The pursuit of the knowledge of God has everything to do with being intimate with God. We live passionately and bear fruit continuously when these two are linked.
While the desire for greater intimacy with God is growing substantially, there are many different conceptions of precisely what it means. If I asked you to describe it, could you?
This creates a significant hurdle in talking about it and an even greater problem when pursuing it. We need to have clarity on what it is we are seeking if we are to find it.
What is Intimacy with God, really?
Many in the body of Christ really do not have a solid answer to this question. While there are many who are faithful to God, fewer have really discovered how to be intimate with Him and enjoy Him.
While faithfulness is the reward of doing His will. Intimacy is the reward of enjoying His heart. Faithfulness is about getting the job done, intimacy is about becoming His friend. What does God want? Both.
Intimacy is not merely a burning desire to be in relationship with God at a deeper level or is it experiencing God in greater measure.
Intimacy is primarily composed of knowledge. Relational knowledge or knowledge gained by experiencing God Himself.
We know this intuitively in the context of human relationships but often fail to apply this concept to our desire for intimacy with God.
The people who we say we are the most intimate with are those with whom we know deeply and are deeply known by!
God is not an object which we can acquire information about – He is a person who is to be known. God is not just around us, He is actually in us and He wants to be discovered!
The Journey of Intimacy
Love and affection are absolutely critical in our relationship with the Lord but we must understand that these are the fruits of intimacy, not the substance of it
The substance of intimacy is found when we come in contact with who He is.
The reason we love is because we know, and it is knowledge that causes affection.
Out of affection we seek after deeper knowledge, which then causes the furnace of our hearts to burn all the brighter.
Yet if at any time we cease our pursuit of the knowledge of God, the cycle is broken and our affection will wane until ultimately we are stagnant. Tragically, many have found their place right here. It never has to be that way!
In other words, if we are not growing in the knowledge of God our hearts will eventually grow cold. If this happens the power of His love is reduced to living by the structure of His laws. We can manage this for years but eventually we become empty, unfulfilled and wind up going through the motions of the Christian life.
How do we grow in Intimacy with God?
What is working for me is understanding that growing in intimacy with God and growing in the knowledge of God are one and the same.
The bridge between my lack and His love is revelation. Revelation is the means by which I acquire knowledge!
The treasure of the knowledge of God is not a question of purchasing the right teaching series, attending a certain service, living in a particular place, experiencing a vision, or finding a specific book.
The Bible is clear that the very height of God’s self-revelation is found in beholding a Man named Jesus.
2 Corinthians 4:6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Colossians 2:2-3… resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
If we desire to grow in the knowledge of God, to find Him and love Him, we must do so by actually fixing our attention and affection upon Christ. To listen. To hear. To behold. To gaze.
Psa. 27:4 One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.
Have you ever stood next to a waterfall and gazed at it’s beauty or laid down and looked up at the stars at night. Your knowledge is gained through your experience. Face to face.
You will not get the same sense of awe or fulfillment from merely looking at a pictures. That is incomplete. It represents what is real but it is not the same as beholding, looking, gazing and touching.
If intimacy in large part consists of knowledge, and the way we know is by revelation, and the height of revelation is in Christ, then we may come to a very important conclusion: the substance of intimacy is the prayerful, adoring, gazing experience and study of the person and work of Christ within a life of obedience.
What do we need to do?
1. Slow down. Our perceived busyness is swallowing up our time. We have to own our schedules. Make time to spend with the Lord.
2. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you in your pursuit of the Knowledge of God. He makes Jesus known to the human heart.
3. Open the Bible. Use the Bible as a launching pad for meditating upon the life of Jesus, His beauty and His deeds.
4. Search Him out. Gaze on His glory and dig into the depths of who He is!
5. Spend time reflecting and journaling. There is no substitute for this.
FEEDBACK
Love to get your thoughts on this. Do you agree or disagree? Are there things you would add to this that are important in growing in the knowledge of God? Has this post strengthened you? How? What is personally working for you and share it with our growing M1P community?
sweet post Greg! Great way to break it down.
Hey! first comment…way to go Bill…love to see you here more often!
