An Intimate God

A new movie has come out in time for Valentine’s Day but it is not a movie that promotes healthy wholesome or intimate relationships.  The movie “50 Shades of Gray” depicts relationships between men and women in degrading ways according to those who have read the book or seen the movie.

Wikipedia wrote:  Fifty Shades of Grey has topped best-seller lists around the world, including those of the United Kingdom and the United States.[5][6] The series has sold over 100 million copies worldwide and been translated into 52 languages,[7] and set a record in the United Kingdom as the fastest-selling paperback of all time.

It is a sad statement about the moral condition of our culture and an insult to all who understand what God desires between men and women.  We have lost the true meaning of intimacy and have replaced it with carnal attractions and fleshly exploitation of the opposite sex.

Valentine’s Day has an interesting history that a friend of mine sent me this past week.

Saint Valentine was a 14th century Roman Catholic priest. His emperor had forbidden marriages, because they felt married men made worse soldiers in a time of war. So living together without a marriage covenant was common, and so was polygamy. St. Valentine believed God's plan of covenant marriage for one man and one woman was the best model. So he would secretly marry couples. For breaking this law, he was arrested, jailed and ended up suffering a triple martyrdom - beating, torture and decapitation. Legend says one of his judges had a daughter who was blind. Valentine prayed for her and she was healed. His last letter from jail was to her, and he signed it...

..."from your Valentine".

God desires us

God created us for intimacy in our relationship with him first and in our relationship with each other.  He created us with the capacity and ability to have an intimate relationship with him.  But what is intimacy, how do we define it so we can understand if we really are experiencing it?

The dictionary defines it as: a close familiar and affectionate personal relationship;  a close association with a deep understanding of a place subject, etc. A sexual relationship.

God created man to have a close personal relationship with him.  At its foundation is God’s covenant love for mankind.  He created man not out of a need he had but a love that he could share with someone who he created with the capacity to both give and receive love.  John the apostle of love stated,  

1 John 4.19 We love because he first loved us.

God gave man the same nature of love he has to man. With the ability to love comes the ability to become intimate with God and with another person.  God wants to be personal with us.  He wants to share his love with us and receive love back from us.  The natural consequence of being loved is that you desire to be with the person who loves you. The love God had for Adam and Eve provided the security they needed to be in a relationship with God.  Adam came to know God through his encounters with him through his creation but also in his conversations with God. 

God desires intimacy with us.  He is not a God who stands away and does not want to be involved in our lives as Deists believe. He is a person with characteristics like us. He has feelings, emotions, desires, thoughts, and the ability to communicate with us.    His conversations with Adam must have been an amazing time of learning for Adam.  He came to him in the cool of the evening to have a time of fellowship with Adam.  We can only speculate what was involved in the conversation between them.  When we look at examples of people in the Bible who had close relationships with God we see that God was the initiator.  It was his desire to reveal himself and have a personal relationship.  God sought out Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, by choosing them, speaking to them and calling them into an intimate relationship with him.  Intimacy is initiated by God, it is his desire to relate to each one of us in a deep and personal way. 

God invites us

He not only desires an intimate friendship with us but he invites us into the relationship.  In our human relationships a similar process happens.  We begin with a desire to know someone because there is an attraction to them.  But unless an invitation is given to have that person join you for an activity where conversation can occur you will never be able to have knowledge of the person that can lead to a deep and personal relationship.  As humans we understand that there is a risk of rejection by the other person.  We may want to know them better but the feeling may not be mutual and they may say no to our invitation.  But if the invitation is accepted then the door is open to at least pursue a close relationship with the person.  God extends the invitation to all of us to be in an intimate relationship with him.  To know him for who he truly is and not as others may have stereotyped him to be.  He invited Moses to spend 40 days on Mount Sinai to understand how he wanted to relate to the people and the people to relate to him.  Moses had an intimate relationship with God and was known as one who spoke to God as a friend.

11 Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. (Ex 33:11).

God described himself to Moses when he passed before him.

  6 The LORD passed before him, and proclaimed,     “The LORD, the LORD,     a God merciful and gracious,     slow to anger,     and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,     7      keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation,    forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,     yet by no means clearing the guilty,     but visiting the iniquity of the parents     upon the children     and the children’s children,     to the third and the fourth generation. (Ex 34:6–7).

The book of Song of Songs is a description of two people in love but it is also a description of God’s desire and invitation to each one of us.

          My beloved speaks and says to me: “Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away; (So 2:10).

God is our lover, he wants to take us away just as a one who loves desires to be alone with just the person he or she loves.  Human love and its desires is like God’s love and desires for each one of us.  He invites us to come away with him.

