Many Christians go to church, do what they think they should be doing to follow all the rules, and live what they think is the Christian life; but inside they are wondering, Is this it? Is this all there is?
I spent many years as a Christian just going through the motions of serving God. In my heart I felt that something was missing from my relationship with the Lord, although I didn't know what it was. God had done many wonderful things for me, but my life was frustrating and not really much different from the lives of those I knew were not Christians. I had many problems in my personality and life. I wanted to see a change, but somehow I was powerless to do anything to bring about that change. I could not believe that my life was meant to be a meaningless existence.
I finally asked God to give me whatever it was I was missing; I wanted more of Him in my life. In response to my desire and request, even though I didn't know what it was I was seeking, God gave me the answer! I learned that growing in the knowledge of who God is and seeking intimate fellowship with Him is a vital necessity of enjoying His purpose for our lives.
Had I not learned the importance of seeking fellowship with God daily many years ago, I wouldn't be here writing this book today. Neither would I be the founder and director of a world outreach center which now employs nearly five hundred people dedicated to spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. Each year thousands of people receive Christ as their personal Savior and experience the baptism of the Holy Spirit during our national and international conferences.
In addition to the millions of books distributed by my publisher, our ministry, Life in the Word, has printed more than 1.7 million books in forty-three foreign languages. One year we distributed more than five million cassette tapes and books. Each day, a potential audience of 2.1 billion people receives life-changing biblical teaching from our Life in the Word broadcast aired on more than 250 radio stations and 350 television stations, spanning nearly two-thirds of the globe.
New churches and Bible schools are built each year through the support of Life in the Word partners. New ministries to prisons, nursing homes, orphanages, feeding projects, and to troubled teens continue to spring forth as a result of the provision God has made for our ministry. Thousands of testimonies confirm that the Word of God we are sharing is changing people's lives.
Nobody builds a ministry like ours on a “charismatic personality.” God is the One behind this world outreach, and God is the One who has to keep it up and running. God is the One who has to pay the bills and touch people's hearts; it's not about a personality at all. If God stopped supporting us, we would all be out on the street within a month. We understand that God is a vital necessity in our lives.
We all start out at the same place with God. The longer we are with Him, the deeper we want to go with Him. My husband, Dave, and I are as ordinary as anyone can be. If God can use us, He can use anyone to accomplish His mission. I know that if God's anointing of power to teach His Truth doesn't come upon me, I may as well sit down and be quiet. People don't come by the thousands to my conferences to see a television personality—they come only because through me God's anointing—His manifest presence—is revealed to meet their needs.
If God did not anoint what I say, everyone would go to sleep. So I realize it's not my clever delivery that draws people to our meetings; it's simply God's anointing on the message He imparts through a willing vessel.
Intimate fellowship with God releases His anointing of power to help us accomplish what He has called us to do. He anoints each of us for specific tasks that He has entrusted to us, whether we are to run households, businesses, or worldwide ministries.
Pressure is intensifying in the world to such an unbelievable degree that I believe we need the presence of God even to get in and out of the grocery store and to remain calm in these troubled days! We never know when someone who is having a “bad day” will feel like taking it out on us. People who don't have fellowship and intimacy with God through the Holy Spirit are unhappy—and unhappy people make life miserable for those around them.
I believe the lives of people in the body of Christ are going to get better and better, but the lives of those who are still in bondage to the world will get worse and worse as they sink deeper and deeper into despair and depression. In Isaiah 60:2 God says, “Darkness will become gross darkness, but My glory shall shine upon My people” (paraphrase). That brightness will intensify in us as we allow Him to work in us to make us the kind of vessels through which His glory can shine.
God wants us to know Him more intimately. His Word teaches that we can purposefully enter into His anointed presence. When Moses said, “God, You've sent me to deliver Your people from bondage, but You've not told me who will go with me” (paraphrase), God said to him, “My Presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest” (Exodus 33:14). When God is with us, He makes things easy. I often refer to God's anointing as “Holy Ease.”
In this book, we will look at Old and New Testament parallels of four levels of intimacy available to all believers as illustrated through Moses and the children of Israel, and through those who followed Jesus.
Jesus said that no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again (see John 3:3). So, obviously, the first experience of knowing God intimately is found through the indwelling presence of His Holy Spirit, who comes to us through salvation. God anointed us, set His seal of ownership on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come (see 2 Corinthians 1:21-22). God wants us to ask Him for our daily bread and for wisdom (see James 1:5), and then listen for His voice to guide us. He has promised to answer us if we call on Him, assuring us, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it’” (Isaiah 30:21 NIV).
In the second part of this book, we will study the gift of God's transforming power that Jesus spoke of in Acts 1:4-5 NIV when He said to His born-again disciples, “Wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Knowing that the Holy Spirit is in us gives us confidence for our salvation, but many of us will struggle in our desire to do good works if we do not receive the gift of the Holy Spirit's power spoken of by Jesus in Acts 1:8: “But you shall receive power (ability, efficiency, and might) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” When the Holy Spirit comes upon us, He gives us ability, efficiency, and might to do His work with Holy Ease.
