Recently, I travelled with my family to a city I wasn’t very familiar with. I had a car to move around with but I needed help getting around to the places I wanted to visit. Fortunately with Google Maps on my phone and with the aid of the Global Positioning System (GPS), I was able to navigate my way to those places. Even when I missed a turn, it was quite reliving to see the app automatically re-plot and display the next suitable route to my destination. But interestingly, Google Maps didn’t know every place I was going to and I had to use the nearest identifiable location and figure out the rest of the trip. It was still a decent helper anyway. With such levels of technological advancements as we have today, could we possibly someday, find God by some form of technology, maybe by the GPS?

One established fact is that God is not searching for us. He sees us and knows our location every time. He is omniscient and omnipresent. He can reach out to us at any time. And because He is God, He can choose to manifest Himself to us in a new way at any time. The question is, ‘Would we recognize Him when he reaches out to us? We might be looking out for the miraculous or some physical show of unusual powers, because we think that is what we need and that that is what would indicate the touch of God in our lives.

People think a supernatural manifestation would change their situation. They look forward to some ‘light, camera, action’ sort of display from God. Folks want to see the dramatic, eye-popping and jaw-dropping… to be convinced of the workings of God. Interestingly, God Himself knows that not all spectacular displays of His power draw people to Him. As we see around us this days, such displays for so many people produce a momentary high before they are back to where they were before. In Luke 16, Jesus told a story of the rich man and brother Lazarus who both died and went to different places – one to hell and the other to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man wanted Lazarus sent back to preach to his siblings, expecting that a revival would occur because someone had come back from the dead to preach to them. But father Abraham told him that if Moses and the prophets who they had with them couldn’t help them, neither would a resurrected beggar bring any change.

God might reveal Himself in a supernatural way and He can also decide to reveal Himself in very ordinary circumstances. Some times when we pray, we ask God to demonstrate His power as if a failure to do so would put a dent on His reputation. We say such things like, ‘show your power in my life so that people would know I serve a living God’ or ‘change this condition of mine so that my faith in you is strengthened’. But the truth is that God has nothing to prove to anyone. He owes no one any explanation for what He does or doesn’t do. God is not on trial here. He is not in the dock.  He has a pedigree that outlives eternity. There is no event or circumstance that can smear his reputation. The heavens already declare the wonders of God and the skies show what He has done. He is God and He calls Himself I AM. This name represents all our finite minds can visualise about God and much more.

The kind of relationship God wants to have with us is one in which we love Him more for His person than for His acts. Such love keeps our focus on Him and helps us know Him better. So whether He comes with the brightness of the sun or wrapped in a cloak of darkness, we can still recognize Him and walk with Him.

In the concluding part of this writing, I would share some tips I have learned on finding God without a GPS.