Close Encounters
A Guide to Intimacy with God
Introduction
Congratulations! Even having a desire to go deeper with God than you have ever been is evidence of His work within you to draw you closer [James 4:8] This devotional is the first step of many on an exciting and journey toward intimacy with God. This devotional was written with one purpose in mind; to help you cultivate a closer communion with the Father. Each day is meant to be one more step toward a lifetime journey to really know God. There will be times when you will be broken, humbled, awed, inspired, and overwhelmed by the presence of God in your life.
The purpose for Close Encounters is simple. It is just a tool to lead you through a multi-day adventure of passionate seeking and thirsting for God. It is my prayer that after you finish this devotional, your soul will forever crave more close encounters with our living God. Before you even begin this passionate pursuit, you must start the journey with an inner craving, a deep hunger, and unquenchable thirst for God more than any other person or thing in your life. I’m not referring to learning more head knowledge about God, but rather growing in intimacy to know the heart and mind of God. These devotions have been written out of the overflow of a prayerful heart of one who has made the intimate passionate pursuit of God my life’s chief ambition. Won’t you join me as we have close encounters with the creator of this universe? I would like to start this journey with a prayer and asking you to voice this prayer along with me.
You could just glance over the prayer and quickly move on to the next page, but I urge you to read the prayer slowly and meditate on it. Let the heartbeat of this prayer resonate and settle deep in your soul until it becomes part of your spiritual DNA not just for this day but for each day of this life long quest. Breathe in the fresh desire for more of God experientially and emotionally and exhale this desperate plea for more of God in your heart. I know if this is your prayerful attitude, you shall not be disappointed on this journey.
I’m Yours
A passionate hunger for You my Lord
Along with a deep thirsting for Your Word
May they capture and consume my heart
Until I’m Yours enslaved never to depart
I’m Yours to do with as you please
I ask for the cross – not comfort or ease
Send me where others refuse to go
So the lost your glory might know
On the altar I lay my heart and life
A holy and pleasing sacrifice
My desires are now counted as loss
As I wear the harness of the cross
More of You and Less of me
Use me Lord – my humble plea
Propel me where others have not gone
Until my life is nothing but your song
-Matt Edwards 3-20-01
Day One
[Exodus 33:18-34:8]
Are you tired of going through the religion routine of doing a quiet time rather than having a personal encounter with God? If you are and you really desire a close encounter with the God of this universe, what better place can we start than right here praying the same prayer Moses prayed in [Ex 33:18]. “I pray You show me Your glory!”
That is one of the boldest prayers that has ever been uttered in faith by human lips. It takes guts to pray a prayer like that. In essence Moses was praying, “God I know I have seen in the burning bush, I have seen you bring miraculous plagues, I even saw you part the Red Sea, but none of that is enough for me. I want you. I want to see you in the fullness of your splendor and majesty. I want to catch a glimpse of your presence in all your radiant brilliance. I am not satisfied with anything less.”
Does that prayer resonate in your heart? Are you satisfied to see the things God does without ever really seeing Him? Are you satisfied to worship from afar distant and aloof not getting up close and personal with your creator? Do you even have the desire to grow closer and go deeper with God? That is where it all starts. We must desire more of God in order to cultivate intimacy with Him. He knows this very second whether you are merely going the repetitive routine of a devotion as opposed to desiring a close encounter.
Close Encounters is not about our hurrying through a pithy thought or an inspirational scripture each day. Intimacy with the Lord requires time and if we don’t have the time to sit before the Lord and linger with Him, most likely this time and devotional will not prove to be very beneficial. These devotions are nothing more than a gateway to gaining more heart knowledge of our Lord. We must determine that we will not just walk through the gate but journey up the sidewalk to the very throne room of God and sit at His feet. It is in the throne room that close encounters happen. These types of encounters require much effort but the reward of His presence and His voice is worth it.
As the old proverb says, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Take that first step in asking God to reveal more of Himself to you. Each day you will be given several steps to help you on this journey. It will be your responsibility and privilege to follow through with each of these steps and not proceed until you have fully encountered God with each previous step. As you can already see, Close Encounters is not the kind of devotion guide you will be able to complete in fifteen minutes.
Steps to Intimacy
1. Get yourself a journal. A spiral notebook or note pad will work fine. Write down your deepest longings for God as you personalize [Ex 33:18].
2. Read the entire passage and soak in God’s word allowing the Lord to speak to you. Record what the Lord says to you in your journal. Don’t rush on to the next step until you can clearly identify what He has to say to you.
3. Write your prayerful response to what the Lord has spoken. This may require repentance and confession, it may require making a fresh start with the Lord.
4. How will you practically apply what the Lord has spoken to your daily life? What plans of action do you need to take to ensure consistent obedience?
Day Two
[Jeremiah 29:13]
Read and digest today’s scripture. Drink of it deeply until it has soaked thoroughly into your soul. Don’t dare proceed any further until you have spent sufficient time meditating on this passage.
What is the purpose in your coming to sit before the Lord today? Is your purpose to fulfill a religious obligation or to meet with and hear from God in a close encounter? It is not just enough to come into His presence if your heart is hard and your spiritual ears are closed. We must come with the right motivations in our heart. If we come and do not intend to listen to what He has to say nor to adjust our lives accordingly, why should He bless us with His presence?
Have you ever been talking to someone and they do not listen because they are continually looking over your shoulder or all around to see who else is the room? They do not hear what you are saying because they are distracted and not focused on you. So it is with the Lord. If you come into His presence with the television on, music blaring, or with other people clamoring for your attention, chances are you will be distracted.
God not only wants but demands your undivided attention not only this day but each day of your life. What are you preoccupied with today as you come before the Lord? What is competing with God for your attention and affection? You cannot have a close encounter when your mind and heart are cluttered with other things. This time is sacred and is set apart for two things. First, we are passionately pursuing God and secondly, we are lingering with Him to hear Him speak.
How do you seek God? The word “seek” means to search out. You are literally setting this time aside search out God. How? You do this through prayer and private worship. Yes, you can sing and worship the Lord privately. You search out God by meditating on scripture and seeking to squeeze each verse like a sponge until it oozes with the juices of truth and more revelation of Him. You search out God by sitting quietly before Him and just listening.
Recently I was on a mini-prayer retreat in my favorite prayer cabin in East Texas. As I was seeking God early that morning the voice of the Lord impressed on my heart, “Listen to me for I have something I was to say to you.” My first thought was to keep reading scripture but I soon knew this was not what God had in mind. So I left my Bible and prayer journal, sat in an easy chair, tilted my head back and sighed a prayer asking the Lord to clear my mind and to listen. It was not easy at first. My mind kept trying to race but after awhile my mind was calmed and the Lord spoke some very important things to me. One of the biggest was He revealed whom He had chosen to be the next staff member of our church. It was a powerful and incredible experience and sure enough the Lord did call that man and his wife to come serve in our church.
If we do not come to search out God, we are likely to shut our Bibles and this devotion without having been blessed with the awareness of His presence or Hearing His distinct voice. The word “find” in this passage means to catch, attain, or meet. Is that the real desire of your heart today? Have you come to catch, attain, or meet God in this sacred moment? If this is your heart, your soul may be captivated by a glimpse of Him that will mesmerize and enthrall your soul. No one or no thing will ever be able to satisfy your soul like Him. If this is the passion of your soul today, I am confident you will not leave disappointed.
Steps to Intimacy:
1. List in your journal anything or anyone that is competing with your desire seek out and find God. Name them one by one. Will you put them behind your affection for God?
2. Write your heart’s desire to seek and find God.
3. Spend some time in private worship. Sit before the Lord and sing, meditate, praise, adore, and love God in this moment. Let deep and sincere praise flow from your lips and heart.
Day Three
[Ps 24:6]
Before proceeding any further, let’s stop and ask the Lord to enlarge our desire for Him. Father, we yearn for you. We are not content to live this day apart from deep fellowship with you. We ask you to increase our hunger for you and to grant us mental and spiritual discipline to abide in your presence until we see you more clearly and hear from you loudly.
