Draw Near to God

"Isn't He beautiful
Isn't He wonderful
I desire nothing more
than to be with You"

sings in the background.

Intimacy is something we all long for in hour hearts - to know and to be known. As Mike Bickle notes in his book "After God's Own Heart," it is intimacy with God that sustains intensity in our walk with Him.

According to the Wikapedia, intmimacy refers to a close personal association and belonging together. "I am my Beloved's and He is mine." The Wikapedia states, "It is a familiar and very close affective connection with another as a result of entering deeply or closely into relationship into relationship through knowledge and experience of the other." It requires dialogue, transparency, vulnerability and reciprocity.(1)

Intimacy implies mutual sharing of hearts. I often pray and ask God to share His heart with me. It is the deepest desire of my heart. On occasion in prayer, I have felt completely overwhelmed with His emotions where I thought I would burst. Othertimes, however, I don't feel any emotion as I pray. Often, it is somewhere inbetween. I feel a sense of emotion about something as I am praying and no sense of emotion about something else.

The times of sharing His heart in prayer, I consider a wonderful gift from Him in knowing Him more deeply. However, one can not be intensely intimate with Him all the time. As with a marriage, our walk of intimacy with Christ has eb's and flows.

“After all the years, You're still here” sings in the background. Part of intimacy is knowing the other is available and can be counted. No matter what is going on in my life, He is still there for me, loves me and invites me to His table.

There have been rare occasions where I have woke up out of a sleep worried and anxious because I have made some sort mistake – I sinned. I start fearing disasterous consequences. However, when I sit down, turn on some worship music, and open the Word, God has never failed to meet me there. He will speak something to me in the Word and/or music that will put my heart at ease as He reminds me He is still on the throne and deeply loves me.

One of the things I love is when God gives me a Scripture verse or two to hold onto in the morning when I get up and spend time with Him. I write them on a note card and carry the card with me throughout the day. It may be a word of direction, a word of correction, a word of encouragement, a promise to hold on to or something to pray. I keep all the little note cards. I can't bring myself to throw any of them away. As time has passed, I have become a little more organized with them, but I have them stuffed everywhere.

I love when God speaks to me and how He is always there for me. He brings me encouragement, comfort, strength, wisdom, and on and on. In Genesis 15:1 He told Abraham, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” He is more than all I could ever want or need.

When Jesus walked on the earth, He was intentional in all He said and did. Jesus endured the cross without wavering for the joy that was set before Him (Hebrews 12:2). “You could not bear the distance any longer” is a song that sings. By His won blood He made a way for us to enter the Holy of Holies. We can draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from evil...” (Hebrews 10:19,22)

Hebrews 12:1-2 says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside very weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

So what are the things I need to lay aside that hinder me from walking in greater intimacy with Christ?

Lack of faith is by far my greatest hinderance to walking in intimacy with God.

Sometimes I struggle with shrinking back from His will out of fear / a lack of faith. As one of my pastors has noted on occasion, God will put us in to situations that are over our heads. My temptation when I am feeling over my head is to shrink back from it, looking at my own lack of sufficency in myself rather than trusting in God\'s sufficency. Hebrews 10:38 says, 'but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure with Him.”

What pleases God is when we obey Him out of a trusting willingness and not by offering sacrifices and burnt offerings. Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith it is impossible to please Him [God], for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.” Faith is focused on God, trusting Him for who He is. Works are based upon self, trusting ourselves for what we can do. The fruit from faith is gratitude whereas the fruit from self-sufficiency is self-righteousness.

Too often I can focus on what I want to become in Christ (holiness) rather than focusing on who He is. According to Mike Bickle in “After God's Own Heart,” you cannot become until you behold. He writes, “Becoming is good, but God's sequence says we must behold the reality within His heart. Then He does His part and awakens joy and peace and all the rest within us.”

It is in beholding Him we come to know Him and we are transformed more into His image. Mike Bickle goes on to write, “If you want passion or love for God, then fill yoru time and your mind with the revelation of god's passion and love for you.

