who is now my wife, I decided I
wanted to have relationship with her. I wanted to be around
her. I wanted to talk to her and listen to her.
Communication is the most important thing about building a
relationship. A relationship is not a one way street. It is
a two way street of talk and listen, listen and talk. God
speaks to my spirit through his Spirit through His word. To
have communication with God I must deal with my sin. So, to
have a real relationship with God I must do several things:
1. I have to deal with my sin daily. Remember
talk listen, listen and talk. I learned at the park in the
car several years ago to ask God if there was any sin that
stood between me and Him that day. Lord show it to me. He
will. When He does, I need to confess the sin and turn from
it, I John 1; 9. I am now free to communicate with God. You
know, I found out how gracious and loving God is as He dealt
with me through His word in dealing with my sins. Sometimes
it almost literally hurt to see how ugly my life was. The
joy of sins forgiven and the openness of which God now
opened His word to me I thought was incredible.
2. We developed a program here at For the Love of
the Family several years ago called “How to Have a Daily
Time With God.” The premise is to have a note book called a
"Daily Spiritual Diary". Each day I use a page of the note
book, and write down 1. God’s Message to Me Today. 2. A
Promise from God. 3. A Command to Keep, 4. A Timeless
Principle (a principle that is good for all time in both Old
and New Testament). 5. My Application. 6. Additional
Comments. I recommend you have a spiral bound notebook for
your "Daily Spiritual Diary". Folks, the note book does not
lie as I put the date of each day right at the top. It is a
record of my faithfulness in my relationship with the
Savior.
3. Each day I ask God to give me His message for
me today. In essence I want to hear from God for real.
“Lord, show me what you have today for me from your word.
Please make it real to my life.”
Folks, God does not bless Bible readers; He blesses
Bible mediators, Psalm 1:1-6. As I am reading down through
my Bible when the Holy Spirit shows me a truth I stop! I
read the verse over several times. I break down the verse.
If I do not know what some words mean in the verse, I look
it up. Listen carefully, the reason I stopped is because I
have asked the Holy Spirit to give me His message for me
today. God speaks to my heart (mediator) about this passage.
Meditating is thinking about the passage. Psalm 119:11, “Thy
word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against
thee.” This verse is not about memorizing the Bible for
knowledge purposes it is about putting it in your heart
(mediator). I am stopped to listen to God. It is time to
stop, not talk and listen and learn from the Master Teacher.
I then write it down in my own words. I them proceed and the
Holy Spirit stops me again for a promise, command etc. I
dissect the verse that the Holy Spirit has stopped me on.
Psalm 19:14, "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation
of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength
, and my redeemer."
I have a page in my"Daily Spiritual Diary"where I
write special thoughts from God and meditate on them. I want
to have a real relationship with the God of the universe and
I want Him to speak to me. I then write down under My
Application, what all this means to me and how I can apply
it to my life. I write it down in my own words.
4. Now we come to the prayer time. Remember a
relationship is about talk and listen, listen and talk. As I
come to prayer, I ask God to speak to my spirit today about
what He wants me to pray about. “Lord what do you want me
to pray about today?" This is very important. Remember I
John 2:15-17 where the devil is seeking to control my life
through outside pressure through the lust of the flesh, an
overwhelming desire to do, lust of the eyes, an overwhelming
desire tohave, and the pride of life, an overwhelming desire
to be. Listen carefully, after asking God what He wants me
to pray about today, and praying about it as He speaks to
me. I then ask God what He wants me to do today. What He
wants me to have today and what He wants me to be today.
Effectively, I have disarmed the devil’s approach by turning
these three areas over to God. Folks, would it not be better
to pray about what God wants you to do, have, and be? The
people who come through our counseling program are always
talking about what they want to do, what they want to have,
and what they want to be. I know immediately they are being
controlled by the devil’s influence on their soul and he is
therefore controlling their body and therefore controlling
what they ultimately do.
5. There are three more things I want to ask God
about. First of all who does He want me to witness to today?
Then I stop talking (be quiet) and listen to God. Remember a
relationship is a two way street, talk and listen, listen
and talk. After God tells me who to witness to today, I then
ask him who He wants me to encourage today. When He brings
up that person I pray for them and then maybe give them a
call or write them a note. Thirdly, I ask God what I can
praise Him for today. There are many passages of scripture
that tell us to praise God. However, I want to know what He
wants me to praise Him for. Why do I pray about whom to
witness to today, encourage today, and to praise God for?
Because I am focusing on others and not myself. When most
Christians pray they have a list and they go down it and it
is, “Lord give me this and I want that or let me be this."
