Copyright © 2023 Michael A. Brown
‘He that dwelleth in the
secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.’ (Ps.
91:1 AV)
‘Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with
all your soul and with all your strength.’ (Deut. 6:5)
TO have a place where we can meet
regularly with God in the intimacy of our soul with his Spirit, is the thing
which God himself yearns for and desires above all other things. It is for just such intimacy with him that we
were created in the beginning. When God
created the first couple, he would walk in the garden in the cool of the day
seeking to be with them, to walk and talk with them (Gen. 3:8). This desire of his for a place and time of quiet,
loving intimacy with us is also reflected in the great commandment above: ‘Love the LORD your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your strength.’ (Deut. 6:5).
God is love and he is deeply loving (1 John
4:8,16), and so his desire, above all other things, is for a close, loving
relationship with us. And, of course, it
was precisely to reconcile and restore us into such a close, loving
relationship with God that Jesus died on the cross and rose again. So our
first and primary call as God’s children is to live in close, loving fellowship
with Jesus:
‘God… has called you into
fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord…’ (1 Cor. 1:9)
God delights in believers who desire to
nurture and develop a life of consistent intimacy with him. He yearns to have us for himself, because it
is for this that we were both created and redeemed, and he delights when he
finds in us a real hunger and yearning to seek fellowship with him in the
secret place:
‘Or do ye
think that the Scripture saith in vain, “The Spirit that He placed in us
jealously desireth us for his own?”’ (Jas.
4:5 Alford)
‘My heart says of you, “Seek his face!” Your face,
LORD, will I seek.’
(Ps. 27:8)
However, our very human tendency to be
busy or constantly occupied, as the Ephesian believers seem to have been, and
our carnal human desires for the things of life and this world which cause us
to share our affection for God with the things of the world, lead us away from
intimacy with God, causing our hearts to grow cold towards him and leaving us
in danger of forfeiting his blessing upon us:
‘Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the
Father is not in him.’ (1 John 2:15)
‘I know
your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance… Yet I hold this against you: You have
forsaken your first love… Repent and do
the things you did at first. If you do
not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.’ (Rev. 2:2,4-5)
Our natural human orientation towards work
and activity, which causes us so often to not value as we should the
relationships we have with those around us, inevitably results in loss of
intimacy and closeness with them, so these relationships slowly but surely
become distant, dry and cold. It is much
the same with God: we lose our place of intimacy with him or simply fail to
nurture it at all, when we focus ourselves and the meaning of our lives on
activities and busyness or on the things of this world.
The consequence of this lack of intimacy
with God is, of course, utterly predictable, and, if we are honest with
ourselves, we all know it so well: we dry up spiritually, and our churches and
work for God also then become dry and lifeless, lacking his tangible presence
and power. Ultimately our choice is
simple: either we learn to nurture and develop consistent intimacy with God in
our spiritual life, or we continue in our endless busyness and/or the carnality
of our love for the things of the world, and thereby lose out on what we could
potentially have in and through a close walk with God.
For any marriage relationship to fulfil its
God-given meaning, of being one in spirit with our spouse, there has to be a
time and place of regular intimacy where the couple draw aside and are alone
together, away from everything and everyone else. This is the place where, figuratively
speaking, the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign is on the door.
No
marriage relationship can ever be stronger than its place of intimacy. This is the real heart of it all, where the
relationship is made or begins to break down; where problems and issues are
faced, talked through and resolved; where forgiveness is sought and given;
where affection, love and commitment are renewed and restored; where deep and
free joy is renewed through the expression of love; where the tenderest
affections are expressed and two hearts are warmed again; where quality time
together brings strength to each other and to the union of two souls in one;
where real heart communication takes place – one speaks and knows that the
other is truly hearing – where heart touches heart; where covenant vows are
honoured, and out of which fruitfulness is created.
