Intimacy with God

Intimacy with God

   
     Intimacy with God is a hard thing to attain.  The word "intimacy" carries with it the aspects of a relationship with someone where you are vulnerable, loving, trusting, etc.  To have an intimate relationship with God means that the deepest part of you is having a relationship with a deep part of God.  Of course, we cannot fathom the deepest part of God, but He condescends to our level and reveals a part of Himself that only the Christian (through the cross of Christ) can enjoy.  In addition, n heaven, this intimacy will not be hindered by sin.
     The model of true intimacy is the Trinity. God is a Trinity of persons:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Therefore, our intimacy with God (and with each other) is ultimately a reflection of God’s intimacy within the members of the Godhead.  This means that intimacy is an essential part of the very nature of God and because we are made in His image, it is natural to us as well.  This is why we are capable of intimacy with others and with God.  It is in our nature.
     Our intimacy with God first began in the Garden of Adam and Eve when God walked with man (Gen. 2 –3).  It was something that God desired.  As we know, Adam sinned and the intimacy with God was lost.  But, God had a plan and He covered Adam and Eve with animal skins and shedding blood in the process (typifying the sacrifice of Christ in the future) so that the fellowship with mankind could be restored.  This was realized at the cross where Jesus became sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:17) and bore our sins in His body (1 Pet. 2:24).  Therefore, we are able to come to God through Jesus our mediator (1 Tim. 2:5).
     Since Jesus is God in flesh, our mediator, this means that the intimacy we have with God is with Christ.  In fact, we are "called into fellowship with His Son, Christ Jesus" in 1 Cor. 1:9.  The word "fellowship" in the Greek is "koinonia" which is translated in the KJV as "communion" in 1 Cor. 11 in reference to the communion supper.  It is interesting that communion is the place where we accept the ultimate vulnerability of God in Christ who humbled Himself by becoming susceptible to death.  In this, I think, is a clue to true intimacy with God:  humility.  As Christ was humble to the point of death, so we too must be humble to the point of death; that is, death to ourselves, our selfish desires, our personal wants.  When compared to God, our purpose should not be to see what we can get from Him.  It should be to glorify Him and to love Him.  Pride seeks its own.  Humility seeks others.  Isn't that what intimacy is, the seeking of another in the deepest sense?  How can we do this if we are proud?
     Intimacy with God is a privilege freely given to us by Christ in His sacrifice on the cross.  He removed our sins so that we might dwell with God.  Therefore, if there is sin in your life it will hinder your fellowship, your intimacy with God.  Ask Jesus to reveal your sins to you so that you might repent of them and not hinder the fellowship of intimacy that God so lovingly desires with you.