We must continue seeking Him. We must refuse the temptation to be satisfied with anything less in this time than His presence. The truth is we are seeking and searching for something in our lives. For some it might be a relationship, a profession, a promotion, a spouse, or something this world promises will bring you contentment and lasting happiness. We are seeking something, but is it God? Did we come to seek and find God in this moment? We are not going to settle for the cheap imitation of an emotional feel good quiet time experience void of the weighty presence of the Lord. May the Lord be the object of our deepest yearnings and strivings today.
Many people who say they seek the Lord really are only after His hands. Their seeking is more about what they can get from God rather than being satisfied with the treasure that is God Himself. Will you settle for His hands today are press in closer to seek His face?
What happens when you make the face of God your pursuit? Seeking someone’s face speaks to intimacy. When we seek the face of God, we will be able to hear what He has to say more clearly. [Jer 33:3] We will gain His hear in return as we lay our burdens and supplications before His throne of grace. [Heb 4:16] We will gaze upon Him to behold His beauty. [Ps 63:2] We will also be melted under the hot lava of His loving gaze and He utters heavenly secrets for our lives. [Ps 139:17] We will begin hearing the intimate thoughts of a loving Father who has our lives planned out. [Ps 139:16] We will be granted the opportunity see things the way God sees them and your gaze will be redirected to where He gazes. We will become much more familiar with the One who knows the number of hairs on our heads. [Luke 12:7]
We are challenged to make God’s face our chief pursuit today. We may not see a mental picture of His face and be able to make out His features but we will become engulfed in His presence and transformed in the process.
Steps to Intimacy:
1. What is God speaking to you as you seek His face? Record those things you sense the Lord speaking to you in your journal.
2. Confess any guilt if you have been content seeking God’s hand over seeking His face.
3. Ask the Lord to allow you see what He sees. Ask the Lord for His vision for your life.
4. Sit still and listen today. Receive His expression of love for you today.
Day Four
[Gen 32:24-30]
As we continue on our journey past casual acquaintance of God, a question is posed today. Do you want God’s blessing on your life? This question will rise to the surface as you read and meditate on our scriptures for today. We must ask ourselves what price Jacob had to pay in order to receive God’s blessing.
We know from reading the scriptures that he spent an agonizing night wrestling with the angel of the Lord. When was the last time you were awakened in the middle of night to spend time wrestling with God in prayer? Did you get up and pray or did you roll over and try to go back to sleep? Jacob wrestled with the angel of the Lord hour after hour until the darkness turned into the morning dawn, but he would not throw in the towel. He strove and struggled for position all through the night and refused to loosen his grip until he received God’s blessing. Do you want God’s blessing enough to forsake sleep in the midnight hours of soul wrestling?
Do we really want God’s blessing? Let us consider two things. First, God gives whatever blessings He chooses to. Every blessing from the Lord does not bring prosperity, success, or ease of life. Many of God’s greatest blessings are wrapped in the form of trials, struggles, sufferings, and painful nights of weeping that must be endured before the joy of the morning dawns with new hope and revelation of God’s blessing. The greatest blessing we can be given today is the gift of His presence and Himself present in any and every circumstance of our lives. Secondly, God’s blessing did not come without brokenness and life transformation. His real blessing is life transformation. After Jacob’s wrestling, he was never the same. He limped for the rest of his life but his character was also transformed in the process. Maybe you are finding yourself in the vice-like grip of God and the pressure hurts but if you endure, you will be transformed and more equipped to be His vessel.
Why are we so quick to forsake the struggle, the wrestling, and striving with the Lord? It requires great effort. It is easier to resign ourselves to live without His blessing and in a land and churches plagued with a miracle famine. What if the Lord was withholding blessings for our families and churches beyond our wildest imaginations in exchange for our nights of wrestling and tenacious grip? Would we not be motivated to strive for position with the Lord and endure the brokenness that comes from such encounters?
Will we be tenacious with God today and refuse to let Him go until He blesses us in whatever way He sees fit? We have been warmed that often His blessings do not come without our having to be broken and molded for the purposes of God. God’s breaking is not to hurt us as much as it is rebuild, remold, and reshape our marred form into vessels of honor.
We close with the question we posed in the very beginning. Do we really want God’s blessing like Jacob wanted it? Are we determined to wrestle with the Lord until we prevail in His grace. He longs to bless us more than we long to be blessed.
Steps to Intimacy:
1. What does the Lord need to break in you today? Conform and do not rebel.
2. Do you want His blessing and presence? Will you wrestle for it as long as it takes?
Day Five
[Hosea 12:4-5]
As our journey continues, we once again turn to Jacob’s wrestling experience with the angel of the Lord. As you read the scriptures, hang around verse four a little longer. There are five action words in that verse that will give us insight into Jacob’s encounter with the Lord.
First, he wrestled, contended and struggled. What are you wrestling with God over today? By faith wrestle in prayer until you prevail by either gaining a peace in your heart or by seeing a change in your circumstances. Remember that a key to successful wrestling in prayer is found in [I John 5:14-15]. Gain fortitude of soul and pray with a tenacious attitude until the answer is secured.
Second, Jacob prevailed. He gained the victory with the Lord and received God’s blessing. Are you prevailing in prayer? The late prayer giant E.M. Bounds once commented that most people give up in prayer at the very point where they should be just getting started. He went on to say that because people are not willing to prevail in prayer, all the oceans of the world could not contain all the unanswered prayers because people simply gave up and quit believing. Prevail.
Third, Jacob wept. Have you mixed tears with your prayer burdens and supplications? Tears move God to action. [Ps 126:5] [Ps 56:8] [II Kings 20:1-6] There is little brokenness in much of our praying but tears and faith are the breeding grounds for miracles and God’s blessing.
Fourth, Jacob sought the favor of God. Do you that? Are you seeking God’s favor with your family, community, work, church?
Last, Jacob found God. As he sought, wept, prevailed and wrestled, Jacob found the presence of God and received God’s blessing. He was determined and I pray that would be our attitude in coming to the Father today. May we be determined to find and become aware of the presence of the Lord.
Steps to Intimacy:
1. Continue to wrestle with the Lord in prayer until you prevail with a sense of peace that the answer will come or you see the answer come in due season.
2. What has broken your heart lately? List these things in your journal and allow the Lord to break your heart over the things that His heart breaks for. Do not be afraid of tears.
3. As the Lord puts His favor on your life, what ministry is He revealing to you? Where are you to be investing your time and talents? Ask the Lord to show you favor with those people and in that ministry.
Day Six
[Hosea 11:7]
As we are nearing the end of this first week of this journey toward intimacy with God, the time has come to do some spiritual house cleaning. We have spent most of our time this past week learning how to desire to seek God. God creates this desire in us for Him. If left up to our own desires, we would never pursue or desire God. [Ps 14:2-3]
Even as a child of God in pursuit of intimacy with Him, it is possible for your affections and desires to stray. Our enemy will seek to distract us and lure us away from this passionate pursuit of knowing the Father. We are easily tempted by old behaviors and thought patterns which can resurface. Are you bent on turning from God today?
Even as we enter His presence, are there any areas in our lives not completely yielded and surrendered? We cannot desire to gratify the desires of the flesh and satisfy our desire for more of God at the same time. Which ever desire is greater will most likely win the day. Today would be good day for us slowly walk the corridors of our hearts with a spiritual broom and sweep the cobwebs and dirt that have collected there. We must sweep out any thought, desire, seed of rebellion, or attitude that does not submit to nor honor God. We must especially go into those secret chambers of our souls where cherished secret sins lie hidden behind locked and closed doors. Today is a day of cleansing.
Intimacy bears the fruit of wanting to see others drawn to God for salvation and intimacy. If we have rebellion and wickedness buried beneath the surfaces of our hearts, others will see right through our empty words and artificial actions. They will see our hypocrisy before they will be able to see our wonderful Savior who can save and transform them.
Are there any places in our hearts where we are beginning to bend in the wrong direction away from God? There will be constant temptations to shelve this devotional because of the time demands and life adjustments. At this point, you may be discovering God is doing a major makeover in your heart. It would not be uncommon to begin thinking how much easier it was to go back to life as it was before, but to do so would mean you would be missing out on really getting to know God and discovering His purposes for you. If you are battling these thoughts, I urge you to repent and set your gaze back on the Lord. Behold Him and allow Him to capture and consume your heart once again. He alone can satisfy the deepest longings of your soul.