In his relationship with Israel he invited them to come to him and reason or argue with him so that their relationship could be restored.  It was an invitation to have a conversation with him so that the problems between them could be resolved.

    8      Come now, let us argue it out,   says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow;   though they are red like crimson,  they shall become like wool. (Is 1:18).

Jesus invited his disciples to come and follow him to be a part of his ministry. 

19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him (Mt 4:19–20).

Zacchaeus was a tax collector who responded to Jesus’ request to meet him at his house.  Luke 19.5

Jesus extended the invitation to all who were weary and heavy laden with the burdens of the law to come to him and learn of him and he would give them rest.  Matthew 11.28

28 “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

The invitation to intimacy is extended to each one of us and we have the choice daily whether we will accept it or ignore it.

God Waits for us

Not only is God desiring intimacy and extending the invitation to intimacy but he patiently waits for us to respond.  He does not force a relationship upon us. As we respond to draw near to him, he promises to draw near to us. 

James 4. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

The church in Laodicea had grown lukewarm.  They thought they had it all together but Jesus said they were in a condition that was not pleasing to him.  Yet his desire was to be connected with them.   And he called them to repentance.  He invited them to respond to him as he knocked on the door.  He waited for them to open it and allow him in so he could have fellowship with them.

Revelation 3.20  ²⁰ Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.

He waits for us to respond to his invitation.  One day I had an image of how God looks at each one of us and desires our fellowship as I viewed my baby daughter sleeping in her crib.  I stood beside her bed and waited until she woke up to be able to pick her up and hold her. I pictured Jesus waiting at the foot of my bed, watching me as I slept and waiting for me to awaken so he could have a conversation with me.  We serve a God who enjoys our fellowship with him.  He wants to spend time with us and communicate to us. 

One of the disciplines of our lives is spending time each day with the Lord through his Word, prayer, meditation and reflection. Life gets very busy for most of us, the demands of ministry and work are calling us from the moment we wake up until we go to sleep. Jesus experienced this as he ministry began to draw many people who literally pressed in on him.  He had to get away.

15 But now more than ever the word about Jesus spread abroad; many crowds would gather to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. 16 But he would withdraw to deserted places and pray. (Lk 5:14–16).

Carving out time in our day to sit in the presence of the Lord is critical to all that we do. Do whatever it takes to make your appointment with the Lord each day. Make it a habit in your life and protect that time from being stolen or interrupted by things that are not as important.  Throughout the day imagine that he is right beside you ready to converse with you. He desires our fellowship, he invites us to be with him and he patiently waits for us to be with him.  We can be as intimate with God as we want to be.

We can be ourselves with him, he knows us better than we know ourselves.  Our fears, anxieties, our disappointments, our troubles, our sins, our hopes and dreams are all known by him and he cares about everything that affects us each day.  He wants us to share these things with him and he will respond to help us in every situation. 

Tonight you may be here and you feel far from God.  You have allowed business to steal your time or maybe you have strayed from the path and need to get back on track with the Lord.  He is a God who always desires our fellowship, always extends the invitation to intimacy and patiently waits for our response.  Take the time now to return to him so you can once again experience his love and close relationship he wants with you.

Making Disciples

Jesus gave his final command to his disciples that was an enormous goal for them.

16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Mt 28:16–20).

The commandment Jesus gave to his disciples was preceded by his assurance to them that he was still in control.  All authority or all power was now in his hands.  The disciples had witnessed Jesus working under the authority of his Father.  He did nothing on his own initiative but only did what the Father revealed to him to do.  The disciples saw miraculous things happen as Jesus submitted himself to the will of his Father.  To be given authority you must first learn to be under authority.  Now he was being given authority to govern what would happen in heaven and on earth.  .  In other words nothing would be impossible for them because he was in control.  They could go forward in confidence knowing that Jesus was in control and what he asked of them would be something that they would be able to do through him. 

Whatever Jesus asks of us to do for him, he will be with us working in us and in every situation we face to accomplish his calling in our lives.  The task of making a disciple of those who believe was strategic to the building of the Kingdom of God.  Making a disciple of a believer is the goal we should always have before us.  Jesus spent 3 years training the 12 to become one of his disciples.  His success rate was 91.6 % which would be a fantastic goal for us to also achieve.  Not everyone will make it, some will go astray but the quality of our training will make a huge difference in the lives of the people God gives us to train.

When we look at the training of the 12 as our model we observe that there are several important elements in the process.

