Series: Intimacy; Relationships; Oneness
Sunday am 21st October 2018 – Kobus Swart
Ps. 37:4; (John 8:44); (Gen. 3:1, 11); (Gen. 1:26); Ps. 133; (Mark 9:7); John 15:12-17; Matt. 16:13-18, 21-23; (Gen. 4:1, 17, 25 – KJV); Matt. 7:22-23
‘Intimacy’ is a theme that runs throughout the Bible and is at the heart of a true relationship with God. It is a word that is misused and miss-applied in the world. We often read, Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart(Ps. 37:4). If we truly understand the word ‘delight’, it involves intimacy with God. It means that I will not desire anything that He did not put in my heart to desire. When you have a desire from God, He first triggers a longing in your heart for an intimate relationship with Him. That is where it starts. Whatever else I desire in this life, my first yearning should be to have an intimate relationship with God. If it does not start there, we will look in other directions for our desires to be fulfilled. All of us desire spiritual experiences but spiritual experiences must start with you having an intimate relationship with God, out of which multiple spiritual experiences will flow.
Why is the Church so trapped in their own earthly desires that they miss the point of making it first priority to have an intimate relationship with the Creator? There is only One, Yahweh God, the One and only living God. He desires to have a personal relationship with you more than we desire to have it with Him. He created us in His image and likeness.
Nobody knows how long Adam and Eve walked in the garden before the Fall. It could have been
Before the fall Adam and Eve were naked. Do we understand the word ‘intimacy’ in relation to ‘nakedness’? The moment they fell they realized they were naked and hid themselves from God’s presence. Satan wants us to wear ‘fig leaves’ so that when we talk to God, there is something between us. God asked, “Who told you that you were naked?” (Gen. 3:11). They had been naked all the time (meaning an open intimate relationship with Him) and it had never been an issue. They had eaten of the tree of good and evil. You can tap into ‘good’ knowledge yet having eaten from the wrong tree. The issue is we have to eat from the tree of Life! The tree of Life will bring back transparency, vulnerability and intimacy. Take off your mask! Stop acting!
We think that when we are ‘together’ we are corporate. No, you can be together, even holding hands and you can still sit in your own private little chamber. Corporateness is more than just being together. It is more than unity. We have to upgrade to oneness. It means we are transparent, we are vulnerable, we understand intimacy. Where brothers dwell together in oneness; that is where God commands His blessing (Ps. 133). Jesus the son of God, who was the Word made flesh, who was God in the flesh, who walked in the supernatural, only picked twelve men to become His disciples. He could have had a mega-church but chose to only work with twelve. One will put a thousand to flight; two will put
Jesus’ active ministry was only for three years. Only at the age of thirty at His baptism did the heavens open and God confirmed it and His ministry was launched (Mark 9:7). Towards the end of His ministry after He had called the twelve by name, He gave the group a different name. Transparency, openness – “Now I call you friends” (John 15:12-17). Would you lay down your life for your friends? What keeps people from getting too close to another? Fear! What is missing in churches is true friendship. That is why we encourage smaller (cell) groups, as part of the local church, where you can build friendships. There God commands His blessing. I encourage all of you to find the nearest home group and connect, bring down your walls, become transparent and see how the Lord is going to bring oneness and blessing. Not very long after that, Judas betrayed Jesus.
The apostle Peter became one of the chief apostles after the resurrection but Peter was impulsive. When Jesus asked, “Who do you say I am?” Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”, which came to him as a revelation from the Father (Matt. 16:13-18). Soon after that when Jesus spoke of His death and resurrection, Peter rebuked Jesus saying, “God forbid it Lord!”. Jesus said, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s” (Matt. 16:21-23). What did Jesus mean? Did He mean that Peter had become Satan? No. Jesus identified the spirit that spoke through Peter. Sometimes people say hurtful things. What should you do? Not bad-mouth them, but rebuke the principality that hovers over that person that gives him or her that utterance. You have the authority to cancel that, so that you can save the person who is your friend. Sometimes the Jezebel spirit operates in a church. What is the Jezebel spirit? It manipulates spiritual authority, talking with a divisive tongue. Let us learn from the way Jesus treated the utterance from Peter by getting satan out of the way.
May God give us wisdom in this corporate environment of oneness and love and intimacy! Each of us needs intimacy and friends we can trust. We must become transparent and vulnerable. God has given us authority to deal with the spirit of lawlessness and to deal with a divisive spirit like that of Absalom. What did Absalom do? He stood at the gate and tried to get followers after himself, when he was not called to be the leader. Churches are full of these manifestations. May the Lord give us ears to hear and deal with that spirit the right way.
Intimacy also refers to sexual intimacy between husband and wife. In many places in the Old Testament it says, “The man knew his wife and she gave birth” (Gen. 4:1, 17, 25 – KJV). The word ‘knew’ here means intimacy. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ (Operating in spiritual gifts)And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness’(Matt. 7:22-23). God knows all of us but this means something deeper. God is looking for intimacy.
