I would like for you to think along with me about how you can grow in your intimacy with God, right now, right here, today? How can you further deepen your fellowship with your Savior? How can you draw nearer to Him to the point that you can’t wait to be with Him—ultimately, with Him and all the saints in glory! God needs to touch your heart so that Jesus is your first love.

Listen to this quote from Jack Deere:

“I want passionate feelings to characterize my relationship with the Lord Jesus. Of course, I want to be perfectly obedient to the Lord, but I want the obedience to spring out of a passionate love for him. I want to obey Jesus not simply out of discipline of duty, or because of some reward or fear of punishment. I want to serve Him simply for the joy of being able to please the one I love so much. If discipline is what ultimately drives us in our pursuit of Jesus, eventually we will give up that pursuit. But a man in love, or a woman in love will never quit….I want my life to be characterized by an unrestrained affection for the Son of God.”

Isn’t that awesome? Isn’t this what we need to be pushing for in our relationship with God?

So, what is intimacy with God? Intimacy is to know Jesus Christ, to know Him personally, experientially, to know Him more than just knowing facts about Him. It’s not just head knowledge, it should be the heartbeat and desire of every true believer! In Philippians 3:10, Paul says, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death…”

Oswald Chamber said of intimacy that “it is a joy to Jesus when a person takes time to walk more intimately with Him. The bearing of fruit is always shown in Scripture to be a visible result of an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.”

Sometimes you and I have to become fearless in our life and better yet, fearless in Christ! Life is short and you need to make it count!

Listen, when I came to the Lord as a young adult, never having gone to church, I’ll tell you I was struggling and afraid of giving my life fully to Christ. Why? Because I was fearful of who I was going to be. And then God let me know that anything I was to be in Him was going to be far greater than anything I could ever make of myself! I know God gave me that insight because it was what allowed me to put myself in his hands. From that moment forward power came into my life—heavenly power not of this world. I was being transformed in my mind (Romans 12:2) and I knew without a doubt that I belonged to Him. And here I stand today praising Him for my new life in Christ! And I say “new life” in Christ because it has never gotten old! Living in Christ is new and powerful because Christ is alive and He brings power to your life when you call out to Him. When you know him and you talk to him. This is where the intimacy relationship begins.

When we talk about intimacy between God and man, there can be no greater intimacy than what God the Father demonstrated toward all humanity when he sent his Son to die for us. In Romans 5:8, it says that “God demonstrates his love for us in this, that even while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us!” How can we not love Him back out of a heart of gratitude and thanksgiving?

Sometimes intimacy comes from being down right serious with God and telling Him with deep conviction that you are a sinner and you need Him to cut out the sin in your life. That might mean friendships who pull you away from the Truth; drugs; alcohol; inappropriate and/or offensive language; what we watch on TV and social media. Maybe it’s not a visible sin struggle but a spiritual apathy drowning your heart. You are complacent and unresponsive to the Holy Spirit’s pull on your heart. You are more interested in worldly advantage than Godly approval and your mind is consumed with things on earth rather than on things above (Colossians 3:2).

On that same day that God gave me spiritual insight to trust Him, I vividly recall me crying out to Him and saying, “If you’re real, God, then prove yourself to me. I want to be able to know you as much as I can know my wife, and if I can’t, I’m going back to the street!” It was then that Jesus Christ revealed himself to me! From that point on it was a day by day process of asking Jesus to remove things from my life. For me it was my anger, then my jealousy. He began to provide me the grace and power as I asked him to take away the worldly cravings that so dominated my life for a decade. Over the years other sins have reared their ugly heads and I have to take it to the Lord and plead for him to help me overcome. It is through this ongoing process of sanctification that Jesus makes Himself known to me as my living Savior and Friend.

So now that you’ve read this, what is your request to Jesus? Out of a sincere heart, what do you need to ask of the Lord so you can experience spiritual change and intimacy with Him? Mike Murdock gives us a wisdom principle as he states, “Jesus knew, when you want something you have never had, you have to do something you have never done.” What do you need to do that you have never done before in order to come closer and more intimate with Jesus? This question is pivotal. It separates people from a mediocre Christian walk to a meaningful one. But remember that God speaks to an open heart. If we are willing to listen and accept what he has to say to us, we can move forward in his grace. On the other hand, if we allow fear to keep us from asking the hard questions because we don’t want to hear the answer, we will never grow into who we were meant to be. Listening to God’s voice takes time; be patient with yourself and with God.

Here are four beginning points to propel you on the road to intimacy.

Intimacy begins by:

1. Being honest with God. It is recognizing your weaknesses and allowing Jesus to make changes from the inside out. This is hard heart work, but so necessary for your intimacy with Him to grow.

2. Coming to that place in your life where you and Jesus come face to face –where prayer is no longer just prayer, but prayer becomes that true conversation with the Creator of this magnificent universe.

3. Connecting with your Savior and having a close fellowship with Him in this life so that Jesus is there for you no matter what you go through. Remember, don’t be afraid to surrender yourself to Jesus Christ in fear of what you might become, just know that He will make you far greater a person than you could ever become by yourself.

4. Having a desire to know him and let him do the supernatural work in your life. Only God can light the fire in your heart! It is saying to Jesus, “I want to know you more than anything in this whole-wide world.

I pray this is something you desire in your life and that you have been spurred on to make this the goal of your faith. Remember, we’re in this together and we can have a close walk with God through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ!