The soul of man longs for fulfilment. Many, even in the Church try to fill this longing with activities and meetings, with seminars and with works. But the truth is, our soul will not be satisfied until it has come into intimacy with the Living God! This is what our re-born Spirit already knows; God is calling us now into intimacy Body, Soul & Spirit!
Its time to step out of the soul realm, and into the Spirit! Kathryn Kullman used to say "There is more, so much more!"
We are called to dwell in the secret place of the most high! To gaze upon his beauty! To nestle into his heart. For our hearts home is in the midst of His heart! In that place of intimacy.
1 Cor 2:9
No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him
Eyes, Ears and our minds can’t contain all that is God! It is like trying to measure the volume of the Pacific Ocean with a Tea cup
In the natural, our senses (Taste, Touch, see, hear, smell) cannot comprehend God and his fullness and yet in the Spirit we are given eyes to see the invisible, Ears to hear the inaudible, and minds that conceive the inconceivable
1 Cor 2:10
10 But we know these things because God has revealed them to us by his Spirit, and his Spirit searches out everything and shows us even God’s deep secrets.
It is only in moving out of our soul and into the Spirit that we enter into the fullness of intimacy. We are touched even in the very deep regions of the heart!
INTO THE VASTNESS OF GOD
I come from the Islands of New Zealand, and when I fly over Australia or travel across India, it all seems so very vast and it inspires. But it rarely results in an intimate inward conversation with God; it’s more of a shout of praise. A stirring of the soul
Earthly vastness inspires us, But Gods vastness viewed through natural senses overwhelms us, and stimulates our Spirit to response!
The world around us is a world of outer relationships, we make friends, we achieve success, we have appointments and face disappointments.
Our inward heart (Spirit) is another matter, when we look with our heart (Spirit) God becomes visible and he begins to reveal himself to those who seek him out.
God sees us as a precious treasure and He longs to have a close relationship with us. More than anything He wants us to have an intimate love relationship and friendship with Him.
God wants us to spend time with Him and intimately communicate with Him, to enjoy fellowship with Him, to trust and follow Him, and to give our life meaning and purpose.
So much of our "Time with the Lord" in these times is geared to our Soul! Music that stirs the soul! Preaching that inspires the soul! Reading that challenges the soul! But the Lord says, "Those who worship me must worship in Spirit" Our souls are being called into obedience to our Spirit, by the calling of the Holy Spirit! The carnal Church is being called into Glory!
It is a joy to Jesus when a person takes time to walk more intimately with Him. The bearing of fruit is always shown in Scripture to be a visible result of an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ." - Oswald Chambers
I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things." - Paul (Philippians 3:8)
WHAT IS INTIMACY?
I once read that intimacy could best be described as IN TO ME SEE Its Allowing God to look into our heart and God allowing us to look into his! Wow! Imagine that, Looking into the very heart of God, seeing what he see’s. In intimacy we become one with the Spirit and our desires match that of our creator. The call of the Spirit is KNOW ME!
This is Eternal Life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent. - John 17:3
Dan 11:32 but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.
Hos 6:3 . 3 Oh, that we might know the LORD! Let us press on to know him! Then he will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring."
Teach me your ways so that I may know you and continue in your favour. - Exodus 33:13
So that you may know and believe Me (God), and understand that I am He. - Isaiah 43:10
WE NEED TO YADA THE LORD!
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!
IF WE DON’T MOVE OUT OF OUR SOUL THE NEXT GENERATION WILL!
There is a hunger in the youth of the nations to have this level of intimacy with God. When I was in India I went to a Church called "Grace Church" in Goa. I entered the chapel at mid day to pray and seek God, To my surprise the place was packed with young people 12-25 all earnestly seeking the Lord. Tears flowing down their faces and many on their face before a Holy God
Was this a one off prayer time? No apparently, every day seven days a week this was what was happening! There is a hunger among the young to find the reality of God and his will for their lives. They are tired of what they have seen in their parents, no longer do they just want religious form, they want Jesus and his fullness! Well that’s India I hear some of you say, Well just three weeks ago I heard that in a Catholic college called Santa Maria in an East Auckland suburb, the young people are doing the same, skipping lunch to fall on their face and find God!
I was in Denny’s restaurant in Manukau city New Zealand not so long ago, when a group of young people from a large Church came in. They had been to an amazing light show with the big sound and relevant message. As I listened to their conversation I realised that they were just so hungry for the reality of God, and looking for more than just a soulish relationship. I asked if I could join them and began to share about the intimate relationship they could have with God. We stayed there for two full hours. Tears flowed as the power of the Spirit touched their lives. They began to understand the concept of being in the Spirit and being intimate with God!
There is nothing more relevant, for young or old than an encounter with the living God!
Individual Christians and Churches today need to see the vital need to humble themselves before God, and to fervently pray & hungrily seek His face, and to turn wholeheartedly back to Him, or there will be NO POWER in what they do. We need to learn what the early church in Acts (see Acts 1:14, 2:42-47, 4:23-33, 6:4,...) knew - that there is a DIRECT CONNECTION between prayer & submission and God’s Holy Spirit filling and empowering them. The more they prayed, the more God did in and through them. They PRAYED for 10 days straight, then Peter preached for 10 minutes, and 3000 people were saved.
"The truth is, I have seen God do more through 10 minutes of real prayer than through 10 of my sermons." - Jim Cymbala / Brooklyn Tabernacle
One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek; that I may dwell in the house (presence) of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in his temple." - David (Psalm 27:4)
"As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God ? - Sons of Korah (Psalm 42:1-2)
" O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory... your love is better than life..." - David (Psalm 63:1-3)
" How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty ! My soul yearns even faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God." - David (Psalm 84:1-2)
" Now devote your heart and souls to seeking the Lord your God." - I Chronicles 22:19
Tell God all that is in your heart, as one unloads one’s heart, its pleasures and its pains, to a dear friend. Tell God your troubles, that God may comfort you; tell God your joys, that God may sober them; tell God your longings, that God may purify them; tell God your dislikes, that God may help you conquer them; talk to God of your temptations, that God may shield you from them: show God the wounds of your heart, that God may heal them. If you thus pour out all your weaknesses, needs, troubles, there will be no lack of what to say. Talk out of the abundance of the heart, without consideration say just what you think. Blessed are they who attain to such familiar, unreserved intercourse with God." Francois Fenelon
Even if you did nothing in your meditation but bring your heart back, and place it again in our Lord’s presence, though it went away again every time you brought it back, your hour would be very well employed." Francis deSales
Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord; and our heart is restless until it rests in Thee. St. Augustine
I have so much to do that I spend several hours in prayer before I am able to do it. John Wesley While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart. St. Francis of Assisi
MAKE GOD’S DREAM COME TRUE
In the garden of Eden God showed his desire to walk with man and to have intimacy with him! Through Jesus we have the same opportunity as Adam did! To walk with God in the cool of the evening! So In closing, its time to seek the Lord! And to let Him Into me See! There is no substitute or shortcut to gain the measure of God you desire in your life. Time before God in His presence releases the store house of heaven that is full of blessings and opens the flood gate of revelation you desire! Intimacy with the living God is the hall mark of every great man or women of God. Time in His courts help us understand the complexities of life. And give meaning to every situation we find our self in! You can make God’s dream come true!
Ian Johnson
His Amazing Glory Ministries; www.papelim.org.nz Contact: PO Box 76-540 Manukau City NZ ianjohn@xtra.co.nz
