Towards Intimacy With God (Our Personal Journey)

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Series: Waiting on the Lord/Meditation

Sun am 18th March 2012 – Kobus Swart

Heb. 9: 2-8, 26; Heb.10: 19-25; 1John 1: 7; Matt. 6:25-34

The emphasis over the last couple of weeks has been about you as an individual making a better impact and contribution in the corporate. The teaching brought a shift in consciousness and also focused on our personal quiet times before the Lord. Even Jesus found it necessary to get away to be alone and encouraged His disciples to do the same.

Although there are other applications too, see your own journey through the three courts of the Tabernacle of Moses. Hebrews 9 does not make any mention of the outer court, and only refers to the holy place and the Holy of Holies. In the Old Testament the outer court was where daily sacrifices for sins took place. Why was the outer court left out? Jesus came as the Lamb of God that was sacrificed once-for-all. In our personal journey, see the Holy of Holies as the place of intimacy with God. We want to go into the quiet place and have intimacy with our Father God. However, intimacy is hardly possible while in our minds we are still in the outer court of sin and condemnation – a sin consciousness. The Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed while the outer tabernacle is still standing, (as a recognized institution) (Heb. 9:8 Ampl). Having a revelation of the Lamb that was slain once-for-all, gives sin consciousness no room(Heb 10:1-3)! But now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself (Heb. 9:26). He dealt with the very origin, the root, the nature of sin. We need to change the way we think about the finished works of Jesus Christ.

We have been created in the image of Christ (and recreated in Christ). Too often, however, we try to create God in our image – a God that rewards the good and punishes the evil. We expect God to jump to our perceptions of Him. Test yourself in your quiet times before the Lord; it is not your time to pray and ask. (Although there are times for that too). It is not our needs that activate God’s blessings and provision; it is the other way around. It is God’s provision and abundance that create the need in us. God will put the desires in our hearts that we should desire, and He will grant us that desire.

So what about the times that we have sinned, and it affects our personal quiet times? Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much(Jas. 5:16). The blood of Jesus will continue to cleanse us from all sin if we walk in the light as He is in the light (1 John 1:7). It affects our corporate intimacy if there are tensions in the family.

In the pressures of making a living, the first thing that falls away on our daily priority list when we have no time, is our quiet time with God. That is when we should remember this: What happens when you really sit before the Lord in His presence, is you encounter the ‘now’, the present. In these moments before the Lord, sitting at His feet, we should not think of things past or yearn for things in the future but enjoy the present moment in His presence because God is above time. He is the one who is, who was and who is to come. In the presence of God there is no time consciousness. Moses stepped into the presence of God on the mountain and I am sure that he entered God’s timeless realm and never counted the hours or days! When he stepped out, however, it was 40 days later! In His presence there is fullness of joy!

Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near (Heb. 10:19-25).

We should never allow the pressures of “making a living” distract us from quality quiet times at His feet!

For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, (There is a place in an intimate relationship with God where we are above the law of sowing and reaping) and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own(Matt. 6:25-34).

When we are in the quiet place, sitting at His feet and listening – seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness, let us forget about yesterday and tomorrow.  Let us trust His Word!

Once we have touched the “Holy of Holies” and we have gone to the heart, we have a mission to go out and ‘infect’ others. Once we have been there, our mission will be a thousand times more effective because we have now become the message.