Without such a place of regular intimacy,
there can be no marriage in its fullest meaning. There may be a dry, empty shell involving the
lives of two people which may still look very much to outsiders like a
marriage, but it is not the real thing as God intended it to be and to
become. And if they are honest, the two
partners themselves know this deep down within…
If a couple is to nurture a
healthy and strong marriage it all boils down to this: the willingness on the
part of each to meet regularly in committed, quality time with the other to
build up, strengthen and develop what has been created between them:
‘My lover spoke and said to me,
“Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me…” “Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one,
come with me.”’
(Song 2:10,13)
‘My lover is mine and I am his.’ (Song 2:16, 5:3)
‘…when I found the one my heart loves,
I held him and would not let him go…’
(Song 3:4)
‘I belong to my
lover, and his desire is for me. Come,
my lover, let us go to the countryside, let us spend the night in the
villages.’
(Song
7:10-11)
‘His left arm is under my head and
his right arm embraces me.’
(Song 7:3)
Experience in a marital relationship
teaches us that, whatever else we need to do with our time in terms of work and
activities in the regular course of daily life, if our marriage is to survive,
last the course and continue to be blessed and fruitful without drying up and
dying off from within, then regular quality times for the renewal of intimacy
with our spouse have to be given a place of priority. This
really is more important than anything else we have or do in life.
A marriage in which two souls are bound
together as one in organic, inner heart union, and which is healthy and happy,
is invariably characterised by regular times of close intimacy between the
couple and by a commitment to each other to maintaining this intimacy as the
years go by. Such a relationship is
blessed and fruitful, and fulfils God’s intention for it. It is also invariably a blessing and
encouragement to the many other people who know the couple and have opportunity
to regularly observe their relationship.
All of this is also true of our covenant
relationship with God in which we have been drawn into an inner union of spirit
with the presence and life of God through the Holy Spirit who dwells within us
(1 Cor. 6:17,19). To have been indwelled
by the Holy Spirit, is to have been indwelled by the Spirit of love for
God. So yearning, love and affection for
God are birthed within us by the Holy Spirit, causing us to want to seek God
and to hunger and thirst for his word and presence:
‘As the deer pants for streams of
water, so my soul pants for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet God?’ (Ps. 42:1-2)
‘O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you…’ (Ps. 63:1)
‘My soul yearns, even faints, for
the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.’ (Ps. 84:2)
The Holy Spirit within us will always want
to draw us aside regularly into a place of quiet intimacy with God, so that we
share in fellowship with the Father and the Son (1 John 1:3). Intimacy
with God is the heart of all true devotion, and he longs that we learn to
cultivate such closeness with him. If we
draw near to God, he always responds by drawing near to us (Jas. 4:8). The seeking of a quiet place of solitude,
together with the appropriate confession of any sin and failure in our lives,
allows us to draw close to God and to enter into his loving presence.
An old Scottish preacher expressed it this
way:
‘Be much alone with God. Do not put Him off with a quarter of an hour
morning and evening. Take time to get
thoroughly acquainted. Talk everything
over with Him. Pour out every wish,
thought, plan, and doubt to Him. He
wants converse with His creatures. Shall
His creatures not want converse with Him?
He wants, not merely to be on “good terms” with you, if one may use man’s
phrase, but to be intimate. Shall you
decline the intimacy and be satisfied with mere acquaintance? What!
Intimate with the world, with friends, with neighbours, but not with
God? That would look ill indeed. Folly, to prefer the clay to the potter, the
marble to the sculptor, this little earth and its lesser creatures to the mighty
Maker of the universe, the great “All and in all.”’[1]
The heart of developing intimacy with God
is knowing that it is a relationship based on mutual love. God is love, and he wants us to be assured of
his love for us; there is no fear in this love (cf. 1 John 4:18). He loves us deeply and we love him back. We will always seek to be with someone that
we love. Our heart yearns and longs for
them, and moves us to seek them out.
When our love for God is strong and warm, the carnal things of the world
lose the grip and power of their attraction.
We want him more than we want them.
