GFLC 3 DAY ESTHER FAST 6-8 June Intimacy with the Father
DAY 1: Knowing God the Father Is First Step To Intimacy Do you long to have a close, intimate relationship with God, similar to that of a best friend? Perhaps you ve been a Christian for a while and although you ve learned many disciplines to help you lead a godly lifestyle such as reading your Bible and praying every day, and going to church every week, you still sense a loss of connection and closeness to God? I spent many years living under a performance mentality, partly due to my Marine upbringing. I was taught from a young age that discipline and performance were paramount, so when I became a Christian I approached my relationship with God the same way. I remember I used to go through a long prayer list every day, worrying that I d make a mistake and leave someone or something out. I also thought that in order to get God on my team there must be a certain formula, or specific actions that I needed to follow. But nothing I tried seemed to bring me feeling closer to God. At some point, I began to wonder, Is this what being a Christian is all about? And what I discovered is that having a real, intimate relationship with God is not about using the right words, spiritual techniques, twisting God s arm, or trying to live a perfect life. It s not about what you do, how long you do it or where you do it but it s about knowing who God really is. Throughout the New Testament, Jesus demonstrates with His own life that a relationship with God is not about rules, rituals, man made religions. These things are used to exalt and impress people and they are fruitless when it comes to attaining a real knowledge of God. In Luke 11, we read that even the disciples struggled with really knowing God. One day when they were observing Jesus deep communion with the Father while He prayed, they noticed how He spoke to God intimately. He wasn t caught up with following certain rules or rituals. The disciples wanted to have that same connection so they asked Jesus to tell them His secret to having close communion with the Father. Jesus revealed the answer to them in an astounding parable, which is summed up in verses 9-10: So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seek finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Jesus message -- for all of us as God s children -- is that God earnestly desires to talk to us and spend time with us through prayer. And when we come to the Lord prayer we can be certain that He is not reluctant to help us, but instead He is exceedingly ready to come to our aide and to bless us. Jesus goes on to explain further. "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! (Luke 11:11-13) Many of us were taught to fear God and to see Him as an angry or hard-to-please taskmaster. But Jesus tells us that God is someone entirely different! He assures us that when we pray we don t have to be afraid of not being able to perfectly follow certain rules or rituals, but we can pray with a confidence that our Father in heaven loves us just as we are. We can also believe that God is a good, generous, warm, receptive and an absolutely on-our-team God. More than anything else, God longs to spend time with us and He wants us to see Him as a God who desires to bless His children. Pray Pointers 1. Break the spirit of performance and religious approach to God 2. Revelation and Divine Exchange to Know God the Father 3. Break spirit of fear and legalism. 4. Give us a desire for the Holy Spirit who leads us into all truth and mysteries of the Fatherhood of God 5. We become a friend of God
DAY 2: How To Grow In Intimacy With God the Father In life, the people closest to us are the ones who tend to know us the best. Our flaws, talents, idiosyncrasies, the way we roll our eyes, or move our hands those are the things our loved ones have studied and can mimic with precision. We ve spent so much time around each other that we naturally pick up each other s mannerisms. They can even correctly interpret our nonverbal body language. We know these people and these people know us. But for some reason, when it comes to God, we believe the lie that we can t really know Him, His ways, or His thoughts, because of His greatness and magnitude. As logical as that thought may seem, it s completely untrue and disproven by Scripture. Yes, God is so great and vast that there will always be something we re discovering about Him in this lifetime. We may not be able to know everything about Him now, but that does not mean we can t know Him better. Throughout the Bible, we have numerous examples of the Lord making Himself known to His creation. In John 1:14 we read 'And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. THE TRUTH WE NEED TO REMEMBER IS THAT ALMIGHTY GOD, WHO MADE HEAVEN AND EARTH, WANTS TO BE IN RELATIONSHIP WITH US AND WANTS US TO KNOW HIM THE WAY HE KNOWS US. Practical Steps toward Intimacy Scripture