*Listen to the Show notes and podcast transcript with this multi-language player. Summary
God does not intend our encounters with Him to remain isolated spiritual experiences that eventually fade away. Each time the Father reveals Himself, makes His presence known, or touches our spirit, He is opening another step in a continuing way of life. Ron shares about a deep awareness of the Father’s presence that began before his trip to Israel and continued throughout the journey. He describes the difference between simply knowing that we are in God’s presence and consciously living with an awareness of His presence. Rather than looking back and saying, “That was a wonderful experience,” we are called to contend for what God has given us and refuse to return to the place we were before. The Family explains that an experience with God becomes a deposit within our spirit. As we continue walking in it, that deposit is woven into our lives until it becomes part of our nature. The experience may appear to have an ending, but the work God began through it continues. Christ is not trying to make us outwardly religious or unnaturally spiritual. He is incorporating His life and nature into us in a way that becomes genuine and natural. We remain the unique people God created us to be, yet Christ increasingly expresses Himself through our words, choices, relationships, and everyday lives. This is a place of Kingdom rest. We cease striving to produce spirituality through our own effort and allow Christ to become our spirituality. Whether we feel something strongly or feel nothing at all, we trust that God is establishing His life within us. Experiences become stepping stones that lead us forward into the nature and life of Christ.Show Notes
- The difference between being in God’s presence and being aware of His presence
- Why encounters with God should become a continuing way of life
- Refusing to allow spiritual experiences to fade into memories
- Every experience with God leaves a deposit within our spirit
- How God’s nature becomes woven into our everyday lives
- Christ coming forth naturally rather than through religious behavior
- Remaining who God created us to be while expressing Christ
- Entering Kingdom rest and ceasing from our own spiritual effort
- Trusting God even when we do not feel anything spiritually
- Using past experiences as stepping stones instead of destinations
- Christ Himself becoming our wisdom, spirituality, and confidence
- Trusting the Father to direct our path
Key Quotes
- “There’s a difference between just being in His presence and being aware of His presence.”
- “That is not an experience. That’s another step that the Father has opened up for me to walk in continually.”
- “If you touch God, or He touches you, that’s a step that we need to put a pin in the ground and say, ‘I’m not going back from here.’”
- “The experience has a beginning, and then it becomes a deposit in your spirit.”
- “Pretty soon, it’s woven into our lives.”
- “God is incorporating Himself into us in such a way that everything must become natural.”
- “We are still us, and yet it’s Christ in us at the same time.”
- “Christ is our spirituality.”
- “The experiences become our stepping stones.”
- “Go where the Lord leads you and let God be an expression through you.”
Scriptural References
Colossians 1 (27) — Christ in You “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” God’s purpose is not merely to give us outward experiences but to reveal and establish the life of Christ within us. Galatians 2 (20) — Christ Living Through Us “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” We remain the individuals God created, yet Christ increasingly becomes the source and expression of our lives. 2 Corinthians 3 (18) — Transformation Into His Image As we behold the Lord, we are progressively transformed into His image. What begins as an encounter with Him becomes an inward change of nature. Hebrews 4 (9–11) — Entering God’s Rest Kingdom rest comes as we cease from our own works and trust God to accomplish His purposes within and through us. 1 Corinthians 2 (16) — The Mind of Christ “We have the mind of Christ.” His thoughts, trust, and relationship with the Father are being formed within His people. Proverbs 3 (5–6) — Trusting the Lord “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.” As we acknowledge Him, He directs our lives and establishes His nature within us. Psalm 139 (14) — Wonderfully Made Each person has been carefully and uniquely created by God. His nature does not erase our individuality; it fulfills His purpose through it. Philippians 2 (13) — God Working Within Us “It is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” The spiritual life is not something we manufacture through human effort.Takeaway
Do not allow what God has revealed to you to become merely a memory of something that happened in the past. Receive every encounter with Him as a deposit and another step into a continuing way of life. You do not have to recreate an experience or struggle to appear spiritual. Rest in the Father, trust what He is establishing within you, and allow Christ to express His nature naturally through the person He created you to be. What began as an experience can become part of your nature as you continue walking forward with Him.
Transcript
When an Experience Becomes Your Nature
Ron:
Hello, and welcome to Live Behind the Veil. I'm Ron, your host, and today we'll be discussing how God never intended our encounters with Him, to become isolated memories that slowly fade away. Every time He reveals His presence, touches our spirit, or opens our understanding, He is inviting us into another step of life with Him.
In this conversation, the family shares how an experience with God can become a deposit within us, something that grows, becomes established, and is eventually woven into our nature. Rather than striving to recreate past experiences, we learn to rest in the Father and allow Christ to come forth naturally through our everyday lives.
Ron:
The Lord brought back to my memory an experience that I had just before I went to Israel, which I'm contending that it's not an experience but a way of life. There was such a deep, deep awareness of the Father. It was very, very real. The whole time I was in Israel, that continued. It expresses itself, for a better word, of life.
