As I head off to Africa this week, one of the messages on my heart is simply intimacy: intimacy with God as the heart and soul of all that we are and all that we do.
Organic expressions of church come out of a truly life-giving, organically connected heart with Jesus. It is always Jesus first: love, worship, know, follow Him and then allow gatherings to take place from out of that dynamic.
I have been reflecting on the simple, profound truths that many of you are familiar with from Experiencing God, by Henry Blackaby:
- God is at work around you
- God pursues a love relationship with you
- God invites you to join Him
- God speaks to you
- Your crisis of belief
- You must adjust your life
- You can experience God (as you walk these steps)
I am taken by the fact that, at the end of the day, it’s always about knowing Jesus, hearing from Jesus, adjusting my life by faith to follow Him, and then inviting others to experience the same dynamic.
I want to use this post to invite your input on this subject of intimacy with Christ. What has God been speaking to you regarding the deepening of your relationship with Him? What resources have been personally useful you?
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9 responses to “Intimacy: the One Thing”
Ah yes, so true this! I believe the greatest thing Patti and I have learned over the years following Christ is the depth and power of intimacy in discipleship.
We believe deeply that one-on-one discipleship (soul care, anam cara, etc.) is truly the heart of following Jesus. Firstly, with him (think “abide” as in John 15), then with others. While I envisioned a “ministry” of “great” proportions for us; teaching, speaking, etc., God has shown us it is the intimacy in personal discipleship where He builds His Kingdom, one person at a time. To be sure, He uses all kinds of structures, but within those structures (think “churches”) it is the intimacy of small groups and spiritual friendships that He does the work of transformation into likenesses of Christ.
We are indebted to our own soul friends over the years, and those who have mentored us, including all the authors and their grace-filled books to many to mention here. But, those which/who always pointed to Jesus and His story (the Bible) we are most grateful for.
We have found the witness of the great cloud to be indispensable in our own journey. Hence, we often turn to “Devotional Classics” (Foster & Smith) as a tool for our personal journey and with others. Within that resource we find the ancients and others who provide wisdom and guidance.
So much more I could share from our own experiences, but again the most “endearing” thing we have found is that intimacy is key; to knowing God through Christ, and then with others in the journey.
I have just finishing reading (and rereading, and taking notes on, and now trying to act on) “The Pursuit of God” by A.W. Tozer. And I often go back and reread from Brother Lawrence’s “The Practice of the Presence of God.” Classics like these may not be “easy reading” but they are amazingly deep and helpful. Also I love to get out the hymnbook from my childhood and read (and sing) the “deep” lyrics of many songs we (sadly) no longer sing. Finally, as a child, we memorized many verses and chapters in The King James Version. From time to time, I like to get out my KJV (given to me as a child, half a century ago)and brush up on those verses committed to memory so long ago. We should not be afraid of “deep thinking” and of “old-fashioned” English. (Oh… and if you understand other languages, it is amazing to read the scriptures in those different languages; it really does make them seem fresh, and opens your heart to hear the Spirit’s voice, allowing Him to speak outside our everyday “box”).
Live life.
Being in relation to God is living life.
However many people see the spiritual as something add to the natural.
There is a line drawn between the daily and the divine.
Between spiritual deeds such as prayer, bible reading, church and daily live duties as work, study, social events.
What would happen to your life if this line was removed?
If there was no line between the natural and the spiritual that God was involved in every part of your life.
Yes, and not only in the good parts when you act as a good follower of Jesus, some holy saint like type, but also in times of failure when your old sinful self does raise to the surface, when people hurt you, when sickness, suffering and the load of a fallen creation is pushing you down.
What if God was there too?
What if God’s love was there to make you live your life rather than living his life?
Jesus had as purpose doing the will of the Father, what if the will of the Father is there for you too written in the events of everyday life.
Could it be right that Jesus named the chore of the gospel when he said love God above all and you neighbor as yourself.
Do you truly love yourself?
Do you live and love the life you live in?
Do you live the way you are called for?
Or is life going through the motions a daily routine your are caught in.
Could it be that God wants you to be happy living a spiritual life that is united with your daily life.
A life where you can truly be the true you.
Loving God and loving yourself and your neighbor are intertwined, if you cannot love God, you will have difficulty accepting your true self, and if yourself love or self acceptance is low seeing and accepting the other is made pretty difficult.
Could it be that if we do no longer accept a line being drawn between the spiritual and natural that we can see more of God in life.
If we surrender to the grace the life, death and resurrection of Jesus offers us is that powerful enough to step by step change us.
If we stay close to the heart of Jesus and seek the will of the Father can we trust him than enough that he with not leave us alone in the struggles of everyday life.
