Steps to Intimacy With God

Scriptures: Psalms 42:1-2, Psalms 90:14, Mark 1:35-36, 1 Corinthians 6:19

Nearly fourteen years ago, I suffered from constant anxiety and fear attacks. It was a feeling beyond description: a dark labyrinth with no escape. Every morning I would wake up early with panic and depression rushing through my body. I would sit in a chair in my bedroom and worry: about life, finances, challenges, about everything. I thought I was trying to solve my problems, but I only became more entrapped. 

Through a revelation I had while riding my bike one day, God called me back to meeting Him every morning, which was a habit that I had done 25 years earlier but had abandoned due to busyness in my job, church responsibility and family. I had a mental image of God watching His children sleep, just waiting for them to wake up so He could spend time with them and help them with their needs. 

The next day I got up, determined to meet with God. My depression was still so bad that I could hardly get out of bed. I went to a Christian coffee shop that had worship music playing, and I started reading a devotional and listening to the music. Every couple of songs, I broke down and wept. Something inside found release as I spent time in God’s presence. 

Something else began to happen. As I spent time in God’s presence, my inner man grew stronger. Depression, anxiety, and fear were no longer able to find a foothold in my thoughts and emotions. 

I’m truly a different person now. The panic attacks have disappeared. The paralyzing fear and anxiety are buried in the past. I am able to keep my thoughts and emotions under control. 

It’s been over fourteen years since I started this journey. I know He’s waiting for me every morning, and I can’t wait to meet with Him. 

You are about to discover a newfound intimacy with God. You will learn how to cultivate a continual inner awareness of God’s presence in your life. Never underestimate the power of time spent with God. 

Here’s the challenge: I invite you to spend time alone with God every day in an atmosphere of worship – giving God the first 15 minutes of your day, surrendering your life to His and receiving His love. That’s it. That’s the whole challenge. These times will become the most important and the most energizing part of your day. This study involves 7 simple keys to intimacy with God that will encourage you during your time alone with Him.

Scriptures: Romans 12:1, Luke 9:23-24, Luke 22:42, Matthew 6:33-34, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Psalms 37:4-5, Romans 8:5-7, Psalms 143:8

SURRENDER

Place yourself in God’s hands and surrender your will to His will.

Surrender is our first act of worship, and it is the best way to start our time with God. It is a demonstration of our love, trust, relationship, and faith towards God. 

Throughout His life, Jesus demonstrated surrender; but the Garden of Gethsemane was a crossroads. In anguish, knowing He was about to be arrested and crucified, He prayed three times: “Not my will, but yours, be done”. He knew He had to surrender His own desires in order to win our salvation. It was a defining moment in history. 

You have a choice as well. Will you yield to God and trust Him to lead you? Or will you go through life on your own, pretending you can control your life and destiny? 

To understand the value of surrender, you need to practice it continually. It is not enough to know about it or agree with it intellectually. You must do it. Start every day by consciously surrendering your will, mind, heart, and emotions to God. 

It is a simple but heartfelt act, repeated daily until it becomes a habit. Before you do anything else in the morning, find a quiet place to sit before the Lord. Tell the Lord that you realize your life is not your own, that it is unmanageable without His help and guidance, and that you surrender control of it to Him. By acknowledging God’s lordship in our life, you position yourselves to receive God’s love and hear His voice. You clear a path for a successful day of walking in the Spirit. 

Your life will take on new meaning and direction. You will receive a cleansing from all the clutter that has tried to accumulate in your mind and heart over the years. 

You will understand what it means to “take delight in the Lord” (Psalm 37:4). The Hebrew word translated ”delight” means “to be soft or pliable”. Your heart will become like that and be open to the voice of the Holy Spirit. God will mingle His thoughts with your thoughts in a new way. Surrendering to Him daily will start the flow of the Spirit in you.

Scriptures: Psalms 150:1-6, Ephesians 1:18, Ephesians 5:18-19, Galatians 5:22-23, Romans 12:6-8, Psalms 21:13, Psalms 100:1-5

CELEBRATE

Listen to worship music and appreciate who God is and what He has done.