The first thing we notice about the training was the process of election.  Jesus prayed all night before he chose the twelve who would be with him.  The men he chose were from different backgrounds, with different talents and abilities as well as deficiencies.  They were raw material that he would work with for three years to make them into disciples who would transform the world.  He chose only 12 in order to focus his time and attention on a manageable but challenging group.  God has put each one of us in strategic places and his desire is that we pray and be guided by the Holy Spirit in selecting individuals whom we can disciple. 

Jesus then invited the men to become followers of him.  There was a mutual agreement between them to enter into the training process.  The disciples left their professions to dedicate their lives to being with Jesus.  There must obviously be an agreement between the people we ask and ourselves as to what is the commitment, the process and the goal.

The commitment Jesus asked of his disciples was very demanding.  It required leaving everything to be with him.  We cannot ask the same of those we disciple in most cases but we must be clear in defining what the commitment will involve so there is no misunderstandings, false expectation or delusions.  For some people the commitment may only involve a weekly meeting of investing in their lives.  Others will be able to dedicate more time to the commitment.  Our Discipleship Training School asks for 5 months of complete dedication and commitment of their time.  It is a big commitment but the process that YWAM has developed over the 50 years of making disciples has been tested and confirmed that it is an adequate amount of time to achieve the goal.  Whomever God places in your life to invest in them to make them a disciple has to have some agreed upon commitment of time that will be based upon availability, desire and need.  One pastor selected a handful of men who met with him every morning, Monday through Friday for one hour from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m.  to training them in discipleship.  This was a big commitment of time for the number of weeks he met with them.  But it demonstrates the desire of those wanting to be discipled and the value they placed on receiving the training.  We will make great sacrifices and commitments to things that we highly value.  What value do we place on being discipled and discipling others?  It seems to me that making disciples was priority #1 for Jesus and for those he had trained. I think this is an area that is greatly lacking in the church today.  We make little demands and have low expectations of believers.  We do not challenge them to make commitments to truly learn how to be a disciple.  Church attendance is a great thing but it alone will not produce the type of disciple that I believe God wants us to develop. Both the evangelical and catholic churches are faced with making disciples of their youth.  Many are falling into sexual sin, out of wedlock pregnancies and other vices.  The catholic priest in our community told me that he is continually being faced with teenage pregnancy among those who attend the church.  It is the same challenge in evangelical churches and it speaks of the need to really invest in the youth to disciple them into strong believers who will be able to overcome the world, the flesh and the devil. 

When I look back at my life I realize that if someone in my church had taken me under their tutelage when I was in high school I would have been spared a lot of problems I created for myself.  My dad had no interest in spiritual things, he did not attend church, never talked about God or spiritual things and that left a big void in my life.  I think my life would have been very different had someone in my church would have taken the time to meet with me to disciple me. Homes that have no spiritual leader need to be addressed by disciples in the church who will invest in the children of these families.

There was something about Jesus that drew the men he had chose to follow him.  He spoke with authority, his teaching were simple yet profound, his compassion for people and most of all his relationship with God the Father were evident in his life.  There was an attraction to him because of the life he lived that drew people to follow him.  This has to be part of our life as well.  There must be something different about us in our level of commitment to be a follower of Christ that is evident to the people around us.  They must see something they want.  I am not talking about perfection but living a real life that is endeavoring to follow Christ wholeheartedly.  People are not drawn to luke warm believers.  We want to draw near to those who are fire for the Lord.

The second thing is the process of making a disciple.  When we look at how Jesus made disciples he did certain things to form them into disciples.  

The first thing was the example he set before them.  He was the real deal. No pretense, ulterior motivation, just genuine sincere devotion to his Father. His relationship with his Father was marked by submission and obedience.  He was not a maverick nor one who acted on his own and the disciples witnessed this everyday with him.  Jesus demonstrated his love and knowledge of the Scriptures in his teachings.  He astounded the people who listened to him and the scribes and Pharisees were jealous of his command of the truth.  He also was a man of prayer and the disciples saw that in him and asked him to teach them how to pray.  His prayer life reflected his intimate relationship with his Father and the disciples witnessed this and wanted it.  Jesus also was an example of one who denied himself.  He made sacrifices of his time to help people.  He lived a very humble life when he could have lived in great luxury.  He placed the needs of others before his own.  He stayed focused on his mission.  There were no deviations from the purpose for which he came.  He was threatened many times and attempts to end his life were real yet he did not swerve from what he was sent to do. His example of submission, obedience, knowledge of the Scriptures, prayer life, intimacy with his Father, self-denial and focus on his mission were exactly what the disciples needed to see and emulate.

