Last Sunday we looked at John chapter 15 and Jesus invitation to be at home with God as Jesus talked about himself being a vine and us being branches that need to stay connected to him in order for our lives to be filled with spiritual life and fruitfulness in the things of God. And we saw that when it comes to staying connected and close to Jesus obedience is a key word, a concept that runs against the grain of our natural inclination and a concept that s sometimes we equate with weakness or not being able to think for yourself. And yet it was through obedience that Jesus accomplished everything God the Father sent him to do in laying down his life at the cross on our behalf. Re- Claiming Intimacy Well, this morning I want to look at another key word to a close relationship with God. And that word is intimacy. But like obedience, intimacy is a word that some of us might not feel attracted to and is a word that comes with cultural baggage. So, I would like to begin by taking this morning to re- claim what intimacy with God actually is. The dictionary defines intimacy as a close familiarity or friendship. But despite that broad definition, a lot of us only think of intimacy in terms of something sappy, romantic, positive, or pain- free, as though the idea of being intimate with God is holding hands with Jesus as you skip through rainbow- filled meadow, which I can t say I have ever done! But true intimacy with God is much more than experiencing a warm feeling. If we only interpret intimacy that way, we ve cut ourselves off from 75% of what real intimacy is. True intimacy is more than a feeling. It s having a close familiarity and a friendship with God as you choose to stay connected and close to Jesus, and in the process become familiar with his character and ways. A lot of times intimacy with God comes with a warm experience of his love. After encountering God in a way he never had before, famous 19 th century preacher John Wesley said his heart was strangely warmed. But it s important to understand that intimacy with God is much greater than that. If we only see intimacy with God as a warm feeling, then we might reject it thinking, I love God but I don t want a bromance with him! Or if we think it s all about a feeling then our pursuit of intimacy with God may continue to be an elusive experience we feel we only get glimpses of because it s so much more. Intimacy with God is having a deeper understanding of God s heart and a growing familiarity with his character and his ways forged by time spent together, flowing from a place of faith and trust, and pursuing a lifestyle of obedience that s what true intimacy with God is found. In his book Sacred Quest: Discovery Intimacy With God, Doug Bannister writes, Everyone seeks intimacy with God. Ignore this need and you end up...looking for God in the wrong places. 1 And while I agree with that statement, from what I read in the scriptures and from what I know in my own faith- relationship with God, we can miss an intimate relationship with God even though we want it because the path to knowing God intimately often comes to us in ways we didn t expect. The Book of Psalms is a collection of recorded prayers from other believers and followers of God. Many of them poetic and intended to be accompanied by music like many of our worship songs on Sunday mornings they were written to be read aloud and sung. And many of the Psalms speak of experiencing God s goodness: Psalm 34:8, which reads, Taste and see that the Lord is good. 1 p. 15 1
Now, if I limit my understanding of intimacy to experiencing a warm feeling, then I might miss out on realizing or appreciating aspects of tasting God s goodness to me. Often, when I direct my heart and mind to God in prayer or through reading the Bible, my heart is warmed by reminders of his love. And in those moments I sometimes feel like I m actually tasting God s goodness. There are times where something beautiful happens in my life, like the birth of each of my children, where I feel like I m tasting God s goodness to me. But then there are other times when life isn t as exciting or times when I m reading God s word, and I don t feel anything at all. Am I still tasting God s goodness in those times? Yes but not in a way that I might recognize right away. When I think of God s goodness I tend to exclusively think about something that will lead to my comfort or ease. But sometimes what God calls good, we might call painful. It s the difference between what a child calls good and what a parent calls good for you. When we assume that disappointment, pain, or boredom are obstacles that stand in the way of relationship with God, we might just be rejecting the very vehicle God wants to use to cause to become more familiar and a closer friend to him. You know, I have shared this before but prior to coming to BAC two and a half years ago, Linda and I served at church in Vancouver for seven years. And the first three, maybe even four, years we were incredibly difficult for us with the church, with finances, with wanting more than one child. After serving as a youth pastor here at Burlington Alliance prior to going to Vancouver, we enjoyed a wonderful season of ministry and God s blessing. Aren t you glad to hear that?! But then God sent us to Vancouver. All of the blessing and tasting of God s goodness seemed to end the moment we landed in Vancouver. And for the first four years of our time there, things just got harder, where it seemed we were going from bad to worse. The church was in great difficulties. I was having a hard time fitting in. We had miscarried. We were going backwards in our finances. And thought, Where is God? So, I doubled- down in my prayer life. I started searching more fervently for God s leading. I felt desperate to understand his will, to hear from him, to seek his intervention, and to have him answer my prayers. I didn t believe he had left but at the same he seemed no where to be found. And all the while things seemed to get worse not better. What I had known in my head but had not yet perceived in my heart at least to the degree I do now is that there are seasons to a life of intimacy with God. We live in a country with four distinct seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. No one season lasts forever. No matter how much I love the Summer, it is going to soon give way to Fall. In the same way, there are seasons in our relationship with God. Some feel like seasons of summer where we feel the warmth of God s presence. And others are more like winter where God feels absent even though he s never left us because we re not experiencing a feeling or because our circumstances have become difficult. With God, each season has a purpose and is intended to bring us greater intimacy with God if we will embrace it. The Book of Ecclesiastes 3:1 reads, There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens. Hiddenness And Manifestation The title of my message this morning is actually taken from a book written by Graham Cooke that helped me begin to see how God was at work in my life during that challenging season of life in Vancouver. Cooke writes about two seasons we can 2
experience with God: Hiddenness and Manifestation. He writes, manifestation is a time of blessing; hiddenness is a time of building. 2 In times of manifestation we experience the joy of God s of presence. We delight in Him and we feel His delight in us. In these seasons we are overwhelmed by the love of Jesus. His presence is palpable, His voice seems clear and constant. We couldn t imagine life with Jesus getting any better; and we seem to go from one great experience of God to another where we wondering if others feel as close to Jesus as we do. If you ve ever experienced a time like that with God you never want it to end it s a great blessing. Hiddenness, on the other hand, is very different. In a season of hiddenness Jesus is no less present, but He is not nearly so visible to us; He fades from our sight. In a season of hiddenness we are invited to walk by faith, not by sight. In that kind of season, God is calling us to take him at his Word regardless of our circumstances, regardless of how we feel, regardless of what s going on. In times of hiddenness, we must remember God s character and promises, receiving them not by sight but by faith as we keep close and wait on him. Now, even though you re never going to find the words intimacy, hiddenness, or manifestation in the Bible, just like the word trinity, you see the reality of these words in the lives of every major character in the Bible: in Abraham and Sarah, in Ruth, in David, in the apostle Paul. Intimacy with God, becoming familiar with God and becoming a faithful friend, does not come by moving from one mountain peak experience to another. Often our greatest times of coming close to God happen in life s valleys. I ve heard it said, As beautiful as it is at the peak of a 2 Hiddenness and Manifestation: What Is Really Happening When God Doesnʼt Seem To Be Present?, p.12. mountain, nothing grows there. It s only the valleys that are green. Jesus goal for our lives is not comfort but spiritual maturity, which often comes through experiencing a season, or seasons, of hiddenness. In speaking about a time of hiddenness, 1 Peter chapter 1 says: 1 Peter 1:6-9 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Peter reminds us that our trust and belief in Jesus is of greater worth than gold and that Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives is ever working to build us and refine us in our faith so our lives may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Hiddenness is an avenue to intimacy as we are drawn closer to God in times of trial. I am thankful to be able to say that the last three years Linda had in Vancouver were much easier and in many ways became a season of manifestation. But in hindsight, I now see how good those first couple of years were for my faith as well how much I grew; how much I went to God; how I searched for him and spent time pursuing him; and how God led me to surrender more of myself to him. In fact, I probably grew more 3
in those 3-4 years than at any other time in my life. I m glad that season of hiddenness ended. But I now see how good they were for me in helping me move from being a fair- weather friend of God to more of a faithful friend of God who doesn t just stick around for what God can give me but for him alone. Hiddenness And Manifestation In The Bible For the remainder of our time, I want to spend a few moments looking at scriptural examples of these two seasons. First, manifestation: Psalm 84 1 How lovely is your dwelling place, LORD Almighty! 2 My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. 4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you. 10 Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. Psalm 84 is voicing a time of blessing where the writer is stirred by a sense of God s manifest presence. He encounters the beauty of the Lord, and in response gives God praise. Psalm 63:1-5 1 You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. 2 I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. 3 Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. 4 I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. 