Is it possible?

Can we know God intimately and well? Yes! And much more than that. It is required of us as part of the Body—the Bride of Christ to know our groom in manner that’s pleasing to Him. We truly need to know Him.

This is not an optional part of the walk of a Christian. Intimate knowledge of the Lord is immensely important. In fact, there are several scriptures we will talk about in this series which state that knowing God in this way is a requirement for all of us.

Life in the modern American church

Sorry, but modern church life has little to do with personal intimacy with our Lord and Savior. People who are intimate with Jesus are often very active at church. But it is equally true that many [maybe even most] people who are very active at church do not know Him at all. They know a lot about him. But that is very different. In the church today, genuine knowledge of the Lord is rare. More than that this intimate knowledge makes the institutional church extremely uncomfortable. But then the life of Jesus always does that (think scribes & pharisees).

I know quite a bit about President Obama, but I have never even met the man. I feel like I know and understand the apostle Paul extremely well. But again, I have never met him. The likelihood is that I do not know him very well at all. All I’ve done is read a lot of his writings. But I do know him much more intimately than I do Obama.

What is intimacy?

Let’s start with a definition from dictionary.com:

1. the state of being intimate: duh!
2. a close, familiar, and usually affectionate or loving personal relationship with another person…
3. a close association with or detailed knowledge or deep understanding of a place, subject, period of history, etc.
4. an act or expression serving as a token of familiarity, affection, or the like: to allow the intimacy of using first names.

The Apple dictionary has the following:

1. closely acquainted; familiar, close : intimate friends; they are on intimate terms.
2. involving very close connection
3. private and personal
4. (of knowledge) detailed; thorough

So, let’s use the following for our definition:

Intimacy is a personal, private relationship with a very close connection & detailed knowledge of each other’s character, likes, dislikes, & personality.

This is a two-way street. This level of intimacy with a person requires intense communication back and forth between the two people involved. In order to have intimacy with God you are required to know Him well and talk with Him often in a frequent, long-standing personal relationship.

Related articles

• Part Three: Learning to Hear God’s Voice (todaysfreshmanna.wordpress.com)