Getting into God’s Company with Kellie Copeland

AWAKEN!

“It’s all about awakening,” Kellie says, referring to what Jesus does for the one who comes to Him. “This is what Jesus did for me. Tenderly and progressively, His presence drew me closer to Him until I was changed. The greatness of the change in my life that came from sitting with Him truly can’t be put into words.” Kellie and her family have gone through many of “life’s bruises and struggles,” as she calls them, and found the Lord faithful and able to walk with them through them. When it comes to seeking God, Kellie points to a passage in Hosea 2. It begins with a verse about God wooing unfaithful Israel back to Himself:
 
“Therefore, behold, I am going to allure her, bring her into the wilderness,and speak kindly to her.” (v. 14) 

She emphasizes the word allure, explaining that it means “to be wide open, spacious, especially in a mental sense, to cause to be simple,” and the word wilderness, defined as “a pasture or open field for feeding flocks …  and it also means ‘a mouth, as an organ of speech.’”

Applying this to our own walks of faith, she says, “God is calling you to a wide-open place with Him where you will simply follow and feed on the words of the Shepherd, face-to-face. His very breath, ruach in Hebrew, means to infuse strength as He speaks. The deeper into His wilderness experience you go, the more His Words and His presence take on a new importance in your life. They become louder than any circumstance you may be walking through. You will begin to know Him as intimately as a spouse instead of just religiously following orders.”   

A ROYAL INVITATION

“The King of Heaven has issued an official invitation into His presence. He literally invites you in His Word to come to Him,” Kellie reminds us. She also acknowledges that there are very real obstacles to meaningful time with God, one being Satan himself. “Satan is a liar and comes to steal the Word immediately. The Word is his number-one target – not your life, family or health or finances. If he can steal the Word that the Lord is speaking to you, he can take anything Jesus promised you out of your hands,” she warns. “Satan is the enemy of our souls, and he has deceived us into thinking it’s hard to hear from the Lord.”  

Another barrier she points to is ourselves. “We love Him, and we believe Him. So, what’s the disconnect between this love and hearing Him express His love? We’ve distrusted ourselves and what we are hearing, thinking it’s just our own random thoughts. We have this human propensity to go to God in prayer, asking Him for His help or spending our prayer time telling Him what and who He needs to change in order to help us. I’ll let that thought drop right there. (It was a big ouch for me!)” 

To nurture our faith, Kellie says, we must spend time in God’s Word. “Faith comes when He speaks directly to our hearts. Romans 10:17 says, ‘So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.’ Jesus initiates or authors our faith when we hear Him speak and faith comes supernaturally in that moment! We have real access to His thoughts about us, our situations, and our destinies.”  

SIMPLY COME

Kellie exhorts us to draw near to God, allowing neither distractions nor concerns to hold us back. “One piece of drawing closer to Him is our availability,” she says. “Availability doesn’t require greatness on our part – simply a humble awareness of our need for Him. When we think we must be perfect, we are too busy working out our so-called perfection to actually sit down. This creates an endless religious cycle that goes nowhere but gradually descends into hopelessness.”  

Referring again to the devil’s ploys, Kellie encourages us to worship God and resist the devil. “Worship is not just something you do, but it is a posture and positioning of your heart. If Satan can’t speak to us because we won’t listen, he won’t be able to plant lies in our hearts anymore! This is the powerful and peaceful result of giving Jesus full reign over our souls.”       

Coming to Christ bears fruit, she reminds us. “We have no idea who we really are until we hear it straight from Jesus. I heard my friend, Grace, say a profound thing: ‘Our identity is found in His Voice.’ He knows how to be heard, and He invited us to simply come, expecting to hear. He can do more with five minutes of quiet than we can do with thousands of years of words. Wait like a pregnant mother waits – waiting not because nothing is happening, but because everything is happening. She waits in expectancy!”  

Get Kellie Copeland's book, "Awake to His Presence," and visit her website, Kellie Copeland Ministries, to learn more.