Jesus spent many hours educating the disciples.  He was the Master Teacher who used simple illustrations in daily life to convey spiritual truths.  He drew upon the Old Testament scriptures and brought them to life in their application for today.  He gave them understanding of his Heavenly Father and changed errant thinking about him.  He explained his identity and his mission.  He taught them about the Holy Spirit who would be sent to them.  He instructed them on how to pray.  He taught them about the errors of the religious leaders and was not afraid to be confronted by them.  He taught them the values of the Kingdom.

The process of training also involved hands on experience.  Jesus sent them out on specific missions in which they saw the power of God in operation in their lives.  The disciples were excited to see people healed and demons cast out.  He allowed them to be in situations that were beyond their human ability to change to teach them how to activate their faith to see the miraculous.  Seth Barnes who leads Adventures in Missions has a book I highly recommend called Kingdom Journeys.  In his book he recounts stories of young people who have launched out in faith to bring the gospel to the nations.  Their stories of being in impossible situation and seeing God do the miraculous are examples of what Jesus did with his disciples.  Jesus set the example for his disciples and then allowed them to be in challenging situations so they could experience God's power at work in them.  As we make disciples we must follow this same process and not be afraid to put them into situations that will test their faith but also form a solid foundation of experiencing God's faithfulness in every encounter. In our DTS the 2 months of outreach are designed for this purpose of allowing the students the opportunity to do the ministry.  The leaders guide and teach along the way but the students are the ones who do the ministry.  They experience God using them in ways that they may have never envisioned and it is exciting to see the growth of their faith through these times.

The final element that Jesus used in making disciples was entrustment of the mission.  After three years of being trained by him the time of their graduation was at hand.  Jesus entrusted them with carrying out the mission of going into all the world to preach the gospel message.  Whether they realized it or not, they were now ready to take on the greatest challenge of their lives.  The mission he entrusted to them involved:

Action, they had to go, no couch potato Christianity was ever in the mind of Jesus. The tense of the verb denotes a continuous action, really it means in your going.  It was to be a normal, regular part of their live.

Destination: All the world, every ethnic group.  Jesus was sending them out into all the world.  There would be no forgotten people, all must be reached with the message and disciples made who will carry on the mission and reproduce other believers.

Preaching the gospel message. Proclaiming the good news that the prophetic words regarding the Messiah had been fulfilled in Jesus.  In order to reach the Jewish audience it was important to be able to prove from the Old Testament the prophecies that were fulfilled in Christ. The Gentile audience required a different strategy as they were unfamiliar with the OT prophecies.  The book or Romans is a good outline of the method Paul used to reach this audience. He adapted his message to the audience he was addressing without compromising it meaning.  Paul reduced the gospel message to just a few words that summarize what God did in Christ.

There needed to be both public proclamation and personal conversations with people to bring the good news to them.  Silence was not an option.

Baptizing them in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Baptizing was symbolic of identification with Christ in his death, burial and resurrection.  They were now linked to the Trinity through the act of baptism. They needed to teach the believers about their relationship to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Teaching the new believers to be obedient to the commands of Jesus. They were responsible to know the commands and communicate them to the new believers so they could walk in obedience to them.  This was all part of the making of a disciple that became their responsibility.   New believers have to be discipled.  Left on their own it is easy for the enemy to come in and steal or corrupt the seed that has been planted. 

Jesus left his disciples with a huge task but they did not have to do it in their own authority or power as the Holy Spirit would soon be given to them to give them everything they needed to accomplish the mission.

The challenge continues with each one of us to make disciples of all the nations or ethnic groups. Current statistics from the Joshua Project state that there are 16744 people groups in the world (counting every group once for each country in which they reside) and 42.1% of them are unreached.  In the 10/40 window there are 8,463 people groups and 69.9% are unreached.

God has given us the responsibility to invest our lives in the lives of those who have become believers in Christ.  We must place the challenge of their commitment to be trained to be a disciple before them.  Our lives must be lived with a dedication to Christ that becomes very evident to them that we are serious about our relationship with the Lord.  They have to see evidence of the changes Christ has made in us that we are very different from the world and this is something that they will desire in their lives. 

The process of discipling involves the example we set before them of submission, obedience, study and knowledge of the Word, a vital prayer life, intimacy with his Father, self-denial and focus on his mission.  These elements must be taught to them but they must also be given practical and challenging experiences to grow in their faith and dependence upon the Lord. Finally our goal is to be able to entrust them with carrying out the mission on their own to reproduce disciples of every nation.  A disciple will be like his teacher and if we are faithful to be the teacher and discipler God has called us to be we will see healthy disciples who will reproduce what has been invested in them by us.