INTIMACY WITH GOD...A MORE EXCELLENT WAY

So many of us have grown frustrated with our walk with God. He seems so distant! Things are deteriorating so rapidly in the world, yet God seems so absent, removed or disinterested. Why isn't he speaking to us anymore? Why isn't he blessing our lives, why isn't he responding to our prayers for healing, or finances, or salvation for our family or our friends? Why does the church suddenly seem so irrelevant to my children and even to me? There are many answers to these genuine heart cries heard from many believers, but the overarching issue in the church in America was prophesied by Jesus, as found recorded in Revelation 2:4, "But I have this against you, that you have left your first love ("agape")." The answer is clear and the solution is profound. Paul in I Corinthians 12:31 calls it "...the more excellent Way."

The "more excellent Way" is quite simply a passionate pursuit of greater intimacy with our triune God. Andrew Murray in his ground-breaking devotional "Teach Me to Pray", describes it this way,

"We were made for God, to seek Him, to find Him, to grow up into His likeness and ultimately to show forth His Glory - in the fullest sense to be His dwelling place on the earth, His tabernacle. The secret of true adoration can only be known by the soul that gives time to tarry in God's presence and that will yield itself  to God for Him to reveal Himself to...What is the most profitable thing that a person can do every day? Nothing less than to seek, to know, to love and to praise God for Himself"

It is a great step forward into the abundant life that God has reserved for us, when we truly see this and consider fellowship with God every day as the chief end of our lives. Take the time to ask yourself whether truly knowing and loving Him is the utmost desire of your heart. For if it isn't, your Christian walk is doomed to insipidness.

If knowing Him and loving Him in greater intimacy is the true passion of your soul, you can be certain that in return God greatly desires that you should live out this intimate fellowship with Him. It is only as the soul bows itself before Him in honor and reverence that the heart will be opened to receive the divine impression of the nearness of God and the working of His Power in our lives. Alone with God - that is the secret to an abiding intimacy through which we become partakers of the abundant (GREEK - 'perisseuo' which means 'superabound in quality or quantity', 'flow in excess', 'exceed', 'excel') life that God has reserved for each of us.

A successful spirit-filled Christian life and service will only out of a deep, intimate, loving and abiding relationship with Jesus. It all begins there. From that place of intimacy flows a fresh understanding of God's amazing love for the world (John 3:16) and we become partners in His quest to reconcile every heart to Himself.

 

There are so many vagaries of doctrinal debate within the church in these final days that have little to do with the mission of Christ's body on the earth as enunciated in Isaiah 61:1 - 2a and reiterated by our Lord in Nazareth at the beginning of His earthly ministry,

"The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor (i.e. poor in spirit - those who are hungry for righteousness and truth), He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives (all those in the bondage of sin and death), and recovery of sight to the blind (i.e. spiritual as well as physical sight), to set free those who are downtrodden (tormented and controlled by the demonic forces of darkness), to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD (Today is the day of salvation for all who will believe - it is a personal jubilee year when all will be returned to them that has been taken and freedom from slavery to sin and death are realized by the cleansing power of His redeeming Grace). 

We have recently witnessed the extremities of heretic behavior perpetrated by the liberal mainstream church; ordination of gay bishops, support for government programs that advocate 'termination of life', withdrawal of financial investment in Israeli companies and even the rejection of basic Christian tenets and the inerrancy of God's Word. More insidious, though, is the massive shift of the church in America and Europe from Christo-centric worship and teaching to ego-centric, self-help, man-focused religion with very little reference to the Savior, less to the Cross and only a generic acknowledgement of God. Pastor Osteen is by no means the only perpetrator of this 'new religion', but the cover of his new book just sums it up all so well.

In response to the wave of apostasy in the western church, a number of large denominations have retreated into the safety of the Word of God, but at the same time have rejected the present operation of the Holy Spirit of God in the world. Jesus clearly assured the church that it was only through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives that we would be empowered to continue the 'Mission' that he had so clearly illustrated through His own life, death, resurrection and ascension back to His place at the Father's side.

On the other end of the spectrum of the Christian faith, there have arisen large, growing movements that minimize the study and meditation of the Bible and instead rely on an 'active' faith that places great emphasis on hearing God through His Spirit. Though admirable in concept, the downfall of this Spirit led life (which is fully advocated by the writings of the early Apostles), is that without the grounding and illumination of God's written word, it is possible to hear from the wrong spirit. We have seen many recent examples of this in the last few years within the Church.

No, ultimately we must always heed the instructions of the Master found in the Gospel of John 4:23-24, "But the time is coming - indeed it's here now - when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth." There is so much that Christ is teaching us in this brief passage - as he commissions the first Christian evangelist - but the point to be taken away by us today, is that our worship of God must be a balance of the richness and revelation found in His Word and an openness to the constant direction of the Holy Spirit in our lives and ministries.


TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK.....