Steps to Intimacy:
1. Start a detailed list of confession in each area of your life you have begun to bend from the Lord.
2. Take the necessary time to confess each sin independently.
3. Use Psalm 51 as prayer guide to aid you in this personal time of repentance. Write your prayer for restoration in your journal.
Day Seven
[Hosea 10:12]
We have spent the vast part of this first week dealing with the issue of seeking God and desiring Him. Today as we come before Him once again, our focus is to allow Him to plow up the hard packed ground of our hearts with His word and His presence. Just like the land grows hard from the intense heat from the sun pounding day after day, so can our hearts become hardened by the constant pressure from the world seeking to squeeze and mold us. This can result in our becoming desensitized to the voice and presence of God in our vain pursuits of empty buckets which can never hold what our thirsting hearts long for.
Yesterday, we spent the day asking God to clean every crevice of our hearts of anything that does not honor Him. Though painful, that was a good step in the right direction, but today we must go one step further. We must allow Him to rip into the sin packed soil of our souls in order to turn it over so when He sows the seed of His word into us, the seed will fall on fertile ground, take root, and bear much fruit in the days and years ahead.
Are you hardened to God’s presence and voice? Are you fertile ground for God’s word? When we begin to ignore the voice of the Lord and defiantly refuse to submit to His leadership, our hearts grow harder and harder. Our hears become duller and duller unable to distinguish His voice from the maddening chaos of this age.
With the plow of the Holy Spirit who convicts of sin and reveals truth, having your fallow ground broken up is not a pleasant experience. It is vitally important though. If you ever hope to grow in intimacy with God, you must have a soft and fertile heart.
As you sit before the Lord today, the time has come to allow the steel of His word cut through the layers of firm soil that have built up over the years. Yet as the hard is turned over a soft fertile layer rises to the surface eager for fresh seed to fall. Can you identify any area in your life where your hearts has grown hard and you have refused to obey Him? Allow the Lord to turn each of these areas over until you are fertile ground once again. This is time for you sit in His presence and linger as you allow Him to work on you and plow you.
Begin pondering these questions:
• Is there any area in your life where you are not completely submitted to God?
• Do you have any broken relationships that need to be reconciled?
• Have you really given God your best effort during the past seven days?
• Is there any other area of your life God is speaking to you about?
As God comes over you, remain with Him until He rains righteousness upon you and drenches you with His refreshing presence. Allow Him the time needed to soften your heart and bring under the submission of His leadership. Don’t put this off. Now, this moment, in this very sacred hour is the time to seek the Lord and allow Him to break your fallow ground.
Steps to Intimacy:
1. Journal your responses to the above questions in your journal.
2. Is there anything the Lord desires to remove from your life?
3. Is there anything the Lord desires to add to your life?
4. How has this previous week of close encounters changed you?
Day Eight
[Zephaniah 3:17]
In today’s close encounter, we are going to meditate on the extravagant and lavish love of God for His children. As you read this passage, do so slowly seeking to savor each juicy truth. Making the statement, “God loves you,” hardly even registers on the radar of our hearts and minds. We have become callused to this truth. You read a statement like that and fly right past it not even giving it a second thought. How I pray this verse would be a wake up call if you find yourself in that position.
It would be easy to feel guilty over known sin and condemned which would lead to dread of coming into God’s presence after the last two day’s devotions. During much of last week, God took the hammer and chisel and took chunks off to refine. It was often uncomfortable and extremely painful. Each of us experienced the deep and painfully convicting work of the Holy Spirit as sin was revealed in our behavior, thoughts, and attitudes. That is why we must combat feelings of defeat with a fresh look at the manifold love of God. I pray this verse will be catalyst to open your heart to that love in fresh ways.
Here is the truth. Regardless of your behavior, God cannot possibly love you anymore than He does at this moment. Next truth. There is nothing you can do to make God love you any more or any less. Ponder that for a moment. Think about your greatest morale blunder and there was God still loving you perfectly. He was not pleased in that moment but His love did not waiver for you even for a millisecond. Words are inadequate to express His love for you so He tangibly proved it and gave you symbol to remind you of it continually. It took a cross to fully express God’s love for you through the death of Jesus. The very thought of you brings joy and gladness to God’s heart. Read that sentence again. The very thought of YOU brings joy and gladness to God’s heart. Yes, you! It was God who created you with great detail and your name and countless thoughts about you bless His heart because you are His child (if you have received Christ as your Savior). You did not earn and you do not deserve this love, it is freely bestowed on you by the Sovereign choice of God.
The word “rejoice” in this passage means to spin around wildly and delight with extreme gladness. As His child, your efforts in seeking Him these past days has caused much rejoicing in the heart of God much like a parent watching their child play a ball game and make a great play. There are times He contain the joy any longer and His excitement for you lead to His shouts of joy and rejoicing, again for YOU! This may be far too difficult for you to digest. It is for many. We would rather sulk in the corner imagining God as a harsh task master as opposed to a loving, forgiving, merciful, and yet uncompromising God.
You may feel like you can measure up and you would be right. That’s why we need the blood of Jesus to cleanse us and His righteousness to cover us. You have ever known love until you have been clothed in the love of God. He loves you when you blow it and can gently restore and bandage the wounds, He can encourage when you fail and rejoice when you succeed. His love is deeper than the deepest ocean, wider than the widest desert, and higher than the highest mountain. As a loving Father, He is tender and kind. Abide a little longer than usual and allow His abundant, lavish, overflowing, extravagant, unconditional, inconceivable love to flow over you like a waterfall until you melt beneath the cascade of it. May wave after wave of His never ending, unmerited, and unfathomable love overwhelm you bringing you to your knees in humility and tears.
Steps to Intimacy:
1. Climb into your Heavenly Father’s lap and sit for awhile. Let Him wrap you in the mantle of His love. Bury your head into His massive chest and let His warmth and security bring comfort to you.
2. Know you can never do anything to earn or deserve such love. (This may be a time where you need to experience His forgiveness and restoration.)
3. Journal your thoughts about YOU bringing joy and delight to the heart of the Father. How does that make you feel?
4. Ask Him to affirm His love for you in this time.
5. You may be experiencing shame and guilt. Let Him build you up in and affirm you in this time. Write down what you sense the Lord speaking to you today.
Day Nine
[I Cor 1:9]
God is faithful. It is His nature. He has never been and cannot help but forever be faithful. Ponder that statement. Concentrate on every single word of it. Jehovah, our rock, our provider, our redeemer, Father, deliverer, the Great I Am, is faithful. There has never been a moment in history from the foundations of the world when God was not nor when He was not faithful. He is absolutely trustworthy. His word and His promises are just as true today as they were when they fell from His loving lips the first time. HE IS FAITHFUL.
There might be times in our lives when it would appear God is not faithful. Just travel down to the hospital like I did yesterday. Hundreds of sick children, some terminally sick. Wander into a funeral home. Confusion reigns and many doubt God’s faithfulness behind ominous clouds of darkness of grief. Confidently I state again, there has never been a moment in time when God has not been faithful. Even in sorrow and grief God is faithful in His comfort, His grief, His promise of everlasting life for the saved. God is faithful daily in the forgiveness of our sins, the salvation of souls, the deliverance of those bound in chains of darkness. He is faithful to hear and answer prayer. He is faithful to provide our needs. He is faithful to keep His promises. He is faithful in your life and mine.
Is there an area of life where you feel God has not been faithful to you? Do you feel God has abandoned you and let you down in a time of need? He promised that He would never forsake us ever in [Joshua 1:5]. Either that is truth or a fanciful statement of our imagination. It can’t be both. Either God is really faithful or this is all just the stuff of fairy tales. I am not asking if this statement is true just for you but is God really faithful for every person breathing on planet earth and those who went before us and for those who will come after us? Is our God faithful at all times and in any and every season of life? Yes!!! He can be trusted and counted on.
