Focus: God on a Personal Level

Text: Ex.4:5; 6:3

"That they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the GOD of Abraham, the GOD of Isaac, and the GOD of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee."

"And I APPEARED unto ABRAHAM, unto ISAAC, and unto JACOB, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them."

We serve a God who is intensely personal and generational. He delights in personal and intimate relationships.

Many are Christians today for the simple reason that they are born in church or into Christian homes, but not necessarily born again in Christ. They've never had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ, and as Paul would say, "to reveal His Son IN me" - Gal.1:16.

Every Christian needs to have that inwardly explosive personal revelation of Christ. Peter notes that he and the other Apostles are not mere followers of "cunningly devised fables." He makes us understand that they are not telling or selling cock-and-bull stories about Christ, but were indeed "eyewitnesses of his majesty" - 2Pet.1:16. They had a revelation. They encountered God for themselves.

From our text, God comes to Moses, and says to him, 'I knew your fathers personally. They individually related with me. I am Abraham's God. I am Isaac's God, and I am Jacob's God. I appeared to, and related with each on an intimate personal level.' That is the Christianity that works. We must move past outwardly arguing about religion to inwardly experiencing the person of Christ. I never forget what a lady said a long time ago, that she was not "only converted, but invaded." We need again that invasion of our personal space by YHVH - that sovereign, self-existent, intensely personal Presence.

Abraham knew God for himself. Isaac knew Abraham's God personally. Jacob also knew the God Abraham and Isaac knew personally.

God is intensely personal and generational in His dealings with us. O the words of Martin Luther comes to mind! He said, "Christianity is a word of personal pronoun." It is simply 'I and God,' not 'we and God.'

Christianity without personal encounter with Christ is mere religion, and it is of no use. I am canvassing for a Christianity of an inward reality. Two of Christ's disciples said, "Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?" (Lk.24:32). That's what I am talking about. The people of Samaria said to the woman, "Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world" - Jh.4:42. Amen.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter