Intimacy With God

To Know Him ~ The Hebrew word "yada" is used in the Old Testament and is translated in English as the word "Know" or "Knowledge". The Hebrew word yada has a much wider sweep and meaning than the English word know. The Biblical Old Testament word for Knowing God means the following; to know God means: - to Perceive - to Learn - to Understand - to Recognize - to Believe - to Accept His Claims - to Conform -to Be Willing - to Perform or Live - to Obey - to See or Experience

These words that all come out of the Hebrew word "yada" all hold important keys to getting to know God the way that He wants us to know Him. The opposite of knowing God is not ignorance or a lack of knowledge, but is Rebellion.

The Greek words "oida" and "ginosko" are used in the New Testament. They have the wider meanings as the Hebrew word "yada", but in the context that they are used in the New Testament, they also have the following additional meaning: to know God means:

- to Believe & Accept Jesus - to Know Truth - to Know Jesus is to Know God - to Respond in Faith

Intimacy with God and the fullest possible fellowship and partnership with Him comes as we desire and seek to know Him & His plans and will and His ways. Prayer and spending time with God is all about desire & passion for God ; it is not a "religious" discipline in our Christian walk.

If our "Quiet time" is just a religious expression and not a time of bringing our soul into submission to the Spirit., then our growth will be religious growth and not a growing spirit or spiritual walk.

Religion can be very different than having a Relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

Religions are man made, and are based on trying to get to God through rules and regulations and works. Man made religions all are based on people’s efforts at reaching God and being made right with Him through their own efforts.

God’s plan for man’s salvation and for being right with Him is told throughout the Bible, in the Old Testament and the New Testament. God’s plan is not based on people’s efforts and good works, but is based on His amazing Love and amazing Grace for us; His plan involved His precious Son Jesus paying the price and cost for our sins on the cross.

"Man’s way to reach God is religion; God’s way to reach man is Jesus."

For by grace are you saved, through faith; and this not of your own, it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast." - Ephesians 2:8-9

Intimacy brings us to a place where God’s desires become our desires! I love the Psalm that says He will give us the desires of our heart! Because in an intimate relationship with God he plants those desires there anyway.

Only God can touch our hearts and give us the desire to seek and to know Him, and to want His will & plans & ways above our own. Our desire for God needs to grow to the place where we cannot bear to be separated from His very presence. To live in the shelter of His wings, and to behold his beauty moment by moment. To see him in your garden, in the smile of of small Child, in the outstretched arms of a brother or sister, in the laughter of a friend. If we allow ourselves to enter this level of intimacy with the creator of the universe, we will see, hear and perceive things that the natural man cannot!