Intimacy With God

What a privilege it is to pray; but to contemporary ears the very word “prayer” tends to formalize what is in essence a very intimate act. At the basis of prayer lies the promise of the Father, the gift of the Holy Spirit given through the Son. Through the gift of the Spirit of God we have a direct relationship with the Father and the Son. Jesus says, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:23).

John the beloved disciple testifies “That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ” (I John 1:3). Implicit in that remark is the reality that this fellowship, this intimacy with God, is not only personal, it is also corporate. It is fellowship with God in the Temple which is the Body of Christ.

The gift of intimacy with God does not come with cheap benevolence that ignores the justice and holiness of God. This intimacy is blood bought. The way to the Father is through the wounds of the Son.

19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; 21 And having an high priest over the house of God; 22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:19-22).

Jesus Himself is the new and living way into the heart of the Father.

The key to the identity of Jesus is His intimacy with the Father. His custom was to spend time on the mount in intimate prayer with the Father, so intimate that He can say, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30), and again, “He that has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). The character of the Father is indelibly stamped on the face of the Son, and the intimacy that we experience with the Father and the Son is the work of the Spirit Who gives us the gift of Christ in us, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27).

This intimacy with God has also its costs to us. With Him there are no secrets. There are no closed doors within us that He will not enter. True intimacy demands vulnerability. When the light of His countenance shines upon us nothing can remain hidden. Self-discovery comes hand in hand with the knowledge of God. The self-revealing God elicits through love the revelation of our secret thoughts and intents and desires of our hearts.

Our souls, our very inner being, cries out to Him, “ 2 O that you would kiss me with the kisses of your mouth! For your love is better than wine, 3 your anointing oils are fragrant, your name is as ointment poured forth” (Song of Solomon 1:2-3). What in our clouded vision we often miss is the intensity of His desire for us. “My beloved speaks and says to me . . . O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the crannies of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.”

Such dialogue in prayer is not always talking, but often, “being,” just being with Him whom we love. Intimacy at its deepest is beyond words. Here confession drops away, intercession fades into the background, even praise is stilled and if we speak at all it is only to lovingly utter His Name, just enough to keep our focus on Him whom we love. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, in almost wordless adoration. And in that Holy intimate silence there is only Him, and around you both the weary world spins away unheeded.