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-- © GodSpeak International 2008 --
-- Do not republish without written permission from <copyright@godspeak.net> --

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND CONTRIBUTING RESOURCES
Author: Teresa Seputis ts@godspeak.net http://www.godspeak.net

Encountering God

Lesson 4
Encountering God In Everyday Life

By Teresa Seputis

One of the ways that God speaks to us is through our everyday life. We go along experiencing our day, and all of the sudden, the Lord highlights a spiritual truth to us that is drawn from our experiences. This really should not be much of a surprise to us, because Jesus loved to use everyday things to illustrate the kingdom of God when He taught in the New Testament,

Let me give you an example. When Jesus wanted to tell the Pharisees and Sadducees to read the spiritual signs about His Lordship, He compared this to reading the sky to predict the weather, which was a common practice in those days. We see that in Matthew 16:2-3: "When it is evening you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red;' and in the morning, 'It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.' Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times."

Here is another example. One time Jesus tried to explain that when God does something, He usually starts "small," but it grows in power and intensity until it accomplishes His purposes. He used an everyday life analogy to convey this idea in Mark 4:30-32. In short, Jesus compared kingdom growth to a tiny seed being planted and then growing up into a huge bush.

Jesus loved to teach people by using allegories about things we commonly experience in everyday life. When He spoke to the crowds and He would say things like "What man among you..." In sort, He was saying, "Here is an experience you should be able relate to" and then use that experience to explain something about God.

Let me give you one more example for Matthew 7:9-10. Jesus wanted to teach people that God is a loving Father who takes good care of His own. He shared this by comparing our relationship to God the Father to a child's relationship to their earthly father. He said, "What man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?" In short, He was saying something like "You dads know you take good care of your kids and you would never do something mean to them to harm them. And your Heavenly Father is just like that with you."

Jesus used things from everyday life to teach us about spiritual things. So it should not be a surprise that God would use incidents from our everyday life to speak directly to us.

Let me give you an example of one of those everyday life thing that God recently used on me. My husband went out of town on a trip and the house was a mess when he left, especially the kitchen. For some reason, it just seemed impossible to keep my kitchen clean. I started cleaning it while he was away, and I realized that it was a futile effort. I had so many things on the counters because there was no room in the cupboard for them. There were boxes of three different types of cereal on one counter. Another counter had two large bags of dog treats (my dogs like variety) and a large plastic container of the dehydrated dog food that I use. Another counter had a whole bunch of bottles of different types of vitamin and supplements that my husband likes. Another counter had some over-the-counter medicines for assorted ailments--Sudafed for colds, Tums for the occasional upset stomaches, a bottle of Tylenol just in case someone got a headache, etc. There was so much clutter that it was hard to see any free counter space.

No wonder it was hard to keep the kitchen clean. When I'd go to clean it, I'd move all that clutter from one counter to another. I would spend a couple of hours doing that, but I wasn't really accomplishing much other than sponging off the counters move moving the clutter around.

I set aside a few hours on Saturday to clean the kitchen. When I first started, I though that would be more than enough time, because it usually only takes a couple of hours. But as I worked, I realized that my efforts were totally futile, and the kitchen would be just as cluttered when I finished as it was when I started. The only way I could make some real progress was if I found places to put the clutter away. So, my simple housecleaning turned into this huge and extremely time- consuming project. I went through all of my cupboards and cleared out the stuff I didn't need, so I could make room for the stuff that my family actually used. I found and threw away a whole bunch of cans who were years past their "expiration date" that had been taking up space in my pantry. I threw away products that my family wouldn't eat. I even threw out some stuff that we might maybe use some day in the future, because I need to make room for the stuff we used everyday.

During that process, I also found all sorts of things I didn't know I had, because they were buried in the back of the cabinets. For instance, I thought I was out of 100 watt light bulbs and had just made an emergency run to the store earlier that day to pick up a box of them. But when I cleaned out the cabinets, I discovered that I actually had five boxes of 100 watt light bulbs buried in the back under a bunch of other things that I never used.

My simple two hour project turned into a twelve hour project, but I actually got the kitchen cleaned, and all of the counter-clutter got a legitimate spot in my cabinets. After that, I discovered that it became only a trivial project to sponge off the kitchen counters instead of taking hours, because I did not have to spend a bunch of time moving stuff around in order to clean.

While I was in the midst of this project, the Lord began to speak to me about His process of inner healing and spiritual house-cleaning. Most of the time, He didn't speak in words, He just caused me to realize spiritual parallels as I did my work. For instance, when I found all those "missing" light bulbs, I began to realize that a lot of people had all sorts of spiritual gifts in their life, but had no idea those gifts were there because they were hidden under all the clutter of sins, attitudes and deep hurts.

God also showed me that we can clutter up our lives with all sorts to things that keep us from enjoying our walk with God. I realized that when the clutter is gone, it makes everything so much easier and neater. For instance, if a person spends all sorts of time and energy worrying about how God is going to supply their needs, that makes it harder for them to take their attention off of the problem (the needs) and put it on the solution (God and His faithfulness). In short, worrying about things that we can't fix (apart from God) makes it harder for us to trust Him, just like it was harder for me to clean my counters when they were full of all kinds of clutter.

I could go on and on, because God showed me a whole bunch of spiritual applications as I cleaned and reorganized my kitchen. But the point isn't specifically what He said to me; the point is that He stepped into my life and communicated with me as I went about my day's activity. God wants to do that with each of us. He wants to step into our day-to-day lives and speak to us in that very subtle voice that is easy to miss if we are not paying attention. He wants to find ways to fellowship with us day in and day out, and He wants to be a part of our lives.

I am one of those "fortunate" people who tends to have a lot of the supernatural experiences with God. I have been caught up to the third Heaven a couple of times, I have had my fair share of open visions and God has sent angels to speak to me. I love to have those types of supernatural experiences with God. But when God wants to commune with me and build our relationship, He doesn't usually use the supernatural encounters. One of the ways He likes to do build relationship with me is by speaking to me in that "still small voice" that He uses with so many of us. Another thing He likes to do is to meet me in my everyday life and speak to me to through it. In fact, I would say that God meets me much more frequently in the little things than He does in the "big" supernatural things.

So what is my point here? Actually, it pretty simple. Don't get so caught up in seeking to have big experiences with God that you miss it when He meets you in your everyday activities. If fact, He is going to meet in those little ways a lot more often than He will meet you in the "big" supernatural ways.

God is a God of relationship, and He wants to step into the mundane parts of your life and meet you there. He wants to enjoy fellowship and personal relationship with you, and He wants to speak to you through your everyday life and activities.


-- © GodSpeak International 2008 --
-- Do not republish without written permission from <copyright@godspeak.net> --

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