And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. (John 6:35) God gave us a clear picture of what He s like, and He put it all down in a book that we can use to learn and remind ourselves of His nature. In the Bible we see how God interacts with man, how He communicates, and the topics He sees as priorities. If we want to know God in a deeper way, if we want to draw closer to his heart then we need to be spending time in His word consistently daily, says Jon Thurlow, IHOPKC worship leader. If we don t feed ourselves with the Word of God on the inside, we dry up. One way Jesus refers to Himself is as the living water and as the Word. As we read Scripture about Him, we learn what He is like and how He thinks. We actually come to a greater understanding of His character. At the same time we are renewed, refreshed, and washed with the water of the Word. We begin to think the way He thinks. Worship God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. (John 4:24) In times of worship, we declare the truth of who Lord is. Through worship we align our will to God s desire and are able to reset our focus on the One who is our Maker, Creator, and Lord. As we worship, we see Him as He is the One with all power, all authority, who is compassionate and sovereign over every part of our lives and this world. We gain a greater understanding of God and who He is. When that occurs, our perspective is corrected so we are able to see ourselves, others, and our circumstances from the correct vantage point. More than a song, worship is the way we respond to the God who loves us and has given His life for us so that we could be completely free and clean in this life and live with Him forever in the next.
Prayer The Lord gave us prayer as a means of communicating with Him, a way of growing closer to Him. Unlike a dated, stagnant ritual of speaking words to the air, prayer is a conversation in which we speak to God and He responds. This conversation strengthens us, helps focus us, and brings us into a greater fellowship with our Maker. Just as it is with our closest friends and family members, the more we speak to God the more we come to know His character. Prayer is a key factor in our relationship with God. Our God is living and active in the lives of His creation every day. He desires that we be children who not only know our Father, but partner with Him in the work of the Kingdom to bring His good plans about in our lives and the lives of those around us. Journaling Many times in the Bible, the Lord s followers memorialized physical locations to remind themselves, and others, of the great things God had done in their lives. Although we may not put up national monuments every day to express the Lord s faithful work in our lives, it is important to take time and reflect on the Lord s faithfulness. Times of reflection help produce gratitude in our hearts in the moment and can strengthen us in more difficult times of trials and tribulation.. When we make a record of how the Lord has prevailed in our times of sickness, need, or fear, we are cataloging His work and the testimony of His prevailing power in our lives. We truly become living epistles that not only know the history of God s display of strength and compassion in everyday situations, but retaining those memories of what our Father has done enables us to encourage others to overcome in their time of trial as well (Revelation 21:7). We are able to point to the One who is Faithful and True and help them draw closer to God on their own path toward greater intimacy. Prayer Pointers 1. Break a familiar spirit naturally that wants us to believe lies 2. God's greatness to be revealed to us so we can know Him better 3. Give us Appetite for the Word of God 4. May our worship align with the will of God 5. May we find more time to speak to you 6. Help us to keep record of the many revelations you give to us and to see the fulfillment of your promises (Taken from Christian Living Devotional put together by Pastor Noeleen)
DAY 3: Intimacy Requires Going Deeper Still We have learnt about Knowing God, How to build Intimacy and today more required of us to go not just deep but deeper as we intentionally maintain our intimacy with the Lord Jesus Christ. Might we not set ourselves to learn silence, stillness, and solitude? It will not be easy to come by. It must be arranged. The Lord Jesus, available to people much of the time, left them, sometimes a great while before day, to go up to the hills. He could commune in solitude with His Father. Job, enduring his friends tiresome lectures and accusations, was very much alone in the ash heap, but it was there that he came to know God as never before. When Paul received God s call to preach the gospel he did not consult anyone. He went into Arabia. The old apostle John, when exiled to Patmos, must sure have known a holy aloneness through which he received the book of Revelation. Elisabeth Eliot God reveals the