What does it mean to have a ‘personal relationship’ with God?

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IanAG said:
what this looks like in practice and how you know when you have one
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Each denomination has its answer to this .as a catholic charismatic. Acts 19. And 1 Samuel 19:19-24. Is an a example of speaking in other tongues as the Holy spirit gives utterances. As this is not a feeling. Or intellectual understanding. But a way of applying Romans 12. Presenting your body as a living sacrifice

This is why Paul said in acts 19. What were you baptised into? Some denominations offer only water baptism. Acts 8 when Philip went to Samaria. They got water baptism. But john and Peter played hands on them and they got infused with the Holy spirit.

Acts 8:14-15 NIV​

When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit
 
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Here’s what it means to me. First of all, imagine what an “impersonal relationship” looks like. I might email someone at a company about my keyboard breaking. I might phone Customer Service at my food delivery service. I might contact a distant cousin for some factual information about a third relative somewhere.

We can be very impersonal in our human relationships, but now think of what a close and personal friendship means. First of all, we must have it with a person, not with a computer or an animal or a tree. God is a person! Box ticked. Actually… three persons! Next, we get very close. We speak face-to-face, if possible, or through the phone or video chat when we’re distant. We often exchange gifts and well-wishing, kind words, we might lend money or lend our time to help out when the other is in a pinch. We ask how each other is feeling, we have concern and solicitude for feelings, health, emotions. We speak and spend a lot of time together, and wish it could be more. We confide secrets in each other.

Now take this close personal relationship and put it in overdrive, and you’ve got a clue how we should be with God. God is so much more than this to us! We could never imagine, in this life, how close God is, how personal He is, what our relationship truly means to Him. But we can approach it, and we can approach Him, as a friend, as a Father, as an intimate brother, who knows us, cares for us, and loves us more than we’ll ever know.
 
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Dear @Anesti33, thanks for replying, that’s a beautiful answer. That’s the type of relationship I want to have with God. I pray regularly but most often write my prayers down then read them out because my mind is so busy.

I feel as though it would be more personal if I just ad libbed instead, speaking straight from the heart. But then I keep a prayer list because I have so many people I pray for.

It just seems a bit mechanical to me…if I was chatting with my best friend I wouldn’t write things down first.

I do have a quiet time where I just sit with God too.
 
Thanks again everyone for your help and support, the answers have all helped me to build a good idea of what a relationship with God looks like and what I should be working towards.

Blessings,

Ian ✝️
 
Hello Ian!

It feels like there’s a father that you can trust and there’s a friend that you can rely on. To say that you feel that you have all things because you have GOD by your side.
IanAG said:
how you know when you have one?
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All of us have a personal relationship with GOD. Each time that we pray, we develop that connection and made a more definite relationship with our Lord. Most of the time, you’ll feel closer to GOD because you can sense that there’s someone who cares for you.
IanAG said:
Am I doing something wrong?
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No, you’re not, because you have a mental illness and God understands you. The thing is, you know that you love Jesus with all your heart.
 
Thanks @VeryBlessed for a lovely answer…you helped me a great deal.

I am guessing that one of the challenges I have is that I never had this sort of relationship with my own human father…he was pretty much absent from my life relationally and emotionally, and so I’m having to learn from scratch and don’t really have a model that I can use as a guide.

Thanks again for your help.
 
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