Intimacy With God

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, January 11th. Do you want to know God better?

The answer is probably an easy yes. But sometimes things get in the way. Let's find help removing barriers and developing intimacy with God on the way to living the extraordinary life. The most important thing in your life today, next week, next month, next year, twenty years from now, forty years from now, the day that you pass away from this life, the most important thing in your life. It's not what you own.

It's not even who you are. The most important thing in your life is your personal, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ, second to nothing else. It is the most important thing in your life. Because everything about you, everything in your environment, every relationship you have, your work, your friends, your loved ones, your money, every single aspect of your life is affected by your relationship to Him. Because you see, when that's right, God can make all these other things so awesome.

When it's not right, no matter what you do and how hard you try, it's not going to work out right. You'll still be looking for peace and joy and fulfillment and satisfaction and contentment. You won't find any of that until, first of all, you develop an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.

You say, well, now what in the world is that? Notice I haven't mentioned church or reading the Bible or praying or giving or witnessing because that's not what we're talking about. Those are things Christians do. I'm talking about a relationship. I'm talking about a personal relationship between you and God through His Son, Jesus Christ. And one of the most beautiful confessions of that is found in Philippians chapter three.

And you might want to turn there if you will. And I just want to read two or three verses because Paul wrote the most intimate letter to these Philippian Christians. And he wrote it from a jail, from a prison. And listen to what he said. He has just been talking about his background and where he came from and what his heritage was and all the things that have been accrued to his benefit.

And then listen to what he says. Verse seven of this third chapter. But whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish, so that I may gain Him.

That is to gain a knowledge of Him. And may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith. He said, you know, the truth is the heart of my whole life is my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And my acceptance by Him is not on what I've done, who I am, where I've been, but on faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And then he says, this is what I desire. Verse ten, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings being made conformed to His death in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Here's a man whom God used in the most awesome way.

Before he was saved, he had all of the prosperity and all the prominence and prestige any person could want in his day. He says, you know what? When I look at my relationship to Jesus Christ and I see just a glimpse of who He is and what He's about, when I look at all that I have and all that I am and all that I've been, he says, I can put that in a pile of garbage, rubbish when it comes to being compared to the awesome gift of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, this intimate relationship that I can have from Him.

And he says, therefore, I pursue that above everything else. Now, think about it. If you can be just as close to God as you choose to be, how close do you want to be?

I'll tell you when you want to be the closest. People can neglect this relationship for years and years and years. Maybe they've been saved a long time. But when they think they're going to die, all of a sudden, what should have been important from the moment they were saved becomes important. They want to know Him. What's it going to be like when they die? What's it going to be like in their judgment?

What's it going to be like in heaven? All of a sudden, they want to know Him. Or, when you go through difficulty, hardship, trial, pain, persecution, the bottom in your life is dropped out, the walls are caved in, the roof is caved in on you, and your friends have walked away and it's just you alone facing your difficulty, hardship. All of a sudden, you recognize you need to know Him more intimately than you have ever known Him before. Well, what in the world do we mean by an intimate relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ? Well, what does the word intimate mean?

What does it imply? It implies closeness, something personal, something deeper than just knowing somebody casually. You can know them, you can have acquaintances, you can know them casually, you can know them close. And then there are those intimate friends. The most intimate of all friends should be God through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, how would you define an intimate relationship with God?

What's involved? Intimacy with God means simply this. It is a close, personal, private relationship with Christ that results in a strong desire to know Him, to trust Him, to obey Him, and to accept His love. That's more than just going to church. It's more than just reading your Bible.

It's more than trying to do good works. We're talking about a relationship. We're talking about intimacy, close, personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

That is the will of God for every single believer. It is the most important thing in your life from His perspective. But you know, the issue is that most people will go through their Christian life and never think in terms of really desiring to know Him on an intimate level, on a deeply personal level.

