A personal relationship is one that is filled with love, support and genuine admiration for one another. It is a relationship that a person desires to have, once or numerous times, in his or her life. That same relationship can be experienced as well with the Heavenly Father, complete with intimate moments shared and blessings to encourage one forward. God desires to have this relational connection with each of us, but it may be hard to decipher where exactly God may be directing us to through this relationship. Author Vander Jones seeks to uncover aspects of this mysterious bond between Father and child in his new book The Novice, aiding readers in recognizing their spiritual gifts and discovering their purpose in God s predetermined plan for them. A novice indeed, like a child on the first day of kindergarten holding on tightly to the hand or squeezing the leg of a parent, I embraced the Holy Spirit as He began leading me into all truth about various stages throughout my existence. Such embracing defines not only observing the truth of what the Holy Spirit reveals, but also humbly, and at times courageously, responding to it appropriately. Vander expounds on this journey of discovery into God s interactions with us through our environment, in moments of silence and with the transformation of our hearts. The lives of well-known biblical characters such as Jeremiah, Saul, and Elijah are also viewed in terms of what was revealed in their personal interactions with God, along with what Vander has learned in his own relationship with God. As each of us shed our thoughts of inadequacy and embrace the feelings of purpose in God s redemptive plan, we learn the importance of having a personal relationship with the Creator and our eternal Father God.
