How To Connect With God, Our Heavenly Father (Part 2)

How To Connect With God, Our Heavenly Father Part 2

In Part 1 of Connecting with God, our heavenly Father we learned:

Why does God want to connect with me?

Why do I want to connect with God?

 

We continue with Part 2 of How To Connect with God, Our Heavenly Father.

How will I know when God is reaching out to me?

You may be surprised to know that God can reach out to you using any method or means. One moment you could be admiring the clouds in the sky and the next moment, He will speak to you about His greatness and how He created the sky and the clouds. No creation of His gives Him as much pleasure as when He created you.

You may look and hear the birds chirping and flying around with not a care in the world and the next moment, He will bring to your mind Matthew 6:26 – “Look at the birds of the air, they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”

As you look at the sparrow, the smallest and plainest bird in the world, He may speak to you about Matthew 10:29 -31 – “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.”

You may have heard of people who are so desperate that they cry out to God “If you are real, show Yourself to me”. Many have visions of Jesus reaching out to them during their darkest and most desperate time.

You know that He is reaching out to you when you sense such a peace that only He can give you.

 

How do I reach out to Him?

Many people think that there is a formula to reach out to God. Some will fast and pray and some will give alms to the church.  Many religions teach that giving of alms and doing good works are ways to reach out to their gods. Their hope is to appease their gods to be blessed in return.

Our means of reaching out to our heavenly Father has nothing to do with what we can do to earn that right or the privilege. It has everything to do with Jesus. Jesus made a way for us to reach out to the heavenly Father. When Jesus died on the cross, the veil was torn in the Holy of Hollies.  Jesus has made a way so that we can enter boldly into the throne room of grace to receive help and mercy in times of need.

There is no prerequisite to reaching out to Him. We don’t have to feel good about ourselves before we reach out to Him. If there was a way that we could reach out to Him by our own efforts, then Christ would not need to die to reconcile us with the heavenly Father. There was no other way except through Christ that we can reach out and connect with our heavenly Father.

 

Reaching out to Him is just a prayer away. Our heavenly Father is omnipresent and that means that He is everywhere. This means that we just need to whisper a prayer and talk to Him and He will be there.  He is there with us all the time but we don’t know and can’t sense it because our spiritual senses are not open to the spiritual realm.

There is nothing complicated about it but religion has made it so complicated and has listed so many steps before you are “qualified” to connect with our heavenly Father. Jesus’ death on the cross qualifies us to come before the heavenly Father. He has granted us the privilege as His children to come to Him freely.

I once heard a story of a little boy who could approach the President any time of the day without making an appointment or having to go through “security”.  The little boy does not have all the restrictions imposed on him because he is the son of the President. He can go into His room anytime, climb onto his lap and tell him everything and anything.

This is the same for us as God’s children – we can just go and sit on His lap and tell Him everything that we are facing – our challenges, fears, disappointment, hurt, etc. He will not turn us away or tell us to come back another time as He is busy. He is all ears when we come to Him because He loves us.

When will He reach out to me so that He can connect with me? 

Our heavenly Father is reaching out to us all the time. In Isaiah 65:1-2, He says “I let Myself be sought by those who did not ask for Me; I let Myself be found by those who did not seek Me. I said, ‘Here am I, here am I,’ to the nation [Israel] which did not call on My Name. I have spread out My hands all day long to a rebellious  and stubborn people, who walk in the way that is not good, [following] after their own thoughts”

God is speaking all the time. He can speak to you when you are admiring nature. He speaks to you when you are reading the Bible. He speaks when you are meditating. He speaks when you are asking him questions. He speaks when you are feeling lonely, sad, happy, fearful, discouraged. He is in every one of the situation that you are facing. He is never far away as He has already promised that He will never leave you nor forsake you.

God has no problem communicating with us. The problem is with us not being able to hear and listen to His voice. His voice is always transmitting but the receiver (us) may not always be receiving what is being transmitted by Him. He speaks since creation, from the times of the Old Testament to the New Testament.

Unfortunately, sometimes when God speaks to us, it is not at a time that is convenient to us. We want to put God in a box and give Him a certain time to answer us when we wait for His answers to our questions. If He does not respond to us in our time frame, we walk away from the conversation.

Many times, at the least expected place and time, suddenly He will drop a thought into our heart and give us the answer that we have been asking. Many times, it is when we are not even thinking about it or it could be in the least likely place such as while we are in the toilet or taking a bath or brushing our teeth.

What do I do when God speaks to me at an inconvenient time?

It is easy during such time to either ignore Him or think that it just our imagination. An inconvenient time could be when you are about to go out for an important appointment and He impresses upon you to call up someone. I am sure at such time, we do not really want to obey Him. However, we fail to realize that maybe this person is in danger or really require someone to speak to them.

If we are not obedient to doing what He asks us to do, that does not mean that he gets all upset with us and will never speak to us again. He is the ever-patient heavenly Father who gives us a second chance or even a third or fourth or fifth chance. Fortunately for us, God will find someone that is obedient to His voice and prompt this person to call the person who is in danger.

Do not put the heavenly Father in a box but be open for Him to speak to you any time.  Have your communication channel open to Him at all time. We should also learn to have such sensitivity to Him that He can speak to us 24/7 and even when we are asleep. Do you know that when we are asleep, our spirit is awake?  Be open to Him speaking to us any time and for us to be able to speak to Him at any time. We will have this intimacy with Him that is not dictated by time or space.

When can I connect with our heavenly Father?

We can speak to our heavenly Father any time.  Many people think that the only time that they can speak to the heavenly Father is when they are in church. In fact, to many people, that is the only time in the whole week that they speak to Him and many times through repeating a corporate prayer.

Some people find that early morning is the best time for them to connect with the heavenly Father.  Some prefer to connect with Him while commuting to work and others prefer during their lunch time or before they retire to bed. The truth is that we can speak to Him at any time. It does not matter the time of day we connect with Him. I am a night person so I find that I seem to connect better with Him when everyone has gone to bed and I am able to focus on Him.

Sadly, many people only try to connect with the heavenly Father when they are in trouble and that is the time that they send a SOS to Him. Many of us try to connect with Him only when we feel disappointed, angry or sad. More often during this time, we are clenching our fists at God because we think that God does not care about how we are feeling.

Do you know that even when you are upset with God, He still cares and loves you? We can never fathom how much the heavenly Father loves us even though we are running away instead of connecting with Him. He is still reaching out to us. If you have this sort of feeling, when you feel like running away instead of connecting with Him, you can say this prayer to verbalize how you feel.

Dear heavenly Father,

I know that I only try to connect with you or call upon you when I am in trouble or when I am so angry that I am clenching my fists at you. Even though you say that I can connect with you any time, my tendency is to run away from you. Please help me realize that you love me regardless of how I feel about you. Help me sense when you are reaching out to me and help me respond to your love during such times. I want to be able to have this intimate relationship with you that I feel comfortable in approaching you at any time. In Jesus name, Amen

 

This article is written by Rinda Ho, who is writing her first book. She will share snippets on how you can connect with God in your journey through this website. She will also share songs that the Holy Spirit has downloaded to her so that you can encourage someone through these songs. Rinda has used God’s gift to serve as keynote speaker, held Christian seminars and taught group leaders and small groups in various churches, educating Christians how to hear God’s voice. She delights in mentoring Christians and see “ordinary” Christians fulfill their destiny, when the heavenly Father reveals to them the good works that He has prepared in advance for them to do.