People Meeting God
Our Relationship with God
Some, however, did receive him and believed in him; so he gave them the right to become God’s children. They did not become God’s children by natural means, that is, by being born as the children of a human father; God himself was their Father. (The Bible - the Gospel of John chapter 1 verses 12-13)
Finding your ways to meet with God
Different people meet with God in a wide variety of ways. What is helpful to an intellectual person may not suit a very ‘arty’ person. Some meet God in silence, others find it easier to meet God in other people.
Gary Thomas wrote a very helpful book called Sacred Pathways (Zondervan 2000). He suggests nine kinds of people and the ways they find most helpful to meet with God. Each of us may find a few of these spiritual pathways particularly helpful. As well as meeting with God in the ways we know work for us, it is good to explore less familiar paths from time to time. God may well surprise us!
Enthusiasts – loving God in mystery and spiritual experiences. Enthusiasts seek God in mystery, dreams, supernatural experiences, prophecy and spiritual gifts, excitement, creativity, bold prayer, spiritual risk-taking.
Contemplatives – loving God in adoration and intimacy. Contemplatives value “Holding hands with God,” “resting with God” and intimacy with God in silence and solitude.
Activists – loving God through confrontation. Activists have a passion for righteousness, social justice and prophetic proclamation.
Naturalists – loving God out of doors. Meeting God in His Creation because you feel cut off from God indoors. The Bible was written to be read outside!
Traditionalists – loving God through ritual and symbol. Traditionalists value history and roots, liturgy, rituals, symbols.
Caregivers – loving God by loving others. Compassionate service – living out our relationship with God through relationships with others.
Intellectuals – loving God with the mind. Approaching God through understanding and wisdom.
Sensates – loving God with all the senses. Sound, sight, smell, taste, touch, beauty, art, music.
Ascetics – loving God in solitude and simplicity. Passionate pursuit of God in strictness and stillness and apartness, enduring hardship.
God longs for us to meet with Him so much more than we long to meet with Him. Almighty God our Creator invites each one of us to have a personal relationship with Him. If you would like help meeting God, do get in touch.
Phone / Voicemail / Texts: 07963166459 North Springfield Baptist Church,
Email: peter@peoplemeetinggod.org Havengore, Chelmsford CM1 6JP