Intimates
Hey friends,
During my race there was something said at a session that had completely altered my view of the relationship I had with Christ.
I think that it’s pretty common to struggle with comparison when you’re witnessing an active community. A year or two ago, I would hear people talking about how they have been hearing God it confused me because I didn’t understand why God only chose to communicate so vividly with only a few people. I believed that He could. I knew that God could talk to people because we’ve seen Him do it before in scripture, however, I was borderline offended by the fact that even in the modern world He still had His favorites. I felt like God chose who He wanted to speak to and the rest of us had to base our faith off the fact that our pastors were being talked to by God.
I’ll be the first to say that my pride was large and my perspective was small. That perspective was only about me. I was hurt that God wouldn’t talk to me about the things that I wanted Him to defend about me. He wouldn’t speak in the capacity that I was allowing Him to. It was all, Lord say this about me. Tell me something about my future. Tell me I’m right. Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! I know that sounds evil and you may be telling yourself, “I would never be so intentionally selfish!” but in all honesty, you don’t have to feel maniacal to be subconsciously selfish with God.
This recent year in Guatemala, I was in the lesson part of an activation and the speaker that day was talking about prayer. He said, “God doesn’t have favorites. He has intimates.” That hit me to my core.
When you think about it, in order to have any sort of bond with a person there has to a a certain amount of intimacy. A two way exchange of vulnerability, effort, and trust. If we believe that God sent His only son to die for us so it could be easier to reach Him, then He has done more than enough for us. If there’s still a disconnect, I doubt it’s on God. God is waiting on us.
In response to the idea that it was ME not doing what I was supposed to be doing, I decided that I was going to be one of God’s intimate ones. I started to press in more than ever. I started to study Him and conversarte with Him. And soon it became less about wanting to hear Him and more about wanting to know Him. Wanting to know His character. His heart. And to this day I want to know Him even more deeply and intimately.
Here are some things I implemented to work on my intimacy with God:
Quiet time. A healthy relationship requires some form of quality time. For the last few months I’ve consistently set aside time from each day to spend as much time with the Lord as I can. One thing that I had to come to terms with was that everyday was different and there would rarely be a day that would look like the next. There were some months where it was easy to get up every morning and some where my schedule would get busy and I’d have to adjust. As a human being I’ve found that a lot of the time, relationships grow deeper when someone goes out of their way to be with or connect with someone when it isn’t convenient. So whether, you’re able to schedule in quiet time with the Lord every morning, or you have to bring your Bible to work and read during your 15 minute lunch break, do it!! The Lord is worth it!!
Listening more than you speak. As people, it can be easy to only see ourselves. Imagine if you were put in a room with someone who would give you anything that you asked for, what would you do? I imagine my first reaction would be to talk about the van I don’t want to buy, the car insurance I don’t want to pay for, the knowledge that would take too long to study for, the hot chocolate I’d never have to make, or maybe even the perfectly functioning eyes that I’m too scared to fix with surgery. But that is not way to build a relationship or grow in intimacy with that person and that’s no way to grow in intimacy with the God. When you pray about things, don’t just demand them. Sit and listen to what God has to say about things. If you haven’t read Listening Prayer, go do that!
Search the scriptures for Him! God’s character, personality, heart, passions, hates, are all in scripture. In every story is a testimony of who God is. If you have a hard time hearing God, start with His written word. You should be opening your Bible every day and getting your daily bread. Before you start that, take some time and ask god to open your eyes to where He is, or which parts of his character is in the passage you’re going to read. When there is someone that you know, its easy to see things and be reminded of that person. It works like. That with God too. When you start to know God through the His Word, it becomes a lot easier to spot Him.
Invite Him in! One way that myself and the people around me have deepened their intimacy with the Father has been simply inviting Him into our day. Whether its asking God what to wear, or what to do with my time, or even doing mundane things like laundry, or cleaning without music or tv are all things that have helped me to see God in every moment. You don’t need to be in an extremely sacred headspace to dwell with the Lord. He’s in everything and as soon as I got rid of that lie / limitation that I had the Lord under, It’s been a lot easier to grow in relationship with Him.
Some of these things are disciplines and will take time. It won’t always be easy. And you wont always feel like you’re growing closer to God. That was a struggle that I had. I just had to release all control and simply try.
