Intimacy With The Father

PRAY

Lord God and Father,

open our eyes so we can see Your truth.

Open our ears so w can hear Your voice.

Open our mind so we can understand Your Word.

And open our heart so we may receive all that You want me to receive. AMEN

Today we are going to talk about intimacy.

The meaning of intimacy will vary from context to context. There are some people who think of intimacy only as a sexual interaction, but it is more than that.

As believers we sing a lot of songs that have to do with us being intimate with God and intimate with Jesus and because our world connects intimacy with sex it makes it difficult for us to understand the true meaning of the word.

Intimacy means creating an authentic connection. It has more to do with shared moments than sexual interactions.

Intimacy is linked with feelings of closeness, safety, trust and transparency among partners in a collaborative relationship.

For intimacy to be sustainable and nourishing it also requires trust, transparency and rituals of connection. It requires empathy, which is the ability to stand in the others shoes, to feel what they feel.

Intimacy is having a very close friend or confidant, it is marked by a very close association, contact or familiarity with the person. It is a warm friendship that has developed as time goes on.

I was listening to a worship song the other day and it occurred to me, how hard it might be for the unsaved person to understand how we as Christians desire intimacy with God and His Son, and even each other.

Because honestly, those things are our focus. To be intimate with God and intimate with each other and yet because the world’s view of intimacy differs from God’s view it makes it near impossible to bring God’s good news to the lost.

We sing “love songs” to Jesus and the unsaved person scratches their head because they don’t get it.

I get it because I am a child of God and I love Him and His Son and His Holy Spirit with all my heart. But for those on the outside looking in, let’s face it, it might seem strange.

So today the first thing I want to be sure is that we are all on the same page with this thing called intimacy.

Intimacy means that we are creating an authentic connection with God, a tight relationship so that that your thoughts are intertwined with His attributes.

It is the same connection that Moses had with God.

We see this in Exodus 33:12-18.

Moses was meeting with God in the new Tabernacle called the Tent of Meeting. They were talking to each other as friends do.

Let’s look at it.

12 Moses said to the LORD, “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’ 13 If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.”

14 The LORD replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

15 Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. 16 How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”

17 And the LORD said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.” 18 Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” Exodus 33:12-18 NIV

I want you to pay very close attention to Exodus 33:13. I will read it from the Amplified Version.

Now therefore, I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You [progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with You, perceiving and recognizing and understanding more strongly and clearly] and that I may find favor in Your sight.

Exodus 33:13 AMP

Moses knew the secret and the power of intimacy with God. He found this in the Tent of Meeting as he was face to face with God.

Moses sat daily in God’s presence, waiting for Him to show him what to do, where to go, how to rule. Because Moses knew this intimacy with God he was able to have the confidence to do what God asked him to do and go where God asked him to go and lead how God asked him to lead.