DGen Lesson: Intimacy

Intimacy

Ø A feeling of being intimate and belonging together; close or warm friendship; marked by close acquaintance, association, or familiarity; relating to or indicative of one's deepest nature; is very personal; involves someone you can confide private matters to; involves thorough acquaintance through study or experience


Ø The key to intimacy is RELATIONSHIP


Ø God is constantly pursuing an intimate, personal relationship with you. He is a God of love and His very nature is love. He demonstrated this love when He started working on restoring what Adam lost in the Garden of Eden – intimate communion with God. Your Creator has been reaching out to you to restore your love relationship with Him


-----> "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” [John 3:16 NASB]

-----> “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” [1 John 4:9-10]


Ø God (being your Creator) commands you (His creation) to love Him. Jesus echoes this in the New Testament as the greatest commandment


-----> “Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.” [Matthew 22:37-38 NIV]

-----> The NASB has this translation of the same verse: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.' This is the most important, the first on any list.”


Ø This command to love God and have an intimate relationship with Him does not come from selfish motives. Instead, it comes from a heart that does not only love you but also wants to bless you and give you all He is and has


-----> “It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom!” [Luke 12:32]


Ø Intimacy is not a one-way relationship where God is the only one in pursuit of man. Intimacy means that we also lovingly and wholeheartedly pursue God. It is not a one-way relationship where only one party is doing the talking. True intimacy is a two-way relationship between God and man involving a two-way communication


-----> “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” [James 4:8 NASB]


Ø God wants you to have an intimate love relationship and friendship with Him. He wants you to spend time with Him and intimately communicate with Him, to enjoy fellowship with Him, to trust and follow Him, so He can give your life meaning and purpose.


-----> “For in him we live and move and have our being.” [Acts 17:28]


Ø Intimacy involves (but is not limited to) the following:

-----> a desire to truly know God [Psalm 63:1-3]
-----> a hunger and thirst for His presence [Matthew 5:6]
-----> transparency or complete honesty before the Lord [Psalm 51:6]
----------+ telling Him your feelings, fears, worries, joys, excitement, etc.
----------+ giving Him your burdens without holding back
----------+ confessing sin, asking forgiveness, repenting
-----> communication with God [Matthew 6:5-15]
----------+ talking to Him (in prayer, in thought)
----------+ listening to Him (through His word, circumstances, other people)
----------+ waiting on Him in prayerful quietness (being still before Him)
-----> a willingness to let God take complete control of your life [Psalm 37:5-7]
----------+ allowing Him to point out and expose areas in your life that are not pleasing to Him
----------+ asking Him to take over your circumstances, emotions and personality
----------+ letting Him truly become Savior, Lord and King of your life
-----> loving God [1 John 4:16 and Deuteronomy 6:5]
-----> obeying God [1 John 2:3-6]



Ø Your level of intimacy with the Lord will determine your level of growth in these areas:

-----> Spiritual maturity
-----> Emotional security
-----> Divine authority
-----> Revelatory clarity
-----> Enduring victory


Ø Your intimacy with God is the most important thing in your life. Everything else hinges on this one key factor in your Christian walk. If your personal love relationship with Him isn’t right, nothing else in your life will be right either.



Ø God seeks you out to have a relationship with you and it is in this relationship that He can strengthen, encourage and empower you; make you complete, give you rest and security, give you directions and guidance; save, heal and deliver you.