Developing Personal Worship - The Experience

THE IMPORTANCE OF A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH GOD:

Genesis 28:10-22 (MSG): “Jacob left Beersheba and went to Haran. He came to a certain place and camped for the night since the sun had set. He took one of the stones there, set it under his head and lay down to sleep. And he dreamed: A stairway was set on the ground and it reached all the way to the sky; angels of God were going up and going down on it. Then GOD was right before him, saying, ‘I am GOD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. I’m giving the ground on which you are sleeping to you and to your descendants. Your descendants will be as the dust of the Earth; they’ll stretch from west to east and from north to south. All the families of the Earth will bless themselves in you and your descendants. Yes. I’ll stay with you, I’ll protect you wherever you go, and I’ll bring you back to this very ground. I’ll stick with you until I’ve done everything I promised you.'

Jacob woke up from his sleep. He said, ‘GOD is in this place—truly. And I didn’t even know it!’ He was terrified. He whispered in awe, ‘Incredible. Wonderful. Holy. This is God’s House. This is the Gate of Heaven.’

Jacob was up first thing in the morning. He took the stone he had used for his pillow and stood it up as a memorial pillar and poured oil over it. He christened the place Bethel (God’s House). The name of the town had been Luz until then.

Jacob vowed a vow: ‘If God stands by me and protects me on this journey on which I’m setting out, keeps me in food and clothing, and brings me back in one piece to my father’s house, this GOD will be my God. This stone that I have set up as a memorial pillar will mark this as a place where God lives. And everything you give me, I’ll return a tenth to you.’”

Jacob was on the run! He had stolen everything from his older brother, and now he was running for his life. One of the most popular forms of transportation of this time period was a camel. A racing camel’s top speed is 40 mph; it can run at 25 mph for one hour or 12 mph for up to 18 hours. After only one day of travel he had put approximately 67 miles (approximately 5½ hrs.) between himself and his family. Unbeknownst to Jacob, he stopped in a place that his grandfather had built an altar to Lord many years before.

Although Jacob was running for his life, this became one of the most defining moments in his relationship with God. A personal experience with God creates a milestone or landmark that we can always look back on that helps carry us through even the most difficult seasons of our lives. Without a personal experience with God, we will only have shallow emotional happenings that are blown away at the first sign of adversity.