Struggles caused by us, others and the simple but painful fact that we live under the ‘spell’ of a fallen creation that is no longer in line with the plan God had in mind when he started.
Can our relation with God that is manifested both in the spiritual as the natural be a place of rest and an strange but still true kind of happiness in the midst of the turmoil we call life?
Not that God is some magician who takes all the things away we don’t like, preventing us from making mistakes, hurting others, or others hurting us, sickness and pain, disagreements and followers of Jesus who choose another way, church, theology than us to follow him.
But a loving caring God, who is there.
Even we face the consequences of our deeds, choices we make, or things other choose for us, the circumstances we face in a fallen creation.
Is God there for us in all of our lives, simply being I AM.
Or do we have to come in some spiritual mood, a special moment, place or occasion.
What is our image of God? Is our image brought to us by the denominatio we go to, or do not go to, our life, people we meet, or is God revealing himself to us through Jesus manifested by the Holy Spirit.
Do we truly know him as our God, personal and real, or do we know what we heard about him.
I for myself would like to meet God in my life, living my life with him, not separation between the natural and the spiritual, simply living with him on a daily basis.
No big an mighty plans for the future over shouting the present truth of today, but living in the now and here with the great I AM.
Letting him speak through all I encounter, even the thinks caused by life and not by God.
Trusting him to be my God day by day, loving him, myself and my neighbor, allowing him to make me and my life part of his will and plan.
Do you recognize this desire?
A lot of words above…Ive found it is simple. Find a time/place that is quiet. Ask God to open a section of scripture to you. Write down what you got, pray about it to God and if there is something that needs to be done do it. Just reading is good but it does not have the effect of combining it with writing and prayer.
In this way we become the kind of people that do what we should. You cant just decide to be spiritual all of a sudden.
I have found Andrew Murray’s words of wisdom to be so helpful in this current climate when so many believers are taking a casual attitude to making time to ‘shut the door of the closet’ to spend time with God. His counsel was there can be no real close walk with the Lord and being ‘led by the Spirit’ throughout the day without the time spent in seeking God in the ‘closet’ and there can be no quality time in the ‘closet’ without drawing near to the Lord throughout the day. both are dependent on each other.
the most intimate times for me is PRIVATE WORSHIP not something many know about but extremely effective for bringing the presence of GOD on the scene. I just put on some anointed music usually without words very soft in the background (music carry’s the anointing) or sing for an hour or so then stay still in his presence and just be with HIM.
Its such an amazing place but it takes some time to get there and most wont take the time needed but for those who do, THERE IS NOTHING LIKE IT IN THIS WORLD.
Just let the Holy Spirit hold and hug you one time and you will never be the same and hours will go buy but it seems like minutes.
One Chinese man who had been in prison for 20 some years for his faith said…don’t ever feel sorry for me…feel sorry for the one who has never known the presence of GOD.
A lot of words indeed. That is why hesitated to post it John I send it to Roger first for his reading. He asked me to place it under comments. I am curious what your reply on the content is behind the many words. Marc
Our hearts can be become so full of God that we burst forth with words and still cannot express what we have experienced. I think of those who’ve come before who have tried to do so; Teresa of Avila in Mansions, Merton in The Seven Story Mountain, Laubach and others before and after. I suppose the best at simple expression of Presence would be Brother Lawrence, and he didn’t set out to write or express, but humbly to encourage others via his letters. My sense is that yes, we must seek intimacy with Christ first and foremost if we expect to be able to impart that same intimacy to others. That is why following Jesus means spending time with Him first, then with others before sending them out to do likewise. It looks different for each of us depending on our circumstances, culture, etc., but Jesus must be the foundation.
Up with the Holy Trinity in holy communion with the Relationship at the center of the universe,
In with others following Christ in the journey,
Out to the world and the lost, but only after being “equipped” with love, grace and mercy to impart HOPE.
To answer your question (and please don’t be put off by this — I mean it sincerely and it comes from a sincerely believing heart), there have been no messages from deity on the subject of deepening intimacy or relationship.
To be frank, the words “intimacy” and “relationship” speak more to me of culture and of humanity than of God. This has not always been so; there was a time that I felt moved by such things, but that time is not now.
You could say I’m in a “desert” phase, or you could say I’m not currently growing. You’d probably be right about the first, but I don’t think you’d be right about the second. I guess what I’d like to say is that so-called “relationship with God” (which may in fact have little to do with what you are truly wanting to get at here) seems currently to me to be an overwrought concept that has little grounding in scripture or reality.
I hasten to add that I am spending much time in the gospel of John currently, trying to practice what I preach about “finding in the gospels the power to do what’s in the letters.” Surely this is developing relationship with Father and Son, although I might not put it in terms of intimacy.