REALLY!? I have never won anything before!!! I’m really excited
Thanks PG! This is another great post and I totally agree with you. I would also add but definitely not put above any of the five that you have…reading and learning from past and present believers that have pursued God and have made an impact through their writings or teachings.
One reading recommendation would be Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ by Madame Guyon, here is my review: http://historyishiring.com/etdojc_madame-guyon/.
I need to get better at journaling my thoughts. Owning my schedule has been my focus…Mike Bickle has a great series called Power of a Focused Life that has been really helpful (FREE notes on his website). I will show you and Barbie sometime
Thanks again, I love having your page as a resource to go to!
Patrick…glad you won..we need to get the book to you!
Good point about studying what others are doing and what others have accomplished. The last post that I did with Bill Johnson is an example.
I have Mikes notes on the Power of Focused Life. Real good.
I am glad this is a resource for you. My prayer is to keep improving it as time goes on!
It’s true, a photograph of a waterfall can’t compare to touching a waterfall. God has made every way that we might know him and I need help remembering that! Thanks for this nudge
I can find myself satisfied in just knowing more about God but not experience Him fully. If I don’t encounter the Lord regularly, I find my myself getting dull spiritually. Again, He wants to be discovered by his kids
Loved this article PG! I am on a journey to know Him, more and more each day. It’s only by spending time with Him that I will attain such knowledge. My biggest roadblock is #1…slowing down. Even when I am sitting before Him, my mind is constantly going. I am learning to be still. Getting better.
It’s taking me at least 15 minutes before I can begin to focus. I have to have a notebook or something on my iphone to jot down things so it gets out of my head If I don’t, then my mind wants to keep thinking about it. Weird, but true. This strategy is working for me.
Hi Greg,
I loved this!! Just last night while picking up the kids from Bible study I was feeling pretty sorry for myself. You see we have a long drive into town and once in, there is no point in going home as I would just have to turn around and drive back to get the kids so I hang around town doing not much of anything. I was feeling bad because I was jealous. My kids were feasting on God’s word in a lively group of young adults and I wasn’t included. :s
But our God is so loving and kind and faithful that He gave me a piece of Himself. While driving I could see in the distance a rain cloud forming and mist coming down on the mountain. I was struck by God that this was Him, He created all so He is in all. My knowledge of who God is became an intimate sharing of what He created. I was over flowing with His presence that all the jealousy I was feeling left immediately and a peace came in and warmed my heart in a way that I have not felt before.
The more you get to know Him the more He loves on you so the more you want to discover Him and the circle goes on and on and becomes deeper and warmer and oh so wonderful.
I love how you said…
If intimacy in large part consists of knowledge, and the way we know is by
revelation, and the height of revelation is in Christ, then we may come
to a very important conclusion: the
substance of intimacy is the
prayerful, adoring, gazing experience and study of the person and work
of Christ within a life of obedience.
Thanks for this awesome post
!
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So good! When was reading your comment I thought about how four living creatures around the throne of God (Rev.4). What keeps them worshipping continuously. I think that each time the say Holy Holy Holy it’s in response to a revelation that God has given them. Their response never ends because God is infinite! That’s the reason they have eyes all around them…they cannot get enough
. I pray many more amazing encounters for you! Thanks for sharing!
What a cool thought! Sure would make sense, can’t wait to find out! I know it seems I can not get enough of God for I want more and more of Him. If we mere humans feel this way when we only know a small bit of God I can just imagine how the angels feel knowing more of Him then us.
Great thoughts!
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this is great. yes, i love how all the Bible actually speaks of Him. it helps me when i read any portion to ask the Holy Spirit to revel Jesus to me in what i am reading instead of just reading it as good info. i also find slowing down my mind to be a hurdle i often face. the writing a “to do later” list helps focus me in. i really want to grow in intimacy with Jesus.
my recent post: another bold step forward
I use my iphone with my task list and a small journal app to jot down those “things on my mind” tasks. As soon as I think of something, I pull it out and jot it in my iphone. I get right back to my time with Lord staying much more focused for longer periods of time.
BTW…I am liking your Disqus link (Comment Luv look alike), I’ll head over your way today