How to Commune with God • Deshen Daily

Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah (Psalm 4:4 KJV)

When God created Adam with a human spirit—having God’s nature—He established a vital relationship with human beings forever. At the Fall, Adam severed himself, and all humanity with him, from God, and the devastating consequences are apparent to all. Although Adam was constitutionally intact after the Fall, still having his spirit, soul, and body, he lost something that determined his wellbeing and eternal destiny. That “something” he lost was the communion or fellowship with God.

God has restored our lost communion with Him in Christ. This restoration operates in two phases: the new birth and subsequent Christian living. In the new birth, God establishes a Spirit-spirit connection with us by giving us His Holy Spirit, His presence. In our subsequent practical Christian walk, we commune or fellowship with Him by practically fellowshipping with His Spirit.

We commune with God in our hearts through His Spirit. In Psalm 77:6, the Psalmist says, “I commune with my own heart.” The idea of communing here is one talking with someone else, except that in this Psalm, the Psalmist was talking with himself—within his heart, in his thoughts. In Psalm 19:14, these inner communications are called “the meditation of my heart.” Therefore, our hearts, our inner life, is the sphere of communing with God; His communion with us is primarily Spirit-to-spirit.

Furthermore, practical communion with God requires God’s presence and mutual exchange. Think of the communion that occurs when best friends meet: they are in the presence of each other, and they communicate with each other. So, we commune with God when our hearts are lifted up into the realm of God’s presence by His Spirit, and we communicate with Him through the faculties of our hearts—thoughts, feelings, affections, desires.

As I have repeatedly stressed, this practical communion is not an out-of-body, out-of-soul experience. On the contrary, we commune with God using our thoughts, emotions, and will. Every time you think about God, directing your mind to Him, you establish a practical fellowship with Him. Similarly, when you allow those sanctified emotions to lavish your affections on Him, express your awe for His greatness, or just shower your love on Him, you are communing with Him. When you communicate your thoughts as “meditations of your heart” or “as the words of your mouth” to Him, you are communing with Him. Also, when we feel His presence, hear His voice, and know how He feels or what He thinks, we are also in communion with Him. The more yielded we are to His Spirit, and the more truthful we are in our thoughts, feelings, and will, the more powerful the communion with God is.

It should be immediately apparent that we can get in and out of practical fellowship with God. Our goal should be to maximize that fellowship time with God. Similarly, it should be obvious why anxiety, worry, fears, and depression—all emotional states— destroy our communion with God; they are distractions, obstacles, or oppositions in our hearts. In addition, bitterness, sin, condemnation, guilt, and other similar heart vices are spiritual disasters to communing with God. As such, Jesus said, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see or experience God.

In conclusion, your heart is an altar, a table of communing with God. Practical communion, the daily communion with God, occurs when you enter His presence and commune with Him through the Holy Spirit anytime and anywhere.

NB. Our Reading Through the Bible in One or Two Years( RTB-1-2) online conference for 2022 is now schedule for December 17. Registration is now open. Looking forward to celebrating the glory of God’s Word with you all. Register now to reserve your seat!

What is practical communion as described above? How is this different from the communion with God established at the new birth?

We can, and should, learn how to commune with God’s presence. Communing or fellowshipping with God is more straightforward and doable than many imagine. Grow in it, and you will soon find out your body has become a walking Tabernacle of God’s presence.

Ask the Spirit to help you commune more with Him.