Theme verse : Amos 4:4a
How many of our houses’ are named ‘Bethel’?
What is Bethel?
Literally, it means the House of God, the Gate of Heaven (Gen 28:17)
Why do we name our houses as ‘Bethel’? What’s so significant about that name or that place ‘Bethel’?
Read the passage in the Bible from Gen 28:12-19. We can understand some important aspects of ‘Bethel’.
It’s the place where:
1. The link between Heaven and Earth is set
2. Divine encounters happen
3. We meet with God & listen to God
4. We get heavenly revelations
It’s also the place of:
1. Promise making
2. Acknowledging God’s presence in our Lives
3. Making vows with the Lord.
The above are the 7 divine significances of this place called Bethel. But more than this place being a physical/geographical location, in our lives as Christians too each of us have our Bethels. We all would have or for some of us, it may be yet to become a place in our spiritual life too.
This Bethel (in our personal lives) is our personal prayer closet, the place that we go to meet with our God. This Bethel is the one that Jesus mentions in Mat 6:6 as “go into your room” to pray.
Many of us today, here, may not be having our Bethel, while for some of us here it may be thing of the past that is no longer existent in our personal daily lives.
• When was the last time you were taken by storm in the Lord’s presence?
• When was the last time you wept and prayed for somebody?
• When was the last time you had your quiet time in your room with your God? • When was the last time you raised your voice and sang so loudly and praised and worshipped the name of Jesus?
• When was the last time you bent your knees to pray?
• When was the last time you spent hours together praying?
• When was the last time you got back to your First Love?
• When was the last time you read the bible with so much excitement, eagerness and awe?
• When was the last time you eagerly sought Him?
We all do come to church weekly, we sing a lot of songs, we may even participate in other fellowships, or we may also engage and volunteer in a lot of ministries both at church and outside.
We may pray when we wake up, or when we drive or before we eat or sleep. But, do you go to Bethel? To your Bethel?
· The place where you encounter God daily?
· The place where you receive revelations from God?
· The place where you lose yourself and immerse in God’s presence?
· The place where you make vows with God?
· The place where you receive promises directly from God?
Where is that place in your life today? Is it still there?
If yes, Praise the Lord. Otherwise, what went wrong, where and when?
Do we claim to be so busy that we don’t have time to set apart for prayer? Do we involve so much in ministerial activities that we don’t have time to seek the Lord?
How many of us here can say that “I have my personal prayer time that’s marked from this time to this time every day and I make all effort to follow it without fail”?
For many of us, prayer is just an obligation or is mostly a dictation to God just vomiting all our requirements to Him. But, how many of us here truly Seek Him? How many of us encounter the ‘tangible’ presence of the Lord daily?
There are a few more biblical significances of this ‘Bethel’.
1. Gen 35:7 – It is a place of refuge in times of trouble. The Presence of the Lord (our personal prayer time) is a refuge for us. Have you experienced that?
2. 1 Kin 13:1 – It’s a place where prophecies come. God gives us revelations and even for some He gives prophecies. How many of us desire the Gift of Prophecy?
3. 2 Kin 17:28 – It is a place to learn God’s ways and to Grow in His fear. An example is: My guitar learning experience.. was in Bethel. I used to strum without holding any chord. I did not know to play but I just strummed and sang during my personal prayer time. God Himself teaches us.
4. 1 Sam 10:3,6 – It is also a place where we become a new man. Like Paul says in 2 Cor 4:16 – Though we are outwardly wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. Bethel is the place where we get renewed. Unless we go to Bethel, we cannot expect to be renewed inwardly day by day. Our personal prayer time should become an indispensable part of our daily life.
How is this Bethel experience, generally?
It may differ from person to person as God encounters each of us daily in different levels and in different ways. But some experiences of Bethel are:
1. 2 Kin 2:2 – We feel taken upwards into God’s presence. This is a big bible study in itself, but it’s the state where we lose ourselves in God’s presence. Though it is physical mind and mouth that is involved in praying, the Spirit overshadows and fills us such that every word is ‘Inspired by Him’.
2. 2 Kin 2:9 – We receive a double anointing because we encounter God directly.
3. 1 Sam 30:27 – We receive blessings from the Lord and more importantly, we get the exploits from our enemies, which means that, our personal prayer closet experience becomes a battlefield where we fight against the forces of darkness and principalities and win the War on our knees.
How should we seek this Bethel?
Gen 28:18 – Rise up early and seek. The Bethel experience is not meant to be sook when we’re tired after a busy day, but it should be our first priority and preference even before we look at someone early in the morning or even look at our mobile phones.
I encourage you today, to set apart 15mins, 30 mins or an hour to seek the Lord daily. We cannot go to Bethel unless we “seek” it. Formal prayers, corporate gatherings etc are good but a personal prayer time is a must in all our lives.
We should not leave the prayer room until He meets with us. We’re so much in a hurry that even 1 minute past the time the church gets over we become so restless.
Like David says in Psalms 27:14 – Wait for Lord. Wait until He touches you. Wait until the Holy Spirit fills you. Wait till you are done praying what the Spirit leads you to.
--> How can someone experience God’s presence in the church or in some other meeting unless they have their own personal prayer time?
-->Why do we see a lot of people in church being so unresponsive or not indulging during worship?
-->Do you find yourself in that lot? Why is that so? Isn’t that because you haven’t had your proper Bethel time all during the week? Have you seen the difference between coming to church without preparation or expectation to coming with preparation?
We don’t seek God for what He’s done but we seek God for who He is.
When do we realize this? When does our hearts fill with gratitude? Isn’t it in your Bethel?
I challenge you today. Give it a try this week and see the difference in your life. I’ve experienced this and that is why I’m boldly challenging you today.
There are some things that we need to watch out for, with respect to this Bethel experience.
1. Jer 48:13 – Bethel should be our confidence. We should never be ashamed of it. We should never feel shy to acknowledge the Lord’s presence in our life in front of others. After all, that is what makes us unique.
2. 2 Kin 2:23 – It should never be taken lightly or with less reverence. Giving excuses to not have our personal prayer time that day saying we’re Busy or ‘just today I’ll skip it’. Sometimes, if things become a part of our daily life, we may tend to lose the respect for it. We need to watch out for that.
3. Gen 28:11 – Not meant to be a place to sleep, though In Jacob’s case he realized this only during his sleep. Give your best time to the Lord. When God gives us the best, why can’t we give Him our best?
4. Amos 7:13 – It should not be a situation where we twist it according to our own needs and conveniences(not willing to Listen to God anymore)
5. 1 Kin 12:28,29 – Be careful not to replace it with something else or compromise it for something else.
Amos 5:5 – In how many people’s lives Bethel has come to nothing/no longer exists? Or has never existed? You know it. The Holy Spirit is speaking to you right now & convicting you. Don't push it off, please.
Friend, come to Bethel! The Lord is waiting for you.
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