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 »
Intimacy with God
By Sade Tagbo | February 27, 2008
Matthew 22:36 – 38Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Jesus said unto him, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.”
When all is said and done, all of our Christianity boils down to this one requirement: that we love God more than anything else. We must have a passion for Him that supercedes the passion we hold for any person or hobby or pursuit.
Everything we do “for” God must be birthed out of the place of love and intimacy with Him or we will find ourselves like the Pharisees who thought doing things “for God” equaled knowing Him. Without a passionate relationship with God, we become like the Elder brother, who served the father diligently but had no clue about his heart and love.
God loves you. You are the One for Him. You are His Beloved. Yes, just the way you are. After all, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Don’t work on yourself before coming to God. Come to Him, so He can work on you.
How do you develop intimacy with God? It won’t come from reading another book or attending another conference. Another sermon won’t help you, nor will another church service. If you truly want to know God, clear your schedule for a couple of hours, get alone and quiet, and tell Him how much you love Him.
If you feel you need help putting this in practice, then I recommend these resources to encourage you on your pursuit:
Private Worship by Dave Roberson
Practicing the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence
Grace and Peace to you,
Sade
Topics: Worship | No Comments »
Welcome to the Prayer Boot Camp!
By Sade Tagbo | February 20, 2008
Whatever took you out of prayer last week, that’s what the devil looks like in your life. – T. Stemple
Welcome to the Prayer Boot Camp, Friends in Christ! It is high time that we put our excuses aside, bite the bullet, and GET A PRAYER LIFE! Have you ever noticed that despite the major emphasis of the Bible on the importance of prayer, we Christians would rather do ANYTHING but pray? We’re happy to go to services (and church services are a good thing), and even talk about prayer instead of praying.
We have workers meetings, singles meetings, couples meetings, mothers meetings, concerts, etc. If we have prayer meetings on the church schedule only a handful of “super-spiritual” people show up.
Because of this, the expression of our relationship and intimacy with God peaks during the hours of 10 and 12 on Sunday mornings. There’s no way we are going to enjoy the fruit of a life rooted in Christ: love, joy, favor, destiny and the peace of God without living in His presence on a continuous basis.
Luke 21:36:
And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch therefore and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man.
In this verse, Jesus warns of three things that can weigh our hearts down causing us to be neutralized and ineffective in our walk with God: carousing, drunkenness and cares of this life. If you’re the average Christian, you probably don’t do much carousing and, you’ll generally avoid drunkenness. However, if you’re the average Christian, you also won’t have a prayer life because your heart has been weighed down by the cares of this life.
The cares of this life are generally anything that makes you so busy that you can’t find time to seek the Lord. For some, it’s our jobs, for others it’s housekeeping, for others it’s church volunteer work or even the work of the ministry. Sometimes, it’s business or socializing or the television. There is no one definition for the cares of this life, but if you’ve ever been too busy to pray, I guarantee you were overcome by cares.
The cares of this life are also mentioned in the parable of the Sower. In Mark 4, Jesus tells and also explains the parable:
Mark 4:18 – 19:
The thorny ground represents those who hear and accept the Good News, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the cares of this life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for nice things, so no crop is produced. (New Living)
Have you ever heard a message that touched your heart and inspired you to seek God more? Did you go ahead seek God more in prayer, or did you get busy with life again? That’s what this verse is talking about. One of the first things that helped move me out of prayerlessness was that when it came to prayer, I stopped rating myself by my intentions and began to rate myself based on my actions.
Wanting to pray and intending to pray no longer translated to being a prayerful Christian. I was either praying, or I would accept the fact that I’d been taken out of prayer by other desires and I needed to identify and rectify the problem.
Spiritual victories are won in the place of prayer. However, it is easier to do absolutely anything than it is to carve some time out to pray. Sometimes, we feel that we would rather go in for surgery rather than pray. Nonetheless, prayer is a must for Christians if we intend to walk in God’s will for us while we are here on earth. We always live in His love, but that does not mean that we always live in His will.
The room of prayer is the room of change: He changes us into the person He intends us to be. He changes us into people who can walk with Him, hear His voice, fight His battles and win His wars. He makes us able to receive from Him and reflect His glory here on earth.
At the Prayer Boot Camp, we are going to teach and learn the principles of getting into and staying in the place of prayer. If you are ready to walk in more of the inheritance God gave you in Christ, join the Prayer Boot Camp and Get A Prayer Life!
Grace and Peace to you,
Sade
Topics: Prayer | 5 Comments »