It is a self-righteous way to pray and it is not going
anywhere, because it is the way the devil wants to focus in
the Christian’s life to get them to love the world. I John
2:15, “If any man love the world the love of the Father is
not in Him.” Does that mean he is lost? No, it means he does
not have a real relationship with God. His love is somewhere
else, the world. When you develop a real relationship with
the Savior, it will be a love relationship. Think about it,
the God of the universe is speaking to me and I am listening
to Him. I am talking to Him and He is listening to me. What
will really effectively increase your faith, will be when
you ask God what to pray about and He tells you and you pray
about it and it is answered. When was the last time you had
a real answer to prayer. Are you self-righteously praying?
I use to play professional baseball as a pitcher. When I
would stand on the mound I would look at the catcher and
ignore the hitter. When I threw a 92 mile an hour fast ball
by the hitter I was focused on me and the catcher. In
baseball terms it was called “he is in the zone.” Nothing
else was focused on. I liken that to my relationship to God.
It is personal, (between me and God), intimate (it is a love
relationship, very close to each other), passionate (there
is real desire there). Nothing motivates you more than to
know that God will speak to you today and will hear you
speak to Him. Talk listen, listen talk.
Without the intimate, personal, passionate relationship
between me and God I am doomed to disaster after disaster
and failure in many parts of my life. It will always affect
my wife and children. If I am living the Christian life in
unrighteousness or self-righteousness (seeking to live the
Christian life in my own power), I am doomed to a lot of
pain and destruction in my life. The devil really does not
care if I live it either way it is fine with him.
The sadness of the hour in which we live is many Christians
do not have a real relationship with God. Folks, do not
think that I have said memorization of scripture is not
good, it is, but by itself will create a self-righteous
life. If you memorize it meditate on it. How does God speak
to you through the verses? Also, you have to read your Bible
to meditate, but you have to stop to study and listen to the
Spirit of God when He wants to show you what He wants for
you from God’s Word. Do not just keep on going because you
have three or four chapters you must read today. You have to
stop and listen! A real relationship requires we spend
quality time together. Kim is my best friend. She is someone
I can talk to and listen to. She is the love of my life. My
relationship with the Lord is to be like that as well.
We have a booklet on our web site
www.fortheloveofthefamily.com called “How to Have A Daily
Time With God”. It will show you step by step how to have an
intimate, personal, passionate relationship with the Savior.
Remember, my baseball story. While I was pitching the
infielders behind me would chatter to try to distract the
hitter and disrupt their concentration. I was in the zone,
just me and the catcher. After the pitch, I would hear an
infielder say, “way to go hum baby!” When you have a real
intimate personal, passionate relationship with the Lord,
you are in the zone and humming. When the devil comes along
with his outside pressure, you are focused on the Spirit of
God speaking to your spirit and your soul is then controlled
by the Spirit of God and so is your body, thus you are
Spirit controlled and walking in the Spirit.
When there is outside pressure from the devil instead of
responding to people with anger, meanness, harshness or
other responses, you are responding with the fruits of the
spirit, Galatians 5:22-22, “love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and
temperance.”
Once I learned what it was to have a real relationship with
God, as a father, I knew I had to teach it to my children. I
wanted them to really know the Lord. I went through it with
them about what all this meant. I wanted them to know how to
have a real relationship with God. Without it they will be a
disaster when they leave my house. Many times I would ask my
daughters when they were growing up, “what is God speaking
to you about?” Their answers were always revealing to me. I
did not just hope it would happen. I wanted them to taste of
the Lord and see that He was good! We spent time talking
about our relationship with God. I would ask them what God
was speaking to them about to pray about. We talked about it
and as they got older they would come with real excitement
to tell me what God was speaking to them about or what God
had taught them. We would have that excitement and joy
together. I believe the principle of Ephesians 6:4 is very
important here. “Fathers, provoke not your children to
wrath.” How would a father provoke his children to wrath?
Could it be because he did not teach them to have a real
relationship with the Lord? So, they learn in their life
when the outside pressure comes from Satan how to respond by
being controlled by their soul and respond in the dictates
of the flesh. One of those is “wrath”, Galatians 5:19-21.The
rest of Ephesians 6:4 says, “But bring them up in the
nurture and admonition of the Lord.” It means training with
structure. I say again folks, how can a parent get the heart
of their child and train them to have a relationship with
the Lord if they are living a self-righteous (living the
Christian life in the own power) or unrighteous life? It is
not going to happen and the end result for the child’s life
is the works of the flesh list of Galatians 5:19-21. (Read
that list over and meditate on it. Are you or your children
in that list?). The kind of life the self righteous
Christian lives is a real grind. It is over and over the
same thing keeping the rules, but not experiencing the power
of a real relationship with God. The Christian who lives
that way takes on the 19 characteristics of the apostate age
in which we live from II Timothy 3:1-5. How does it end?
“Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.”
What a miserable life and a destructive life! It does not
have to be that way. We can have victory through the power
of the Spirit of God who indwells us and wants us to have a
real relationship with Him.
If you need help because you are caught in the sins of the
flesh because of outside pressure from the devil and do not
know what to do, feel free to contact us. May God help you
today seek and have a real relationship with Him.
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