Another place I struggle in my faith is sometimes gripping hold of those things in my life that God gives me rather than holding them loosely. The root of this is lack of faith in God's provision and His goodness towards me. I have especially struggled with this as it relates to my job in the past. When I see my job as a source of security and provision, I am not free to walk in intimacy with Him.

Hebrews 11:8-9 says, “By faith he [Abram] went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, hears with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.”

Abraham saw his home as the city of God and was willing to live in tents (transitionally) on this earth. He did not hold anything in the world too tightly -even Isaac, the son he waited his entire life to have.

Another hinderance for me in the area of faith has been fear of man. Hebrews 13:6 says, “The Lord is my helper, I will not fear; what can man do to me?”

Years ago, God spoke to me out of Isaiah 51. Verse 12 says, “who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, or the son of man who is made like grass and have forgotten the Lord your maker?”

Once, as a new Christian, God spoke to me through a poem I wrote that says:
“Learn to be who you are,
With your own special gifts step out and apart.
Trust in my Word as I speak to you,
Remember that I will see you through.
Don’t let fear keep you away,
From all I have for you each day.”

Mike Bickle writes in “After God's Own Heart,” You were 'laid hold of by God,' handpicked by Him in His creative genious and created with certain passions. But it is so common in the kingdom of God today for people to never lay hold of the thing for which they were born and to never enter into the destiny God prepared for them.

We grow deepest in intimacy with Him when we enter into a place of service with Him where we share His heart for His kingdom. The most intimate verse in the Bible in Song 7:12 (not to repeat it and cause anyone to blush) is wrapped in text about together seeing the fruit from the labors in the vineyards.

Paul was someone who grew to know Jesus most deeply through service and shared His heart for the kingdom. Paul pursued intimacy with Christ passionately. He writes of his heart's desire in Philippians 3:10, "that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurection of the dead."

As he pressed on towards knowing Christ intimately, he relized his need to put aside his successes and failures that were behind (Philippians 3:13). Mike Bickle writes that a hinderance to intimacy is counting the cost of what we have done for God or given to Him.

"Every good and perfect gift comes form Him" sings in the background. When we are focused on what we have done or offered to God, it is about self and the fruit is self-righteousness. As Ken Blanchard has noted in his sermon notes on his Lead Like Jesus website, Jesus rejected the rich young ruler in following Him but allowed the blind beggar to follow. Where the rich young ruler thought he had much to offer, the blind beggar knew he had nothing but his heart to bring. God desires our gratitude and our hearts, not our sacrifices and offerings.

Forgetting what lies behind also means forgetting failures. As Pastor Dave has noted in one of his recent previous messages, Paul had to put on Christ every day. He did not wollow in shame over his failures but wrapped himself in righteousness and stepped into the calling that God gave to him day after day.

Paul not only let go fo the past, but he reached forward for the prize with all the energy he had within Him (Philippians 3:13-14). As Mike Bickle ntoes, as lovers of God, we will ahve the courage to do extravegant acts of worship and will not settle for doing the minimum for God.

In Hebrews 6:11-12 it says, "And we desire each on of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises."

As Mike Bickle wries, "We nibble on so many meaningless things that our hunger for meaningful things gets lost like a single piece of confetti in a ticker-tape parade." Comforts and distractions keep us in a place of mediocrity and hinder us from walking in itimacy.

As Mike Bickle goes on to note, we look here and there for that which will satisfy us. "What God is call us to is to dismiss chasing hither and thither and cultivate a heart of unswavering devotion." He goes on to write, "He wants us to love him, first and foremost, with all our hearts."

"Nothing is as lovely, nothing is as worthy, nothing is as wonderful as knowing You" sings in the background.

Lord, I long to love You with all my heart and to draw closer in intimacy to You. Would you forgive me where I have failed to follow after you with my whole heart. Thank you that you are both the author and the perfector of my faith. Draw me into greater intimacy with You.




















1. Wikapedia - Intimacy