So we seek him out and we stay and linger in his presence, simply
because we want him and want to be with him. We are alive unto God. We sit with him, talk with him and walk with
him. We enjoy him (cf. John 15:9-11).
All true worship and adoration of God is
simply an expression of deep heart love and affection for him. Expressing this love for God to him in
praise, blessing, adoration, thanksgiving and worship (and especially by
praying in the spirit and singing in tongues) causes the Holy Spirit within us
to respond: he warms our heart and envelopes us through and through with his
presence (Eph. 5:18-20). The stresses of
the day melt away and the internal voices and noises of our own soul, caused by
daily living, are quietened and stilled, bringing us into a place of deep peace
and free joy in God’s presence.
It is in this place that our heart is
cleansed through confession and our spiritual strength is refreshed and renewed. We whisper our love to God and are assured in
return of his love for us. We can open
up and pour out our hearts to him, telling him our innermost thoughts and
concerns. As we become vulnerable before
him in his presence, we can receive healing for any inner wounds we are
carrying. As we relax in his presence
and focus on being with him, we become close enough to him to sense his inner
promptings and to hear the whispers of the still, small voice of the Holy
Spirit speaking to us. We surrender
ourselves into submission and obedience to his word and will (John 14:23). We can pray, cry out and intercede for the
needs and situations of other people (cf. Rom. 8:26-27). As we read and meditate on the Scriptures,
they come alive and the Lord speaks to us through them, satisfying our souls,
strengthening our faith, and giving us revelation and deeper understanding: ‘The LORD confides in those who fear him; he
makes his covenant known to them.’ (Ps. 25:14).
When we emerge from our time spent with
God we are spiritually refreshed and have peace in our hearts. We feel deeply blessed. There is a radiance, a glow, an inner beauty,
a spiritual lightness, peace and calmness, a sensitivity and a warmth of love
both for God and for people that grows within us as we consistently meet with
God in this way. Spending time in intimacy with God satisfies the deepest yearnings and
needs of our heart to know and be known.
The joy and peace of true love for God in our lives can often be
tangibly seen, sensed or felt by others, and it has a winsome attractiveness
about it. Others see or sense the presence
of Christ and his love in us, and this presence can then overflow and minister
to others through us.
Learning to regularly maintain such a time
and place of intimacy with God keeps our relationship with him warm and close,
and our spiritual life therefore remains fresh, free and peaceful, and it takes
striving out of our lives and ministry.
Returning frequently to this same place of soul intimacy where we have
met with God before is the key to maintaining intimacy with him and it keeps us
in touch with his living presence. We
keep ourselves in the love of God (Jude v.21).
In doing this our hearts are filled again and again to overflowing with
love and praise for God, and it keeps us consistently in that place of inner
stillness and peace that God desires should characterise our lives.
Effective and
fruitful ministry comes out of a life lived in intimacy with God
Although a measure of study, activity,
organization and management is always necessary to our success in God’s work
and to preserving its fruitfulness, yet Jesus stated an axiomatic truth of
spiritual life when he said that our fruitfulness in the kingdom of God depends
in the first place on consistent intimacy in our relationship with him,
much as the branch depends on the life-giving sap of the vine to bear fruit:
‘I am the vine; you are the
branches. If a man remains in me and I
in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.’ (John 15:5)
Success
and fruitfulness in our work in the kingdom of God – whatever our particular
call, role or activity may be – flows out of consistent and committed intimacy
with him. It
cannot be separated from this. We
cannot afford to pay lip-service to the concept of intimacy with God, while
depending on our skills and talents to accomplish the work of God for him; it
simply does not work. All that results
is sterile, barren, powerless, spiritually lifeless and ultimately fruitless
activity. And don’t we know it?!