There's life from the Father when you're aware of His presence, and I know that we're in His presence, but there's a difference between just being in His presence and being aware of His presence.
I was talking to Sherry about this morning about that, and I just said, when you experience it, you experience something, whether it's from the Father or the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, however you experience it, that's not to be an experience.
It's to be another step into a way of life." I think Satan comes in, or however you want to say that, the carnal mind comes in and says, "Oh, that was a cool... That was an awesome experience," and there should be a contending, violent contending in your spirit. No, that is not an experience. That's a step, another step that the Father has opened up for me to walk in continually.
We're not to experience things in a block of time and then they fade away If you touch God in however you, He, you touch Him or He touches you, that's a step that we need to put a pin in the ground and go, "No, I'm not going back from here. I'm not letting it go."
Dale:
I think it's important to remember that the definition of things is different from person to person.
And I really love what Ron's saying about experiences because many times God will lead us into an experience, and it looks like the experience has a beginning and an end when it really doesn't. The experience has a beginning and then it becomes a deposit in your spirit. The next step after that is what he's experiencing now, is the establishment of that experiences as a part of your nature.
Then it's a growth process. It becomes an experience, an experience, and then pretty soon it's woven into our lives.
Roger:
Something Ron said at the very beginning when he was sharing what God was doing in his heart, and he said something along the lines of he just rejects and is angry over this thing of just talking about experiences, that it has to be something more.
And this thing just keeps filling my heart. Have you ever noticed that for the most part the Lord veils- Himself from us in the sense of great and grandiose visions. It's like the greater those things are emphasized, the more, as crazy as it sounds, the more it separates us from Him. We're us, and there's God in His great almighty doing these things, and we stand in awe.
It's not what it's about, and that's not what He's after. Again, what Ron said, it just keeps growing and sticking with me, that that is such an important revelation, that God is incorporating himself into us in such a way that everything must be natural. Natural from His nature, not our own, but still natural.
That's why you could hear God, we can hear Him, perceive Him, and oh, by the way, I'm gonna have a beer and some potato chips. You get what I'm saying. It's not we've had an experience. I've gotta go out in the woods and lay there for several days and this be in awe. I don't see the Lord doing that in us.
Christ comes forth in us in a way that has to be natural. So we are still us, and yet it's Christ in us at the same time. When we stop being us, then we've stepped into the religious realm. And it's true that we cannot hold on to experiences. I don't care how hard you try, they're gonna wear off sooner or later, 'cause this is what we're becoming.
It becomes natural. I'm still who I am, you're still who you are, yet Christ is in you at the same time, and He's coming forth and bringing His life. He's bringing His nature forth in us
Ken:
Roger, what you were talking about is that word, kingdom rest. We cease from our own efforts. Stop worrying about what you're going to say or where you're going or any of that.
Just be led by the Lord. Just be who you are. Go where the Lord leads you and let God be an expression through you. That's all.
Roger:
We've all had ideas of our spirituality. Christ is our spirituality. Roger has none, and you have none. Sometimes we can feel this. Sometimes we don't feel nothing. It doesn't matter because it's got nothing to do with us.
What is spiritual? It's living with faith in another realm apart from this realm here. It's another realm entirely. We're learning to live in it, and God is forcing us, really, to live in it in a natural way, not in some super spiritual way. We're not going to have experiences we write books about, but that naturalness is his nature, natural nature.
It's him coming forth, and he's establishing it in us more than we realize because it's the void for the most part of the big experience. It's Christ coming forth in us naturally.
Debbie:
It's like the experiences become our stepping stones. Take advantage of them and use them, and then we moved on with them. We let go of them.
We're past them. We're moving on. They're stepping stones that we're using to become who we are.
Ken:
How many of you have just, in your own imagination, thought about how God created you the way he did? The Word says that you are wonderfully, I forget all the scriptures about it, but in other words, meticulously put together in such a way as no scientist could ever come up with all the ingredients that you have inside of you.
When we trust God with all of our hearts, he gives us a mind. What is the mind of Christ? Christ never worried about anything when he was on the earth. He trusted the Father. I think that's exactly what God wants us to do. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart. Lean not on your own understanding, but in all of your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your path.
Ron:
And experience with God is not meant to become a place where we stop. It is a stepping stone into a deeper and more continual walk with Him. When the Father reveals something of Himself to us, we can receive it, stand upon it, and refuse to return to the place we were before. As we continue trusting Him, what began as an experience becomes established within us and begins to express itself naturally through our lives.
We do not have to manufacture spirituality or struggle to appear spiritual. Christ Himself is our life and our spirituality. Our part is to rest in Him, remain aware of His presence, and allow His nature to be formed within us. Thank you for listening to Live Behind the Veil. May every encounter with the Lord become another step into the life of Christ being fully expressed through you.