INTIMACY WITH GOD.

Posted on by Jeff Minandar

What a wonderful day in the House of God. I am glad to have a chance to be here among my fellow believers in Christ. As we all know, God wants to connect with you in a new way through Jesus Christ. That’s why we have to connect to Him, and build an intimacy with Him.

Intimacy with God is begin by connecting to Him. John 15:4-5.

Connecting with God – how can we connect with Him? And why sometimes we don’t feel close with God?

The reason we want to connect with God is because we are disconnected with God. The Fall of Man: we were connected, full of glory of God, but in Genesis 3, all changed. The reason of that fall was when we put our mind in the wrong choice (we have plenty of choices, but why we choose the few – tree of knowledge of good and evil, and forget other trees).

Again about human thinking, if we think about sin all the time we are feeding sin to our mind. God says that the ultimate gap between him and us is our sin. Isaiah 59:2. And that sin comes when you start questioning God in your mind and from that it will go further to disobedience. Genesis 3:1-6.

Let us read one more time our theme verse in John 15. Like a tree, in order to keep alive and be fruitful, a branch has to be connected with the trunk. This will explain my next sentence. Because we are disconnected we feel dry, empty, and try to fill that with 3L (luxury, lust, love) or 4G (gold, glory, guys/girls, getaway) that the world offers. It’s all useless. Let me bring you to Bible Story, where the longest conversation between Jesus and other person was recorded. It’s a story of Samaritan woman. John 4.

This Samaritan woman who met with Jesus near Jacob’s well, she was disconnected from society. Jesus warned her in John 4:13-14 You will thirsty again if you drink from this earth. Jesus continued, but if you ask living water (verse 10) you won’t be thirsty again. Living water here have two meanings, “springing water” and “eternal life, salvation.”

We need Salvation to reconnect, to be alive. We thought salvation prayer only for a non-believer, but we also have to recite it, understand it.

What are parts of salvation prayer?

  • Proclaim Jesus as God. Verse 29. Say it loud! Romans 10:10.
  • Admit our faults and wrong ways. Verse 39. We know we are imperfect, perfected in Christ, this is a sign of total surrender, don’t cover it with your self-righteousness. 1John 1:9.
  • Present (give up your life for God’s cause – Romans 12:1) & Repent (the word metanoia means we renew our mind deliberately, we are not helpless person occupied by external, but internally empowered by the Spirit – Romans 12:2). In Hebrews 4:12 the author of Hebrews said the Word of God could separate (discern) the will and heart of man – As we know the Word is the sword of Spirit (Ephesians 6:17). Later on 1Corinthians 12:10 one of the gifts of the Spirit is to discern different spirits.
  • Believe (leave your burden, do not carry that again). Matthew 11:28.

When you pray that prayer, that is when you are really connecting with God, you build your intimacy with God. It’s not how frequent you put yourself around Jesus (don’t follow the Pharisees, who’s around but didn’t have the intimacy). But how well you want to know Him, when you hear His voice, the good news.

GodblesS

JEFF

Fear

Posted on by Jeff Minandar

All of us are prone to fall into the trap of the devil. And he wants us to repeat the history. What happened in Genesis 3:10 could happen in our lives. If I ask you this question: what is the biggest threat to our spiritual conditions? Fear is the answer.

Why is fear the biggest threat to our spiritual conditions? Because if we have fear, as little as it is, it will grow and become the root of our problems. Fear has a strong connection with punishment or condemnation. It is the opposite of love. We think that punishment and condemnation come from outside, but look it is started within you. Let me bring you back to the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3. Fear becomes the root of all man’s wrongdoing. These three things sprang out from fear:

  • Breach the law (fear of being fooled by God). Isaiah 24:4-5. God’s law is His Word, and it is like the lines, the rules that keep everything intact.
  • Runaway (fear of being responsible). Jeremiah 2:4-6.
  • Hide (unrealistic fear). Job 34:22.

Another unrealistic fear is the thought that if you don’t have some amount of money (like others), then you lose your self-esteem. A rabbi named Smoley Boteach wrote this in his book: “Money should never be turned into a currency to purchase self-esteem.” Fear is gripping our modern society. It confuses them, brings anxiety and gives them death. Luke 21:25-26.

The answer for us in facing fear is by the Grace of God (2Timothy 1:6-7) and in believing that He gives that abundantly, read Romans 5:17. From the letter of Paul to Timothy, we learn that we must “rekindle God’s gift (His Grace),” and “remember that you need the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit is not giving you a spirit of fear, but Spirit who produces power, love, and Self-Control.

GodblesS

JEFF