HOW TO HAVE A GREAT QUIET TIME WITH GOD

Now for years, you’ve heard of quiet times with God - a time in the day when Christians read their bibles and pray and fellowship with God. However, I want us to re-evaluate how we do our quiet-times or rather take another look at the essence of quiet times with God. I believe that one must transcend mere or superficial quiet-times to having a real and authentic encounter with God and that these encounters should result into specific and tangible outcomes. The key to daily victories is daily encounters, life changing encounters of spirit to Spirit contact.

WHY HAVE DAILY AUTHENTIC ENCOUNTERS?

1) TO RULE THE DAY AND TO RULE THE NIGHT

“And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven TO GIVE LIGHT upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the GREATER LIGHT TO RULE THE DAY, and the LESSER LIGHT TO RULE THE NIGHT.” (Gen. 1:15-16)

The earth possesses no light of its own. The light it receives comes from the light of the heavens. To exercise real dominion in the earth, we need light from the heavens. It takes light to rule all our daily and nightly activities. This light must come from the light of the Holy Spirit that shines through our born-again spirit. However, this light is dependent on the quality of contact of our human spirit with the Spirit of God.

Again, God calls us to rule the day and to rule the night. The quality of your morning encounter with God will place you in absolute control of the day and the quality of your evening encounter with God will position you in total control of the night. Control the day through your morning encounters and your night with your nightly encounters. This is the simple secret to everyday victory to living in God.

2) LIVING IN THE PRESENT BY VISIONS OF THE FUTURE

“You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in your book!” (Ps. 139:16 LB)

Just imagine knowing that your entire life had already been planned, programmed, pre-arranged and precisely laid out before you were conceived. God has placed that blueprint of your life in His book and you can daily access that information.

“… And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, …” You noticed that it was written of him. “Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will O God. (Heb. 10: 7)

Our quiet times or rather daily authentic encounters with God should result into downloading the blueprints of your purpose and destiny so that you can order your steps appropriately. What a life Christianity is! If we will only take this walk with Jesus serious and our daily encounters with him also, you will be able to see far ahead of time what you ought to do and how you ought to do it. You can see as far into the future as a day, a week, a month, a year or even a decade. You can accurately download the divine schedules of your life as pre-arranged by God. This is why you should never approach quiet times religiously but authentically.

3) Extraordinary Expression of Wisdom

There is an extraordinary wisdom that tends to function at 100% efficiency in those who daily experience glorious encounters with the Holy Spirit. Their thoughts tend to possess greater focus and clarity. This is due to a high concentrated spiritually mindedness – (the subservience of the mind under the lordship of the activities of the Holy Spirit in the human spirit). We shouldn’t just have quiet times for quiet times sake, but let us make real contact with the Holy Spirit resulting in downloading God’s wisdom and creative solutions to solving real problems. Wisdom on how to change things and how to further advance the Kingdom of God. Take a paper and a pen when you pray because you are expecting to write down some things that you are going to be applying in your daily life.

Solomon’s wisdom was extraordinary and now see a few of the results of his wisdom. Solomon had real encounters with God and his encounter came with authentic fellowship with God. “And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father… the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there … a thousand burnt offerings did Solomon offer … In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon …” (1kings 3:3-5).

a) All the earth sought to Solomon’s wisdom – 1 kings 10:24.

b) Solomon controlled all the seaports – 1Kings 10:15.

c) Solomon dealt on a global level in business – 1Kings 10: 15.

d) Solomon made more than a quarter of a billion dollars annually – 1Kings 10:14.

e) Solomon possessed an understanding heart – the science on how things work – 1kings 3:9, 12.

f) Solomon functioned at the highest level of excellence – queens and kings of other nations were dumbfounded at the acts of his excellence – 1kings 10:4-5.

g) No nation or King could match Solomon’s wisdom – 1Kings 4: 29-31.

h) Solomon wrote and spoke 3000 proverbs and 1005 songs – 1Kings 4: 32.

I) Solomon’s clientele involved all the nations of the earth and his market reach was global and all of that, without the technology of today –1Kings 10:34.

4) A CONQUERING AND ROBUST FAITH

“The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd” – Heb. 11: 2 MSG.

Encounters with God should always produce a conquering and robust faith. Someone once said that fellowship with God is the mother of faith. A living and active faith always overcomes the world. A living faith will put the shout of a king in your mouth. Faith will make you laugh at obstacles because faith is the operation of the “dominance of your born-again spirit over all the circumstances of this world.” In faith, you introduce problems to the God you serve rather than tell God about your problems – Mark 11: 22-23, 1 Jn. 5:4.

5) DISCOVERING CHRIST, HIS CHARACTER AND HIS CAUSE

Encounters with God result in the discovery of His nature and character. A desire grows in you to take on the be-attitudes or beautiful attitudes of Christ. You become transformed by His glorious presence and clothed in Him; you become a living epistle of Christ. It helps you discover his mind concerning all things that pertain to your calling, purpose and destiny and also to His kingdom. At this level, the taking on of His character and the cause of His kingdom becomes your primary goal and all of your life starts to revolve around these two fundamental causes.

Let’s all renew our minds in reference to how to have a healthy and profitable quiet time. Learn to move in God as the constellations of the stars move in their orbits. Live in living contact with God. I call this spirit to Spirit contact – 1 Co. 6:17. Live it daily. Live it in unceasing communion with God. Stay-in full of the Spirit and function at all times in the power of the Spirit – Lk. 4:1, 14.

May all your quiet times this year translate into authentic encounters with God. May all your encounters with God, result in personal, co-operate and societal transformation, Amen!