You can read of His faithfulness in [Ex 14-17]. He is faithful in the pages of [I Kings 17-18] as well as in [Daniel 3-6]. He is faithful on the cross in [Matthew 27] and still so leaving an empty tomb in [Matthew 28]. His faithfulness continues to group of scattered disciples in [Acts 2] and He will be faithful in His second coming and through all of eternity. Like I said earlier, faithfulness is His nature.
The question today is not whether you believe that, because your belief or unbelief that does not change the trustworthiness of God one iota. As you journal today, use the time to trace the faithfulness of God in your own life. Look back and at the present and watch how the Lord has been there for you in the difficult times. This will help you gain confidence to trust Him for today and in the future no matter what you are up against.
Steps to Intimacy:
1. Find a concordance and look at several verses relating to God’s faithfulness. Memorize one or two of them like [Ps 50:15]
2. Confess doubt you might be harboring in your present circumstances.
3. Pray for renewed faith to trust God regardless of your circumstances.
Day Ten
[John 5:1-7]
As you read and meditate on today’s scriptures, envision yourself as being the one sheep whom has gone astray. We focused on the love of God earlier this week but today we will zero in God being redeemer. What does the word redeem mean? Here are two different meanings. “(1)To regain possession of by repurchase, payment of an amount due as on a pledge. (2) To rescue or deliver, as from bondage, by paying a ransom.”
It is a humbling thing to be redeemed, to be in a helpless estate and have to depend on someone else to rescue you by paying your ransom, which is exactly what Jesus did for your sin and mine on the cross. Contemplate that for a moment. We did not do one single thing to deserve, earn, or be credited with redemption. We did not even seek redemption on our own initiative. It was God who convicted our hearts and God who drew us and appointed us for salvation. [John 6:44, 65] He opened our eyes to the hope of the gospel and pursued us before we even thought about pursuing Him. He drew us to repentance of sin and to embrace grace which brought redemption. Incredible.
Do not miss this point. God has many children or sheep in His fold. More numerous than we would care to count. Isn’t it humbling and amazing that God is willing to leave the ninety-nine sheep who are safe to pursue the one who has strayed. God knew before you were ever saved that you were missing from the fold and He went after you. Maybe it was through a parent, grandparent, preacher or youth minister. However He did it, He went after you. He did not rest with the fold He had but wanted you to be in that number. Who lead you to Christ? How many people prayed for you to be saved before you were ever redeemed?
Three people prayed for me. My great uncle who was a Nazarene preacher. My great aunt who attended a Methodist church. My wife began praying for me when she was in eighth grade. I know God heard those prayers and I was redeemed as a result.
Were you raised in a Christian home? How often did you think about God and eternity before you were redeemed? How many times did you reject the gospel before receiving Christ for salvation? Just think if God would have given up on you in frustration. The shepherd sought for His sheep until he found it and God continued to go after you until were back in His care and possession. Jesus was relentless in His redeeming you and continues to be relentless in His redemption of people all over the world.
Can you even imagine the joy that takes place in Heaven over each sinner who repents of sin and is glorious redeemed by Jesus? We are told there is more rejoicing over individuals being saved and redeemed than over all those who gather in holy huddles. That doesn’t mean God doesn’t love the sheep already in the fold. It just means that He also loves though who have lost their way. Thank God for His relentless pursuit of you and your redemption.
Steps to Intimacy:
1. Journal your thoughts about Jesus pursuing and redeeming you.
2. What is God’s desire in sending you to help rescue lost sheep?
3. Pray for a heart like Christ to love and relentlessly pursue wandering sheep.
Day Eleven
[II Cor 5:21]
God, in His perfect love for us, took His perfect Son who had never sinned and made Him sin on our behalf. Try and wrap your mind around that thought. Perfection became imperfection. Purity became impurity. Light took on the darkness. Jesus took the death sentence on the cross each of us deserved while we were given and promised life everlasting which we could never deserve. The list of our iniquities is long and distinguished. Stop for a moment and list your known sins. Be specific about those sins. Ponder the shame of those choices and behaviors. Now, picture all that filth being cast on Christ while He was on the cross. Go one step further and envision His cleanness and right standing with God being imputed into our lives. Why would Jesus do this?
Two reasons come to mind and both need to be contemplated long and hard. First, He was motivated by love, a perfect love unlike what you and I had ever experienced until we were redeemed. How could an all knowing God love us that much, especially when you think about our half hearted commitments, our inconsistent follow through and continual acts of defiance and rebellion. Still God loved us enough to put Jesus on the cross. How does this love make you feel? Journal those thoughts. Second, it was Christ’s death that made us righteous before God. Apart from Jesus’ sacrifice there would not have been redemption which means there would never have been a desire to know God, a path to relate with Him, and no close encounters.
God does look upon your deeds to validate your acceptance into His kingdom. Your merit is based solely on what Jesus did on the cross. That’s why Paul said he had no room to boast in anything but the cross. [Gal 6:14] It is the blood of Christ that has robed every child of God in a cloak of righteousness. It is humbling to know we did not do one single thing in this whole process but trust and embrace and even God helped us with those. It was simply God’s desire to redeem you and make through acceptable through the costly death of His Son.
Steps to Intimacy:
1. Journal a song or poem that sums of the truth in [II Cor 5:21]. Find one that already been written or make up your own. Sing it from a fresh heart today.
2. Journal your thoughts on the freedom of knowing you stand righteous before God because of the redemptive work of Christ.
3. Express your heart to Christ for becoming sin on your behalf and taking your punishment on the cross. (This might be a good time to take the Lord’s Supper in the privacy of this devotion.)
4. Journal your grateful heart for such a grand act of love.
Day Twelve
[Ps 106:2]
Our God is without equal in deed or power. It would take you all of eternity to try and list all His attributes, to recount His mighty acts in your own life alone much less in the lives of those who have walked with the Lord. How many times has God’s unseen hand protected us from harm, disease, and tragedy without our having ever even becoming aware we were in danger? How many times has God provided without our ever even having asked? Can you even number the times He has healed, brought comfort, given supernatural strength, or peace. I could go on but I think you can the Psalmist’s point.
What have you given to the Lord in response to all He has given you? We are not talking about trying to pay God back. That is impossible. We are talking about giving God thanks and giving God our best in response to His lavish love poured out on us in numerous ways. Let’s offering a HUGE praise to God in our journals today. Don’t hold back. Let praise pour forth like lava erupting from a volcano. Sing! Shout! Weep! Thank! Rejoice! Celebrate! Praise God as intensely as you can. After you are spent emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually, and fall into an exhausted heap, God is worthy still more. If you list every act of God in your life you can possibly remember and you have them all listed in volumes of books, He has still done more and will do more in the future.
How can we wrap our finite minds and hearts around an infinite God? We must ask God for greater revelations and for greater capacities to experience them. There will always be more of God to know. You will never fully plunge His depths or climb His summit. We can only ask for more and pursue a little harder. Summon a little more strength and praise a little harder, longer, and louder. He is worthy of it.
Steps to Intimacy:
1. Take some time to sit before the Lord and dwell on His greatness and our smallness.
2. How often do you sing your praises instead of His? How often do you make yourself or someone else other than God the center of your universe?
3. Breathe in the vastness of God and excel praises.
4. Confess your attempts to downsize God so He fits into your convenient theology and lifestyle.
5. Where do you fit in God’s grand scheme of the universe?
Day Thirteen
[Ps 139:16]
Before you ever took your first breath, God knew you. I do not mean He was merely acquainted with you. I mean He KNEW you. He knew the color of your hair and eyes, the type personality you would have, what talents you would have, what things you would excel at and struggle with, what friends you would have, who you would marry, what vocation you would have, where you would live, when you would die. I mean God KNEW you before you were ever born. He knew all of this before you were ever even in conceived in your mother’s womb. God KNEW you before there ever was a you.
He continues to know you. He knows your thoughts right this very second. He knew the exact moment you would awake today and when you fall asleep tonight. He knows the burdens you carry and the dreams you cherish in your heart. He has never been nor will ever be taken by surprise concerning any event on any given day of your life. He knows you. He knows what makes you laugh and what causes you to weep. He knows the hidden scars you have hidden from everyone but Him. Nothing escapes His notice.