Celebrating His love and goodness every morning will revolutionize our relationship with Him. Worship is a heart issue that begins with a surrendered will. In its most expressive form, worship is a vocal, musical celebration of who God is and what He has done. God has created us to worship Him with joy and admiration. We naturally desire to express our feelings for Him with heartfelt words and music. 

In order to worship daily, you need to have a plan. Many of us wake up a little cloudy in the morning— maybe even depressed, anxious, or discouraged. The cares of the day are waiting for us the moment our eyes open, and our natural tendency is to either hide from them or try to solve them in our own strength. Celebrating Jesus through worship—is often the last thing on our mind. That’s where preparation comes in. 

Have a set place where you go to seek the Lord each morning. Have your Bible, worship music, journal and pen together and ready to go. The idea is to roll out of bed and into His presence. Whether you feel “worshipful” or not, put on your worship music. Turn your mind towards God and away from the cares of life. Let your heart begin to sing the songs that are being played and make a melody in your heart. Celebrate Jesus with the word of the song. 

The dynamic of worship through music is one of the best ways to experience the presence of the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 5:18-19 speaks of being filled with the Spirit and making a melody in your heart to the Lord. The idea here is a continual presence of the Spirit like a flowing fountain. It is an ongoing release of God’s Spirit in us. 

This is often called the flow of the Spirit, and until you have experienced it, it is hard to describe. It is a gentle interaction between the Holy Spirit and our heart. It is an awareness that God is right there, actively speaking to us and spending time with us. It is an experience with Him. We are celebrating who He is and all He has done.

Scriptures: Romans 12:2, Philippians 4:8, Genesis 3:1-5, Psalms 119:11, Hebrews 4:12, Psalms 1:2, Psalms 19:14

MEDITATE

Reflect on the Scriptures and let the Holy Spirit apply them to our life.

The key to maintaining correct thoughts is to allow God’s Word to transform you by the renewing of your mind. Our inner thoughts must be renewed. The Bible is the inspired Word of God and is sufficient to guard and guide our mind in every area. We must learn to think according to the Word: pure, wholesome, and faith filled thoughts continually. 

Regular meditation on the Word is crucial. To “meditate,” in the biblical sense of the word, means to focus our mind on a particular truth and allow it to speak to us. It is thinking and rethinking about God’s word. Meditation is thinking about something over and over again. The idiom “chewing the cud” or “chewing on something for a while” is essentially the idea of meditating. Cows and other animals chew their cud by bringing food back into their mouth and chewing it, often for hours, until it is able to be properly digested. We “chew the cud” of the Word by bringing it to mind repeatedly, extracting everything we can from it and digesting its meaning. The Word of God is food to our heart, like natural food to our body, and what we ingest ultimately becomes part of who we are. 

Meditating is different than simply reading. We read for information, but we meditate for transformation. Think and rethink about what you read until it begins to change your life. It must become personal—a word from God spoken directly to your life. Write it down and meditate on it all day long. 

Whoever controls our mind controls our entire life. The mind has always been the main battlefield. In the Garden of Eden, the serpent lied to Eve, attacking her through her thoughts, trying to get her to view the tree and its fruit as something other than what God said. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you through His Word and meditate on what He says. Let the thoughts of His Word mingle with your thoughts. Trust the Holy Spirit to reveal what you need to know. 

As you are reading in the atmosphere of the flow of God’s presence, you will at times sense an inner stirring about certain passages of Scripture. This is God speaking to you, revealing Himself through His written Word.

Scriptures: Psalms 139:23-24, Revelation 3:20, Psalms 103:12, Isaiah 55:8-9, Psalms 37:23-24, Proverbs 4:23

OPEN

Allow the Holy Spirit to bring adjustments to specific areas of your life.

It’s ironic that in the areas where we need help the most, we often close ourselves off from honest dialogue with our Savior. He created us and knows every detail of our lives better than we do, yet we seem to think we can hide things from Him. It’s far better to open our heart to His searching and direction. Enjoying God’s continual presence in our life requires that no area be excluded from the light of His Word and His amazing love for us. We must not allow our lives to become compartmentalized, giving God access to some areas but not to others. 

