What we want is for the experience of the Person, Jesus, to connect with our lives — so that we are bringing our concerns, thoughts, challenges, and decisions to Him. In order to do that, we have to learn more about this Person through Scripture.
Sometimes there can be a disconnect between the experiences of our lives and the experience of Jesus. Experiencing Jesus actually means simply relating with Him as a divine Person. We want to approach Him as He is: transcendent and immanent. As the transcendent God, we bow, we respect, and we honor. As the immanent God, we marvel, we reflect, and we set our hearts before Him. We trust that we are His and He is indeed ours.
Now listen, Jesus does not want us to think of Him as merely an “experience” to be had. He is our divine King-friend who has a will and a plan for our lives. We submit to His plan through prayer and surrender. We submit to His plan through wanting to live in accordance with the Scriptures. We submit to Him through determining that we will learn more about Him through the Scriptures. Let me now share with you three ways that we can “hear” the voice of Jesus through His Word.
1. We can hear His divine moral will
2. We can hear His characteristics
3. We can hear the manner by which we ought to approach Him
What we want is for the experience of the Person, Jesus, to connect with our lives — so that we are bringing our concerns, thoughts, challenges, and decisions to Him. In order to do that, we have to learn more about this Person through Scripture.
Hearing His Divine Moral Will
As we look to the Scriptures, we come to see that there are many lists. Just as there is the list of the fruits of the Spirit, there are lists of sins to avoid.
Jesus has made it clear that we connect with Him through repenting of what He despises and walking with Him into what He loves. Jesus has made no secret as to what He despises and loves. The psalms teach that if we cherish sin in our hearts, He does not hear our prayers. So, if we want to experience Jesus and we also have known sin against Him in our hearts, there is a disconnect. For, the Scriptures — over and over — tell us to repent and believe.
We cannot make friends with the world and friends with God at the same time.
Now, I know — personally — that repenting of the world is a process. Upon discovering or uncovering a sin through exposing ourselves to Jesus as the Light of the world, we may need weeks, months, or years to fully remove the sin and its roots from us.
Let me assure you that the journey of repentance is a journey that the Lord Jesus wants to take with you. He is faithful, encouraging, kind, merciful, generous, loving, and faithful to walk with us as we keep walking away from the known sin in our lives.
Are you walking with Jesus away from sin and toward holiness, righteousness and purity? Are you on that journey of repentance from sin, a journey with Him? He wants to meet you here. He knows that you need His power to walk in the light of a repentant and faithful life. And He gives that power. Only trust Him to shine the light of truth in your heart, agree with Him about what is grievously found there, and commit to choosing Jesus over sin at every step of your journey.
Is Jesus not worth it, friends? Is Jesus not worth losing the world for? Indeed, what do we have if we gain the world but forfeit our souls? We must remember that if we want to connect with Jesus Christ, He is forthright, truthful, honest and faithful to help us identify and walk away from the sins that destroy our souls. He is good to give us the power and will and heart and mind to follow Him as we walk away from corruption.
So, connect Jesus through the repentance journeys of your life to see His kingly power and might over your soul. You will love Jesus more, I know it. You will be praising Him, for to Him — the Lord of lords — belongs the victory. Connect with Jesus through His moral will made known to us in the Scriptures. He conquered sin on the cross that His light and righteousness might reign in our hearts.
Hearing His Characteristics
When we read the Scriptures, we encounter a Person. The Scriptures are living and active with His voice. And that means for us that we can get to know Him. But we must have faith this is what happens as we read the Scriptures. We must have faith that that Bible contains the inerrant Word of God. If we don’t, we aren’t bringing ourselves under the submission of the word of God. We must bring ourselves under submission to the word of the King. His Word has authority, as the pronouncement of the eternal King with all rulership over the world. The Word of God is light. It is precious. It is perfect. It is holy. It is pure. The longest psalm in the Scriptures, 119, is devoted to telling us and reminding us how beloved is the Word of God by His followers.