He knows every trial you will face on your earthly pilgrimage. He knows when your faith will soar and when it will sink in the depths of despair. He knows these days of your life when you experience in expressible joy along with the days when your heart will fill like it has been ripped and torn into pieces by the cruelty of life.
How does all of this make you feel? If possible, read all of [Psalm 139]. Allow the truth of this great Psalm to infiltrate your heart to nourish, comfort, add peace, joy, and security as needed.
Steps to Intimacy:
1. What is your response to the truth that God knew you before you were born?
2. How does being known by God impact you?
3. If you have questions about your life – this might be a good time to ask them and to listen for answers.
4. Ask the Lord to reveal His will concerning things you might be confused about.
Day Fourteen
[Psalm 40:5]
Many are the thoughts of God toward us, too numerous to count. The word “thoughts” in the Hebrew language has a wide variety of meanings. It might mean plans, intentions, imagination, or purpose. God’s thoughts translate into God’s purposes. He has a plan for where we will serve Him in the context of a community and local church. He has thoughts about what ministry or ministries we need to be involved in. His thoughts include our families, vocations, use of time and money. God has wonderful imagination about how to take our unique make up of personality, gifts, talents, and passions and use them all to expand His kingdom. Yet, often we rebel against His directions leaving us unfulfilled and frustrated and many needs left unmet in God’s agenda.
God’s purposes for your life and mine are wonderful. You were created with purpose, though many people miss this fact and squander their whole lives searching for meaning in possessions and people who can never give them what they long for. God’s thoughts and purposes are too numerous to count. If you multiply that truth by all the people who are His children around the world in foreign countries this truth is mind boggling. Each person in God’s family receives thoughts in the mind of God too numerous too count. How great and vast is the mind and heart of God to know each one by name and to think of them countless times in any given day. We are always on God’s mind. He never loses track of us for even a second. Even while I write this God is thinking of me at the same time He is thinking of my brothers in Christ hundreds of miles away from where I am sitting in this church office.
Contained in some of these thoughts are His love for us, excitement over our progress in relating to Him, thoughts of concerns for unwise decisions we make from time to time, thoughts of protection as we slumber through the night vulnerable, and thoughts to unfold directions for us on any given day. It is humbling to contemplate the truth that while I am sitting down at this computer pecking away at this keyboard pondering God, He sits on His throne pondering me and you who will one day be reading this. What are His thoughts concerning you at this moment? Is He pleased, honored, rejoicing, or are His thoughts more saddened, grieved, angry, and displeased with you? Let Him reveal the answer to us.
Steps to Intimacy:
1. Sit with God for a season as He reveals His thoughts concerning you. This will require you to do more listening than talking today. Be sure and capture His thoughts in your journal.
2. As you meditate on God thinking of people all over the world, what are some things He reveals to you about His people in other nations? What are their needs and is there anyway you can help to meet those needs?
3. Try and live this day with your mind on God as much as possible. Remove all mental clutter that would hinder you from doing this. Be sensitive to things He may want to reveal to you along the way.
Day Fifteen
[Mark 16:15]
We spent a great deal of time looking at several different aspects of God’s love last week. We are going to expand on His love, not just for you and for people like you, but for people all over the world in every country, among every kindred, tribe, and people group even in the remotest parts of this globe. This thinking will be contrary to most Christian’s thought processes in the United States. Far too many of us are oblivious to the passionate heartbeat of God for people in other nations. It is the grand vision of God to expand the gospel message throughout the whole world.
Who is going to take that message to places like China, Poland, Sudan, Korea, and so forth? You and me and people just like us everywhere. How can God use us to advance His kingdom globally? First, we can pray for missions advancement and for missionaries to be called and raised to meet the needs of the world. Second, you can volunteer to go on short term mission trips around the world and across the United States. There are numerous options to go on 7-14 day trips. Start by asking the Lord if He desires you to take such a trip. It might not be so important to know where He wants you to as it is to know if He is calling you to go somewhere at this point. Third, you can give money to missions offerings or to help support others who are going on missions trips. This is a great kingdom investment. Fourth, you can allow the Lord to use you to mentor and train future missionaries through Bible studies and one on one investing into the lives of others. Last, you can be available and sensitive to the call of God on your life to surrender to full time missions.
Steps to Intimacy:
1. Prayerfully go through the above options about how you can personally be involved in missions and ask the Lord where He wants you.
2. Find a globe or map and put it in a place where you will be continually reminded of God’s heart for all people everywhere.
3. Communicate your availability and willingness to serve God where needed.
4. Pray through [Is 6:8]
Day Sixteen
[John 15:5]
Is your life bearing fruit for the glory of God? Most of us fall into the treacherous trap of trying to do things for God rather than letting God do things through us. Did you catch the difference? The first way we are exerting all the effort and in the latter God is the one producing the fruit as we surrender. As we have journeyed together these past couple of weeks you may find a new desire welling up in you to do more for God. That desire proves inconsistent as you struggle for motivation to follow through and falter in your frail strength to accomplish all that is in your heart. Your close encounter could very well prove to be revolutionary if you seek God diligently.
The secret to fruit bearing is not trying harder but surrendering more. We must learn the secret of hiding in Christ and abiding in Christ. This is easier splashed on the pages of this book than on the pages of our hearts. To abide in Christ means to remain in Christ all day long day after day. One saint referred to the act of abiding in Christ as learning to live the “exchanged the life”. Your life is exchanged for the life of Christ lived through you. You exchange your love for His love, your strength for His strength, your power for His power. You surrender so Christ can love, minister, and work through you. All day long you remain hidden in Christ and are contented to dwell in that position.
How much of your service for Christ is being done through the exchanged life and how much is being done through your own efforts and energies? Nothing you do in your own ability will last and count in eternity. None of it.
Are you getting tired and burned out? Is your strength and passion for the work of God waning? These are sure signs you are laboring in your own efforts and not with the exchanged life.
Before you can learn the truth of abiding in Christ or the exchanged life, you must first be willing to admit you cannot the job done in your own power. Jesus says in this passage that we can do NOTHING apart from Him. As you journal today, focus on the two central truths of living the exchanged life and that nothing we do in our own strength ability has any eternal value. How much of what you are currently doing is spiritually bankrupt because it is not being done aiding in Christ? Search through the archives of your mind and begin allowing the Lord to reveal those things to you.
Now, ask the Lord to show you how to abide in Him throughout the remainder of this day and how to exchange your life for His life lived through you. His promise to you and me is that we will bear much fruit if we stay hidden in Him and live the exchanged life. Do you really want to get to this place? Ask the Lord for it and believe Him for it.
Steps to Intimacy:
1. Part of abiding means remaining. Seek to remain in communion with Jesus through out the course of this day no matter where you go or what you do.
2. Journal your thoughts and impressions on abiding in Christ at the end of this day and determine to live the exchanged life tomorrow.
3. Work to surrender in living the exchanged life day in and day out.
Day Seventeen
[John 15:7-8]
We are continuing to look at another facet of the exchanged life today and how that life affects our prayers and those prayers affect our world. Squeeze God’s word for every drop of truth as you would the last drop of water on a hot summer day.
God’s ultimate purpose in this world is to bring greater glory to His name. God loves to make much of God and not of us or our ministries. He is passionate for the glory and fame of His name. Therefore He is passionate about you and I bearing much fruit through prayer and ministry so much will be made of His name. If we do not bear much fruit, God does not get the glory He deserves. All of us have fallen short in this area on more than one occasion. To put it simply, if we are not producing spiritual fruit, we are not living the exchanged life and therefore our labors are in vain. Do we really want the glory for ourselves? Do we want people to see working by the sweat of our brow, solving problems with the brilliance of our intellect, and putting in long hours until the job is completed but not producing one ounce of genuine spiritual fruit. God gets no glory when all the attention is on us and our efforts.
