Intimacy With God Conference - Personal Reflections

Last week City Church invited the saints in Madison to explore what it means to have intimacy with God.  All of the messages can be accessed here.  The assumption is that one who is intimate with God is free and empowered to love as God loves, see as God sees, feel as God feels, and to act as God would want us to act to fulfill our God-given purpose in the world.
The Bible promises so much more than most of us experience on a day to day basis.  For example,

• Psalm 16:11 says "you will make known to me the path of life, in thy presence is fulness of joy, in thy right hand are pleasures evermore".
• Psalm 36:8 says "they feast on the abundance of your house, you give them drink from your river of delights".
• John 7:38, "Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, sreams of living water will flow from within him".
• Galatians 5:22, "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self control".

So it seems that intimacy with God is the key that unlocks to door to these blessings, and many more. The good news is that God wants this too.  He delights in us (Zephaniah 3:17)

I only attended 2 of the 6 sessions so I probably didn't get the full picture.  For what it's worth here are my take-aways:

• If I desire intimacy with God, He does too, it starts with Him. He is placing that desire in my heart.
• If I want intimacy with God, I need to reset my physical, spiritual, and mental systems.  Like when you shut down your computer and restart it 5 minutes later to get it to do what you want.  

There is nothing new here.  Fasting, meditation, in depth bible study, confession and repentance are time-tested spiritual disciplines, Spirit prompted and designed to help us develop intimacy with God.
See Richard Foster's Celebration of Disciplines.

The question is how bad do I want it, and am I willing to pay the price?  The answer is "Of course, He is worth it!"

On Thursday morning Marlene Sorenson talked about a refining, a burning away, a purifying, a cleansing of the things that keep us from intimacy with God.  Things like habits, addictions, apathy, busyness. These things just creep in and pile up like dust bunnies under your bed.  At some point you just have to clean house.

On Saturday Marcio Sierra talked about the need to intentionally remove the barriers to intimacy with Jesus.  "Just repeat His name, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus and He will do the cleansing."

I got the distinct impression that Jesus was saying to me, and possibly the church in Madison, "This is job 1.  You pray for revival but you are not willing to seek me with your whole heart.  I am not going to do anything until you repent and return to me." Revelation 3:20