Eugene Petersen wrote: “Friendship is a much underestimated aspect of spirituality. The greatest thing anyone can do for another is to confirm the deepest thing in him or her, to take the time and have the discernment to see what is most deeply there and confirm by recognizing and encouraging it. Each of us has contact with hundreds of people who never look beyond our surface appearance. We have dealings with hundreds of people, who the moment they set eyes on us, start calculating what use we can be to them and what they can get out of us. Get to know a person deeply, confirm what God has made that person
Series : Relationships; Love
Sunday am 9 September 2018 – Riaan Sinden
2 Tim. 3:1-5 (Amp); (Matt. 8:20); Rom. 8:28; (John 16:15); 1 Cor. 12:4-12, 27-31; (1 Cor. 13); John 3:16; Matt. 22:34-40; (1 John 4:20-21); Rom. 13:8-10; Matt. 5:17, 43-48 (Msg & Amp); (Jas. 1:19); Mark 3:24; Ps. 133 (Passion); John 10:10; Matt. 5:23-24
This word is all about the
But understand this, that in the last days dangerous times [of great stress and trouble] will come [difficult days that will be hard to bear]. For people will be lovers of self [narcissistic, self-focused], lovers of money [impelled by greed], boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane, [and they will be] unloving [devoid of natural human affection, calloused and inhumane], irreconcilable, malicious gossips, devoid of self-control [intemperate, immoral], brutal, haters of good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of [sensual] pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of [outward] godliness (religion), although they have denied its power [for their conduct nullifies their claim of faith] (2 Tim. 3:1-5). We are not waiting for the last days; we are not waiting for something to happen. We are living in a society completely without morals. There is a great responsibility on us as sons to get this thing right.
In this new season, as much as we love one another and love the word of God; as much as we get revelation week after week, there is an end product we need to see. When God delivers a word into this earth it is for one reason only – to bring the Body of Christ into alignment with what has already been done. The enemy has his own plan and that is to bring division. If we allow it we are putting the whole plan of God onto the back-burner. One tactic the enemy uses is he imitates what God is doing (like the wheat and the tares) but a much easier tactic the enemy uses is to sow division.
By speaking the Word to one another we extract the identity of Christ out of one another until everyone comes to that oneness and unity in Christ. It is only in a unified Body that the Head can find a place to rest (Matt. 8:20). It is in that oneness that heaven and earth meet. The enemy wants to prevent that. The enemy does not agree that we as humans are
The good news is that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28). Satan cannot destroy the plans of God but he can postpone them and the way to postpone them is to bring division. God is bringing bone-to-bone connections and ultimately He is bringing us to the standard of His Son. God is building His Church and we are participators, we are not just looking on.
We all have different roles to play but we are the same Body (1 Cor. 12:4-12, 27-30). We sometimes find fault with the way somebody else does their part and we want to push the person to the side (like amputating a limb). We sometimes feel more important than another person. If we do not come to oneness, we are pushing everything to the side. The oneness we can have with Christ, and the meeting of heaven and earth are postponed. But earnestly desire the greater gifts. And I show you a still more excellent way(1 Cor. 12:31). There is something else we need to take hold of here. There is a more excellent way of doing things. In our relationships as a body, there is something we need to get right; there is something we cannot do without. In the next chapter
Even though we do not see eye to eye; even though we do not understand what another person is trying to do, if we have a relationship of love, then it will bear all (1 Cor. 13:7). It should be the most natural thing to do to love like that. God so loved this world that He gave His own Son (John 3:16).
When Jesus was asked which the great commandment of the Law was, Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’” (Matt. 22:37-39). The second commandment goes hand in hand with the first commandment. You cannot have the one without the other. Jesus was asked only one question, but Jesus explained, On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets (Matt. 22:40). So every law that was given to Moses and every prophecy ever made have to do with love – love for God and love for your neighbour. How can you say you love God and hate your brother? If you say that, then there is no truth in you (1 John 4:20-21). We are not under the law anymore, but what is the law? It is about relationships. Not committing adultery has to do with relationships. “You shall not murder” has to do with relationships. Not stealing, not coveting is all to do with relationships. Love is the fulfilment of the law (Rom. 13:8-10). If our relationships are based on this principle of love, we will make room for one another. It does not matter in how many areas we differ and how many disagreements we have, we will find that one thing that we agree on, just because of love. There is only one way to fulfil the law, and that is by love. Jesus did not come to destroy the law and the prophets but to
Maturity is walking in love with those who persecute you. It is not easy! People put up walls because they have been hurt. But love is the driving force making us go the extra mile. The only way to win somebody over is through love. It may take a day, it may take several years, but eventually
The enemy will try to bring separation and division and then we do not walk in agreement. The tongue has hurt the most people because it does not destroy the body, but it destroys the soul, the spirit. Sometimes we do not watch what we say; we are so quick to speak, but do not be quick to speak; be quick to listen, be slow to speak (James 1:19).
Any kingdom divided against itself cannot stand (Mark 3:24). If we as a kingdom community do not live in unity and oneness, we are like a pile of rubble, it is not standing. From the realm of sweet harmony, the unity of brothers dwelling together, in that God will release the eternal blessing, life forevermore (Ps. 133 – Passion). It is in the oneness and unity of our relationships, in mutual respect that God will release His eternal blessing. It is a promise of life forever. Jesus gave everything so that we could have everlasting life (John 3:16; John 10:10). Everlasting life is only available in the unity that is in Christ and through the love of Christ. We cannot have
Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First, go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift (Matt. 5:23-24). If there is a break in a relationship and something that needs to be restored, you need to go and be reconciled. You need to come to that place where the Body can work together in oneness. This word is about bringing the Body of Christ into alignment. This is serious. Do not wait for a small understanding to become so big that you cannot even remember how it started. Even if you are not at fault, go and make things right in order for you to walk in the abundance of life God has in store for you. If we, as children of God, do not live a life of love, then people will become lovers of self and become