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Intimacy with God!
by Fergus Davar When you hear the word "intimacy", who is it that comes to your mind? Is it your spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend? The world seeks its love from a partner and sees the climax of all love going nowhere beyond than in a man and woman relationship. You don't have to take my word for it, you can see it in the movies, where the ideal concept of love doesn't seems to help the movie makers and stars themselves, because they are always picking up the pieces from their last relationship or marriage, at least that is what I read in the news papers. If I were to talk of intimacy and love, what enters the head of most people is sex and sensuality. This perversion of something as pure as intimacy and love has its consequences, which show up in the unhelpful relationships these people have and they really cannot do anything about it because they are literally enslaved to their desires. Genesis 4: 1, 25 Now Adam KNEW Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, "I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD." And Adam KNEW his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, "God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him." The word "knew" mentioned above comes from the Hebrew "Yada", that refers to intimate love. It must be understood in all cases that what we enjoy to satisfaction, happens because God decrees it that way. For example: I enjoy the Snickers candy bar and it's my favorite but there are times I am not satisfied by it as much as I am most of the time, which is because, even the satisfaction that comes from your favorite action comes from God and maybe he doesn't always give it to you even when you are doing your favorite thing so that the believer may know that his joyous satisfaction is actually in the Lord and nowhere else. Well the world is surely blind to this because they don't see their pleasure coming from God but solely from their own actions and so the world continues to seek pleasure and satisfaction in their actions alone till burnout, and then they ridiculously claim there is no God! To refrain from heretic doctrine, I would like to tell you that I am in no way implying that sexually orgies await the people of God in paradise. While here on earth 'sex' was designed by God to be enjoyed only within the confines of a monogamous marital relationship, in heaven things will be different: in fact the word "which" in Mark 12:25 (below) in the original Greek is "ho he to", and this has a "genderless" reference. Mark 12:25 For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels WHICH are in heaven. The Bible says that God goes beyond just loving, He goes to the extent of being love himself (1John 4:8, 16) and this makes quite a lot of sense because the people who reject God are mostly those who have all kinds of relationship trouble. Getting back to the topic, let's read Roman 8: 28-29 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose (SECURITY SAFETY HOPE ---THIS IS WHERE "JOY" IS DEFINED). For those whom he FOREKNEW he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. It ought to be noted here that "foreknew", used here should not be mistaken as foreknowledge. The Greek word used here for "foreknew" in Romans 8:29 above is "proginosko", which is foreknowledge when considering a relation to events but when considering a relation between beings, it ought to be seen as "pro-ginosko", which is literally pure foreordained-intimacy between God and His people. Below are a series of "ginosko" occurrences highlighted in CAPITAL for you to get the message. Matthew 7:21-23 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never KNEW you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.' John 17:3, 25 And this is eternal life, that they KNOW you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. O righteous Father, even though the world does not KNOW you, I KNOW you, and these KNOW that you have sent me. John 10:14-15 I am the good shepherd. I KNOW my own (sheep) and my own (sheep) KNOW me, just as the Father KNOWS me and I KNOW the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. John 8:28-32 So Jesus said to them, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will KNOW that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him." As he was saying these things, many believed in him. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will KNOW the truth, and the truth will set you free." So the highlight of what I am trying to tell you is that, in the life of believer the only thing that really matters is his intimacy with the God who loves him/her, everything else can be arranged but the love between God has His Church can never be arranged, purely because it is already foreordained. Matthew 6:33 Instead, be concerned above everything else with the Kingdom of God and with what he requires of you, and he will provide you with all these other things. Ephesians 5:25-30 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. From Eph 5:25-30, one can see that the relationship between Christ and His Church is as intimate in love as that of a marital relationship. This intimacy and love between God and His people, referred to as "yada" in Old Testament Hebrew and "ginosoko" in New Testament Greek, is what KNOWING God is really about, which is something that the Church can take pride in. Jeremiah 9:23-24 Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and KNOWS ME, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD." By Fergus Davar (Saved by HIS grace), just a pen in His Hand. Psalms 144:1 Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle; Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |