So what does it mean to have a relationship with Jesus? Having a relationship with Jesus involves both revelation and faith. Both are provided by the Holy Spirit. They speak of something that happens in us as we start realizing something very real about Jesus and his significance. We may not understand very much at first, but we are aware that there is something more to Jesus than was meeting the eye.
A relationship with Jesus is all about responding to his initiatives. These promptings come through the Holy Spirit whether we are aware of the Spirit’s involvement or not. We really only have a very simple choice at each of these promptings. We either reject the impulse of faith and revelation we are experiencing or we accept it. The more we accept it, the more we can accept. The more we reject, or to put it another way, the less we accept, the harder it is for us to accept. Kind of like answering your alarm clock in the morning.
Now, just because the Holy Spirit prompts us and we push away that prompting does not mean we’ve blown it once and for all. God is far too gracious with us for that. But we can continue to reject that prompting long enough that we no longer feel any promptings by the Spirit. Again, kind of like ignoring your alarm clock so much that it is a totally useless sound except as a frustration to your neighbors.
But, conversely, as we do respond to those promptings, we begin growing in our relationship with Jesus. There is no set pattern or timing to that process. It is not a science that can be programmed. Relationships defy such structuring. But things will begin to evidence themselves as that relationship grows.
A growing desire to do God’s will. A hunger to know God more. An interest in connecting with others who have these same promptings. And an urge to share about this relationship with others and to spread some of this love and grace around.
The more we are with Jesus, the more we want to be with Jesus and his people. The more we receive his love, the more we want to pass it on. The more we respond to Jesus, the more we want to respond to Jesus.
A relationship with Jesus is not about how much you pray or even how you pray. It is not about how much you read or study your Bible or how often you go to church or do this or that, like witnessing or feeding the hungry even. The more we know Jesus the more we will be drawn to do these things. But it is not a quantifiable thing. Nor is it something we should quantify as a sign of our spirituality. That is the sin of the Pharisees that Jesus so vehemently rejected in the 1st Century.
But a relationship with Jesus will come out, will show itself in that we are drawn to know more about God, to spend time with God, to connect with God’s people, and to be about the Father’s business, just as Jesus so clearly articulated at the tender age of 12.
Closeness to an infinite being like God is less defined by position than by momentum. Justification is position and it is something God provides for us. Through the death of His Son, Jesus, God declares us justified, something we accept simply by faith. God through His unfathomable grace declares us to be righteous in His sight, not by what we have done, but purely by what Jesus has done on our behalf. So this closeness is not about justification.
The closeness is an ongoing responsiveness to God through Jesus Christ. How do you get closer and closer to a God who is so infinite He has no end? It is by giving in to that hunger, that urge (that prompting) inside of us that says I desire more of this Jesus. Maybe that is what I mean by momentum – ongoing responsiveness, continuously giving in to the desires inside of me to connect with Jesus.
In this, a relationship with God is not unlike a relationship with another human. It makes sense that our human relationships are patterned after our relationship with God. And, Jesus tells us, that that relationship (the one we can have with God) is patterned after the relationships God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit share with each other. As theologians tell us, God as Three-in-One is a relational God and so that relational aspect defines the interpersonal universe as we know it. We are, after all, created in the image of this relational God.
How do we know how to relate to this God? By realizing that the best in our human relationships is a mirror reflection of relationship with God. It comes out of an inner desire to connect. That inner desire is planted in us by the Holy Spirit. God loves us so much that He initiates and all we have to do is start responding.
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