Jim Van Gelderen: Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast. This is Jim Van Gilderen, and I happen to be podcasting at Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, which is right where I liveーwhich is kind of unusual because I’m on the road a lot. 

Just got back from out west, out in the beautiful Northwest with those Douglas fir trees that are just absolutely gorgeous. Out there for a couple of weeks ministering and now back here getting ready to train the Minutemen Evangelistic Team for our fall tour. And we’ll be heading out with War of Special Forces here for several weeks this fall and spring, I think about 25 potential weeks before the school year is over. So we’re really excited about that. 

Well, I’ve been on a series, many of you that have been with us know that I’ve been on a series about “my journey.”  There’s something about your own life that’s good to go back and reflect on. And I’ll be honest with the young people, there’s somethingーif I can use the word in a spiritual senseーromantic about those early years of seeking God and following in His will, because there’s so much supernatural. 

You go back and realize how little you understood, how little you knew. But as you begin to take steps of faith, and God begins to intervene, there’s something really thrilling about that and spiritually nostalgic, in a sense, about, “Wow, that was so neat,” because I didn’t experience that before, and all of a sudden God starts manifesting His presence and reality in your life. And for all you young people, that’s where God wants you to beー16, 17, 18, 19 and even earlier than that. 

Those early steps of faith can bring great memories as you justーGod steps down and encourages you, and you begin to realize that the spiritual journey is where real fulfillment in life is all about. 

I talked about assurance of salvation. I’ve talked about my call to preach. Last one was about evangelism, learning to get out there and give the Gospel, sowing the Great Commission: Go into all the world; preach the Gospel. But this one I want to talk about is my search for God. 

Obviously, when you grow up in a Christian home, there is God-talk all the time, especially when your parents have a heart for God. You go to church; you hear about God, and yet in a certain sense, it’s like it’s their Christianity, not yours. 

And it’s not that you don’t see reality. I saw reality. My parents were not perfect, but they were sincere Christians. I believe they walked with God. I believe much of their life they were walking by faith, and there was spiritual impact in and through their lives. 

My grandmother was just a remarkable Christian, and literally impacted my life. In fact, I don’t think I’ve really doubted much the existence of God growing up, because of the reality of God seen in my parents and in my grandmother. Just the presence of God at timesーeven though I wouldn’t have defined it as that as a young personーI look back and realize that God was making himself real. 

But there had to come a point where the quest had to become mine, where it was no longer my parents’ Christianity, my grandmother’s Christianity, it had to become mine. That happened somewhere late teen years. 

I surrendered to the call to preach, and when I surrendered to the call to preach, I was struck with something: God has called me to do something I can’t do, so if I don’t get to know God, I’m done…. And I knew that. I knew if God didn’tーif I didn’t get to know God, God didn’t show up in my lifeーmy Christianity, my call was not going to be effective. 

I knew enough about things that I needed God for myself. I also add into the equation, my parents were not “well” people. I look back and my dad was married, I think 37 and just a few monthsー37 plus years. And my mom passed away before their 38th anniversary. I’ve been married 38 years, so I’ve been married longer than my parents. So about the age that I remember seeing my parents at when I recognized: my parents are not in good health. 

My mom battled cancer for nine years before God took her, the day before her 65th birthday, and my dad battled congestive heart failure for 15 years before God took him at about 71 and a half years. So, um… I knew in college that my parents wouldn’t live longーand I knew they were godly people, so I certainly counted on their prayers, my grandmother’s prayersーbut I recognized that I only had that a few more years, at best. 

And I knew deep down I needed to get to know God, and there had to become a search for me. I remember the verse Deuteronomy 4:29. I can’t remember if it was in class, or where I came across it, but it stirred me. “But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if [you] seek him with all [your] heart and with all [your] soul.” And that verse started the quest to find God.  

Again, I knew Him in some ways, but I did not know Him in an intimate, relational, day-by-day relationship at all. And so, I remember I had my devotions. I was becoming consistent when I got to Bible college, freshman year, etc., but I knew I needed more than that. 

Now, the college I went to, at ten o’clock was the end of “Quiet Hour,” they called it. You had to be quiet from seven to ten. That’s so people could study. So, from ten to ten-thirty, where room devotions began, from ten thirty and went to eleven, dormitories were largely a zooーyou didn’t get much done from ten to ten-thirty. So I began just leaving the dormitory at tenーsometimes I left at nine-thirty, and would go to ten-thirty, sometimes ten to ten thirtyーbut it was always at least the half hour, if not the hour, and it was not my devotions. 

