Grace, Identity, Relationship

Relating to God

| by Kristine Repino

Relating to God, is exactly what He made us to do!

You are a part of God or rather God is a part of you.  You were created in His image and likeness.  That’s a real way of saying you are like Him. In Genesis, He tells us this, and then He empowered mankind (us) to rule over the earth just as He rules the universe.  (Genesis 1:26, 28)  You may not see the association between you and God, but before the fall, mankind WAS like God.  This is the very thing Satan lied to the first children of God about, getting them to question that they weren’t.  We are spirit beings.  Adam and Eve WERE like Him in their spirit, and they related to God spirit to spirit.  After the fall, they became separated from God in their spirit and could no longer relate to Him in that way.   Every person born after them was too.

When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, our human spirit becomes reconnected and is one spirit united with Him. We become exactly like Him in our spirit (the real us)!  We are made righteous and holy.  As born-again children of God, we have His very presence within us.  Hallelujah!

  • 1 John 4:17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
  • Ephesians 4:24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God--truly righteous and holy.
  • 1 Corinthians 6:17 But the person who is joined to the Lord is ‘one’ spirit with him.
    • The Greek word used for “one” is “Heis” and it means, a single (one) to the exclusion of others.

It really shouldn’t be difficult to ‘relate’ to God, because His presence resides within us.  However, we can’t do it out of our flesh or natural (carnal) ability.

Jesus said we must worship God in spirit and truth.  God is spirit, and He relates to us through our re-born spirit.  (see John 4:24)  So when Christians limit their relationship with God by relating to Him in the natural through their minds, emotions and circumstances, they are not communing spirit to spirit.

  • Romans 8:7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.

“Those who come to the Lord overwhelmed with their unworthiness are not in the spirit, but in the flesh.  It’s only in discovering who we are in the spirit through our new relationship with Jesus that we can ever successfully worship the Lord.” (Andrew Wommack's Living Commentary)

The Lord wants an intimate relationship with us; where we are confident to come to Him, expectant to receive His favor, and above all, knowing His love for us by experience!  He relates to us through the finished work of the cross; holy and blameless before Him.  (see Hebrews 10:19) We have to relate to Him the same way.

I’ve heard well-meaning Christians say they just can’t relate to God/Jesus but can relate to other Bible figures such as Mary, since she is a mother like they are.  They keep Christ and the Father at arm’s length, calling it reverence.   It isn’t that we can’t glean information from other people in the Bible.  All Scripture was inspired by God. (see 2 Tim. 3:16)  But what they are essentially saying is that they want to relate to God and Jesus carnally, with their natural mind.  This actually diminishes the fear (reverence, respect, esteem), not glorifying the Lord Jesus for what He has done.  It also dulls and limits their ability to perceive spiritual reality, and to relate to God through their born-again spirit.  Their understanding becomes darkened.

Ephesians 4:18 They are darkened in their understanding and alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts.

1 Corinthians 2:14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

We can be confident through our born-again nature; God desires to communicate with us personally. God is not merely an influence of positive values or a moral standard to live by.  He is a person, with personality and feelings.  Scripture says in the book of James 4:5: “Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, ‘He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us?’”  He lives in us, ever ready to perform His Word on our behalf and to fill us with the fullness of His love.  It is faith that pleases God.  He wants us to respond in faith in His love, power, and goodness toward us.  This confidence and assurance comes from the Word of God itself.  Knowledge of His word is knowing His will, hallelujah!

Romans 10:17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

1 John 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.

We relate to God through reading His Word, prayer, worship, meditation and study of the Word, and even spending time being still, listening to Him.  He speaks to us and listens when we talk to Him.

For more on cultivating a deeper relationship with God, see my article, “Making God first.”