We me already been told that a disciple is first and foremost a son.
A son who has voluntarily decided to follow in the footsteps of his father. So a disciple is a loved son, a son that is cherished, a welcome son.
(i) Consequently, a disciple has the privilege of visiting with God anytime. In other words, a child of God who decides to follow in the footsteps of God can visit God anytime he wants to.
When he knocks on the door, the door will be opened unto him. Once he’s inside the room with God, alone with God, he has the opportunity of being very intimate with the Most-High.
You know, if your father is the president and you want to talk to him in public, you have to address him like other people will address him, Your Excellency. But when you get to the bedroom, “Daddy, how now?”
Because you are now together in the same room. In the same manner, when you are alone with God, you can talk to him in a way you can’t talk to Him when other people are present.
For example, Jesus will call God Father. But when He is alone with Him, He uses the word “Abba,” which means Daddy. (Mark 14:35-36; Galatians 4:6; Romans 8:15).
This is different from “Father”. Father is a kind of name you give to somebody, to be feared, respected, etc. When you are intimate with God, you call him Daddy.
When you are alone with Him, you can be very frank with Him. You lay all the cards on the table without any pretence.
You know if your Daddy sees you in public and says, “How are you, my son?”
You will answer, Fine, Sir. But when you are alone with him in the room, you will tell him exactly the situation.
Not, I believe I am fine. You will say, “I’m sorry, O, I have a headache.” You will tell him your needs, desires, etc. (I Corinthians 14:2, 4, 18- 19).
I remember when I used to lead morning prayers several years ago.
When I said “let us pray for our country” everybody would pray in English; “let us pray for our church”, everybody would be praying in English.
As soon as I said, If you have any special prayer request, ask God, everybody’s voice would drop.
And then they would begin to pray in their mother tongues, “Oh! God,” will become “Olodumare, Chineke, Abasi.”
Their voice would change, and the tempo would drop. Even the interpreter would begin to pray, and I would not even hear what he was saying.
This is because they had moved into the private room with God.
You know, when you are alone with God, then God can give you private or special attention; individual personal attention. And then He can give blessings that are custom-made. So there are occasions when God has a special blessing for special people. You know, when God called Abraham, Abraham took Lot with him. God said, “Well, I am not going to do anything until Lot is separated from you because my plan is for you, Abraham. In Genesis 13:14-17, the Bible says that as soon as Lot separated from Abraham, God began to speak with Abraham again. He said, The blessing promised, I shall give it to you now.
When you are alone with God, when there is privacy, rules can be waived. Oh! There are certain laws that you think cannot be changed. That is in public. When you are in privacy with God, anything can happen. For example, look at Esther 5:1-5. You see, there was a rule in the time of Esther, if you went to the presence of the king without being called, all the king had to do for you to die was to do nothing.
In other words, you come into his presence, he didn’t call you, the soldiers will be watching the king, what do we do to this fellow, and the king did nothing, he didn’t smile, he didn’t move.
A minute later, the head of that fellow is gone. If the king wants that fellow to live, he will have to lift his sceptre towards that fellow, then the soldier will say, “Alright, don’t kill this one.”
But when Esther went to see the king, though she was not invited, because she was the favourite of the king and because it was a private meeting, the king said, What do you want, my queen?
Ask me. Even half of my kingdom I will give it to you. The king waived the rule to meet the needs of someone special to him in private.
For the disciple who knows how to visit God in private, he enters His presence with thanksgiving and praise and you can do that straight away. Do it just for some minutes and see what God will do. Praise Him.
Action Point
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points raised in this article or disagree with some of the issues raised.
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