Just by the fact that we pray is acknowledgement that we need God and are dependent upon Him for spiritual breakthrough. The fact that we are surrendering to God in prayer and praying for Him to bear fruit gives testimony that we are His disciples and that His power is working through us. God does not need proof who His true children are but the world does. The world has been deceived and tricked by hucksters who ministered for personal gain and financial profit. Do you want God to get the glory and when people see you at work, do they see you at work or Christ in you? Depending on who is doing the work, will determine who gets the glory. I want to emphasize what Christ is saying to us. If you are doing the work, you are not producing spiritual fruit. You may show some products of your efforts but they will not be spiritual in nature and they will not last or be recognized in eternity at the judgment seat of Christ. [I Cor 3:10-15]
By God’s fruit produced through a prayerful exchanged life, He is exalted and glorified. When a lost world sees this they are drawn to Christ like a moth drawn to the flame. If all they ever see is us working hard they will forever be bored and repelled from Christ and the church. How we must get this truth in our hearts. We must live prayerful exchanged lives which produce an abundance of fruit and which draw a watching world to glorify our God and be drawn to Him for salvation.
We are challenged today to take inventory of our lives. Are we bearing fruit? Are our lives bringing glory and honor to God? Do people see our ministries and identify the power and anointing of God at work through us? Living the exchange life is the hinge on which so much of the kingdom of God hangs.
Steps to Intimacy:
1. What is God showing you about the exchanged life?
2. As you tried to remain hidden in Christ yesterday, did you bear fruit?
3. Is your motivation really to bring glory to God through your service to Him?
4. Find a trusted mentor whom you see bearing fruit in their lives. See if they will pray with you and teach you about the exchanged or hidden life.
Day Eighteen
[John 6:35]
By now, you should be acquiring a new spiritual appetite for more of God and discovering that He alone can satisfy the deepest cravings of your soul. Are you more hungry and thirsty for God than you have ever been? There is a physical hunger and thirst, but those can never bring lasting satisfaction. You will always have to eat food again or drink again to sustain life. Is there a yearning in you to feast at the table of God’s presence and to drink deeply of Him? You must come to the place of understanding where nothing in this world can ever satisfy your soul like Jesus. [Ps 73:25] We are far too easily amused and satisfied with the lesser blessings and cheaper thrills of this passing age.
Religion will never suffice. Our yearning must be for more of God and not just attending more church services or meetings. Church is good but a poor substitute for actually craving God Himself. You can attend a worship service and miss God totally as you become distracted by musical talent and preaching oratory. You can fall into the trap of rushing through devotion times and not allowing God to be your chief pursuit in exchange for a little more truth treasured in your mind but not infused in your heart. You can take each of these and make God your chief pursuit, the ultimate object of your longings and affection and your life will be transformed in the process. Do you see the difference? You can settle for less or feast on the bountiful blessing that is God.
As you remain in His presence today and soak in Him and savor Him, you will be fulfilled. As you gaze on His beauty, so many of the trappings of this world will lose their glitter and sparkle in your eyes. They will lose much of their appeal and attraction. Your thoughts will not be concerned with the things of this world as much as for the things of God and the weightier matters of eternity. You will learn the secret Paul mastered in [Phil 4:11] when he said he was content in all circumstances. Keep in mind he wrote those words in a prison cell.
We must learn this lesson well. Jesus alone satisfies. Many people will turn the world upside down searching for something, anything that will fill the void in their life. They try relationships, alcohol, drugs, new age religions, self enlightenment, sexual escapades only to come up empty every time. Jesus is what we need and what we are longing for. He alone can meet what we covet so much. Will you take time today to savor Christ and allow Him to nourish our sin starved souls? I know the world screams for our attention and much of what they are peddling appeals to the flesh but it is deception. Do not be hoodwinked. Stay the course and value Jesus Christ.
Steps to Intimacy:
1. Identify the deepest cravings of your soul and list them in your journal.
2. Where does God fall on that list? (I pray He be number one)
3. Do you after all this time still desire more intimacy with God? Why or why not?
4. Journal any thoughts you have concerning how Jesus has satisfied you.
Day Nineteen
[Ps 42:1-2]
Is there a panting in your soul to meet with God today? If not, stop what you are doing and ask the Lord to create that panting in you so this is not time wasted. The picture the Psalmist paints for us is one of not just a deer stopping for a leisure drink, but rather of one yearning aching for a drink in the midst of a drought. There is desperation involved, life and death motivation to do whatever it takes to get to water. Few of us have ever approached God with that kind of intensity and yet the Psalmist is saying that is exactly how he approaches God. His appetite was for God. His thirsting was for God. His passion was for God. His desire was for God.
What was your attitude in coming today? Did you come with intensity and determined to meet with God or did you leisurely stroll into this time and flippantly read these scriptures with little to no expectation. Developing an intimate relationship with God requires a life long effort. It is very time consuming and requires great discipline and devotion. Salvation is a precious gift from the Lord but to be like God and to know God is a pursuit. It means getting up day in and day out, decade in and decade out and to get refocused and to choose to run hard after God like a sprinter toward the finish line in the Olympic games. This will not take place in a casual saunter through the pages of scripture. If you came into the presence of the living God with no real expectation to meet with Him, why did you come at all? He wants to meet with you more than you want to meet with Him.
Our expectation must be renewed day by day for fresh and close encounters with the Great I Am. We have to be reminded He longs to transform our lives daily. He desires to do this if we will stay with Him long enough and to seek to rush off to the next item to do on our list. God is our list. Nothing supersedes Him. Day by day, God sands here, chisels there, polishes this, and molds that like a sculpture creating a masterpiece. The purpose of the sculpture’s existence is not to bring glory to itself but to the creator. This is the heart of God for His children. He wants the world to look at your life and mine and utter, “Only a great God could have created that or done that through them.” Did you come to have a close encounter with the Lord today? He desires a level of communion with you beyond anything you have ever fathomed.
Steps to Intimacy:
1. Confess any sin in your life?
2. Confess the lack of expectation to meet with the living God today?
3. Seek to draw as close to God as you possibly can during this time?
4. Ask God how He wants to change your life today.
Day Twenty
[James 4:7-8]
As you meditate on these verses, please take special notice of the word “submit” in verse seven. The word “submit” means to get in the proper rank. Often we are striving to outrank God by barking our orders to Him through prayer and expressing our opinion on how He should run our affairs. This is just the opposite of coming before Him in humility and submitting ourselves to His leadership and will. In order to this, it will require a total surrendering and yielding to Him even when do not understand what He is doing and it seems He has abandoned us. Still, we must surrender and trust.
At the same time we are yielding to God, we are to be resisting the devil. He wants us to inflate our opinions and wills over God’s. This is precisely why is of vital importance that we come into the presence of God and get in the proper rank under His authority and leadership in order to hear His marching orders for the day.
As we resist the devil, he will flee. He really has no choice in the matter because he is also under God in rank and must submit to the authority of God and His word. The best way to resist our enemy is with the word of God.
Our real focus today, though is verse eight. Do you really long to draw near God. If you do, get ready because more than you long to draw near to Him, He desires to draw near to you. Get this picture. Here you are eagerly and earnestly seeking to draw closer and closer to God while at the same time God is a dead spring drawing closer to you. The end result of these holy collisions, are close encounters that result in life change.
Sometimes the collisions result in revelation and conviction of sin. Other times they result in comfort, or revelation of a new direction in life, or a promise for the future. These collisions are precious. I will never forget many of those collisions in my own personal life like: when God called me to preach, when God showed me I would marry Brenda, when God began revealing new ministries to me and my call to write. I live for those holy collisions and you never know on what morning you will crack the Bible open wearily and God will blow you away with His presence and call on your life. There are times He will tweak your relationship with Him in those collisions. There will be times when your response will be tears and times when you will be exuberant in your worship. Each close encounter collision makes you more like Him and increases your desire for Him.
Right now, at this moment, regardless of where you are, why don’t you put this devotion down and run toward God in prayer in full out sprint and get prepared because He is coming to you with the same attitude. When you two collide, submit to His leadership and let Him do, speak, or shape your life as He wants to.
Steps to Intimacy:
1. Journal your dead sprint toward God.
2. In what areas do you need to resist the Devil? Are there areas of your life not under God’s authority?
3. Journal what God is requiring of you in this time.
4. What has been the most impressionable result of your close encounter collision with God today and throughout these past three weeks together?
Day Twenty One
[Ps 63:8]
Today I have included several translations of this verse to give your further insight into the truth found here.