The
heart of a life of ministry has to be intimacy with God in the first place, not
our activities for him. Intimacy
with God which gives birth to inner vision for his work and then leads us into
activity for his kingdom will inevitably be blessed and bear much fruit. This is the way in which it worked for the
early apostles. The Holy Spirit was able
to communicate to them vision for his work when they were spending quality time
together in his presence, worshipping and fasting:
‘While they were worshipping and fasting, the Holy
Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have
called them.”’
(Acts 13:2)
It is the nurturing of consistent
intimacy behind the scenes which leads to having the presence, blessing and
power of God in worship and ministry in public meetings. These do not come simply through music,
through spiritual entertainment or trying to work things up; they come through
a life of consistent intimacy with God.
A man or woman, who consistently spends daily times in intimacy with God
during the week, will inevitably carry his presence with them when they come to
the pulpit or stage on Sunday. And the
opposite is also true: if we do not spend much time in intimacy with God during
the week, then we will not experience very much of his presence and blessing
with us in our Sunday meetings, no matter how well we may have prepared for
this in other ways.
We
cannot work up the presence of God. It is something we carry with us because we
have been with him, and so we bring it with us when we come to church or when
we minister to people. Just as the
life-giving sap of the vine flows into the branch, it is the person who dwells
regularly in God’s presence, who then carries his presence with him/her when
they emerge from their time with God, just as Moses experienced (cf. Ex.
34:29-35).
Every servant of God who wants to be used
significantly and fruitfully by him in ministry has to learn this lesson of
regular and committed intimacy with God.
Indeed, growth into maturity in our walk with God is characterised by a
deepening desire for a closer and more consistent intimacy with him. It is
a foundational axiom of spiritual life, proven countless times over by servants
of God through the ages, that all effective and fruitful ministry comes out of
a life lived in intimacy with God.
Intimacy with God is something that can
be gained or lost every day. It is
those who want the presence of God so much that they are prepared to lay aside
anything that hinders their intimacy with him in order to give themselves fully
to it, who are the ones who find him and walk consistently close to him,
carrying his presence with them.[2]
Joshua seems to have learned this as a
young man by observing Moses. As Moses’
servant, he would accompany him to the Tent of Meeting where Moses met and
talked with God. However, when Moses
left the tent to return to the camp, Scripture tells us that Joshua did not
leave the tent:
‘Then Moses would return to the
camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent.’ (Ex. 33:11)
Joshua had joined the dots up. He had made the connection between the fact
that Moses could discern God’s voice so clearly and that his presence and power
were with Moses, and the fact that Moses spent time regularly in intimacy with
God in prayer in the Tent of Meeting. So
what did Joshua do? He imitated Moses
and began his own personal habit of spending time lingering in the presence of
God, so that he too could learn to experience intimacy with God in the same
way. He coveted the presence and power
of God, saying to himself: “I want this too!”
So is it any wonder then that, when his own time eventually came to lead
the community of God’s people, he too could discern the voice of God to him and
guide God’s people aright? And where did
he learn it? From being consistently in
intimacy with God!
Look at David, spending so many occasions
in praise and worship, arising with the dawn to spend time with God (Ps. 57:8,
63:1). Why did he do it? Because, despite his weaknesses and failures,
he loved God supremely above all things.
It was love of God’s presence and the adoration that flows from love for
God that drew him aside so often with his harp.
And the fruit of this is that we are all so blessed even today by his psalms.
And what of Anna, that old woman in her
eighties who regularly prayed night and day, worshipping and fasting? How on earth did she do it? In one sense, it was very simple: she had
committed and consecrated herself to nurturing and developing a close and
intimate relationship with God ever since her husband died many years earlier,
and, out of her consistently growing deep love for God’s presence, she drew
aside regularly to be with him until she scarcely wanted to do anything else
anymore! And God saw this surrender and
deep desire on her part to love him and to be with him, and developed in her a
prophetic ministry. Her prophetic
ministry was birthed in and came out of her consistent intimacy with God
(Luke 2:36-38).
So, if we want our own lives to be a
blessing to others and to bear fruit for the kingdom of God, it would be
profitable for us to observe and imitate the lives and practices of our
forebears, just as Joshua did (Heb. 13:7).