Jesus knows that there are many messages we might hear in the world. And He knows that it might seem strange to submit ourselves to words written so long ago. But He wants us to know that they are the words of life because they tell us about Him. Think of Jesus in how He combatted temptation through appealing to the Word of God. Jesus had a passage of Scripture in reply to the wicked schemes of the devil. The Bible is our sword that meets temptation. It is also the meal of faith – our bread.
We, as believers, live off the words that have come from the mouth of God. The Bible was written as people from old were carried along by the Holy Spirit as they wrote. So, we can know that the Scriptures are of God. Beyond a mere human book, the Scriptures are a divine Word through which we meet with the divine Author.
Through Scripture we come to know what Jesus is like. We come to adore Him more. We see His faithfulness — like to Peter after he denied Christ before men. We see His mercy, like to the woman caught in adultery. We see His power, as when he created with the words of his mouth. We see His conquering power, as when we’re told He’ll defeat exorbitant evil on earth with a breath in the end times. I could go on and on. Through the holy Scriptures, we experience Jesus as we get to know Him through the words He inspired.
Hearing the Manner by Which We Approach Jesus
If we are thinking about approaching Someone we want to know, we must think of who and how He is. What I mean is this: we don’t approach Jesus like He is just anyone. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He is immanent to walk through our journeys of repentance with us. He is immanent to also help us to meet with Him through the inspired Word He gave us for that very purpose. He is also transcendent. That is why we don’t approach Him or His Word as we would a mere friend: as if we could take or leave what He says. We attend to our Jesus with the honor He is due. Every knee will bend to Him. Every tongue will confess that He is the Lord. And so, we must have a reverence when approaching Him. We let our words be few.
Do you have that sense of honor for Jesus when you approach Him? It’s what He deserves, even demands, from you. He is God. Let there be no mistake about it.
Now, I don’t mean that as born-again believers we ought to be afraid of God. We don’t want to be those who shrink back in fear at the thought of His coming. We want to be those who, with His honor on our lips, become confident that He has saved our souls from destruction. We want to boldly approach His throne because we are in Him. Think of Revelation and the praise on the lips of those in heaven. They cry out words of awe, worship, and honor.
Do we have that kind of honor for who Jesus is and what He has done? Do we have a sense of holy reverence under the authority of God paired with exultation in His good gifts of salvation and presence with us through His blood shed on the cross? Praise God with me. For, as we journey with Him through repentance and have faith in who He is in the Scriptures, we have the foundation we need for praise.
God has done much for us in Jesus and applying Jesus’ sacrifice to us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And what He wants is our jubilation, our praise, our transport of joy. He wants us to be confident in Him and worshiping of Him.
Remember that Jesus is the King who became a babe. And we approach Him through the gospel miracle that He was punished for sin that is no longer ours to bear. Praise the Lord oh my soul! So, we connect with Jesus as we praise Him for the cross, as we approach Him with the holy revelry and reverence He is due. Our reverence for Him leads to praise because we see all this Person has done for our souls.
There are many ways we relate with Jesus as the divine Person He is. We remember His moral will, we uphold His Scriptures that teach us who He is, and we approach Him with joy as the sacrificial King of all. Jesus wants us to know Him. He wants us to experience Him and connect with Him for who He is.
As we come to Him in the joy of fellowship with Him, we will want more and more. Let not your determination for holy living be stunted but endure with Him. Let not your faith be taken but believe in Him. And let not your joy be silenced but praise Him. May Jesus be the blessing of His people, now and always, as we seek to meet with Him how He has made Himself known.
More from this author
How Can We Better See Jesus’ Faithfulness in Our Lives?
Regularly Taste and See That God Is Good
Jesus Reigns, and We Will Reign with Him
Photo credit: ©Getty Images/Layland Masuda
Lianna Davis is author of Keeping the Faith: A Study in Jude and Made for a Different Land: Eternal Hope for Baby Loss. She is also a contributor to We Evangelicals and Our Mission with Cascade Books. Lianna is a graduate of Moody Bible Institute and a student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. She lives in Illinois with her husband and daughter. You can learn more about her writing at her website.
