Intimacy with God

Intimacy with God

Hello Dear Friends,
I hope this message finds you blessed,

I was going to do a message on prayer, but then I started thinking there is one thing we need before we can really start having deep strong prayer and intercession with the Lord.  This is intimacy with God.  If we do not have intimacy with God then how can we trust Him with our problems and how can we trust and have faith that He will hear our cry and answer them.

If you look deep in your heart and think about it, do you have intimacy with God?  Let me give an example.

You probably have several friends and there are also levels of friendships with in each friend.  So there is the friend that you can talk to about work and very general stuff, and then there is the friend you can talk to about any relationships you have or about your marriage.  Then there is that one friend that you can tell more deep things too that you wouldn't tell the other friends because they just don't have that something this one friend has, its called trust and intimacy.  However even that friend probably doesn't know all your deep secrets, secret dreams and thoughts you keep in your heart.

There is only one person is this whole galaxy that you can tell anything and everything too.  That is Jesus Christ, Father God.

But some may not have that type of relationship with God.  Today I am going to discuss with you about intimacy and how you can have that close, real deep intimacy with God.


Definition of Intimacy 
Intimacy is an interpersonal relationship that involves emotional intimacy.  Intimate relationships play a central role in the overall human experience.  Humans have a general desire to belong and to love.   Intimacy typically develops after certain levels of trust has been reached and personal bonds have been established.

To have intimacy with God you must want Him in your life.  You must want Him with your whole heart.  You must give yourself to the Lord and invite Him into your heart and your life.  If you do not have that kind of relationship with God and you want the Lord to come into your life and heart, I can help you and pray with you right now.

Pray this prayer,

Almighty God, I come before you in the name of Jesus Christ.
Jesus I believe you are the Son of God and the only way to God.  That you died on the cross for my sins and rose again from the dead.  I ask that you forgive me of all my sins.  Jesus I believe you shed your blood on the cross for me so that I may know you better.

Jesus come into my heart and my life.  Heal my body and soul.  Heal my life.  Deliver me and transform my life.  Cleanse me with your holy blood and make me whole.  I thank you that with you in my life that I will know you deeply.  Jesus give me a new mind, a new heart and a new spirit. Transform my life as I surrender to your divine calling.  You are my God, My Savior and My Comforter.  You are now in my heart and God of my life.

In Jesus Mighty Name
Amen


Intimacy with God begins when you hunger and pursue Him with your whole heart.


Psalms 27:8
My heart says of you, "Seek My face", your face Lord I will seek".

James  4:8
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

We are instructed in Psalms 46:10.   Be still and know that I am God.  

The wording "be still"  means to cease from striving.  It means to let go and relax, to turn down the volume of the world and listen to the quiet whisper of God.  It means soaking in His mighty presence. The result is you will know He is God.

The word  "know" is having the knowledge of God.  Its being still and knowing about God.  It's being still and knowing God intimately.


So the key is focus, where is your focus the world draws us away with many different things in our life.  But if we take the time to become intimate with the Lord.  I know our world will be blessed for it.

To build an intimate relationship with God.  We must spend time with Him.  Just as we want to deepen a relationship with a friend we spend time with them to get to know them.  We must take time alone with God , talking to Him and being quiet to listen to Him speak to you.  You must come with an open heart and wanting more of God and hunger for Him and His presence.

So you are probably wondering how to become intimate with God.  We must be in His presence.  We must soak in His presence daily.  Soak like a sponge and absorb all you can.  If you put a dry sponge in a bucket of water and slowly the water permeates the sponge.  This is the same as soaking in God's presence.  The more we soak, the more we become filled with His Spirit.
 
So you are probably wondering what do you do in your time of seeking His presence.

I don't have a set formula but I will tell you what I do to soak in the presence of Father God.

First thing I do is go into a room where I know I will have privacy and will not be disturbed.

I normally will put on some soft worship music and worship and praise the Lord and show Him how much I love Him.  Sometimes I will be on my knees on the floor, sometimes I will sit on the floor sometimes I will be sitting in a chair.  It all depends on how you are feeling towards the Lord.

Most important thing is the attitude of your heart.  Come with a loving and open heart to worship and pray and listen to the Lord.

The second thing I do is always repent and ask the Lord to forgive me for any sin in my life.

After I spend time in worship I will just thank the Lord for all He has done in my life and then I will pray to Him.  Sometimes I will pray the Word of God, sometimes I will pray about things I am worried about, sometimes I just pray for my family and loved ones.

After I have spent time in prayer I will ask the Lord to fill me with His presence and speak to me.  At that time it is all about waiting on the Lord.  Just being in that moment waiting on the Lord.  This does require you to be willing to give up your time and just wait on Him.  It is not something that can be rushed it's all about waiting on Him and in His time.  

I have found that sometimes His presence will come during worship time, sometimes it comes when I am praying but there are those times that the Lord will require you to just "Be Still" and wait.  I guarantee if you are willing to "Be Still" and wait the Lord Jesus will come and  fill you with His presence and love.


When you get quiet that is when you begin to hear His voice.