“My soul followeth hard after Thee, Thy right hand upholdeth me.” KJV
“My soul follows close behind You, Your right hand upholds me.” NKJV
“My soul clings to Thee; Thy right hand upholds me.” NAS
Yesterday we focused on drawing near to God. Today we are going to take that to the next level. I love the King James Version of our text today. Are we really running hard after God today? Too often we get into a casual meander toward the Lord. There is little passion, little energy, and as a result few close encounters. How would you define your attitude toward coming before the Lord today and over the past several weeks? Did you come for a casual stroll, a brisk walk, a slow jog, or a full out sprint, straining every muscle fiber to go faster and harder with each spiritual stride? We should be RUNNING HARD after the Lord and trying to follow Him as close as we can.
We have long distance track champion in our church. While watching her leave the pack hundreds of yards behind in a cross country race recently, I asked her father how she stayed motivated to run her hardest. He commented that she tries to catch the four wheeler leading the race. She pushes herself to the max trying to catch something must faster than she is. That pushes her to go further and faster. That should be our attitude in chasing God.
The truth is we are sprinting toward many things in our lives. We sprint toward making more money, getting job promotions, buying more gadgets and gizmos, positioning ourselves in the community or church for influence, but do we run hard after God? If God is not what we are running hard after, we will most likely find our running is in vain. What have you set your sights on? What is at the end of the finish line of your life? I hope and pray it is God.
Follow hard after the Lord all the days of your life. Make the choice to get right in God’s hip pocket and quicken your pace when He quickens His. Go harder after Him than you have ever imagined and see what happens. It is absolutely impossible to have this mentality and not become more intimate with God and more intense in service for God.
Step to Intimacy:
1. Run hard after God today.
2. Capture this close encounter in your journal
Day Twenty Two
[Acts 13:22]
At the end of your life some preacher will stand over your corpse and speak about your life. What will he say? What one thing will characterize your life above all the other things? God characterized one of His most beloved servants. This servant was far from perfect. His moral mishaps and the blunders of a pathetic parenting are recorded in the pages of scripture. Despite all of that, God’s testimony of His servant David’s life is this, “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who will do all my will.”
Don’t rush through those words. Let them sink in. David, an adulterous murderer, a shamefully weak and often disconnected parent, is characterized by God as a man after God’s own heart and willing to do the will of the Lord. Those are HUGE statements not from the voice of some preacher trying to make David look better than he really was, but from the voice of God who sees all and knows all.
David made God the chief pursuit of God. The Psalms are like getting to read David’s journals and see his heart longing, yearning, craving, and hankering for more of God. He sought God in the fields while shepherding the sheep, in dark caves while fleeing for his life from a jealous king, in bouts of depression, and after choosing sin. David made seeking God a priority. In response to all this, God says David just wanted God’s heart to in essence be his heart. David wanted the affection, the attention, and aspirations of God to all be transplanted into his own heart.
Regardless of God’s will, David most of the time wanted to obey it and walk in it. You will not have ponder long here to see that most of us fall woefully short of David’s epitaph from God. Ponder this verse a little longer and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you.
Steps to Intimacy:
1. How has God spoken to you through this verse? Write out your prayerful response.
2. Is there an area of His will you have not submitted to? Come under this authority in each of these areas.
3. We are nearing the end of this journey together. Beginning tomorrow we will be starting our last week. The last step of intimacy on day thirty will require some planning, so you are being given a week notice in order to help with planning. You will be challenged on day thirty to set aside a day for God alone and take personal retreat with Him. This time is to be God’s time. You are being asked to leave your home to get away from the cares of this world to seek the Lord. Give Him your undivided attention. You can be creative as possible with the where, when, and how to but find a secluded spot to lock yourself away with the Lord. Take one day and push everything to the back burner except seeking God.
Day Twenty Three
[Hebrews 4:13]
The day of reckoning is coming. There will be a day when we stand before God and give an account of our whole lives. What we did and didn’t do. We will give an account for how we used our spiritual gifts for His glory. We will be held accountable for how we used our time each day. Accordingly, there will be will be an accounting for how much time we spent in seeking God in contrast with the time we spent pursuing entertainment and recreation. We also answer for how we spent our money, whether we followed His directions, the times we were rebellious against His commands, and the list could continue.
Not one second of our lives has escaped His Sovereign glance. He has seen it all. The good. The bad. The ugly. We will stand with no excuses and nowhere to hide. Everything will be exposed on that day.
Today is a good day to introspect your spiritual condition. God is just as concerned by the inner condition of your heart as He is with the outward appearances of being righteous. Listen as the Holy Spirit reveals different areas in your life that may need to be adjusted.
Steps to Intimacy:
1. Allow the spotlight of the Holy Spirit to reveal sin in your life.
2. What changes do you need to make? List them in your journal.
3. How will you make these necessary changes in your life?
4. Who will hold you accountable in these areas?
Day Twenty Four
[Ps 119]
Today’s scripture reading is longer than normal. You may not be able to do it all at one time but allow the Lord to take several of those verses and speak to your heart. Pick out the one or ones that speak to you the most.
As you read, take the time to enjoy the banquet of God’s word. Too often we rush through Bible readings like someone wolfing down a meal. Savor truth. Meditate on truth. Let truth marinate in your soul. You will not be able to have intimacy with God apart from the steady and consistent reading of His word. God has much to say to you not just today but for the remainder of your life through His word.
Begin asking the Lord to give you an insatiable appetite for His word. Many people approach Bible reading and study as a duty more than a delight. Allow and expect the Holy Spirit to reveal truth to you today and any time you open and dive into the vast ocean of truth contained in scripture. He will give you insight and inspiration.
Ask the Lord to show you a book in the Bible to begin to study and explore. This will help you to begin to understand truth in context. If you have never done so, I challenge you read the Bible through from Genesis to Revelation. Stay the course and finish this task for the profit and satisfaction of your soul.
Steps to Intimacy:
1. Choose one or two verses from Psalm 119 to memorize.
2. Determine what book of the Bible you will begin to study closer.
3. Pray a prayer using mostly scripture in your prayer. Personalize the scriptures but let most of the prayer be God-breathed with scriptures.
4. Begin quoting scriptures you have already memorized. Try to recall as many of them as you can. How many can you quote?
5. What specific thing or things has God spoken to you today out of His word?
Day Twenty Five
[Ps 63:2]
Did you attend a worship service this past week? What did you see take place during that service? Music? Preaching? Fellowship? What did you personally experience in the last worship service you attended? What did you go looking for? Did you go to behold and gaze upon the beauty of the Lord?
We should come to church to for God and to listen to Him. Our preferences about styles of music and preaching really do not matter. Our focus must continually look past the personalities on the platform to the presence of God and the clarion call of His voice.
David gives two things we ought to be looking for in the sanctuary. His power. His glory. The word “power” means strength. The word “glory” means weightiness. We need to see His power to maintain hope in a world of trials. We need His glory to keep us humble in an age that loves to exalt talent, beauty whether natural or artificial, and who loves to have our names in marquee lights. Too much of church is about the personalities on the platform rather than the presence of God. I heard a song the other day talk about people trading the altar for a stage. In worship, God is the only one to be in the spotlight.
You can leave worship feeling more like you have been to a talent show rather than in a divine encounter with the Lord. If you are looking for His power, it is displayed in conviction, the salvation of souls, broken hearts mended, and truth being revealed. If you are looking for His glory you will sense His weightiness in the singing and power of His word whether read or spoken.
Take your eyes off yourself and cast a longing glance in God’s direction. Gaze upon His beauty revealed in His power and glory. Your worship habits will never be the same.
Steps to Intimacy:
1. Begin praying about how the Lord has spoken to you.
2. Determine to seek Him in the sanctuary.
3. Prayerfully prepare your heart before attending you next worship service.
Day Twenty Six
[Matthew 9:10-13]
One of the things that will happen as we continue on this journey toward intimacy is God will transform our hearts. We will begin to think differently and we will begin to have a different set of priorities. We will begin to value what He values and treasure what He treasures. There are few things God values and treasures more than reaching lost and straying souls and offering them eternal life.
