#1916 1215 13P

            It is a great privilege to have personal access to someone who can really give us the help we need.  We often want to deal directly with someone, and will go to much trouble to talk directly with a representative.  Personal access and direct deposit are common today, as it eliminates delays and misinformation.  Direct access to God would enable us to receive direct information from Him—the instructions we need to live an overcoming life of faith in Christ.

            Learning how to have personal access to God—by personal prayer and through His teaching is of more spiritual value than anything else.  A personal relationship with God is necessary for spiritual growth to result.  This direct access to God is made possible by His direct dealing with the sin issue through the sacrifice of His Son.  The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ enabled this access to God, because it removed anything that would have prevented it.

            Ephesians 2:17-18 “[Jesus] came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near.  For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.”  This direct access is enabled because Jesus Ephesians 2:14 “made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility” by His Blood sacrifice on the cross.

            Adam and Eve in Eden had personal access to God at first, but when they sinned, they no longer had access to Him.  Not only was the connection cut off, but they did not want access to God anymore—due to their attitude being hostile toward Him—they were opposed to His plans and ways; and everyone else is hostile toward God from that time.

            Self and the world will endure any hardship, take any risk, or suffer through any pain rather than deal directly with God for healing, protection, provisions, or anything else—if faith is a factor.  In the beginning it was natural for Adam to have access to God—as natural as a child speaking directly to a loving parent when anything is needed.

            If a child is troubled, they make that known to a parent because they have confidence in them—they want to communicate that need to them.  That is the normal condition of a parent/child relationship. Adam and Eve had the same connection and understanding with the Father, as a child does to a parent.  They did not hesitate to ask God for anything, and to deal directly with Him about everything.

            Adam’s trusting attitude before he sinned, is opposite to the hostile attitude after he sinned.  Jesus said that we would have to get back to that direct access to His Father and on a personal level, if we want to enter His kingdom.

            The central theme of the Gospel, and our only hope of entering Heaven, depends upon our relationship with God the Father, and our trust on Jesus Christ the Son—through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus clearly stated Matthew 18:3 “Verily I say to you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

            Those who receive eternal life know God well enough to trust Him in faith in this life.  Jesus prayed to His Father—John 17:3 ”This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”  This personal knowledge of God, results from taking advantage of our direct access to God.

            If we really knew God, we would have no problem asking Him for anything, and trusting Him for everything.  Like a child goes to a parent, we would go to our heavenly Father—on our knees and asking in faith.  There are millions claiming to be born again Christians, and if they are, they would trust God in faith for healing without pills or drugs; they would trust Him in faith for finances without cash or government checks—because they would believe that God will do what He promises.

            If a person has consecrated their life to God, as a true Bible-believing Christian, they would be in a position to receive answers to prayer, for any spiritual, physical, or material need.  When an answer to prayer is received, our faith in God will increase.  John 14:14 ”If you make any request of me in my name, I will do it.”  If we believe God’s Word and ask according to God’s will, He has promised to give the answer.  Philippians 4:19 ”My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

            Very few professing to be a Christian today have the attitude toward God of a child toward a parent.  God must be first, last, and everything to us, and He must be trusted to the point of going to Him in a private prayer with every need or concern on our mind.

            Any lack of a child-like attitude, is the result of the sin nature not wanting a personal relationship or a direct connection to God.  Most people seek for every possible source of help—before going to God in prayer.  When they have spent their last dime, and lost their last hope, they turn to God in desperation.

            They risk everything imaginable, and spend every cent on anything possible, before asking God, in faith, for healing or finances.  Every answer to prayer that anyone has ever received by faith in God alone condemns the blatant unbelief in the world today.

            The love of God, through the power of the Blood, is beyond human understanding.  Romans 11:33 ”Oh, how inexhaustible are God’s resources and God’s wisdom and God’s knowledge!  How impossible it is to search into His decrees or trace His footsteps!”  We begin to know the power of God, when we begin to trust on the promises of God.

            Before Adam sinned, he ran to God; but after he sinned he ran from God.  When the Lord asked Adam where he was Genesis 3:9, he could have truthfully said he was trying to distance himself from Him.  The entire human race has been running from God ever since—and is getting farther and further away through unbelief.

            Sin makes a person run from God, because the sin-nature is afraid of God.  Romans 8:7 ”The sinful mind is hostile to God.”  Adam said to the Lord Genesis 3:10, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid.”  There is nothing about God to make anyone afraid, because 1 John 4:8 “God is love,” and He 1 John 4:9 “sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.”

            The Israelites in Egypt saw the marvelous protection God gave when the blood of a lamb was on the door, and they witnessed the miracle of the Red Sea passageway.  The rebellious sin-nature in them, however, had not been replaced with a trusting divine-nature, so when they reached the Desert of Shur, they walked to exhaustion searching for water, rather than trusting God in faith to supply it.  Instead of being in Moses’ face, they should have been on their knees—in prayer to God.

            They hunted for three days and found some acrid water at Marah.  God permitted them to find this undrinkable water to teach them how futile it is to do anything that is not by faith and trust on Him.  John 15:5 ”I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”

            Exodus 15:24 “The people complained against Moses, saying, ‘What shall we drink?’”  They should have been on their knees, and accessing their personal connection to God about the problem, but instead they went to Moses and blamed him for bringing them to a place where they would all, from a human viewpoint, die of thirst and lack of food.

            Moses found a tent where he could place the matter before God in a private prayer of faith.  Exodus 15:25 He “cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood.  He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.”  It says, “There the LORD tested them.”  It was a faith lesson of trust on God for the needs of the moment.

            The entire message of the Bible is that we must learn how to deal personally with God by a direct connection to Him.  The believer is taken to a desolate wilderness—as Israel in the Desert of Shur—where God is their only Supplier of milk and honey.  When Israel was brought to that place, they learned about their personal access to God.

            Exodus 15:26-27 ”He said, ‘If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you.’  Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees.”

            From the beginning to the end, the Bible teaches that we are to be in a position, and have an attitude, that will deal personally with God about everything.  The first result of dealing directly with God is that spiritual hindrances are revealed.  God promises to show us what the hindrance is, why we are not delivered, and how to receive the answer.

            There is no power on earth that can reveal the spiritual cause, but God the Father and Jesus the Son—through the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit.  A man came to Jesus and asked Him to heal his boy.  The first thing Jesus did was reveal the hindrance.  John 4:48 ”Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.”

            Jesus was saying that if the man was not willing to believe in faith, there was no other way to receive the victory.  Too often we are praying with our words, but not believing in our hearts, unless seeing with our eyes.

            If Jesus were here in person, multitudes would run to Him, but He would have to say to them now, what He said to the man then.  John 4:48-50 "’Unless you and others see miracles and marvels nothing will induce you to believe.’  ‘Sir,’ [he pleaded], ‘come down before my child dies.’  ‘You may return home,’ replied Jesus; ‘your son has recovered.’  He believed the words of Jesus, and started back home.”

            When the spiritual hindrance was revealed, and the man was willing to believe the Word in faith, the answer was given.  He went home and found the boy fully delivered.  It was a personal access to God that enabled a personal answer to prayer.  No one prayed with him, and no one spoke for him—he just went directly to God in believing faith, and received the promise of the Word: “I am the LORD who heals you.” Exodus 15:26.