On more than just surface kind of going to church. But who is this Jesus? Who is this Christ? Who is the one who said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father? Who is the one who said, if you know me, you know the Father? Who is the one who said, I am the life, I am truth, I'm life, I'm light, I'm all of this, and no one comes to the Father but by me?

Who is this man? It isn't enough to just be saved. God desires that you and I have an intimate relationship with Him. Because listen, it's the will of God that every single one of us have, listen, not a surface kind of relationship to Him. Not that we're just saved and we go to church and yes, we know what's involved in the Christian life. He wants us to have this hungering, thirsting, yearning desire for Himself.

That's the will of God for your life. So what you have to ask is this, how close am I? How close do I want to be? And I can tell you how close you want to be. You can be as close as you choose to be.

You say, well, I don't have a lot of education. It has nothing to do with being close to God, believe me. I know some people whose intimate relationship with Him that are, listen, their life is so righteous and holy.

When I hear them pray in their presence, there's something about them and you know what, has nothing to do with schooling. It has to do with your desire. Therefore, how do we develop that? So I want to give you a list of things.

Listen to this. The first thing necessary to build an intimate relationship with the Lord is time. You have to spend time with Him. Now what will determine whether you do or not?

It's the value you place on knowing Him. You have time to watch TV, you have time to work, have time to do other things. Isn't it interesting that you and I would be so brazen as to tell Him we don't have time. Don't have time to get in this book. You say, well, I don't understand. You know how to understand it?

Start reading it. You have the Holy Spirit to be the teacher. Don't have time to spend just being alone with Him. And then, of course, there is listening. Listening to Him. Don't do all the talking.

You can either lie down, kneel down, sit in your chair, whatever it might be. But when I'm talking about listening, I'm not talking about listening to Him, just in case the phone rings, you've got to run and get that right quick. You know what? He doesn't. Let me ask you a question. Who's more important in your life than God?

Just name Him. Then why would you want to spend time with the Lord in something the telephone rings and you go running and pee it up right quick? Oh, I'm just in prayer. You don't want to say that. It takes time and it takes time to listen. Listen carefully. There are times when you just need to be alone, quiet, and just say to the Lord, Lord, I'm just here to listen.

Whatever you want to say to me, I'm available to hear it. Then when He brings up something, you can't ignore it. It takes listening. Then it takes talking. Talking to the Father. Talking to the Lord Jesus. Lord, here's what I'm thinking.

Here's how I'm feeling. Lord, speak to my heart. And sometimes what you say to Him may simply be, Lord, I just want to tell You that I love You. Thank You for being so good to me. You see, prayer isn't just a plea for help.

Prayer is just being in His presence and talking to Him. And you have to decide what's the best way for you to do it. Find some place in your house where you and Jesus can get by yourself. You say, there's no place in my house like that.

Yes, there is. If the extremes come, then here's what you do. Get in the bathroom.

Lock the door. It's just you and God. Whatever it takes. Most people can find a place. You've got time.

You've got a place. You can be alone, as Jesus was oftentimes, as the Scripture says, going alone to pray. And the disciples would come after Him and say, well, the people are looking for you.

He spent time with the Father. And then, of course, there's being truthful, being honest with Him. Isn't it amazing we think we can fake God out? Listen, when God brings up something continually in your heart and your mind and your prayer, you can ignore it.

But you know what? Do you think God doesn't know what's going on? You see, intimacy says I have to be honest, truthful, open, which means I need to be transparent with Him, saying, Lord, I hear what You say. I don't like what You said. Just tell Him. He already knows it. God, I don't like what You say. I don't want to go there. I don't want to ask Him to forgive me.

If that's the way you feel, just tell Him. Does God get upset? No. Is He disappointed? No. Is He going to stop you?

No. Because He knows that you and I are human. We're building an intimate relationship.

Now, look at all these things these disciples heard from Him, how He cared for them. Understanding, love, forgiveness, surrender, all of these things are part of building that intimate relationship with Him. Now, but what keeps us from doing it? Well, number one, the barriers is willful known sin in your life. You cannot have an intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus and have willful known sin in your life and you won't deal with it. And when God sees us so distracted by something we won't deal with, some sin in our life, you can't have intimacy with omniscience as if He didn't know.

