Our Spiritual Metamorphosis: Step 3 – Intimacy with God
1 John 5:1-5
We have been sharing over the past few weeks on the theme of “Our Spiritual Metamorphosis.” As you might recall from the very first week’s message I introduced all of you to my friend from the fourth grade, Gloria the caterpillar. I went into quite an extensive detail about her metamorphosis from a creature crawling around the bottom of the terrarium we had made together with Miss Black into the beautiful butterfly that a couple of weeks later floated above our heads before exiting the open window to one side of our classroom.
You might also be able to recall the poem I shared with you first thing that day entitled “Metamorphosis.” I would like to once again use the middle two stanzas as a way of opening our time of sharing from the Word this morning as well:
When she climbed a plant and learned of the sky,
She looked down at the earth and wondered why
Her destiny was to live on the land.
Something inside her did not understand.
‘The sky is my home,’ every part of her felt
‘How could crawling be the lot I’ve been dealt?’
Keeping those thoughts safe, where they could be found,
She slowly descended back to the ground.
When she found the right plant on which to rest,
She brilliantly wove a cocoon for her nest.
Inside the chrysalis, she went to sleep
Tucked in with those thoughts that she wanted to keep…
So far in this thematic series of Our Spiritual Metamorphosis we have seen where we all are in a sense required, as the followers of the Christ, to change in both our way of thinking and our day-to-day activities. In other words we have to repent of our past sinful nature and strive toward a meaningful relationship with God the Father. We discovered that the beginning of this journey starts at the point of conversion; changing from our previous form of sinner to that of a saint. We also heard that there is more to it than just believing and accepting Jesus as the Christ and our Lord and Savior. Following conversion is the period of learning what God’s Word, the bible, has to say about our day-to-day conduct as a follower of Jesus and His apostles.
Today we want to learn about the third step: Intimacy with God; in other words, having a deep personal relationship with God the Father as we have never experienced before. First we will discover how you and I can know that we are living in deep spiritual intimacy with God. Then we will share as to why we should desire a spiritual intimacy with God. Finally, we are going to look together at the beginning process that will enable us to experience spiritual intimacy with God.
PRAYER
John, the author of this letter and two other letters as well as a Gospel account of Jesus’ life, is still known to many as the “disciple whom Jesus loved” [John 13:23].
Have you ever wondered why that was so? I know I have even questioned at times: “Did Jesus really love him more than all the others?”
The answer to that latter question is a simple “No!” “Why?” you may be asking. It is in the negative because Jesus’ love is both perfect and complete.
But yet there is no question that our personal relationship with Jesus, God the Father and the Holy Spirit can differ. Some of us are just like John; we are intimates, a part of the inner circle.
The amazing thing is that kind of close, personal intimacy with God is available to each and every one of us here this morning. It is available to me and also to you. Remember, God is no respecter of persons. We are all of equal status to him.
John encourages us to have this same close intimate relationship [1 Jn. 1:3]. He makes it very clear that any one of us can have such due to the fact that the Holy Spirit is in us. But this doesn’t mean that we instantaneously really know God. Neither does it mean that we immediately have the experience of the reality of the abiding love Relationship God desire to have with us. But it does mean that God is available to us and that he is greatly willing to move in our lives, but yet he waits, for us to make the first move.
How can you and I know as to whether we are living in spiritual intimacy with God?
Spiritual intimacy is the essence of our personal love relationship with God that can be seen. It is the direct result of God’s presence in your and my life; our abiding life in Him, which can be measured.
John tells us in the third chapter of this his first epistle, “…by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us” [1 Jn. 3:24].
In the following chapter of this same letter he tells us that we will be able to “recognize” the Spirit [1 Jn. 4:4 TLB].
From these two passages we learn that the word translated as “know” and “recognize” means a personal recognition, through having had an experience with someone. John is saying that it is through a personal experience that we learn from the Holy Spirit [1 Jn. 2:27]. In other words, we are obedient to God’s commands [1 Jn. 3:24] as we strive to live in Him as He lives in us; we recognize His Holy Spirit as we acknowledge the Christ as the Son of God [1 Jn. 4:2]. We then in turn have a deep love for one another, always being aware the God is living in and through us; so we live in the spirit of love [1 Jn. 4:12].
Is that really your and my experience?
Another profound evidence of living a life of spiritual intimacy is “answered prayers.” Two separate times in this letter to we Christians he tells us that we can have whatever we ask – that is if our hearts do not condemn us and we are definitely living lives of obedience that please God the Father [1 Jn. 3:21-22], and if we pray according to God’s will [1 Jn. 5:14-15]. It is true that we can pray without having an intimate relationship with God, but we run a great danger in not receiving answers without having intimacy with God.
Why then should you and I want to have spiritual intimacy with God?
