"A personal relationship with God or Jesus"

[Elijah John]

One often hears the Evangelical offer to have a "personal relationship with God though Jesus Christ", or a "personal relationship with Jesus Christ". Or "Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship".

For debate, how does one experience a "personal relationship" with God and/or Jesus?

Is it though believing the "right things" (orthodoxy) about God and Jesus?

Or is it by engaging in daily prayer, "acknowledging the LORD in all your ways".

Is the person who has "accepted Christ" but does not pray very often still experiencing a "personal relationship" with God?

[Divine Insight]

I think the whole concept is grossly misunderstood.

If a God exists, then I have a personal relationship with God. Period.

No religion required, nor is there any need to define what God is.

In short, the relationship is what we make it in our own mind.

Anyone who claims to actually be having two-way conversations with a God is clearly mistaken. If that were actually true they could easily demonstrate that to be true. No human has ever been able to do that. What they may have done is convince themselves that their own thoughts are the voice of God. But no human has ever been able to produce the kind of information that could be obtained from any actual conversations with a divine being. So any claims along those lines are clearly bogus.

[bjs]

One often hears the Evangelical offer to have a "personal relationship with God though Jesus Christ", or a "personal relationship with Jesus Christ". Or "Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship".

For debate, how does one experience a "personal relationship" with God and/or Jesus?

Is it though believing the "right things" (orthodoxy) about God and Jesus?

Not exactly. Having accurate information about a person is helpful in knowing that person, but it is not the same thing as having a relationship with him. For example, I know quite a lot of Theodore Roosevelt. I never met him.

Or is it by engaging in daily prayer, "acknowledging the LORD in all your ways".

That would be part of it. There are a variety of other Christian disciplines that are also important, such as meditation, worship, celebration, Bible study, etc.

Is the person who has "accepted Christ" but does not pray very often still experiencing a "personal relationship" with God?

To a degree. Like with all relationship, one person might have a closer relationship with God than another person. Minimal time in prayer would certainly suggest a distant relationship, thought of course real life is rarely that straightforward.

[Eloi]

There are enough indications in the Scriptures showing how is having a real relationship with Jehovah. A Jehovah's witness experiences this on this way:

1) Jehovah noticed ME even before I WAS born.

Ps. 139:16 Your eyes even saw me as an embryo; All its parts were written in your book Regarding the days when they were formed, Before any of them existed.

2) Jehovah knows what is in MY heart, and he knows what I AM thinking.

1 Chron. 28:9 “And you, Solʹo·mon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a complete heart and with a delightful soul, for Jehovah searches through all hearts, and he discerns every inclination of the thoughts. If you search for him, he will let himself be found by you, but if you leave him, he will reject you forever.

3) Jehovah personally listens to each one of MY prayers.

Ps. 65:2 O Hearer of prayer, to you people of all sorts will come.

4) MY actions affect Jehovah's feelings.

Prov. 27:11 Be wise, my son, and make my heart rejoice, So that I can make a reply to him who taunts me.

5) Jehovah has personally drawn ME to him.

John 6:44 No man can come to me unless the Father, who sent me, draws him, and I will resurrect him on the last day.

6) If I die, Jehovah knows ME so well that he will be able to resurrect ME. He will reconstruct MY body and restore MY mind along with MY memories and other unique aspects of MY personality.

John 11:21 Martha then said to Jesus: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 Yet even now I know that whatever you ask God for, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her: “Your brother will rise.” 24 Martha said to him: “I know he will rise in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who exercises faith in me, even though he dies, will come to life; 26 and everyone who is living and exercises faith in me will never die at all. Do you believe this?”
(...) 39 Jesus said: “Take the stone away.” Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to him: “Lord, by now he must smell, for it has been four days.” 40 Jesus said to her: “Did I not tell you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took the stone away. Then Jesus raised his eyes heavenward and said: “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 True, I knew that you always hear me; but I spoke on account of the crowd standing around, so that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice: “Lazʹa·rus, come out!” 44 The man who had been dead came out with his feet and hands bound with wrappings, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them: “Free him and let him go.”

Acts 24:15 And I have hope toward God, which hope these men also look forward to, that there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.

[William]

One often hears the Evangelical offer to have a "personal relationship with God though Jesus Christ", or a "personal relationship with Jesus Christ". Or "Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship".

For debate, how does one experience a "personal relationship" with God and/or Jesus?

Is it though believing the "right things" (orthodoxy) about God and Jesus?

Or is it by engaging in daily prayer, "acknowledging the LORD in all your ways".

Is the person who has "accepted Christ" but does not pray very often still experiencing a "personal relationship" with God?

It is much like forming a relationship with Robin Hood, and Peter Pan and any other storybook character.

How that relationship develops depends upon what the individual images within their minds in relation to how they also see themselves, which is directly related to how they see the world they are currently experiencing.

For me it would be difficult to relate to the Alien Queen (from the franchise) and easy to relate to the Alien Queen as portrayed in Enders Game.



There appears to be more "Jesus" in the latter Queen, just as there does in Robin Hood and Peter Pan.

The relationship I have with that, is wrought through the initial attraction to what these storybook characters represent - and therein my relationship with Jesus has formed...or more realistically, continues to form...it seems a never-ending process, which is acceptable to me also.

[Overcomer]

When a person accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour and his/her dead spirit is brought alive, that person is filled with the Holy Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit that communicates the things of God to the individual.

Here are 10 guidelines for those who desire to hear God's voice clearly:

https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/spiritu ... larly.html