Little commentary is needed today. God’s word speaks for itself. Father, break our hearts for the souls you long and yearn for. May reaching the lost move up on our priority list. Take all the time needed to reveal truth in our hearts. Please speak for your servants are listening.
Steps to Intimacy:
1. Who were the people attracted to Jesus?
2. Are these same kind of people drawn and attracted to you? Why or why not?
3. How did the religious establishment respond to Jesus?
4. What is the great need identified in verse 12?
5. Why did Jesus say He came?
6. How do these verses personally speak to you and challenge you today?
7. What will you do in response to what the Lord has spoken today?
Day Twenty Seven
[Mark 1:16-18]
In a book entitled Rachel’s Tears written by her mother, Rachel’s relationship with the Lord is chronicled along with her being martyred at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999 along with eleven other students and a teacher. The killers specifically targeted Rachel by name on video tapes that were made before the tragic massacre. Rachel kept a journal through high school revealing her passionate heart for God. Below I have included an excerpt of one of her journal entries which is moving.
People are crying losing their minds
People are dying taking their lives
Will anyone save them, will anyone help?
Will somebody listen or am I all by myself?
Please reach out your hand and grab a hold of their life
Open their eyes to His wonderful light
Let them know of His undying love
That this comes only from Heaven above
Please reach out your hand and grab a hold of their life
Don’t let go with out a good fight
Witness to them show them the way
Give them God’s love and give it today
I sit here and tell you to go and save a life
But what am I doing to give that good fight
I judge other souls never checking my own
Oh Lord, I should have known
- Rachel’s Tears p. 154
Pretty raw and honest from a teenage girl who was killed because of her stand and witness for Christ. She struggled with witnessing and yet she did it time and time again with her love, voice, talent, and ultimately with her life. Her life, though all to brief, continues to give a strong witness.
Steps to Intimacy:
1. When was the last time you verbally shared your faith with a lost person?
2. What reasons do you have for not witnessing more? Write them in your journal.
3. What do you make of Rachel’s poem? Is the meaning changed by the knowledge of our martyr’s death?
4. What will it take for you to become a fisher of men?
Day Twenty Eight
[Galatians 2:20]
In the book Rachel’s Tears, Rachel often wrote in her journals about wanting to be totally consumed for God and yet the frustration of not being able to get there and the loneliness she faced in walking this deserted and isolated road most of the time.
If you really want to be intimate with God, then you will also have a desire to be completely consumed by Him and you will also know the loathsomeness of loneliness as nominal Christians forsake you and the lost can’t understand you. The deeper you go with the Lord, the more lonely your will become. Today, we are going to look at two different journal entries from Rachel. As you read these entries and combine them with the truth of God’s word, trust the Holy Spirit to speak to you.
Am I the only who sees
Am I the only one who craves your glory
Am I the only one who longs forever to be in your loving arms
All I want is for someone to walk with me
Through these halls of tragedy
Please give me a loving friend who will carry your name until the end
Someone who longs to be with you
Someone who will stay forever true
- Rachel’s Tears p. 77
Dear God, why do I feel dry in your Spirit? Why do I feel that the fire has died within me, yet so many claim they the light of you, oh God burning brightly? Why do I have to feel moments of doubts, distrust, disbelief, stages of anger and stages of loneliness when it comes to you, Father? Why do I lose focus of you during praise and worship as well as prayer? Why can’t I completely be consumed by you? Why can’t I be used by you? Why do I feel self righteous at times? Why do I feel afraid?
- Rachel’s Tears p. 111
Steps to Intimacy:
1. Do you have a desire to be consumed or crucified with Christ? Why or why not?
2. What is keeping you from being crucified and consumed? Be brutally honest in your journal?
3. Do you really crave the glory of God in your life?
4. As you have grown in intimacy with the Lord these past weeks, what are you learning about loneliness?
Day Twenty Nine
[Mark 6:30-31]
As we are nearing the end of this journey together, take the words of Jesus to the disciples to heart. They had just returned for a season of intense ministry. Jesus calls them to solitude and a season of renewal and refreshing. Our culture struggles with disciplines like seclusion, silence, solitude. Yet, without these sown into very fabric of our lives, we will have little intimacy with God.
Where do you go for solitude in this age of unceasingly deafening noise? Where do you personally go to lock everything and every one out of your life long enough to give God your undivided attention? Where are to able to go to linger with the Lord without distraction? I had to go to some soccer fields this week to find such a place.
Tomorrow you are being asked to find a place of solitude and silence for an extended time with the Lord. It would be great if you get alone with the Lord for a whole day but however long you are able to get away, take a personal retreat with the Lord. Many have never taken a personal retreat with the Lord and may find it both intimidating and frustrating in the beginning. Stay the course and press on until you drink of the intoxicating presence of God. Sip long and hard until you are drunk with Him.
Today, you are challenged to finalize whatever preparations need to be made for this retreat. Take some time and draw a road map of how you will use your time during your retreat. Determine where you will go and how long you will have to spend there. Begin now asking the Lord to prepare your heart to hear from Him. Take the remainder of this time to prepare your heart for this thrilling time in your relationship with Him.
Day Thirty
[Luke 5:16]
If you are on your personal retreat right now, congratulations. I took my first personal prayer retreat over a decade ago and just completed a short one recently in which the Lord overwhelmed me with His presence and message for me. It truly was life changing. I go to a cabin overlooking a private lake in East Texas taking my Bible, prayer journal, a few books, and tools for writing messages or books. These retreats have lasted for as short as one day and as long as five. I long to take these retreats two times a year. It is great time to be shut up with God.
At times, I have fasted and prayed while at other times I read more than I prayed. There was even a time when I sensed the Lord leading me to sleep more than normal to rest after an especially intense ministry season. Regardless of what I do with this time, my focus is always the same. SEEK GOD! LISTEN TO WHAT HE HAS TO SAY TO ME!
Taking time away from my wife and boys and our church is never easy. It is always a sacrifice, but it is needed and I am never disappointed. You can read an excerpt written on one such retreat at www.nocompromiseministries.com under special messages entitled SANCTUARY WITH GOD.
Here is your challenge now. You are now hopefully secluded with God somewhere. Use this time to sprint after Him. Pray, read scripture, take a prayer walk, read a book, sit and listen, meditate on specific verses, but most importantly make the Lord your chief ambition during this time. This will be one of the most important days of your life. If you get frustrated with doing one thing move on to something differently. This is your time. You might have to experiment at first. I have found prayer walking outdoors especially meaningful and refreshing to my soul.
If you have been unable to get away today, please do not neglect this important exercise. Schedule it at your earliest convenience. Make a pledge to the Lord that you will honor Him with this retreat. Now, here are your life long final steps to intimacy.
Steps to Intimacy:
1. Take at least one personal prayer retreat at least one time a year for the rest of your life.
2. Continue to get up daily as you have for the past month and seek the Lord through prayer and scripture reading with the same intensity for the remainder of your days.
Some Final Thoughts
It is hard to believe that our month long journey is completed. Only God knows the incredible strides you have made with Him during these weeks. In one way this is the ending of one chapter, but more importantly it only the beginning of the next chapter or your continued journey toward intimacy.
You have the rest of your life to climb the summit of God. You no longer me nor this devotion book. You have tasted God for yourself and you have His word complete with more revelation of Him, His plans and purposes for you. In some ways this devotion has been a crutch for you to lean on until you were able to walk with the Lord by yourself. Prayerfully, you will never be satisfied with anything less than His presence again.
Where will you go from here? My heart rejoices when I think about God implanting His dreams and plans into your hearts. Some of you have heard a call from the Lord for your life during these days. Others have been set ablaze and you are closer to God in this season than you have ever been. Keep climbing higher and burning hotter. Many have been set free and delivered from the dulling power of sin and stale religion. I pray all of you went deeper in God than you ever have imagined and you will continue to submerge and plunge into His unfathomable depths.
Guard your time with the Lord with your life. Fight for it. Cherish it and carve it out of your busy schedules no matter the sacrifice. May we always be passionate pursuers of God ever seeking for more close encounters.
Matt Edwards
December 29, 2005
Paradise, TX.
No comments:
Post a Comment