If we are honest with ourselves, we know that we need help to live a pure life. Good news! God doesn’t expect us to do that on our own. His grace took care of our guilt and shame. Now, His grace will also help us live a new life. Sanctification requires that we be open, honest, and transparent before God. This includes both external areas like actions and decisions as well as internal ones like thoughts and attitudes. These are connected. Thoughts become attitudes and beliefs, and attitudes and beliefs become actions. We need to come to the point where we naturally and easily open each area to God’s evaluation, especially our innermost thoughts and feelings. 

Cultivating an open and honest heart before the Lord will short-circuit wrong thoughts and feelings. It will help us minimize negative reactions and He will help us make wise decisions. The reality is we can be under deception at any given moment. No one is immune: even great men and women of the Bible were deceived at times. The problem with deception is that we are blind to it. That’s where humility and openness to God comes in. We give the Holy Spirit access and permission to bring correction to any area He sees fit. All of us face difficult circumstances, offenses, and temptation. We cannot afford to isolate our thoughts and feelings. We need to learn to go to God first, and to do so with transparency and authenticity. 

Are there things you are embarrassed to open up to the Lord about? Now is the time to approach the throne of grace. There is no shame or condemnation—only God’s supernatural power to achieve victory.

Scriptures: Psalms 37:23-24, Psalms 16:11, Proverbs 3:5-6, Psalms 37:3-5, Psalms 143:8, Proverbs 16:3, Proverbs 16:9, Psalms 119:105, Galatians 5:16

DEDICATE

Commit your day to God’s use and ask for His help.

I encourage you to take a few moments to dedicate your day to His care. If you are willing to do this, you will see God’s favor and blessing on your life in a new way. Dedicating our mind, will, emotions, and actions to God is a practical, tangible expression of worship. Once we realize His presence is all we really want or need, then the rest of life becomes an opportunity to experience Him. 

Dedication begins on the inside, with a surrendered humble, and faith-filled heart. It quickly spills over into the physical world through our words and actions. It’s the practical outworking of our inner, spiritual life. Dedication flows from a daily decision to give control to God. Trust Him, lean on Him and learn from Him. There is a learning curve here: sometimes it is hard at first, but it gets easier with practice. Soon stewarding or managing all God gives us through His grace and favor will be our heart’s desire. In our relationship with God, the level of intimacy is directly related to our level of dedication. God delights in a surrendered heart. A teachable, humble, trusting attitude opens our lives to a flow of blessings we could not imagine! 

Don’t think that it’s strange to carry on a dialogue with your Creator on a moment-to- moment basis. Start asking God questions throughout the day. Involve Him in the little things in your life. Imagine that He is right there— because He is. Involving God in everything is the key to finding personal freedom. God desires intimate involvement because He wants you to succeed in life. God wants to guide your steps and lead you into a place of peace and abundance. He wants to deliver you from the evil one and open up doors of opportunity for you. He wants to reveal Himself to you. He wants to give you the wisdom you need in every situation. He wants to show you all that He has for you and shower you with favor. 

Being led by the Spirit means allowing Him to review our thoughts, words, and decisions and keep them aligned with the Word. It means staying alert to that inner sense of peace that indicates when we are living with a clear conscience in a manner that pleases God.

Scriptures: Psalms 37:4, Isaiah 28:23, 1 Kings 19:11-13, John 10:27, 1 Samuel 3:7-9, Proverbs 2:1-5, Romans 10:17, Proverbs 4:20-21

LISTEN

Be still and let God speak to you.

We must have the ears and eyes of our heart open to God, expecting to hear and see Him, and being ready to obey. We can prepare our heart to receive from the Lord by knowing His Word, by taking time to listen to the Holy Spirit, and by desiring to hear from Him. As we spend time with God, He places His desires in us. His heart becomes our heart. This is the foundation of hearing His voice and becoming a good listener. 

It is important to distinguish God’s thoughts from competing voices. This requires practice and the help of the Holy Spirit. God wants to teach us how to tune our heart, which is our receiver, to hear what He has to say. God says we will hear His voice and will follow him. “God’s voice” is the conversation the Holy Spirit has with our heart: our mind, will, and emotions. 

