In our journey with the Lord we all experience a hunger for more, we know that there is more of God's love that we are not connecting with. If this whole thing is about relationship than how do we grow in intimacy with Jesus? How do we move forward in love? How do we actually grow from the message of intimacy to actual maturity in intimacy?
Well to do so we must understand intimacy, we must know what it truly is and what it consist of, so we can take steps towards it. We need to have clarity on what it is we are seeking, if we are to find it. you can't find something, unless you know what you're looking for.
There are 3 facets of loving God that make up the foundations of intimacy:
1. Invitation- He desires to be in relationship with us, He invites us into love, He is the bridegroom.
2. Substance- Relational Knowledge.
3. Overflow- the growing degrees of love , communion and pleasures that we experience from the knowledge of Him.
One of the most common misconceptions is that intimacy is mainly about the invitation or the over flow, but In reality intimacy is mainly comprised of knowledge. The people that you are more close with or have greater intimacy with is the ones that you know and are known you best. Love without substance is shallow if not in reality just a fantasy but not a reality.
we often fail to apply this concept with our relationship with God, we think of intimacy more related to emotions we feel, though they are important, or the message of the bridegroom which is also very important. But ultimately is our knowledge of Him that sustains and causes us to grow in intimacy with Him just like a relationship with a family members and loved ones.
Real love then, is obtained and sustained by knowledge, but this knowledge that brings forth love is more than book knowledge, it is more than intellectual ideas or concepts, it is a relational knowledge.
Example: A young man is very good at math (not me), he has been studying it for years, he knows all the right formulas and over time he became very skilled and familiar with it. He may or may not enjoy math but the knowledge he obtain does not produce true love. On the other hand his brother, they don't have much in common, they argue like brothers do, but because of their relational history, because of time they spent together, and because of they know about each other's good and bad side, they love each other, and their love is rooted deep and will not be easily be broken.
To grow in intimacy with God we need the Knowledge of God. And the knowledge of God is not a collection of facts , it's a relational knowledge. He is not a object that you can gain information about and not go further. He is a person or identity who is to be known, He wants us to know who He is for real, His heart, His character, His will, His attributes.
We must be careful to not confuse our experience with real knowledge.
example: One time a got pulled over by a cop and I experienced fully what a cop does, he gave me a ticket, it was a powerful experience that showed how a cop fulfills his job. But that experience gave me little insight to who the cop really was, thou it was important to understand what he does, I learned nothing about who he really is. I had gained a valuable experience but I did know grow in knowledge of the cop.
It is the same way with God, experiencing who Him is crucial to knowing Him, but it is not knowing Him. The experience what happens when you meet God, but it is not the same as knowing God.
Experiential knowledge is critical to our intimacy with Him but they are the fruit of intimacy and not the substance. The reason we love is because we know , Knowledge is what birth affections, As you get to know Him the more you begging to experience him , as you know Him the more you begging to love Him. The knowledge of Him that causes us to love Him.
"we love deeply as we get to know deeply"
Love causes us to get to know more, If at anytime we cease our pursuit of knowledge, the cycle is broken and ultimately we get stagnate in our relationship and that is where we can grow in bitterness. we must treasure our pursuit of love to protect us from bitterness, we have to understand how to move forward from the invitation, and not fall in the trap of bitterness
How do we move forward?
First we must understand that it's not only possible to grow , its normal! Living things grow, if our relationship with Jesus is living, it will grow!
Every single believer in Jesus, God has given His grace by the cross and through the Holy spirit to take you into mature character and to abandon living love, we cannot believe the lie that depth in God is for a few and not for all who are willing.
We know how week we are so we disqualify our self's first from going deep in God, but in doing so we completely negate the cross and actually act in pride. Yes we are week but no matter how strong we are, we are only qualified to be with God through the blood of Jesus, there is nothing we can do to disqualify our self's. He has forever made away for us to be with God and to grow deep in Him.
The question of how do I grow in intimacy, because synonymous with how do I grow in the knowledge of God? Revelation bridges the gap between the truth of His identity and our need, revelation is the means by which we find the knowledge of God, Its only by revelation that we get to know him.
Eph 1:17. that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.
If we could find the greatest place where He reveals himself we would grow in the knowledge of God and grow in intimacy. Revelation comes through beholding Jesus, the reason why Jesus is the fullness of revelation of God, because He is God.
Jesus Christ is perfect theology, God came as a man and lived life so we would know who He is.
If we look in the gospels and see that It is God there walking among is, there is no question to where the greatest source of revelation. Jesus is the express image of God, the way we know God is through knowing Jesus. He is not Just the door, He is the way forward!
There is no greater source of revelation about God than the life of Jesus, we must fix our eyes on this Man if we want to know God. The gospels are the gateway to the knowledge because it shows us the life of Jesus.
If intimacy in large part is knowledge , and the way we know is through revelation, and full revelation is found in Christ, then we can come to the conclusion that the substance of intimacy is the prayerful study of Christ within the context of a life of obedience.
Study does not mean a intellectual pursuit alone, study is to mean a intent a gaze, like how somebody is in awe by watching a beautiful sunset!
To study means the practice of the one thing that's needed. to behold, to gaze, to seat at His feet and hear His words.
The biblical reality of One Thing is actually beholding the beauty of the Lord in the face of Christ and sitting at His feet and hearing His words. We see this from what David declared in psalms 27:4 and from the story Mary sitting at Jesus' feet to hear His words, Jesus said that her sister was busy about many things, but Mary had chosen the one thing that's needed!
We must use scripture as a launching point to look at Jesus, because Jesus is the Word, If we desire authentic intimacy you must take time search Him out. If you love somebody you desire to spend time with them, we must give our self's to spending time at the feet of Jesus hearing His words and gazing into His beauty, that is the way to intimacy!
We must know who our Bridegroom is! At the end of the day I want to know this Man named Jesus and I don't want Him to say that He didn't know me. I want there to be a real history of love between us. Our eternal intimacy depends on knowledge. I want to know Him!