5 I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you. Here the psalmist says, Not only have I sought you, but I ve seen you! I ve found what I ve been searching for; my heart is finally satisfied! Your love is better than life. This is a season of experiencing God s manifest presence! Have there been times in your life thus far where you have felt that way about God? Maybe not every day but at least for a season? It s so good. But experiencing a season of manifestation doesn t equal being spiritually mature. It s important to note that. Sometimes the first season of manifestation a person experiences comes right after they first give their hearts to Jesus when they first become a Christian. It s a honeymoon with God. But one that is eventually followed by a season of hiddenness or testing. Seasons of manifestation aren t constant sometimes they are the exception, not the rule. Let s look at Jesus. At his baptism, Jesus had a mountain top experience with the Father. When he came up out of the water the audible voice of the Father was heard. Matthew chapter 3 says, At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased (v.16-17). It was a moment of manifestation. An incredible moment that even others were let in on. But do you remember the first place the Holy Spirit led Jesus after that moment? In the very next verse in Matthew 4:1, it says, Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. A season of hiddenness quickly came to Jesus after that moment of manifestation. As the Father s audible voice went silent, Jesus now had to rely on the truth of his Father s recorded word, defending himself from the devil by quoting and putting his faith in scripture as Jesus suddenly found himself physically alone, hungry, and being tempted. 4
Manifestation had quickly led to a season of hiddenness. The Father was at work in both those moments in Jesus life. Jesus knew this and remained close with his Father when God s presence was manifest and when God s presence seemed hidden. Earlier we read Psalm 34:8, Taste and see that the Lord is good. But just a couple Psalms later in Psalm 38, we find these words: Psalm 38:6-22 8 My groans come from an anguished heart. 9 You know what I long for, Lord; you hear my every sigh. 10 My heart beats wildly, my strength fails, and I am going blind... 15 For I am waiting for you, O Lord. You must answer for me, O Lord my God...21 Do not abandon me, O Lord. Do not stand at a distance, my God. 22 Come quickly to help me, O Lord my savior. I m fading God, I m exhausted, my heart is in anguish. I m waiting for you, I m calling to you...don t leave me...i need your help. The Psalmist speaking from a difficult time of Hiddenness; I ve been there and so have many of you. It is comforting to know that Jesus was no stranger to hiddenness and manifestation. Hebrews 4:15 reminds us, For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are- - yet he did not sin. He knew what it was to feel close to the Father; He also knew what it was to walk by faith when the Father felt far away. Throughout his earthly life, Jesus enjoyed a deep sense of the Father s presence at his baptism and transfiguration. Those are times that stand out of Jesus experience of the Father s manifest presence, power, and glory. But in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before his crucifixion, we see Jesus also experiencing great anguish as he cried out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? On one occasion Jesus heard the audible voice of his Father. On another occasion Jesus asked why the Father had forsaken him. In your own small way, has your life been like Jesus where you have had on one occasion a wonderful sense of God s presence and love while on other occasions have felt like he has forsaken you? If your answer is yes it means that your spiritual walk with God is normal in that God has been growing you to become familiar and faithful with him through both manifestation and hiddenness. There s nothing wrong with you because you are encountering a season of hiddenness or because you haven t had as much manifestation as you think you should or would like. If you re struggling with God being seemingly hidden from you right now, then I want to challenge you to see it as a gift for your spiritual life and as a path to intimacy that has come to you in disguise. God uses or even brings about seasons of hiddenness in order to reveal to reveal more of his character and purposes to you by pushing to press in through faith. That was my experience in Vancouver. God had never once left me. And it s a season where I have never sought him more. Unfortunately, it sometimes takes seasons of hiddenness for us to really seek God and see him for who he is. What kind of season are you in with God? A time of hiddenness? Or manifestation? Even though none of us wants a season of hiddenness, we need to begin to see it as a gift. 5
Through hiddenness God wants to reveal more of himself. In order to reveal, sometimes God chooses to hide. We need to keep on praying, keep on trusting, keep on following in faith and not by sight. Don t make the mistake I did asking just to bring that season to an end. Ask God want he wants to show you in it. Pray. In hiddenness, God often reveals where we re off track with him so that we can have a change of heart and ultimately discover more of him. Often, in a time of hiddenness, our flawed thoughts about God are unmasked, and our expectations of God are exposed. There were a number of things that I had to repent of during my Vancouver season of hiddenness. Expectations and demands I had of God. Grumbling and complaining instead of being thankful and full of gratitude for the things God has done for me and saved me from. We don t need to understand everything that God is doing in a season of hiddenness. What s important is that we trust him in everything. If you are in the midst of enjoying a season of experiencing God s manifest presence, enjoy him! Don t apologize. But also don t equate a warm experience of God s presence as a sign of maturity. It s a blessing. It s good. And ask for more! Be like the Psalmist who wants nothing more than to continue to be where God s manifest presence is found even if it means taking the lowly position of a doorkeeper! But know that it s not because of how great you are or how mature you might be. It s because God loves you and he has chosen to show himself to you. May we become people who have intimacy with God in a seasons of manifestation and hiddenness, that we might be people who are becoming a faithful friend of God and familiar with his character and ways. God says that our faith in him is worth more than gold! 6