Remember – the world, the flesh, and the devil will try to “jam the frequencies” by keeping us busy, compromised in sin, distracted with fears and anxieties, or weighed down with guilt and shame. These things interfere with our ability to hear God clearly. The enemy of our soul doesn’t want us to experience the joy of walking in a deep, intimate fellowship with God. We often get so busy and rushed in life or so preoccupied with natural things that we can’t clearly hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. One of the most important steps in hearing from the Lord is simply learning to listen and be still. It is slowing down, tuning out distractions, and tuning in to what God is saying. 

Stop everything. Get off the treadmill of life. Call “time out” and find a quiet place to get alone with God. You can do that every morning. Tune out temptation and tune in grace. Tune out condemnation and tune in forgiveness. Tune out fear and tune in faith. 

Before the hustle and bustle of life and all the daily demands start, we are going to get alone with our Savior and Lord. As you listen to God through His Word, be prepared to write down what He speaks to your heart. This could include verses, applications, thoughts, impressions, pictures, phrases, and so on. You will want to remember what God says to you in order to put it into practice the rest of the day.

Scriptures: Psalms 119:33-34, Galatians 5:25, John 14:15, Matthew 16:24, John 14:13, Deuteronomy 28:1, James 1:22, Deuteronomy 5:33

OBEY

Respond in faith to God’s specific direction.

Faith is our response to God’s Word to us. Like Abraham, we demonstrate our faith every time we obey God. Faith is far more than willpower, however. It is a direct result of intimacy with God. The closer we walk with Him, the greater our faith will grow. Knowing God better leads to trusting Him. If we find ourselves lacking faith, the answer is not to try harder—it is to draw closer to God and know Him better. 

As we give our heart over to His leading, we hear His voice more and more clearly. Learn to listen for the prompting of God and respond with faith. As we come to know God better, our desire to please Him grows. We long for a lifestyle characterized by purity and holiness. But the reality is that we still have sinful tendencies, and we often find ourselves doing the opposite of what we want. The answer to living in purity and holiness is not trying harder. That only produces self-righteousness and pride at first, and ultimately condemnation and guilt when we realize we can’t measure up. 

The best way to pursue holiness is to focus on following God, not on defeating sin. Through Jesus, God already provided us with freedom from both the penalty and the power of sin. Purity and righteousness will be a natural result of a life lived with God. We don’t have to force anything—we simply respond to God’s leading each moment of the day. 

The Bible sometimes uses the phrase “walking in the Spirit” to refer to a lifestyle of obedience. The beautiful thing about this phrase is how it communicates the need for relationship. Obedience is not “walking in law” or “walking in willpower” or “walking in good deeds.” It is walking in the Spirit. It is an ongoing, personal, intimate, and growing relationship with God through the Spirit. God will direct us as we daily surrender our lives to Him and develop an intimate knowledge of His will for our life. 

God leads, and we follow. God initiates, and we respond. We don’t have life all figured out and we never will. God does, though, and He is faithful to lead us every step of the way. One day we will look back and see His hand at work in each milestone and turning point in our life. You are about to enter a new era in your walk with God. The rest of your life is an adventure waiting to happen.

Scriptures: Mark 1:35, Psalms 16:9, Psalms 16:11, Romans 12:1-2, Proverbs 3:5-6

CONCLUSION

If I could leave you with only one thought, it would be: God wants you to enjoy His presence as He enjoys yours. That is the beauty of spending time alone with God. These reflections will help you be more aware of God’s presence in your life. Take a moment each day to focus on these simple truths. 

Surrender. Place yourself in God’s hands and surrender your will to His will. 

Celebrate. Listen to worship music and appreciate who God is and what He has done. 

Meditate. Reflect on the Scriptures and let the Holy Spirit apply them to your life. 

Open. Allow the Holy Spirit to bring adjustments to specific areas of your life. 

Dedicate. Commit your day to God’s use and ask for His help. 

Listen. Be still and let God speak to you. 

Obey. Respond in faith to God’s specific direction. 

Remember, the point of this challenge is not to get stressed out about a format, a formula, or a schedule. It is simply to meet with God and see where that takes you. In conclusion, the acrostic REST emphasizes both the peaceful and restful nature of this prayer time as well as a few key points to remember: 

REST 

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28) 

R Reserve a time each morning 

E Enjoy His presence with worship music and the Word 

S Surrender your will to His will 

T Trust the Lord with your life