5 ways spending time with God will change your life

God has given us many means to communicate with Him and learn from Him. Spending time with God gets us ready for the rest of our time.

Media Outlet: Vogue Spain February 2019

Photographer: Felix Valiente

Hair: Carmen De Juan

Makeup: Joe Belmonte

How to spend time with God

God is a Spirit, we cannot see Him physically. It can be hard to relate with Him in the same way that we do our fellow humans. But we are told time and time again that the best way to develop a relationship with someone is by communicating and spending time with them. This also applies to God, but many of us find it difficult because we do not see Him physically. However, we must remember that this is exactly the reason the Bible was given to us. We spend time with God by spending time in His word. We spend time with God by spending time in prayer. These things should be the basis upon which our faith is built. Without them, we cannot develop a deeper relationship with Him. We also cannot reap the benefits that come from spending time and having a personal relationship with God.

‘What a privilege it is to be able to hear from God.’

You can hear Him

Henry T Blackaby; pastor and founder of Blackaby Ministries International once said ‘the willingness to obey every word from God is critical to hearing God speak’. We, as mere men and women, can hear God speak to us audibly and in many ways. It is mind blowing that the creator of the universe wants to speak to us and wants us to hear Him. The only way that we can learn to hear His voice is by constantly spending time with Him. What a privilege it is to be able to hear from God.

You can know Him

We are usually able to recognise the voices of our loved ones without even seeing them. This is because we have spent time with them and have become familiar with the sound of their voice and how they speak. The same can be said of God. When we spend time with Him, we can hear Him speak to us. Not only do we become familiar with His voice, we get to know Him. When we spend time reading and studying the bible, we begin to know the character of God. We get acquainted with Him much like we do with our friends. We see this in the life of Moses, the leader of the Israelites. He often spent time with God, and we are told that God spoke to him ‘face to face, as a man speaks to his friend’ (Exodus 33:11).

 ‘When we spend time with God...not only do we become familiar with His voice, we get to know Him.’

You can receive direction

Many of us have questions about our lives; what we are supposed to do, what our purpose is, what steps we should be taking concerning our lives. Who better to guide us than the One who created us? In the book of Jeremiah, we see the Lord saying to the prophet Jeremiah:

‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’ (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV).

When we spend time with God, we can unlock God’s plans for our lives. We can receive direction from Him on the steps to take and decisions to make for our lives. There are numerous stories of people in the bible who spent time with God, and we see Him directing them on various aspects of life. Whenever the Lord wanted to give direction to the Israelites, He always required Moses to go to the mountain and spend time with Him (Exodus 19:3, Exodus 3:18). The Ten Commandments were given to Moses on that same mountain. We too can receive direction from God, just like Moses, if we choose to spend time with Him.

You become like Him

The company has a significant impact on our lives. The people we choose to spend time with can either “make or break” us, they affect our character and can even shape who and what we believe in. We essentially become like those who we choose to spend time with. Now, if we choose to spend time with God, we will find ourselves becoming like Him. We will not only get to know His character, but we will begin to adopt His character. The more we spend time in God’s word, we will begin to adopt His character, we begin to think like Him, love like Him, see others the way that He does. I have said it being said in this way:

‘you become what you behold’

The more you spend time with God and look to Him, the more you will become like Him.

WORDS BY 

Onome Beberi