The key is learning to wait in solitude.  It is important to wait on the Lord until you experience his manifest presence.

If you take time out of your daily life and give that time to the Lord you will know the Lord in an intimate way and each time you bask in His presence He will reveal more and more about Himself so that you can know the Alpha and Omega in a mighty way.

Isaiah 64:4
For from days of old no one has heard, nor has ear perceived, nor has eye seen a God besides you, who works and acts in behalf of the one who gladly waits on Him.

Psalms 25:5
Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; For you and only you I wait expectantly all the day long.


Well to sum this teaching up if you want more of God and you want to know Him and have an intimate relationship with Him, then take time to be with Him and always let Him be your #1 priority in your life.

God bless you all

By His Stripes part 2

By His Stripes

Hello to you a are having a wonderful and blessed  day.

On my last post I spoke about By His Stripes.  I referenced Isaiah 53:3-5

Isaiah 53:3-5
He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.  Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.  Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by god, stricken by him, and afflicted.  But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

I discussed the pain and suffering the Lord went through and described in detail all the pain he received as well as the mental, emotional and spiritual pain He suffered.

To day I would like to discuss the last phrase in Isaiah 53:3-5  by His stripes we are healed.

I discussed what the stripes contained and how they were created.  I also discussed how Jesus was very familiar with pain.

I would like to discuss something I think we forget about Jesus,  when He was living His last days on earth.  The pain and suffering He went through. We already discussed the pain He went through in part 1.  Today I would like to discuss the spiritual pain He must have went through.  Below are scriptures that tell you of the pain He felt knowing that His Father God had looked away during the last moments of His life because our Father God loved us so much to turn away and not rescue His Son for us.

In psalms 22:1 this book is in the old testament but repeats exactly what Jesus says on the cross

Psalms 22:1

My God, my God why have you forsaken me?  Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my criers of anguish?

Matthew 27:46
About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, Eli, Eli lema sabachtanin? (which means My God, my God why have you forsaken me?

This statement Jesus spoke can tell you He was completely alone and the Father turned His head away from His beloved Son for us.

Isaiah 53:6

All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned every one to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

In Isaiah 53:6 it tells us that Father God put all of our sins on Jesus in that one moment in time. When we are full of sin and do not have Jesus in our heart and have not given our lives to the Lord.  Father God can not see us, all He see's is our sin.  So when Jesus called for Father God, God could not look at Jesus He turned His face away because of our sins.  Our sins were all laid on Jesus so the Father could not look at His own son because of the sin.  God can not look at sin.

We know that Jesus Christ became sin for us, so that we may know the Father.

2 Corinthians 5:21

For He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Habakkuk 1:13

You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness.

In Habakkuk we see that the God the Father can not behold any evil or look on any wickedness.  So with this scripture we can confirm that Father God could not look on Jesus because of the sin Jesus beheld.

I could not imagine to go through such spiritual suffering Jesus went through to know that your Father could not look at you or help you in any way the desolate pain Jesus must have suffered.  Also we should look closely at God the Fathers pain, knowing what Jesus was going through and still to look away.  But remember He looked away for us.

God the Father and Jesus Christ went through major suffering both physical and spiritual for us.  So that "by His stripes we are healed".

If you have any bodily diseases, sicknesses or pains in your physical body He can heal them. Do you have any mental wounds that need to be healed God can heal them.  

1 Peter 2:24
Who himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins might live for righteousness - by whose stripes you were healed.

Psalms 30:1-2
I will extol you, O Lord, for you have lifted me up, and have not let my foes rejoice over me.  O Lord my God, I cried out to you, and you healed me.  O Lord, you brought my soul up from the grave; You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.


So you must remember that Jesus died for you so you may know God.  Also remember God has many names but this one I want you to remember:

Jehovah Rapha - The Lord your healer!

I hope you are blessed by this teaching.

Remember you are truly loved.

God bless you all.

You are loved

Do you know that you are truly loved by your creator the Lord God Almighty?  He created you for his own pleasure.  He longs for a relationship with those whom He created.  A relationship with God is like no other relationship you may have experienced. God has a unique kind of love for you. It is unconditional not based upon meeting certain conditions. God loves you because He loves you.  I have been talking about having a faith walk with the Lord.  This is where it comes from having a relationship with the Lord and walking faithfully with Him on the path He has carved out for you.

1 John 4:9-10

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

He does not love you based upon your performance, what you do and what you don’t do. There is nothing you can do to cause God to love you any more than He already does, and there is nothing that will cause God to love you any less. He loves you, even more than you love yourself.

Until now you have probably only experienced conditional love. Conditional love is based upon what you do. Perform well on the job.  Having conditional love in your family or in the relationship,  Only God loves you with an unconditional love.  

In opening your life to Christ, you have found total love and acceptance. That may be hard to comprehend if you’ve never felt totally loved and acceptance by anyone. But it’s true! Unfortunately, you won’t always feel that God loves you. There will be times when you find yourself doubting not only His love, but also His existence. You’ll feel like giving up, but don’t.