A few chapters earlier in John’s first epistle he states something that really strikes at my heart’s chords and leaves an indelible sound ringing in my spiritual ears. Please listen to his words as shared with us from the paraphrased interpretation found in the Living Bible: “Stay in happy fellowship with the Lord so that when he comes to you will be sure that all is well, and will not have to be ashamed and shrink back from meeting Him” [1 Jn. 2:28].
Recently I had the privilege of officiating at three weddings in one weekend. One of the brides, Debi’s cousin, we did know, but yet we don’t know her too well. As I finally arrived at the reception I noticed how many of her close friends had gathered closely around her. Later is the evening she noticed Debi and I setting in the rear area of the hall and she kind of gave us this little gesture of a wave. But we felt as though by us not knowing her real well we needed to give her immediate family and others the chance to greet her first.
When Jesus, the Christ, returns, we don’t want to be ashamed or shrink back from meeting him; we don’t want to find ourselves facing someone we hardly know. To get to know Jesus, God’s Son, we don’t have to wait until the day that we meet him face-to-face. John’s promise is that we can get to know him in the here-and-now. We can get acquainted with him very well not only today but also tomorrow and every day for the rest of our lives, and throughout eternity.
Why do we wait? I know that I waited a long time before I took that initial step to want to know God in an intimate sense. Are you still waiting?
But remember this, God does not force us to even begin or let alone “stay in” this relationship that John calls “happy fellowship” right now. It is your and my choice. WE are called to make that choice every time we make the decision whether or not to have regular quiet time with him, or whether or not to seek him in an attitude of prayer.
Koinonia is the Greek phrase which describes this spiritual intimacy that is born through having the true knowledge of who God is in a personal way.
I must confess, I am the one who made the choice not to experience Koinonia for all those years in my spiritual way with the Christ. I am the one that made the choice not to make time for God. Even though I knew that having regular times alone with God were important, I looked at it as more of being an obligation, a spiritual discipline. In other words, I had faced the issue as one of being an optional choice in my Christian walk. Now due to my years of not being willing to make such a choice, I am the one that has suffered hardship by not really knowing God in a personal way.
Even in the early stage of my final decision to make room for periods of quiet time with God, I seemed to be the one always doing the talking and not leaving any time for God to respond. Therefore I was still wasting precious time where I could have been enjoying a deeper intimate relationship with him. I had to discover that prayer is actually a system of two way conversation. Through such thinking I finally realized the genuine basis of this thing called spiritual intimacy with God. There comes a time in our prayer experience that we have to just sit back and be still and listen to God speak. We have to give strict, undivided attention or we may miss what profound things he has to say to us. Now you will not necessarily hear an audible sound, but yet you will hear it clearly.
I had a friend that had turned his back on God for a period of ten or so years. He just walked away – no more prayers, no more intimate quiet time with God. Finally there came the day he knew after his prodigal ways he had to return home to the deep intimate relationship he had with his Heavenly Father. AS he started his first quiet time after all those years of missing in action, he wasn’t quite sure God would be there, but he was. God spoke in his still small voice and told my friend that he had been there all this time – waiting – for more than 10 years.
Is the Lord waiting for you?
So how does a person actually begin to have the experience of spiritual intimacy?
Spiritual intimacy has a pre-requisite. As we learned in the first step of our spiritual metamorphosis, we have to be born again. We have to be willing to forego all of our preconceived ideas of religiosity and become a true disciple of the Christ. In other words it becomes a parent/child relationship so to speak. We must become God’s children that are willing to begin a personal love relationship that leads to spiritual intimacy with him.
John tells us in our text for today as stated in the Living Bible once again: “If you believe that Jesus is the Christ – that he is God’s Son and your Savior – then you are a child of God” [1 Jn. 5:1].
So, if and when we believe Jesus is the Christ, our Savior is the moment we begin our intimate relationship with God the Father. When John says, “If you believe,” he means mnore than just a casual belief. After all, according to James the Apostle, even demons “believe” in Jesus, in the sense of knowing who he is [James 2:19]. John, therefore, is meaning much, much more than just understanding the truth about something.
The Greek word for “believe” means to have faith in, to entrust, and to place reliance upon. So we can say then that John is trying to say that everyone who has a deep faith in, who place his or her life in the trust of, or relies upon Jesus, the Christ, is born of God, is God’s child. That is the beginning process of coming into Koinonia fellowship with God: to become rightly related to him. Then it is that relationship that is acknowledged and solidified through a prayer of acceptance, repentance and complete surrender.
There is a simple prayer that breaks open this opportunity to have an intimate relationship with God the Father. If you are led to do so, feel free to repeat the words of this prayer after me. Remember, it has to be from the heart; it has to be pure: Father God, I believe you sent Jesus, your Only Son to die for my sins. I must confess from the bottom of my heart that I am a sinner. I ask you right now to forgive me and please help me to change by Your strength. Help me to learn to know You in a real and personal way, for I now give you my life and my all. Also, help me to desire the discipline of having a personal quiet time with You. Let me never have enough of You. That I never stop reaching for more and more of Your presence in my life; that I never stop desiring Your love. I ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen and amen!
