A Personal Relationship…

THURS., DEC. 17, 1987, 6:25 AM
FARM, STUDY

You are here on a clear, cold nearly-winter morning, with an uncomfortable congestion… and a theme already presented to you. You did not voice this theme message at the Session meeting this week, but it was in your thoughts, and you even wrote it down. How important is it for the person who shall become the pastor of your church to have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ? How important is it for anyone? Hear, o son.

You have had this particularly personal relationship with Me, the Holy Spirit, for over eight years. It becomes more and more difficult for you to recall and feel what it was like before this interaction was… on this overt level. And hence it is increasingly difficult for you to feel what it like for another, especially an ordained minister of the Gospel, to be without this direct guidance and relationship.

Those who minister in My Triune Name are a varied “crew.” You realize that the churches that make up My Body are varied in many ways… in order that many might come and be part of My family. If all had to be frocked priests… or liberal, socially concerned… or charismatic in peaching style… many who are now in the Christian fold would not be. Therefore it is good to have a wide range of leadership, that many might come, seek, and find… salvation and the path that is best for each.

What is a “personal relationship”? That, too, means different experiences for different people. Few have this “writing relationship” which results in very tangible lessons about life here in the earth, in which I share thoughts and observations and convictions with you, and with others, through you. But most ministers would claim that I, the Christ Spirit, lead them in some ways. Even those who graduate from prestigious seminaries and who spend hours in preparation of a single, learned sermon would claim that I have been “part of the process.” At the other extreme are those who wait for inspiration and then claim, and feel, that what they preach, spontaneously, comes from Me.

Most would claim that they receive guidance in their daily life. But there would be a range in how positive and specific each would be about this, when questioned. Some would have to admit that the relationship is more of a hope than a clear reality. Some are comfortable with the conviction that I come to them through passages of Scripture… or even just in the reading and studying of Scripture. I certainly do use this means, and it is a good one, but I do regret that some who come in this way make it an absolute and refuse to consider other ways in which I might be with them.

What is the next called pastor of your congregation likely to be… in terms of this personal relationship?

He or she is likely to respond, when questioned directly, that she has a personal relationship and has felt a call to the ministry. Yet this person would be unlikely to volunteer such a relationship when describing self. This person is likely to be as uninterested in My communications to and through you as other Presbyterian clergy have been. It could be possible… but… unlikely. You have to be properly suspicious of divine guidance… even when it comes to you.

The true evidence of personal relationship, however, is not, finally, in Teachings or other forms of revelation. Important as these are they are secondary to the way a person lives, day by day, with other people and this tangible earth. Oh, there will be a variety of styles of living and behaving, but the one in a personal relationship with Me is continuously thankful and “ever mindful of the needs of others. The desire to give and to serve is strong, and the concern for one’s own needs is minimal.