Knowing God Experientially by Apostle Joshua Selman: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

God Is Preparing an Army

Joel 2:1–11 gives a description of this army: a great people and strong — there has never been the like before. They are characterized by a fire that devours before them. They shall run like mighty men and climb the wall like men of war — they shall not break their ranks. The Lord himself utters his voice before this army, for his camp is very great.

All over the body of Christ there has been a sudden awakening. Pastors, apostles, preachers, and evangelists who are careful enough to listen to the promptings of the Spirit are beginning to blow this alarm in Zion. There is a people God is preparing, raising, and training — and the fashion of this training is not traced to the dealings of God in the past. It is a unique operation of the Spirit. These people will subject themselves to the total leadership of the Holy Ghost.

Alignment is a very difficult thing because it entails breaking away from status quo. Your mind will fight it. Everything around you will fight it. This is why coming under the lordship of the Spirit is only the beginning of the journey — not the end. It means bringing yourself under subjection: Lord, you are looking for men, and I may not have everything right now, but I have a willing heart.

What Is Motivating Your Pursuit?

Before we continue: what is motivating your pursuit of God? This is the critical question. There are people who pursue God because they have a need — and as soon as the need is met, the pursuit slows. There are those who pursue him for a season, reach a certain revelation, and stop because they are satisfied. But certain scrolls have been closed that are still waiting to be opened — and those who stop pressing lose the benefit of what is still coming.

Lovest thou me more than these? Jesus asked Peter. The same question echoes to every generation. If your love for God expires the day certain things come into your life — a wife, a husband, a job, a ministry — then it was not love; it was a transaction.

Jesus said: it is my meat to do the will of him that sent me. His satisfaction was not in the crowd or the miracle — it was in obedience itself. Galatians 2:20: "I have been crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live — yet not I, but Christ that liveth in me." That is the posture God is building in this season: not part-time, not a compartmentalized relationship, but total immersion. The Greek word for baptism means to be so totally submerged that you no longer see the person — you only see the object that immersed them.

The challenge is this: we have a need-driven congregation that only comes to God as a means to an end. And once the end is achieved, God is waved off. But there is another kind — those who enter the vineyard without negotiation. They said yes with no arrangement. They have sent themselves under the authority of the King and are not waiting to be thanked.

That Christianity — that gives God conditions before allegiance — must be destroyed. It is witchcraft from the pit of hell.

Job said: though you slay me, yet will I trust you. Men who love God with their soul, their passion — not motivated by any hidden loss they are waiting to see manifested. I love you and I believe your word. But I am more passionate than any other thing. I am not just pursuing you for your gifts — I am pursuing you for yourself.

The Importance of Experiential Knowledge

Many believers have knowledge. They can recite doctrine. But experience is what crystallizes knowledge into conviction. Job said: "I have heard of thee with the hearing of the ear — but now mine eye seeth thee." You can doubt what you hear; you cannot doubt what you see.

Kathryn Kuhlman said: "Kathryn Kuhlman died a long time ago. I remember the date and the time I died." She entered the room in the spirit of Galatians 2:20 — and her movement from that point was according to the impulse of the Spirit. That is the characteristic of this generation God is raising: unpredictable, because they have subjected themselves under the total influence of the Spirit.

• Kenneth Hagin went through sicknesses that wanted to kill him — and when he stood ministering, God brought that memory and out of that memory came compassion. He did not just have a theology of healing — he had an experience of it.
• The dealings of God in your marriage, your finances, your family, your ministry become your message. When you give your testimony, you give people a tool to fight with.
• David's song was not theoretical: "The Lord is my shepherd" — that came out of nights when there was no shepherd but God.

Some dimensions of God can only be opened by experience. The experience makes the revelation portable. When you encounter him as Jehovah Jireh — not just as a doctrine but in the moment when there was nothing and provision came — that name becomes a strong tower. You do not just say it; you shout it. You do not let anyone take it from you because you were there when it happened.

How the Holy Spirit Brings Men to Maturity

The Holy Spirit is the guarantee that we can become the army God expects. Without him there is no move. He is the one who guides, gives, and trains — but he is not impressed by religious machinery. He is looking for those who are open:

• Open to the dealings of the Spirit — prunings, testings, and adjustments that others are not willing to endure
• Open to the specific Kairos moments God is moving in — because if you miss what the Spirit is doing in your season, you can spend years catching up
• Open to yielding your entire framework of ambitions to say: Lord, whatever your agenda is, I am interested

The disciplines that produce this openness must be restored:

• Prayer — not just to meet needs, but for the purpose of knowing God. Get back to the place of prayer where you cry out not for a miracle but for him.
• Bible study — not to pass exams or earn titles, but weeks of digging through scripture in pursuit of one Greek word, one revelation, one deeper understanding of who he is.
• Fasting — not as a religious exercise, but as a way of opening your spirit to what God is doing in the current season.
• Consecration — not to be seen, but because the things of the Spirit demand it. The narrow path means certain things cannot come with you.

The secret of relevance is not publicity — it is depth. Depth of encounter. Depth of experience. Depth of dealings. Those who have been hidden with God come out and the world wonders: from where does this come? It is not the volume of voice. It is the depth of the place from which they are fetching.