Experiencing God

I'm in a small group under Roy Mansfield, and we're studying a book called "Experiencing God". We meet on Wednesdays every week to discuss what we've learned as we do a 5 day devotional over the course of the week, each day focuses on a specific lesson. We just got done with the first week and I've experienced God in many ways that I've never even dreamed of. I learned that God wants me to work "with" Him and not just for Him. In one of my previous blogs I shared with you all how I got to bond with a mentor of mine. The imagery of the analogy of Roy and I scrubbing the deck was so fitting. God wants me to scrub the deck while He sprays the hose, and vice versa. He wants me to work WITH Him and not just FOR Him. Not only did Roy and I complete something together for a good cause, but we bonded and shared personal experiences with each other through God. We both got to experience God that day. Another lesson that I've learned, not only cognitively, but through experience was this: "God invites us to work with Him through a crisis of belief that requites faith and action". I had a friend who was being influenced by secular testimonies of people who supposedly went to Heaven and Hell. He felt prompted to send me an exuberant influx of these videos to me and began to influence me and test my beliefs. These videos and my friend's words kept me up at night worrying. I immediately do what I always do when confronted with problems: I sought out Godly council from my mentors. The first person I sought guidance from was my youth pastor (whom I intern for). I was helping him move when my friend messaged me another Heaven testimony. Feeling the guilt inside of how I really felt I told him I could watch no more of these because they tested my faith and what I believe. He promptly called me and told me even more crazy things than he ever said before, things like "The enemy is using this against you" and "he's trying to scare you to put God in a box" and "he's using your mentors as a puppet". I shook this off as more lunacy which made me even more worried for my friend. I sought out Ray's take on that matter. He told me the story of his friend who had gone down a very similar path. He gave me the council I needed and told me to seek out the advice of someone who specialized in this kind of situations, Roy Mansfield. Roy is very wise, not only biblically, but wise in the way of the world. Roy revealed to me the best course of action and also showed me scripture that dealt with the EXACT same situation and resolution for it that I needed. It was amazing how specific God's Word was to me. Seeking Godly council is a biblical course of action for a man to take.This crisis of belief led me to take action. Which was exactly what the lesson I was studying on. God opened up my eyes on many things and allowed me to experience not only Him, but things that taught a lot about myself and my faith. God wants us to experience Him, question is, are we listening?