7 Steps to Meeting With God

I was at The Mind, Body, Spirit festival in Melbourne one year. I along with another woman were ministering to a girl who was going through a pretty hard time. The person I was ministering with shared a fairly long speech about Jesus, His death and resurrection. Whilst it was encouraging, the girl had no idea what to do with all this information - that's all it was, information. My friend asked me if I had anything to share and I jumped at the opportunity.I asked the young woman if she wanted to meet this Jesus that she had just heard about. Looking a little confused, (Jesus was around 2,000 years ago right?) she agreed to go along with it. I told her that Jesus was going to appear to her in her imagination. She shut her eyes and I told her to picture herself putting all her problems in a suitcase and give them to Jesus and simply ask Him to "Help!"I sat there as the scene flashed before her eyes. I saw all sorts of emotions bubble up, and tears started to flow. After a minute or so, she opened her eyes and told us that she had seen Jesus come. When she asked for help, Jesus picked up her suitcase, ripped it into a million pieces and threw it in the air. The pieces then turned into golden leaves on a tree. She told us that she felt amazing and that Jesus had made her feel like a princess. Jesus had just shown her that He wanted to turn her pain and heart ache into something beautiful. When I asked her if she wanted to get to know Jesus more, and have Him in her life every day she was more than happy to say yes!We often forget how close Jesus is. We forget that He is here and ready to meet with us. This girl had done nothing to gain God's favour, but He quickly showed her how much He cared. That is what God is like. He pursues us. He came to us. He loved us first. Jesus gave Himself up for us. It was while we were still sinners, doing the wrong thing, being mean spirited and selfish that He did something for us - simply for love. He doesn't want us grinding through life in sin, grief and despair. He is closer than we think, and better than we can imagine!So here are 7 steps to meeting with God in your imagination.

1. Select a spot to meet with God. The imagination is a meeting place to meet with God. Where do you want to meet with Him? I encourage people to meet with Him in a park because it is easy and peaceful. In my times when I meet with God in my imagination I often meet at the beach. It doesn’t matter where you go, just that you start.
2. Ask God to come and speak. This is important. It is a prayer of faith and trust that He will show up. Jesus said that His sheep would hear His voice. He is ready to speak to you, we just need to be ready! Some good questions you can ask are, “What do you like about me? What makes you happy? What makes you sad? When did you last laugh with me? If you could play a game with me what would it be and why? What do you want me to do?”
3. Go with the flow. This is where some people get stuck. They see Jesus come really quick, or do  or say something and they automatically start thinking, “Was that just me?” But we have to allow the scene to unfold first before we test what is said. So don’t worry about “getting anything wrong” and simply go with the flow. Allow the scene to play out.
4. Test it. Once you have finished the scene weigh up whether what was said was really from God or not. The first test is to ask did it sound like something Jesus would say? Does is line up with Scripture? Does it line up with the fruit of the Spirit? (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self control, goodness, faithfulness). And a good one, is it true?
5. Obey/Follow. Once you have tested it and seen that, wow, that really was God! You can now go ahead and obey/follow the word spoken, that is put it into your life. Sometimes it will simply mean training your thoughts (repentance) to agree with God and disagree with that the world and or devil is saying to you. Other times it will be a command. Other times it is a word or experience to treasure.
6. Persist and Repeat! Have regular catch ups with Jesus. I use to meet at a certain point and we would go on a new adventure every time we met. Each time seemed like a silly game in my mind, but right at the end Jesus unpacked the truth and unloaded some very cool revelation to me. Keep doing it and you will learn to recognise His voice and differentiate between His voice, your voice and other voices. Keep persisting. This will often be tough to get the hang of but once you do it opens up an amazing glory realm of fun and revelation!
7. Share the love! Teach someone else to do it! We are all blessed to be a blessing and this is one fun easy way to help people begin to meet with God. Ask God for opportunities to share this with someone and I guarantee that an opportunity will pop up before you know it!

Let me know if you give this a go. I would love to hear your story of how God spoke to you, or how you found it difficult. Just remember, God is closer than you think and better than you can imagine!