So there's willful sin. A second thing that hinders it is not just the desire but the determination to control things. Going to control.

Control Him, control her. Control my circumstances. When the opposite of that is surrender. If you're not being, if you're not willing to surrender your life to Him, your circumstances and all the rest, that's not going to be any real, genuine intimacy. And self-centeredness is a barrier. Selfishness, self-centeredness, what? I want my way and Lord, I know what You're saying. And then we tell Him what we need, what we want, and then we put a but behind it. But God, here's what I think I need to do.

You can't have an intimate relationship and be self-centered at the same time. Then, of course, there's fear. Fear of what? Fear that God's going to take something from me. And how many times have I heard people say, well, literally say this, well, I want to be fully surrendered, but I'm afraid if I fully surrender, He's going to take her, going to take him, or something will happen to my finances. The accusation is that God's mean and that He's demeaning and that He's not loving. The only action God is going to take with us is love.

You don't have to fear what you're going to lose for developing a relationship with Him. And another barrier is unbelief. Well, yeah, I know what He says, but.

And then one thing that we throw up over and over and over again. Well, I hear what you're saying, and I know that's true, but, I'm just so busy. I'm just so busy. You mean you're too busy to spend time with the Lord who keeps your heart beating? That is the poorest excuse that you don't have time. We all have twenty-four hours in every day.

And we all make choices about how we're going to spend our twenty-four hours. Somebody says, Well, I really don't have time. Okay, here's what you do. Next time you attempted to watch the television, you say, Well, you know, I've got to get the news.

Let me ask you a question. I can tell you what the news is. It's bad. It's always bad. How many times do you hear some commentator say, There's good news tonight. Oh, let me tell you the good news of what's happening around the world. It's always bad news. And you know what, you'll sit there and listen to that news one hour, two hours through as you get his comment, her comment, his comment, her comment.

You're challenged by this and you want to find out what happened over there. What about finding out what he thinks? What does he think?

He knows all about what's going on in the world. You know what? He knows what he wants to go on in your life and the most precious time you spend in any given day of your time is your time when you get by yourself and just you and the Lord Jesus talk about what is your circumstances or somebody else's or whatever it might be.

We're not too busy. You know what the problem is? We make wrong choices. And I simply ask you this. What is it in your life that's more valuable to you than a personal, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ who loves you unconditionally, who will never leave you nor forsake you, who will meet your every need, who loves you with a love that is absolutely indescribable, who sacrificed His life because He loves you, whose intimate relationship with you can bring you a sense of satisfaction, fulfillment, contentment, joy, happiness, and you name it, it's all there if you're wise enough to make the wise choice. And that's my prayer, that you would not just think about this message, but you'd be wise enough to make a commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Lord, I parked back yonder somewhere. I've been on autopilot my Christian life. I've been seeking to serve and seeking recognition and seeking this and seeking that. Now I want to start seeking you. I just want to make sure, Lord, that daily you and I have some time together. And I want you to do everything in my life you want to do. Whatever you want to cut out is fine.

Whatever you want to add is fine. But Lord, don't let me live a day without coming to you with thanksgiving, confession, repentance, intercession from my friends, but most of all, just listening to you to see what you have to say to me today. And you know what?

Get this down. God will never disappoint you. He who draws near to Him, He says He will draw near to us. Father, how grateful we are that You love us that much. And I pray the Holy Spirit will sink this message so deep in every one of our hearts.

Just, we can't even go to sleep at night until first of all we've had some time with You. We want to be godly. We want to live the extraordinary life. We want our life to count to the maximum for our potential. Let us settle for a life be excluded from our way of thinking. Let us not look around to see what other people are doing. But rather, Lord Jesus, what are You doing and what do You desire to do in our life is my prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for listening to Intimacy with God. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.