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Intimacy With God Part II
By Sade Tagbo | February 28, 2008
One of the biggest complaints about the walk of the Spirit as expressed by many modern Christians is that it is too fuzzy, too unreal and impractical. The truth is that the walk of the Spirit is very practical and there are systems for measuring effectiveness and for judging ourselves if we truly want to do so.
When it comes to intimacy, you can get a measurement for how well you really know and love God. After all, He is a person. Here is a practical experiment for judging yourself on your ability to worship God. Clear your schedule for 30 minutes. Turn off the CD player, get alone and worship Him with words, not singing.
How many minutes is it before your mind begins to clamor that you need to get out of this? That is the true measure of your intimacy with God. Getting along with God without external prompts like a worship team or a CD is the place where you take responsibility for your personal relationship with Him.
Too often, we only come into the Presence of God when we are instructed by the worship leader at church and even then, if the worship team doesn’t hit all the right notes, our heart doesn’t soar with love and many complain “Well, they weren’t anointed today.” The worship team are helpers of your joy. They don’t manufacture it for you. And if you don’t have the fullness of joy in God’s presence without the worship team, you may not have it at all. What you have on Sundays may not be real.
The good news is that it is so easy to develop that passion and closeness to God where you can get alone with Him and have words of love flowing back and forth between the both of you. Jesus said we should rejoice because our names are written in the Book of Life. The fact that we are saved is plenty enough reason to enter the presence of God and fall down and worship Him.
When you start out on this journey to build your ability to worship God, the process may be difficult at first. It all depends on where you are walking right now. But don’t despair. You are a son of God. Your spirit was designed specifically for worship, so you can do it!
Steps to Developing Intimacy with God:
1. Set aside undisturbed time to worship. Start with 15 minutes or 30 minutes or whatever works for you.
2. Don’t use worship music as a prompt during this time. Worship music is great, but what you really want to do is build your ability to worship without crutches of any sort.
3. Select words of worship and speak them to the Lord: “Father, I love you and adore You. Thank you for saving me. I’m so grateful. You are wonderful, God. You are the Creator. You are amazing. I worship and glorify You. You are the King of my heart. How good and great You are. I love You. I love You.”
4. Continue to say what comes from your heart even if all your feelings don’t match up with the words. Your natural mind and flesh may fight the process. Don’t give in. Stick to your time limit.
5. If you run out of words of love, start over with the same words. No lover ever said “I love you” too much.
As you continue to do this on a daily basis, you will find your heart overflowing with passion for God. And even better, you will begin to experience His presence filling your heart and mind all through the day. It is an amazing experience, one that God wants for all His children.
I pray you take the time to enter His presence. Grace and Peace to you,
Sade
Topics: Worship | 1 Comment »
April 22nd, 2009 at 5:16 pm
Hi!
I am borrowing an image from your page here to use on my blog, “Woman of Faith.” If you would prefer that I don’t use it, in which case I will remove it immediately, please let me know. I did not see a copyright on it, which is why I am going ahead with it. I hope you won’t mind, but if, as I said, you want me to remove it, I’ll be happy to do so.
Thanks so much, and God bless!
Linore
PS: Please see image at http://todayswomanoffaith.blogspot.com