Focus: Intimacy With God

Text: Song of Sol.2:14

"O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me SEE thy countenance, let me HEAR thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely."

God delights in His people loving Him intimately. Jesus Christ went to the cross to restore access to and secure intimacy with God, not to establish a mere religion. Observing a religious belief and having a right relationship with God are two different things. In fact, they are poles apart from each other. As the lover-God, He is saying to us, His beloved ones, "Let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice…" He wants your closeness and desires your communion with Him. Whatever takes you away from God is unacceptable to Him.

The Lord wants to see your face and hear your voice. Interaction and intimacy belong together as far as our relationship with God is concerned. 

God delights in seeing us come away from all the noises of the world and sharing quality time with Him. J. Oswald Chambers said, "Solitude with God repairs the damage done by the fret and noise and clamour of the world." In the Song of Solomon we read, "My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away… Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away… Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits… Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages" (S. of Sol.2:10,13; 4:16; 7:11). God is our lover; He wants nothing less than oneness and communion with His loved ones. 

Rev.4:4 says, "And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment." The twenty four elders are sitting around the throne, meaning that all of them enjoy the same close proximity to the King on the throne. It is a round table kind of thing. Everyone is connected to each other and to the King at the center or at the head of the table. Everyone is right where he can personally experience the reality and joy of his royal presence. 

Solomon writes, "While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof" (S. of Sol.1:12). That is the sitting arrangement of a round table. The sweet scent of His presence is felt or perceived by everyone who practices His presence. We also bring into His presence the fragrance of our redemption. Bill Johnson says of himself, "Royalty is my identity. Servanthood is my assignment. Intimacy with God is my life source." Job says, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee" (Jb.42:5).

God will approve any changes or circumstances of life that may help to bring us closer to Him. God will endorse any wind that will blow us closer to Him. It is by being in His presence that He exposes us to what He is seeing, planning and doing.

God never settles for a casual relationship with anyone. No one can be a part of God's grander vision and loftier mission from the place of a casual relationship with Him, and there is nothing that can substitute for intimacy with God. We serve a God who is intensely personal. A. W. Tozer said, "Nothing in or of this world measures up to the simple pleasure of experiencing the presence of God." John Bevere lends his voice, "The Spirit of God is jealous over us; He doesn't want superficial fellowship, but genuine intimacy."

The effects of intimacy with God are spiritual equilibrium, transformation of character, inward tranquility, moral energy, and integration of personality. Intimacy with God is life-giving and totally rewarding.

The psalmist says, "Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart" (Ps.37:4).

Let us love what God loves! God loves to hear our voices and see our faces. Let us also love hearing His voice and seeing His face! The psalmist tells us that the saint's delight "is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night" (Ps.1:2). Again he says of himself, "I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart" (Ps.40:8). Paul says, "That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death" (Phil.3:10).

How would you feel to be in love with someone, and you cannot hear his voice nor see his face? God loves to hear you sing His praises, confess your faith in Him, talk about His goodness, testify of His wonderful works, worship His holy name, call upon and pray to Him. God loves to see your face radiating joy and expressing faith and confidence in Him.

Nearness to God is curative. It cures us of anxiety and perplexity. It neutralizes the force of fear and the destabilizing effect of doubt within our souls. It quiets our hearts and normalizes our blood pressure.

Nearness to God is creative. It inspires confidence in us, fills us with courage, makes us hopeful, integrates our whole personality, ignites our passion for divine pursuit, increases our spiritual awareness, enables us to think God's thoughts after Him, and gets us poised for exploits.

One thing Satan fights so vehemently against is our closeness with God. Satan hates to see us communicating, communing, and bonding with our God. He hates to see us praying to God or practicing divine solitude. Satan prefers that we get so busy about God to the extent that we forget to have time with Him. We need not be ignorant of Satan's trickery and deceptive moves and subtle maneuvers! Understand that it is only in the presence of our God that we can find our sanity and sanctity. Luke reports that the people came to Jesus, and "found the man, out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind…" (Lk.8:35). This is a mad man sitting at the feet of Jesus Christ totally delivered and in his right mind. Satan inflicts people with insanity, but Christ restores their sanity and dignity. In His presence we experience fullness of joy, and at His right hand we find lasting pleasures. Practicing intimacy with God gives us glowing faces and radiant hope, and I agree with Eugene H. Peterson that "prayer is a refusal to live as an outsider to my God and my soul." Hallelujah! Amen!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter