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The Master Key to life Physically and Spiritually

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Posted by: ANOINTED WARRIOR

Intimate With Jesus: Oswald Chambers

“Have I been so long with you, and yet hast thou not known Me?” John 14:9
These words are not spoken as a rebuke, nor even with surprise; Jesus is leading Philip on. The last One with whom we get intimate is Jesus. Before Pentecost the disciples knew Jesus as the One Who gave them power to conquer demons and to bring about a revival (see Luke 10:18-20). It was a wonderful intimacy, but there was a much closer intimacy to come - "I have called you friends." Friendship is rare on earth. It means identity in thought and heart and spirit. The whole discipline of life is to enable us to enter into this closest relationship with Jesus Christ. We receive His blessings and know His word, but do we know Him?
Jesus said, "It is expedient for you that I go away" - in that relationship, so that He might lead them on. It is a joy to Jesus when a disciple takes time to step more intimately with Him. Fruit bearing is always mentioned as the manifestation of an intimate union with Jesus Christ (John 15:1-4).
When once we get intimate with Jesus we are never lonely, we never need sympathy, we can pour out all the time without being pathetic. The saint who is intimate with Jesus will never leave impressions of himself, but only the impression that Jesus is having unhindered way, because the last abyss of his nature has been satisfied by Jesus. The only impression left by such a life is that of the strong calm sanity that Our Lord gives to those who are intimate with Him.



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Unknown Author

Are you suffering on account of others? What has been done to you that hurts? Does the pain seem unending?

What if you could have foreseen these troubles? Would you have run in the opposite direction? Jesus did foresee His sufferings. And He wanted to run from it. He begged the Father take the cup away. But He chose to trust the Father's decision. Why? Because Christ's love for us surpassed His desire to avoid pain.
God in His great compassion hides the future from us, because He knows we are too weak to say yes to our crosses. We are so fearful of pain, we'll reject the way of the cross that would deepen our intimacy with Him and bring us to the greater love we've been seeking. God cares about us so much that He keeps us in blissful ignorance.

Oh, He gives us hints. He prepares us for what we'll have to endure. But how quickly we assume that we can't handle the suffering! How quickly we assume it will lead to disaster, even though God is always at our side holding our hand, strengthening us, guiding us, showing us which forks in the road will lead to victory and resurrection.
This kind of relationship with God is called Passion Spirituality. The word "passion" has powerful implications. Theologically, we use it to describe the suffering love that Jesus had for each of us when He was beaten, mocked and crucified. The world counterfeits this word by applying it to strong feelings of romantic, even lustful, attraction. We also use it to refer to an obsessive drive that motivates us to do something we enjoy or greatly care about, which is why we can say that Jesus cared passionately about us when enduring The Passion.
The strong love that Jesus exhibited in His ministry and on Good Friday is a lesson on what it means to have "compassion" for others: We walk with them in their sufferings, we "suffer with". It's passionate love in it's holiest form.
Passion Spirituality means being linked so closely with Jesus that we have compassion on those who cause us to suffer. This does not mean we are called to put up with abuse; usually the best, most loving way to help someone who is abusive is to set up boundaries that protect those who are being harmed and to create a safe distance until the abuser has received sufficient healing to love you the way God has called him/her to love you.
Passion Spirituality means we experience what Jesus experienced: the difficult decision of the Garden of Gethsemane, being imprisoned by the unloving and unhealthy behavior of others, being judged unfairly and condemned with false accusations, feeling alone and abandoned, getting scourged and punished for something we did not do, mocked and persecuted, crowned with the thorns of confusion by someone's manipulative mind-games, nailed to a situation we cannot change or a problem we cannot fix, letting go and entrusting the outcome to God, waiting to see how God will redeem the situation in the quiet darkness of the tomb, and finally -- always -- rising to a higher level of faith, a new life of greater holiness, a resurrection into victory.
Passion Spirituality heals us while it deepens our intimacy with Christ. Only when we love others with true passion can we understand how much Jesus loved us in the yes of Good Friday.



Intimacy With Jesus
Joe Burke
Why did Jesus die on the cross? What was His motivation? Was it just simple obedience to the Father? NO! It was the deep burning desire of His heart to die for you. Jesus has longed passionately to be with you from before the beginnings of the world. He has beheld your face for eons of years. He has a deep affectionate longing for you that has consumed Him for billions of years. His love for you is beyond comprehension. He has an extravagant passion for you. He has been waiting for you from age upon age. All His incredible love has been building up, waiting patiently for you to be born.
In Songs 4:9 Jesus says to you: "You have ravished my heart! my bride."
Ravish means to be overcome with emotions of Joy and Delight! Jesus is overwhelmed with emotions of joy and delight at the sight and thought of you. When Jesus died on the cross, the temple veil was torn in two from top to bottom, signifying that intimate access to the Father was available to all. No longer would God be untouchable, unapproachable, and wholly separated from His people. Jesus came charging out of the Holy of Holies through the rent temple veil looking for YOU! He burns with deep desire and unbridled passion for YOU!
Eph 3:18-19 says: "You will be able to grasp fully with all the holy ones, the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ's love, and experience that love which surpasses all knowledge, so that you may attain to the fullness of God Himself."
Can't you hear the Holy Spirit crying out to you - You are meant to experience the totality of God's love for you, all of it without measure, unlimited and never ceasing! Christianity is not meant to be only head knowledge. The Holy Spirit is saying that if you had total, complete knowledge of all the teachings of the Church and that's all you had, with no personal experience of Jesus' love, you would be missing the whole ball game!
The overriding goal of our life is to fall deeply in love with Jesus.
When we experience personally the passionate love of Jesus for us, the Christian journey is no longer a struggle to overcome obstacles. It becomes an invitation to enter into a love affair with the One who burns with the deepest desire and affectionate longing for us. When we enter this intimacy with Jesus, the overriding goal of our life is to fall deeply in love with Jesus. We become truly free. We then understand what it's like to rise up on eagles wings and soar in the heavens with Jesus. Jesus is saying to you, I don't want to be a causal date, I don't want to be one among many, I want more than an occasional kiss, an annual embrace at some retreat, I WANT A BRIDE! It's breaking my heart, it's bringing me deep distress, I want a bride! Let us consummate this relationship, let us be in an intimate embrace, and let us be intimate friends. I want a bride but I won't force my love upon you. I want my people to freely choose to invite me into their lives. I want a bride who desires to be alone with me in prayer. I want a bride who is intimate with me and who listens to my voice in the Holy Scriptures. I want a bride who will allow me to draw them deeply into my presence where I can pour out my love upon them. I want a bride who will worship me in spirit and in truth, face to face in complete freedom.
Whoever freely chooses to be intimate with me will experience the truth of 2 Cor 3:17: "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom All of us gazing on the Lord's glory with unveiled faces are being transformed from glory to glory into His very image by the Lord who is the Spirit."
Lord, we ask for the grace to give our lives totally to you. We repent of all of our self-centeredness and sin that separates us from you. We desire to gaze on your glory with unveiled faces and be transformed from glory to glory. We want to be intimate with you. Do whatever it takes to bring us to this intimacy. Amen


Intimacy with God: Unknown Author


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.