Tag Archives: protect

HOW DO WE PROTECT INTIMACY?

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John 17:20-21 NLT‬
[20] “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. [21] I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.”

Intimacy with God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit was restored when we believed in Jesus as Lord and Saviour. The Holy Spirit joined us to Christ and took up residence in our spirits as representative of the Trinity. He is, to us, God’s presence in us, permanently.

So, we have the same relationship with the Father as Jesus had, Father and sons. He knows us and we know Him. Surely, then we have the same access to the Father as Jesus had, through prayer.

The hallmark of Jesus’ prayer life, was His intimacy with the Father. He and the Father were one, united and in harmony with everything they were and did.

So, the Father desires the same intimacy with us as His sons and daughters. Not that we are God, by any means, but that we are His sons and daughters.

What is intimacy? A dictionary definite it as “close friendship”. There are many ways to express intimacy in a close relationship. We can define intimacy in a series of words…knowledge, acceptance, transparency, honesty, openness and togetherness, based on mutual trust and expressed through communication. Intimacy is modelled in a human marriage relationship where two people commit themselves to one another to share their lives in love and mutual trust for as long as they live.

Intimacy with God is a also a two-way connection except that His relationship with us is that of superior to inferior. He is God – we are to worship Him. He is our Father – we are to submit to and obey Him. He is our supreme authority – we are to live under under His command. He is God and we have an obligation to relate to Him as God.

With these requirements that provide the environment of our relationship with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, our role is to make Him the centre of our lives in everything. We must develop the right attitudes in every detail and department of our lives, protecting our trust, honesty, and transparency and responding to Him with willing obedience and submission. God never moves away from us. He gave us the initiative to sustain our intimacy with Him. It is we who move away from Him.

‭James 4:8 NLT‬
[8] “Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.”

Divided loyalty ruins intimacy because the level of closeness we enjoy with God depends on how important it is for us to maintain an exclusive relationship with Him.

Two Old Testament recipes for an exclusive relationship with God help us to maintain our intimacy with Him.

David’s prayer…

‭Psalms 86:11 NLT‬
[11] “Teach me your ways, O Lord, that I may live according to your truth! Grant me purity of heart, so that I may honor you.”

And Solomon’s counsel to his son…

‭Proverbs 3:1-2, 5-8 NLT‬
[1] “My child, never forget the things I have taught you. Store my commands in your heart. [2] If you do this, you will live many years, and your life will be satisfying…
[5]”Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. [6] Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. [7] Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the Lord and turn away from evil. [8] Then you will have healing for your body and strength for your bones.”

What can be more precious than to guard our intimacy with God and enjoy the benefits of that closeness!

‭Psalms 25:14 NIV‬
[14] “The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.”

Our role, then, is to seek the Lord, to listen and obey Him, to confide in Him, and to entrust the course and cares of our lives to Him. If we choose and nurture intimacy with the Lord, He will reciprocate with fellowship so close and sweet that nothing else will ever satisfy.

Not Of This World

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NOT OF THE WORLD 

“‘I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.

“‘I have given them your word and the world has hated them, they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.

“‘My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world even as I am not of the world.'” John 17:13-16 NIV.

Strange! The way the disciples were thinking and behaving at that moment, I would have thought that Jesus would realise that they were very much still part of the world — frightened, insecure, unbelieving, uncomprehending, competitive, bickering, indifferent — that about sums them up at this stage.

Amazing! Jesus saw them not as they were then but as they would be as they moved towards their potential as apostles and witnesses for Him in the world. He spoke prophetically and confidently of who they would become when the Holy Spirit fell on them and transformed them into bold, confident and faithful followers of their Messiah.

Jesus had spent three and a half years with them, patiently giving them God’s word. As young Jewish men they would already have memorised the book of Leviticus by the age of 6 and the entire Torah by the time they celebrated their Bar Mitzvah. The foundation of truth was already firmly laid in their minds in their formative years.

During His time with them it was Jesus’ task to teach them His yoke — His way of interpreting and applying the Torah to His own life, and instilling it into His disciples so that they would imitate Him as they, in turn, made disciples of others. It was their task, in turn to release them from whatever “yoke” had brought them into bondage and place His yoke on them, setting them free from rules, regulations and obligations to live as sons and daughters of the Most High God — what Jesus called “binding and loosing”.

It was this yoke of loving God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength and showing mercy and compassion to all people, that would, first of all, bring the hatred of an unbelieving world down on them, alienating them from the heartless and selfish attitude that rules in the world system. It was this yoke as well, that would insulate them from the temptation of the evil one to live for themselves and indulge their old, selfish nature.

God’s protection from the evil one comes, not in some mystical or angelic guard around us so that the devil can’t get near us. It comes in the form of changed lives that flow from changed minds as God’s truth about Himself and us gradually replaces our old ways of thinking and acting. Our enemy operates in our minds, sowing lies and trying to deceive us into thinking the worst about God and ourselves.

We erroneously think that the devil attacks us through our circumstances. When things go wrong we wail, ‘O-o-oh, I’m under attack!’ Really! Yes, we are under attack, but not because of trouble and hardship but because we misinterpret these things and get into fear and panic mode, which are exactly what the devil relishes because they neturalise our confidence in the Father’s love.

Remember, Jesus said, ‘In this world you will have trouble’?  This is a statement of fact. But God permits and monitors the hardships we endure because He has another agenda. If we give the devil credit for the trouble we experience, we miss the whole point of the exercise.

Firstly, God wants to see what is in our hearts, whether we will trust Him or not.

“Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Deuteronomy 8:2, 3 NIV.

Secondly, God is disciplining us as sons so that we may share His holiness.

“Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as His children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?…They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in His holiness.” Hebrews 12:7, 10 NIV.

We have only one safeguard against the devil’s wiles — knowing and living by the truth.

David put it this way:

“Teach me your way, O Lord; and I will walk in your truth…” Psalm 86:11a.