Intimacy with God

Mark Dunagan
04/18/10 - Sunday Morning

You were created to have a close and warm relationship with your Heavenly Father – to familiarize yourself with who He is by cultivating a deep and detailed knowledge of what brings Him pleasure – to love Him with your whole heart. He gives us examples of other of His children drawing near to Him.

• “...I was in my prime, when God’s intimate friendship blessed my house” (Job 29:4). (NIV)
• “For the crooked man is an abomination to the Lord; but He is intimate with the upright” (Proverbs 3:32).

How blessed to have the kind of relationship with our God enjoyed by previous generations:

• “...Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him” (Genesis 5:24).
• “Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend” (Exodus 33:11). 
• “...My servant Moses, He is faithful in all My household; with him I speak mouth to mouth, even openly, and not in dark sayings” (Numbers 12:7-8).
• “And Abraham believed in God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, and he was called the friend of God” (James 2:23). 
• “...Abraham Thy friend” (2 Chronicles 20:7).

The Key to Intimacy

• “If anyone loves Me he will keep My word” (John 14:23).
• “Abide in Me and I in you” (John 15:4).
• “And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments” (1 John 2:3).

As I contemplate the above passages, they all seem to have one thing in common: Friendship, closeness, and a warm relationship with God was built upon faithful obedience. Enoch “walked with God”, that is, he was faithful (Hebrews 11:4). God was intimate with Moses, because Moses was “faithful in all His house”. Abraham was called the friend of God because he trusted God. Jesus said, the person who really loves Him is the person who obeys Him. John also noted that the person who really “knows” God is the person who obeys Him. So if someone were to ask, “Is friendship with God an exclusive club?” The answer is “No”, yet it is certainly conditional. It is open to any who will listen to His word and promptly follow its lead. Therefore, God does choose His friends, but the choice is not upon the shallow criteria of man. God chooses to have close friendships with good hearts (1 Samuel 16:7). You can be His friend as well!

Are you Ready?

“I once heard that the difference between Christians can be compared to travelers gathered at the edge of a frozen pond that they must cross. They have it on good authority that the ice is solid. But even with that testimony, some will only crawl out inch by inch on hands and knees, while others will bound onto the silvery skin with boldness and delight” (Walking with God, Andree Seu, 2-2-2010, Worldmag.com).

What if I Don’t Feel Close to God?

As noted in many passages, God repeatedly reminds us that our feelings can be completely unreliable:

“There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 16:25)
“He who trusts in his own heart is a fool” (Proverbs 28:26).
He saw this in one of the first passages I used in this lesson. Job feels that he no longer has a close relationship with God (Job 29:4), and yet such feelings were inaccurate.

Keeping the Relationship Close

• “Abide with Me”

When Jesus told us to “abide in Him” (John 15:4), He was telling us to stay close to Him, trust Him, keep the relationship tight. John later wrote, “Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son” (2 John 9). This might be one of the last passages that some people think of when they consider “intimacy with God”, yet it is a crucial passage. You see, intimacy is all about trust. The person who stays within Scripture, is the person who does not want to run ahead of God or misrepresent God. The person who does not abide in Scripture is in affect saying that they value their independence far more than intimacy with God. They want to be the center of the story, rather than their friendship with God being the center. The person who does not abide within Scripture is like the person who is always telling their “friend” one thing and then changing plans and doing something different. Jesus repeatedly stressed this point probably because mankind continually gets the idea that somehow we can detach friendship from obedience:

• “Talk to Me”

No real friendship can exist without communication. On the one side God has communicated freely with us. He has given us everything we need (2 Peter 1:3). Therefore, do not be surprised if your friendship with God is not what it could be if you are not pouring out your heartfelt desires to Him in prayer. And why not? He cares for us tenderly as our Father, and is eager to answer our prayers. When we cannot change something out of our control – God can. Most importantly, our prayers bring pleasure to our Creator.

“The prayer of the upright is His delight” (Proverbs 15:8)

What a beautifully encouraging verse. Various writers in the Psalms are often saying that God’s communication to us (The Scriptures) is their delight (Psalm 119:92, 77 ,70 ,24, 16), and this passage in Proverbs says that God delights in our communication to Him. Our prayers to Him are also likened unto sweet incense.

• “Really Talk to Me”

Friends talk to friends on a deeper level than merely exchanging information and facts. And God wants the same type of deep communication. He wants to hear about all our troubles and struggles, including all our inner turmoil (1 Peter 5:7 “casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you”).

• Tell Him how much you appreciate Him and how much He has made a difference in your life.
• Tell Him what makes you afraid, your fears and worries.
• Tell Him the people whose souls you earnestly want to lead toward Him.
• Tell Him the sinful habits you find difficult to break. Ask His power to do so.
• Tell Him the things you don’t understand in Scripture or in life.
• Tell Him when you think you are being overwhelmed and desperately need wisdom (James 1:5). 
   
• “Don’t Be Ashamed of Him”

Paul stressed this point in Romans 1:16 and 2 Timothy 1:8. We are at times tempted to hide our faith, but I find it amazing that why we are tempted to be ashamed of such an awesome God, while Jesus is not ashamed of us, with all our imperfections and weaknesses! (Hebrews 2:11) On this point my mind often goes back to the account of David dancing before the Ark of the Covenant with all his might (2 Samuel 6:14), much to his wife’s disapproval (6:20-22). “I love this about David, that he was so into the Lord that he forgot his regal manners, forgot his station in life, forgot snobbery and the social roles we create for ourselves. Next thing you know he’ll be... giving speeches at polite... functions that tell a little too much truth, or that are just a little too excited to be appropriate for the occasion” (Undignified for God, Andree Seu, Worldmag.com).

• “Is He Enough for You?”

In the Old Testament the Levites had no inheritance of land, rather, “...to the tribe of Levi alone Moses gave no inheritance; the Lord God of Israel is their inheritance” (Joshua 13:33). Now, if we were all Levites here, would we feel cheated by such an announcement? In other words, can we go through life and feel blessed and be happy knowing that God is our inheritance? (Psalm 16:5-6). Is His friendship far more important to us than earthly rewards? Does His “well done good and faithful servant” trump everything else? “Have you gotten to the point where the choice of God is not a sacrifice? Have you gotten to the place where you have stepped into obedience enough times, and chosen the way of faith often enough, that you have learned a very cool secret – that the joy is immediate and the deepening intimacy with God is something you wouldn’t trade for all the olive oil in Asher?” (Joshua – Just one thing: Chapter 21, Andree Seu, Worldmag.com).