Relationship and Communication ~Pastor Bob Mankaka

My four-year-old son Michael and I were in a Wal-Mart recently when the lady at the counter looked at Michael and said, "Hi, good-looking! What's your name, and how old are you?" Michael took so long to respond, I grew impatient and said, "Why can't you talk to the lady, Michael?" The lady quickly intervened, "Oh no, it's very good if he does not talk to strangers."

Michael will not to talk to strangers, but he never tires of talking to me. In fact, he talks and talks until I get tired of listening and have to sometimes dismiss him because I am busy with something else. His questions these days have been mind spinning. Yesterday he asked, "Dad, what does a school zone mean? Why do the police arrest the bad guys in the school zone?"

I explained the school zone is the area around a school, and the police arrest the bad guys because they drive very fast in the school zone where they must slow down lest they hurt a school child. Michael continued, "Oh, so you can't speed up in a school zone?" "Oh no, you can't," I replied. Michael paused for a moment and said, "Hmm, now if in the school zone people have to drive veeeery sssslooow, what speed were the police driving after those bad guys to be able to catch them?" Well . . . the response on that one was not easy.

Then Michael asked, "Dad, what does healing mean?" I responded, "Healing is recovering from being sick. When you are sick, Mom gives you medication and you get well; you are healed." Michael exclaimed, "Oh! Then Jesus heals?" "Oh yes." He followed, "Dad, when someone's head is cut off, what happens to the person?" "Ooh, the person dies." He continued, "The person dies and does not breathe anymore?" "Yes, the person is dead, doesn't breathe." "Can Jesus heal such a person?" Michael added. "Oh yes, He can." Michael continued,"Now, does Jesus put back the very same head or another head on the person's neck?" "The same head." Michael continued, "Will that person's head have the hair on it or just the skull?" "The head will have hair, Michael."

Michael asks so many questions I get tired. Why is it that Michael would hesitate to talk to a stranger but will talk to me for hours? The responseis simple: RELATIONSHIP. Get this: The degree of the relationship determines the level of communication. Michael easily and tirelessly talks to me because I am his father.

In the past God was seen as a distant, unreachable creator. People of Old Testament times looked at God as a punishing judge who used rules and restrictions (Exodus 19-20). Jesus Christ came to give us the right perception of God - as somebody we can relate to. In fact, Jesus himself was named Emmanuel, meaning "God among us." Jesus confidently says, "God is my father." Jesus not only calls God his father but also ushers simple people like you and me into the Father-child relationship with the living God.

Teaching his disciples the need to communicate with God through prayer, Jesus says, "But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you" (Mat. 6:6, emphasis mine). After His resurrection, Jesus says to Mary, "Go instead to my brothers and tell them, I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God" (John 20:17-18).

Paul, encouraging the idea of God being the Father, says, "You are not a stranger, but you are member of God's household" (Eph 2:19). John later asserts, "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! . . . Dear friends, now we are children of God. . . . (1 John3:1-3). When, thanks to Jesus Christ, that personal relationship between a person and God is established through faith (Eph 2:8), we say that person is saved, or that person is born of God (John 1:12). Simply put, salvation can be explained as "a personal relationship with the living God."

Yes, the living God of Heaven and Earth becomes your Father through Jesus Christ. Now, remember that the degree of the relationship determines the level of communication; a lack of communication in any relationship is a sign of a hurting relationship. Even today, if you want to see how sweet or sour your relationship is getting, whether between parent-child, husband-wife, friends or whomever, just examine your communication for a prime indication of how it's going.

Michael talks tirelessly to me, not so that he can become my child, but rather because he is my child, our relationship has already been established - I am his father. So it is that we do not strive to talk to Father God so that we can get a chunk of salvation, but we talk to him because we are his children, and the relationship you have with the invisible living Father will establish that liberty and eagerness of you talking to Him anytime.

Are you in a relationship with God? If not, it isn't too late. Simply ask Jesus to come into your life today. He will forgive your sins, and the new relationship with God will start. Then I would encourage you to find a fellowship of other children of God so that you may receive encouragement and grow in the Lord. If you have a relationship with God, well, make communication with your Father a priority.

Beloved of the Lord, here is the truth: Dying communication conveys a dying relationship between two people, so dying communication with God is a dying relationship between you and God. As result, even though you are saved, your relationship with God will be boring and lifeless. A relationship of meaningful communication with your Father God is alive, exciting, purpose-driven, substantial, and fruitful. This is the relationship that Christ has brought us into with the living God.