As the above examples indicate, the great men and women of the faith,
who walked in the presence and power of God, were all people who loved God
supremely and coveted his presence above all other things. Love for God in them had displaced carnal and
worldly affections in their lives. The yearning
and delight of their hearts to be with God compelled them inwardly to seek his
face, so they developed the habit of re-visiting their place of intimacy with
him on a regular basis several times every day (and often during the night
also). In this sense they devoted
themselves to living in a spirit of prayer, praying continually (Col. 4:2, 1
Thess. 5:17). They determined that they would stay consistently near God.
So Adoniram Judson held himself to set
times during both day and night when he would spend a short time with God.[3] Both Rees Howells and his son Samuel never
went a day without spending several significant times with God. When we reflect on the anecdote that Smith Wigglesworth
never prayed for more than twenty minutes, but never let twenty minutes go by
without praying, it should be clear to us that what he was doing was guarding
his place of soul intimacy with God by not allowing himself to get far from
it. He was making sure that he stayed
very near to God, and he consistently maintained this nearness to God
throughout the latter years of his life in ministry.
Furthermore, like these men and women of
God, it is through being regularly in this place of intimacy with God that we
are then consistently able to minister effectively to other people out of the
freshness and power of God’s presence. If,
as Joshua did, we have understood what the fruits are of living in intimacy
with God, in terms of his presence and power being with us, then we will no
doubt value and covet such intimacy above all other things in life.
We will become men and women who are able
to discern and know when God is speaking to us.
His presence will be with us tangibly and will create followership in
those around us. We will become
sensitive to the Holy Spirit and will learn how to walk and flow in his
presence, power and charismatic operations. We will receive words of knowledge and
prophetic words for people as our minds become attuned to the mind of
Christ. God will be able to demonstrate his
healing power through us as his love and compassion for people fill our own
hearts. We will be able to lead God’s
people into his presence in times of free worship. There will be a flow from us of life-giving
virtue to other people as we preach and lay hands on people, and so on.
It was written of John Hyde’s habits at
the annual Sialkot conventions, that ‘he felt that his place was in the prayer
room, but he had to enter the platform at times, and his messages were
delivered with tremendous power, as we would naturally expect when he came
straight from the prayer room to deliver his message.’[4] Hyde would be soaked in the presence of God,
having spent hours in praise and intercession in the prayer room, and would
carry this presence and power with him straight into the pulpit. On these occasions, he would allow no
intervening time in which the presence and power of God could dissipate from
him by engaging himself with ordinary, mundane matters. He went straight from praying, to
preaching! Is it any wonder then that
his messages were so powerful and changed the lives of so many people?
Such regular times that we spend in prayer,
worship and/or the word of God do not necessarily have to be long. They may simply be short, quality times that
we spend with God. But they are
sufficient to keep the fire of our inner spiritual passion stoked, our hearts
warm with love for God, and our minds fresh in his word.
Coming aside several times every day for
short periods in this way enables us to abide consistently in a place where we
are walking in the inward grace, freedom, peace and joy of the Lord. We remain fresh and ready to minister to
people whenever we need to, out of this inner grace and peace. Similarly, we are consistently able to
respond appropriately to daily issues and challenges, out of this inward grace
and peace.
In determining to maintain such a time and
place with God and thereby keep our relationship with him warm, passionate and
loving, we will not stray far from him, despite what we may have to be doing or
engaging with in the meantime in daily life or work. We will never be far from the Lord, and our
hearts will not grow so cold that it takes a long time and a lot of confession of
failure on our part to get back to that place of soul intimacy. It will only take a short time to enter that
place of freshness and heart warmth once again.
A joyful smile and the sound of praise and love for God will never be
far from our lips!
“‘I
will bring him near and he will come close to me, for who is he who will devote
himself to be close to me?” declares the Lord.’ (Jer. 30:21)
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