importance of prayer through the great biblical characters like Job, Paul, John, and even Jesus and the how they had to learn the lesson of going deeper in their prayer life. God wants to take each one of us deeper still deeper than we have ever been before. And this requires an invitation to times of aloneness. Going deeper in prayer is not always easy or fun. Actually it can be quite difficult, especially when we don t know what God is doing. We have to give extravagant time to God. The author of the book Deeper Still, says God was wooing her into a deeper prayer life and she thought to herself: Haven t I gone deep enough? Do You still want me to go deeper? The strength that is needed at the foundation of your life in order to stay consistently stable in hard times requires a solid prayer life. Your foundation has to be strong so that no attack from the enemy can penetrate your firm trust in the Lord. The word deep in Webster s Dictionary means extending far below the surface, descending far downward, profound, opposed to shallow, piercing a great way, not superficial or obvious, hidden, secret, heartfelt, intricate. God wants to take us far below the surface in our relationship with Himself. This relationship must not be superficial as so many are but heartfelt, hidden, and of great depth. The quality of our aloneness with God can actually enhance the quality of our time with others. Cultivate that deep, alone time with God and make it a holy aloneness. Make your relationship with God of prime importance because this is what life is all about. The author quotes God is taking you deeper and working intricately with your life, so that you can work intricately with the lives of others. How true that statement is and will be later on in your journey if not even already happening. Author writes about a hurricane called Ernesto that swept through the Virginia Beach area. Ernesto was not a very forceful hurricane, yet many trees fell because of the strength of the winds. Many people lost one or more trees during that hurricane. It left Virginia Beach in a huge mess with trees and branches lying everywhere. The stability of the trees depended on how deep the roots went below the surface. Shallow roots could not stand the force of even a small hurricane. In Virginia Beach in mild weather you could never tell how deep a tree s roots extended, but in a hurricane the truth was exposed. Shallow roots meant a big downfall. The roots just could not sustain the tree.
Likewise, right now God is developing your prayer life and the depth of your personal relationship with Him. He is inviting you deeper for a purpose. He has great plans to use you in the coming days. You must not bypass this most important season in your life. God is inviting you to enter into deeper intimacy. Thank Him for what He is doing in you - Live a life of praise and thanksgiving. Choosing to go deeper with God will pay off in the end. Thanksgiving brings joy and contentment. Refuse to listen to the devil- Just as those shallow trees fell in the hurricane, God does not want you to be shallow so that you fall in the end times. He wants to strengthen you now. Listen to God when He is calling you deeper, and accept His invitation. Be patient and don t complain - Watch your speech and guard it carefully. Be one who speaks positive words that bring joy and faith to others. Be content with where you are- Thank Him for the depth He is developing in your life through your present circumstances. Let Him work intricately with your life. Cultivate holy aloneness with God on a daily basis- Plan it in your schedule. Sacrifice in order to give God your time. Make Jesus central in all that you do. Your depth with God now is of utmost importance. He knows what is needed. He is working intricately with your life. He is deep, and He is inviting you to go deeper into His heart through prayer. He knows how strong the winds will be howling in the end-times. He is very purposeful in what He is presently developing in your life. The devil will say it is not important. He will tempt you with these thoughts: Eat, drink and be merry. Nothing will happen. Live just for today. But God is developing this holy aloneness with Himself for a purpose. Every day of root building is beneficial. When you are building depth, often you can t see anything happening on the surface. It can even feel that all is dead and lifeless, but actually the opposite is true sustainable life is being built deep down where it really counts. Realize that your root development will one day pay off. Let His song be with you even during the midnight hour. Prayer pointers 1. Make Me a God Pleaser 2. Shut my ears, appetites and longings for instant gratification 3. Teach me to dig deeper so my roots have firm foundation 4. Help me follow the steps to deeper intimacy with you (Snippets from book deeper still by Debbie Przybylski, prepared by Pastor Noeleen @gflc Esther Fast