Finally, we will examine the evidence of God's presence that is reflected through our lives as we learn to simply do whatever He tells us to do. Obedience takes us deeper into an understanding of who God is. First John 2:3 says, “And this is how we may discern [daily, by experience] that we are coming to know Him [to perceive, recognize, understand, and become better acquainted with Him]: if we keep (bear in mind, observe, practice) His teachings (precepts, commandments).” When we obey God, the glory of His goodness which He pours out upon us is a visible demonstration to others of the great things He wants to do for them. As we let His gifts work in and through us, we will be a blessing to others.
But there is still more, for in Matthew 5:8 KJV Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” (emphasis mine). God is willing to purge us and to cleanse us of the things in our life that are not like Christ, if we will welcome His fire into our life. Like a gardener who prunes off dead limbs, God will work in us to bear fruit, if we will humble ourselves before Him and admit our dependence on Him to do the work for us and in us.
The Bible says, “Now the man Moses was very meek (gentle, kind, and humble) or above all the men on the face of the earth”(Numbers 12:3). Moses talked to God face to face, which indicates intimacy (see Exodus 33:11). The Bible says that at the Last Supper, John rested his head upon the breast of Jesus (see John 13:23), which is another way of describing intimacy. Moses and John shared a passion to know God more intimately than the others around them. Seeing the face of God is the reward of those who crave God's presence more than anything else on earth. God's Word says, “Serve Him with a blameless heart and a willing mind. For the Lord searches all hearts and minds and understands all the wanderings of the thoughts. If you seek Him [inquiring for and of Him and requiring Him as your first and vital necessity] you will find Him”(l Chronicles 28:9).
Throughout this book, we will review God's original plan to walk beside us and talk with us like a friend as He did with Adam in Genesis 2. We will examine how the presence of sin in our life makes us want to hide from God, and we will observe God's passionate pursuit to remain close to us.
Under the old covenant, He dwelled in nearby mountaintops, in tents, and in a sanctuary where He could hide His face behind a sacred veil to separate His powerful presence from the ones He loved. Without Christ's blood to atone for our sins, we cannot stand in the full presence of God.
But when Christ made final atonement for our sins, God immediately invited us into the Holy of Holies because our sin and shame are now cleansed by Christ's blood sacrifice. God wants us to come close to Him and see that His attitude is filled with love toward us. We no longer have to hide behind the veil that once separated God from His people. We can now enjoy intimate fellowship with God!
We need God's presence in our lives; we need intimate fellowship with Him. The world in which we live can be a frightening place. Often we find ourselves in situations that we don't know how to handle, but God is ready to lead and guide us by His Spirit if we have made ourselves an available sanctuary in which He can dwell.
He not only desires to help us, but through us He desires to help others as well. I believe God has strategically placed His people all over the world, in every company, every marketplace, every hospital, school, etc. As the darkness in the world becomes darker in these last days, His glory will shine brighter on those who truly belong to Him. They will be able to help the lost find their way.
This is the day for laypeople to shine and be used by God as never before. The world will not be won through a handful of preachers. We desperately need an army of people available for one-on-one ministry in their neighborhoods, at their work, and in the marketplace. This is why I implore you to seek God to the highest level of intimacy that He is willing to reveal to you so that you are full and overflowing with His presence. Not only do you need God, but He needs you!
Don't discount yourself by believing that God could not possibly use you. “‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy’” (Acts 2:17-18 NIV). This prophetic word from the Lord must include you and me.
In chapter 47 of the biblical book by his name, the prophet Ezekiel talks about a vision in which he saw waters issuing from the threshold of God's temple. I believe these waters represent an outpouring of God's Spirit. First the water was only ankle deep to Ezekiel; then it reached his knees; and then it reached all the way to his loins. Soon the waters could not be passed through, for they had risen deep enough to swim in.
Even here we see a picture that could represent four levels of commitment to God. Some people only want to get close enough to God that they are ankle-deep in water. They like to feel their feet on solid ground so they can be sure they are still in control. They are not willing to abandon themselves totally to the point that the river (representing God's Spirit) is in control.
The Lord pleads with us, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20 NIV). He wants us to enjoy the fullness of His plan for us. But we must have His presence—His anointing, His grace, His power—every day in order to enjoy fully His work in us that is vitally necessary to our life.
How far up the “the mountain” of God's presence are you willing to climb? How close to the heart of Jesus are you willing to lay your head? How far into the River of Life are you willing to let the Holy Spirit lead you?
Those who seek, crave, and long to see God will find Him and will enjoy His everlasting fruit of peace that passes all understanding (see Philippians 4:7 KJV). If you are looking for God, or if you know Him but are not experiencing the fullness in your relationship with Him that you know He has available for you, you can experience that fullness. I have written this book to help show you, as God showed me, the way to experience that deep, intimate relationship with Him.
As you read to the end of this book, I am praying God's Word over you from Ephesians 1:17 NIV:
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.