God, Are You Okay?

Years ago I listened to Jesse Duplantis on TBN and what he said revolutionized my life. He said one day he got up in the morning and he went into his usual time of communing with God, but something was different. He said the presence of God felt different and it prompted him to ask the Lord if he was ok. He said it was almost as if God was not in a good mood. This struck me because never in my life have I ever thought of asking God if he is doing ok. I was a teenager at the time and I was very new in my walk with God. But at that time I only heard about prayer as bringing my problems, issues and concerns to God. But what Jesse was describing here was fellowship with God and a relationship with God. One that was so intimate that he could detect when someone was different about God.

This changed how I saw my walk with God. No longer would I enter prayer just reeling off a list of things I want him to change or do for me. Prayer is dialogue with God, not a monologue or soliloquy. It is a time when we commune with God. Imagine me going to my husband and I am just reeling off things that I want him to do without giving him a chance to talk. And, after I am finished, I just say “amen” and walk away. All this time, he has so much to say to me but I didn’t even give him a chance to speak. What if this is how our entire relationship is? I would not even know who he is because I never gave him the chance to speak. Guess what? God has a lot to say. He actually speaks a lot and if we are just quiet enough, we will actually hear him. 

Jesse Duplantis went on to say that God responded to his question by saying, “Ahh Jesse, my children” and sighed. Jesse in that moment recognising that God was having some things  that bothered him, decided to spend the day with God. He said he cleared his schedule and told God that he would spend the entire day with him. This too had me in shock because I do not think I have ever thought of God having a day when he was bothered or saddened by the evil of this world. Some of you may read this and find it incredulous and even say we are humanising God and ascribing emotions to him. But, we may have been seeing him a different light all this time. God has always craved relationship and fellowship with man. He walked in the garden with Adam. His desire is to commune with us and not just for us to tell him about our problems. Can we ask God how his day was? Can we ask God about the things in us that are not pleasing to him? Can we ask God what displeases him? Of course we can, and we should. 

Seek to build a relationship with God where you seek his heart and his face. Get to know him and not just regurgitate all the adjectives we hear persons in church say all the time. Do not get me wrong, nothing is wrong with saying God is a provider, healer, protector. But, there is so much more to him and some of these things we find out through a personal relationship with him Seek to know him more. God is not emotional and he doesn’t react to things the way we do. But it does not mean that things do not bother him. Let us seek to build a stronger relationship with him through reading his word, spending time in his presence and prayer.

Let us pray: Lord we come to you through your son Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray that we will seek to know you more and the things that concern you. Help us to see you, not only as a provider, but also as a friend and a wonderful father. Help us to seek your heart and your face. Help us to have a close relationship with you where we will know you beyond a head knowledge. In Jesus’ name…amen.