If I can put it this way: it was my quest for God, my search for God. Now, some of those hours were spent in agony because I wasn’t feeling like I was finding God. I was far too much subjective at the time, but a lot of young people fall into subjectivism. In other words, their Christianity is completely determined on how they feel their Christianity is, instead of being determined on who they are in Christ and those great truths of who we are in Christ. 

So I was on theーwhat you might call the “spiritual rollercoaster”ーbut I didn’t understand anything that I understand now on that regard, of “position in Christ.” It wasn’t really being taught to me, or at least I wasn’t getting it if it was being taught at college. But I began the quest, and the Bible does make a promise: if you seek Him, you’ll find Him. And that’s what I held on to. 

And I’ll be honest with you, there were some times I didn’t feel like I was finding God. He seemed a million miles away. And there were times that I felt God was becoming closer, and things were becoming more real in a spiritual fashion, though I didn’t understand the spiritual realm really at all, or very littleーother than what I’ve observed in others. Certainly didn’t for myself. 

But I began that search, and I will tell you, young people, the search is true. God says, “If you seek me, you’ll find me.” It’s a lifelong quest. It’s a search. 

But I couldn’t tell you when, I just knowーprobably my sophomore yearsーwhen this became more consistent. Junior year and senior year, you know, much more consistent. But that quest… I remember when God would manifest Himself, and I remember sometimes when I had such divine optimism flooding my soul. 

I remember praying for my family and praying for just God to open eyes, and I had such a confidence that God was going to do in their hearts what He had done in mine. And probably in some of their hearts, He’d already done it, but I just remember the reality of God just showing Himself to be a personal Friend. 

I don’t know how to explain it. It’s just that it became spiritually real that my relationship with him was not academic alone. It was not facts. That God wanted to meet with me, wanted to fellowship with me, and that I could pray and have confidence He was hearing. And I could have a sense of divine destiny, in a sense, that God had a purpose for my life, with which He was going to fulfill, and go into life with that optimism that comes: that God has put somethingーthat He’s put eternity in your heart, so that you’re a part of that eternityーGod’s going to use you to affect eternity.

 And so there were times where God just manifested Himself. Then there’d be other times where I’d slip back into: “God seemed like a million miles away,” and I was on this roller coaster. 

But the point is, I began the search. And those years in college, I will say, I got a lot out of academics, a lot out of friendships. There’s a lot to say about brick and mortar schools where you’re interacting with peers and in a relationship with all kinds of different situations. And I was in a large school. And all of that was beneficial. 

But if I said there was one thing that was the irreplaceable “part” of my education, it was meeting with God. I would take away other things before I’d ever take away those hours and half hours where after the day was over, before we’d have room devotions, I would be out on the ball fields looking up to a starlit sky, many times, pleading with God or seeking God, and had an open Bible many times and looking at passages of Scripture and really looking to find the reality of God’s presence in my life. And I would begin to remember, God would meet with me. 

And next time I’m talking about my journey in preaching. And I don’t want to get there yet, but those prayer times really prepared the way for God to meet with me in the preaching event and to see divine things happen that just unbelievably blew me away. And I knew God was with me preaching. 

But I don’t believe that would have happened on that level if it had not been for that search of the Lord. So, young person, it doesn’t matter how old you areーyou can be 14 and recognize, “You know, God’s got a purpose for my life. I need to meet with God.”

 I wish I had started in high school, I really do. Because although I was not a rebel in high school, and I was a good kidーnobody would have thought of me as problematic in any wayーI wasn’t deep. I didn’t know God. What devotions I had were extremely surface. And I wish with all my heart I had started the pursuit of God sooner. 

But I will say this, I remember reading the book, “The Pursuit of God.” I don’t know who gave it to me, I don’t know where it came from, but somebody handed me “The Pursuit of God” by A.W. Tozer. And I remember reading that bookーand I’m just going to be honest with you, I don’t know that I understood 80, 90 percent of itーbut I will tell you, my heart burned. 

And I remember thinking to myself: “I’m not sure what this guy’s talking about, but whatever he’s talking aboutーthat’s what I want.”  And that began my very imperfect pursuit of God in college, which has continued to this moment, obviously very imperfectlyーsometimes up, sometimes down. I thank the Lord as maturity has come on, and it’s more consistent than it was at other times in my life. 

But the point is: there has to be a beginning where you begin the pursuit. And I encourage every young person out here to realize: God’s got something for you, but you’ve got to develop a relationship with Him. And the thing I want to encourage you withーanother verse that stirred me, Jeremiah 29:13, “And ye shall [for] seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” 

So that’s part of it, friend. You want the will of God? It is always gonna begin with a search for God. That you want God; you want His will. 

So total surrender to His will. And then again, as you meet with God, He nurtures faith in your heart so that you depend upon Himーthat total dependence on Him to enable you to accomplish what He’s called you to do. God bless.