Intimacy With the Most High
How important is it to us to dwell in the place of communion with God? What price will we pay to experience the presence and glory of God?
That I may know Him
Philippians 3:7-11
7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ. 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Philippians 1:21
For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Apostle Paul made “knowing Christ” His primary passion. He laid aside everything else so that he could know Him, His resurrection power and even share in sufferings for His sake. To Paul, life on earth was all about Jesus!
How desperately do we desire to know Christ? Can we become so passionate about our Lord, our personal communion with Him and about knowing Him? Can we become a people who are passionate for His presence?
Intimacy produces fruitfulness
John 15:4,5
4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
He who abides in me and I in Him bears much fruit, is what Jesus said. This then is the secret to fruitfulness in life and ministry. Jesus is using the word “abide” to refer to what happens between the branch and the main stem of the vine. They are attached. They are connected. There is a flow both ways. It is not merely a surface connection. There is something “deep” happening. This perhaps is best described by words such as “fellowship,” “communion” or “intimacy,” describing such a deep connection that a believer is to have with the Lord. Intimacy with God will bring such fruitfulness in ministry, a fruitfulness that cannot be produced merely with gifts and experience.
Ministry can occur on the basis of spiritual gifts, natural talent, good organization, great management, marketing skills and so on. But it is nothing compared to what happens when God personally invades a group of people or fully inhabits the life of a person at any given point of time. There is much greater and lasting fruitfulness resulting from ministry that is birthed because of intimacy with God. Human eloquence can engage and excite the mind but God’s presence transforms the inner person, bringing about permanent change. Will we press into depths of intimacy with God, so that He can release through us much fruit-fruit that remains?
Gifts and anointing can be received by impartation, but intimacy with God is something only you can develop, through personal time with God.
The secret place
Matthew 6:6
But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
The Lord Jesus is encouraging us to be with the Father in our secret place, our prayer closet-a place where we are alone with the Father. He assures us that when we do this, then things will happen when we go out into the world. God will move on our behalf out in the open.
What happens in private, determines what happens in Public.
The secret place is the place of preparation for the marketplace.
Matthew 10:27
Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops.
What God whispers to you in the secret place, is what you need to proclaim in public.
Practice the presence of God every day!
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