Jeremiah 31:3

God says, I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving kindness

We will be walking many miles in life with the Lord.  Some miles may be difficult, hard, but you will also have miles where they are easy and full of joy.  The knowledge that God loves you will keep you going when the next mile seems intolerably long.  This is where your faith in Him will need to rise up and keep you going.

Romans 8:38-39

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Our faith rests in what God has revealed about Himself to us. He specifically wants us to believe and rely on His love for us:

Psalms 147:11

The Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love

Psalms 33:18

Lord watches over those who fear him, those who rely on his unfailing love.

King David, whom God referred to “as a man after my own heart”  trusted God’s love:

Psalms 59:16-17

I will sing of your strength, in the morning I will sing of your love; for you are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble. O my strength, I sing praise to you; you, O God, are my fortress, my loving God.

To grow in your understanding of God’s love for you, take some time over the next few weeks and read Psalms 103, John 15, and 1 John 4, and note all the ways that God’s love is described.

May this find you walking faithfully with your Lord.

By His Stripes Part 1

By His Stripes

The other day I was out driving and doing some errands I was thinking about the Lord and was asking the Lord to make me healthy and heal my body.  I have a few medical problems which I know could be a lot worse if it wasn't for the favor, grace and love of the Lord.  I know I am here right now because my Lord has made it so.

As I was driving and talking to the Lord this is what I heard "by His stripes you are healed".  I thought to myself OK Lord I here you so I had to look into it and really dive in to it and truly examine what the Lord was trying to tell us.

So I have decided to look into it and do a study on it and share it with all of you.  The scripture I am talking about is Isaiah 53:3-5 which is below.

Isaiah 53:3-5
He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.  Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.  Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by god, stricken by him, and afflicted.  But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

I now would like to really dive deep into this scripture and pull it apart so you can clearly understand what Isaiah was trying to say.

"He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering and familiar with pain.  Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.  Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by god, stricken by him, and afflicted."

This one sentence has a two fold meaning to me.  One he was despised and rejected by man.  Which tells me mankind did not love Him and show great love for him.  He was an outsider and completely alone, He was rejected.  A holy God came down to rescue His people and he was rejected.

This makes me think wow God was rejected and despised.  Have you ever been rejected and despised.  Have you every felt completely alone and the weight of the world was on your shoulders.

The second  He suffered and familiar with pain.   He suffered and knew pain and loneliness.  The last part of this scripture says he was familiar with pain.  That kind of sticks out doesn't it.  He was familiar with pain.

Definition of familiar
Well known for a long time.  Intimate association.  Well acquainted with.

So with this definition of familiar we can say he knew pain very well and suffered a long time.  He has an intimate experience with pain.  He was well acquainted with pain.

Have you known anyone who was well acquainted with pain for a long time and suffered constantly. Our Lord loved us so much that He was willing to go through tragic pain to save us.  He bore our sins He took up our pain and bore our sufferings so we may be free of sin and sickness and have a relationship with God Almighty.

Isn't nice to know that the God of heaven and earth can completely relate to how you or I may be feeling.

Some people say He doesn't know how it feels to -----.  You can fill in the blank.  I can tell you He knows completely and then some on how you feel.

"But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was on him"

This scripture verse tells us exactly what Jesus went through for us.  He was whipped and was beaten and was put on a cross so we can know God and have a great covenant with Him.  He was pierced, crushed and punished.  He did all this for one reason  HE LOVES YOU.  That is the only reason why Jesus came down to earth is because He loves us and wanted to have a deep relationship with us.

"by his wounds we are healed"

By his wounds we are healed another version of the bible says by his stripes we are healed.

I looked into how flogging was administered.  The bible says that Jesus was flogged 39 times.  The whipping would be on their back, hands and feet and was meant to render them helpless.  The whip was usually a leather strip and they would tie sharp metal pieces on it so when they whipped someone it would rip skin off.  This technic was used to cause tremendous pain but to not kill a person completely.  They would also call the whip a cat of nine tails which means this one whip would have nine strips of leather on it and each strip would have metal pieces tied to it all over.  Can you imagine one whip with nine strips and plenty of metal shards on it, now times that by two, and being whipped 39 times with 2 whipping sticks with 18 strips all together and many, many metal shards on it ripping at your skin.    Now can you imagine the pain and suffering he went through.  Now you can understand how he was familiar with pain.

When scientists looked at the shroud of Turin there was so much blood on it they believe that the Romans used two whips on Jesus.  So can you imaging being whipped 39 times by two whips. They also beat Jesus, they beat him so much he was almost unrecognizable.

Please forgive my detailing I just want you to have a very good understanding of what Jesus went through so you can understand that by his wounds you are healed.

By his stripes we are healed refers to the punishment Jesus suffered, the flogging and beatings with fists.


1 Peter 2:24
He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness, by his wounds you have been healed.

 I want you to understand the pain and agony Jesus went through. I will go into it a little more in Part 2.   I have touched on the physical pain Jesus suffered not including that Jesus died on the cross the ultimate sacrifice.  In part 2 of By His Stripes I will discuss the emotional pain Jesus suffered on this earth for us.


References:
C.O.A.T  Homepage - Roman whips