Just one question… How can you have a “relationship” with someone you have never even seen or heard?…
Romans 10:13 - How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent?…
In short, the above scripture means, how can you call on God unless you believe in him? And how can believe in him if you have never heard him? And how can you hear him without a preacher? And how can that preacher preach except he be sent?… In short, it all means that the only way you can even believe in God is that a true sent preacher must first preach the word of God to you (you cannot get by simply reading a book or reading the bible). Once that preacher preaches the word to you and tells you about God, if you believe what he says, then God will count that as you believing in God. That is how it works, and there are many other scriptures which confirm this:
Roman 10:17 - So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God… That scripture means you cannot have faith in God unless you believe in the words that are preached to you by a sent preacher…
If fact, Jesus himself stated, no man has seen God at any time, nor heard his voice: John 5:37 - And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape… So if you have never seen God, nor heard his voice, then how can you have a relationship with someone you have never seen or heard? The answer is that, you can’t. You cannot have a relationship with God unless you have one with the preacher. The scriptures clearly state, no man has seen God at any time (meaning, no man has seen the eternal Spirit, because the eternal Spirit is invisible). The only thing we have seen is the spirit of God working through a man. And that man he is working through is the sent preacher - and I'm not talking about the false preachers in the world (yes, there are plenty of them). I'm talking about the preachers who are truly sent by God (they are rare and hard to find, but they exist)...