This list provides 10 reasons to record those God-moments in your life. These are the moments when you know God is communicating to you, when you think God might be saying something, and especially when you’re sure God wasn’t speaking to you.
Recording your personal encounters with God.
1. Communicates back to God that you have a high value for what God is communicating to you
The bible is an inspired record from God of many who held to one of the highest values one can have for any encounter with God. That high value is to record encounters with God. Each page of scripture is either directly or indirectly related to someone’s or some groups encounter with God. After they encountered God, they recorded it, showing God they held a highest value for His communication to them.
The bible then testifies to us that we should do the same. More accurately, it’s not necessarily “the bible” testifying to us but the people in the bible — the people who had the encounters and wrote them down who are testifying to us today to record our own encounters with God. When we do so, we also communicate back to God that we care enough about what He is communicating to us that we would actually write it down!
2. Will help teach you how God is speaking to you
We don’t always catch when, how, and what God is communicating to us. This scripture from Job 33 testifies that people of faith figured this out a long time ago.
13 “Why do you complain against Him
Job 33:13-18
That He does not give an account of all His doings?
14 “Indeed God speaks once,
Or twice, yet no one notices it.
15 “In a dream, a vision of the night,
When sound sleep falls on men,
While they slumber in their beds,
16 Then He opens the ears of men,
And seals their instruction,
17 That He may turn man aside from his conduct,
And keep man from pride;
18 He keeps back his soul from the pit,
And his life from passing over into Sheol.
With these words from Job’s “friend” Elihu (Job 32:1-6) we can clearly observe they understood how easy it is to miss when, how, and what God is trying to communicate to us. In this case, Elihu is talking about God speaking through a dream while asleep. If we have a record of our dreams during our sleep, we can always refer to it and ask God more questions.
3. Gives you a historical record of how God has been communicating to you
The bible itself is a historical record of how God has communicated to individuals, groups, and nations since the beginning of time. This record of God’s communication is in itself a message to us to record all that God is communicating to us now. The more we record the moments we have with God, the better historical record we will have. in other words, the bible gives us way more than 10 reasons to record our personal God-moments!
4. Can help clarify what God has been communicating to you
Once we figure out that God is communicating to us, a record of our encounters with God can help clarify what God is communicating. Sometimes we know right away what God is saying but there are times when it’s not so clear. When it’s not so clear, we need to have more conversation with God about it. If I record what I know, God reveals what I don’t know.
I’ll let you in on a little secret. I have found this is particularly true of dreams. Maybe you have discovered this too. When I tell someone my dream (for me it’s my wife and kids), while I’m telling them the dream, I usually get some clarity. The same thing happens if I speak my dream into an audio recording app.
5. God not only encourages us but commands us to record what He is communicating to us
If you do a quick search for the word “write” on biblegateway.com, you’ll find at least 77 references in the NASB 1995. If you search any variation of “write”, like, “writing”, “written”, “wrote”, etc., you’ll find about 367 results. These searches don’t include other words like “inscribe” and “record”.
Not every single one of these references is about writing down what God was communicating, but many do.
From the old covenant
“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this in a book as a memorial and recite it to Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.”
Ex 17:14
This one above (Ex 17:14) was a promise from the Lord to Moses. As a side note to my point, notice the Lord said to write His words “in a book”. The Hebrew word “book” is סֵפֶר, pronounced say’-fer and can mean: a book, a scroll, even a book of prophecies blueletterbible.org.
Now the Lord said to Moses, “Cut out for yourself two stone tablets like the former ones, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets which you shattered.
Ex 34:1
I especially like this one because the Lord chose to “write” His own words!
write on them all the words of this law, when you cross over, so that you may enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, promised you.
Dt 27:3
From the New Covenant:
When we arrive in the writings of the New Covenant, we can observe a shift in the source of the things being written. We find the source of the thoughts being written are from followers of Jesus. Now, of course, the true Source is God, but there is a very obvious and interesting shift. The exception is the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
Therefore write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things.
Revelation 1:19
13 out of 14 references in this Revelation of Jesus Christ refer to God commanding John to write biblegateway.com. The other reference is to God writing His name on our hearts (Rev 3:12)! 7 of these 14 references refer to John writing to angels.
And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He *said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”
Revelation 21:5
My final reference from Luke, to illustrate my point above regarding the shift in source material.
1 Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, 3 it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus; 4 so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.
Luke 1:1-4
6. Enables you to revisit each encounter you record at any time you choose
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been able to revisit my encounters with God because I have an organized and documented record of my encounters. To date, I have over 60 of my God-encounters recorded and organized on my personal, password-protected website. I can access this website anywhere and anytime I choose. I’ll tell you a secret, reviewing my encounters has led to more encounters!
7. Gives you the opportunity to know yourself better in Christ
God likes to reveal our identity in Christ to us through encounters with Him. I mean, how else do we know who we are unless it is revealed to us? One of my favorite examples in scripture is when Jesus reveals Himself to Paul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9). It was that encounter with Jesus when Paul learned about his true identity, how God sees him. If this doesn’t inspire us as one of 10 reasons to record personal God-encounters, I don’t know what would.
8. Gives you the opportunity to know God better
If you’re asking God to speak to you, then He speaks to you thru a dream but you don’t recognize it, you miss the opportunity to know God better. But, if you record your dreams, you’ll have an opportunity to go back to it and learn not only from God but about God.
Using Paul as an example again, he must have meditated often on his encounter with God on the road to Damascus. At some point he realized the “perfect patience” of Jesus towards him (1 Tim 1:16).
9. Invites more God-activity in your life
Jesus said, “take care how you listen; for whoever has, to him more shall be given” (Luke 8:18), we can invite more connection with and revelation from God by recording what we believe to be His activity in our lives. The reason Jesus gives for how we listen is “for whoever has, to him more shall be given”. Who gets more? Not the one who listens but the one who “has”.
Many hear Jesus’ words, but not everyone listens in such a way that causes them to have what is heard. That’s why Jesus said it’s not about hearing the words but about how you hear the words. It’s not about listening to the words but about how we listen. When we listen in such a way that listening to the words moves the words from heard to has, then we get more.
10. Will show you the variety of ways God likes to communicate with you
God communicates to us in an abundance of ways: dreams, visions, His written word, His spoken word to our minds and hearts, and the list goes on. In 7 types of encounters with God straight from the scriptures, I illustrate 7 different ways God chose to communicate to biblical characters. If you record, document, and organize those moments with God, then you’ll begin to see the variety of ways God is communicating to you personally.
This list of 10 reasons to record your touch points with God is basic but good. I hope the truths in this article inspire you to continue to record your encounters with God or begin this process. I find that a system of recording helps me. I’m sure there are way more than 10 reasons to record your moments with God but this is a good start! Happy recording!!