A Personal Relationship with Jesus by Perry C.

Brown

2011 by Perry C. Brown All rights reserved.

In my lifetime it has become commonplace for Christians to talk about their personal relationship with Jesus Christ or to encourage non-Christians to begin a personal relationship with the Lord. After all, Jesus did promise I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). Our lingo just reflects that promise, right? Sometimes I wonder what non-Christians think when they hear that they can have a personal relationship with the Lord. I recently heard of a non-Christian who remarked that another Christians invitation to meet Jesus was a lot like an invitation to meet ones imaginary friend. If you have ever seen the stage play Harvey about a man who regularly converses with his best friend, a large white rabbit that no one else can see you get an idea of the non-Christian view of a personal relationship with Jesus. That shouldnt be too surprising. But perhaps even some Christians dont fully understand what that relationship means, although they might experience it regularly. So maybe this important subject is worth ten minutes of our time today. In what sense do I and other Christians have a personal relationship with Jesus? First, the answer to that is not as obvious as it seems. When I consider having a personal relationship with someone, I readily think of my wife and daughter. I can see and hear and touch them, and we care for and communicate with each other. To me, thats what makes our relationship personal. But my relationship with Jesus isnt quite like that. I cant deny His care for me over the decades, but I havent seen Him (yet) or heard Him audibly and I cant give Him

a hug. In fact, if my senses define my relationships, then (some might argue) Jesus is noticeably absent from my life. So is my relationship with Jesus personal or not? I can and do communicate with Him, and in fact the quality and depth of our communication makes our relationship even more personal than with my wife or daughter. Ill explain that latter statement more in a moment, but for now allow me to expand my first point. How do I communicate with Jesus if I dont hear Him speak audibly? Some Christians say that they have heard Him speak audibly. And certainly the Bible is replete with personal accounts of those who did have a face-to-face encounter with the Lord and who heard His voice. (Just to be clear, such encounters often left the person visibly shaken, even stunned. The notable exception is when Jesus lived as a man among us, until the day of His ascension after His resurrection.) I dont doubt that Jesus can speak to whomever He wants, but in my experience and that of many other Christians to whom Ive spoken over several decades, it seems to be quite rare when the Lord addresses someone audibly. But Jesus and I still do communicate. I pray to Him daily (silently and aloud), and He speaks to me through His Word, the Bible. So does Jesus speak to me through the Bible like Charles Lindbergh or Ronald Reagan would speak to me through their memoirs or autobiographies? Not at all. I hear the Lord speaking through the Bible because of the Holy Spirit who was given to me by God when I became a Christian. I didnt deserve a gift like the Holy Spirit,

just as I didnt deserve my forgiveness from God. But He graciously gave me both, and now the Holy Spirit is my guide and teacher, using the Bible as our textbook. It is the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life that makes my reading the Bible different from reading the words of a deceased hero or bygone president. That presence of the Holy Spirit in my life also makes my reading the Bible quite different from a nonChristian reading the Bible. Let me illustrate. Several years ago our family spent a couple of weeks in Great Britain, and we had the privilege of touring Westminster Abbey in London. The experience walking through that great cathedral was almost overwhelminguntil our guide came alongside and led us and explained in detail the remarkable history of that ancient British landmark. In the same way, the Holy Spirit comes alongside to teach and inform the Christian who reads the Bible, in a way that cannot be duplicated in a non-Christian. So Perry, how does the Holy Spirit use the Bible to communicate with you? Is that what makes your relationship with Jesus personal? Sometimes I believe I have an inner compulsion to do or think certain things that might be motivated by the Holy Spirit, especially as I am reading the Bible. But I have learned over the years to carefully weigh my motivations when I have such compulsions or think I am being led by the Holy Spirit to do something. Sometimes inner compulsions are nothing more than inner confusions in disguise.

A wise pastor once counseled me to act on your good impulses. Thats not bad advice if it spurs you to obey a specific command or exhortation from the Bible. And it might be the Holy Spirits spurs in your side! But more often, I am unaware the Holy Spirit is guiding me, until it becomes obvious later that I said something to someone or was at some place at a particular time, and that the Holy Spirit used converging circumstances to encourage or motivate someone, or to accomplish something only He could have planned. The Lord promised to send His Holy Spirit to teach us, using the Bible as the textbook. So in that way Jesus through the Holy Spirit is communicating with me, and I with Him through my prayer and worship and obedience. And that makes our relationship very personal. In fact, my relationship with Jesus is more personal than any other relationship I have. I promised Id explain that further. Imagine a person you know very well suddenly knew everything about you. Every thought you ever thought. Every attitude. Every motivation. Every spoken and unspoken word. That relationship would be more intensely personal than any other you have. Thats the way it is between Christians and God. He knows every thought in our heads and every attitude in our hearts. In fact, He knows you better than you know yourself, because it is fairly easy fool yourself or deny what is really in your heart and mind. Not so with God. We cannot deny Him access to any thought or attitude or motivation we have.

So when someone says they have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, I know what they mean, because I do also. And that precious relationship is worth a little explanation, so well understand Jesus I am with you always as the intensely personal promise He meant it to be.