EVERYTHOUGHT - The Call to Intimacy

by Ps Mel Marshall

I want to share with you a secret. It isn't a secret really - we all know it - but sometimes in the busyness of my life I can forget it. For me personally, God has been gently and persistently reminding me of this since last October. The secret is this: "My first call is to intimacy with Him."

Each one of us is called to intimacy with Him. It's a call to relationship, it's a call to talk with Him - not about your ministry, not about your problems, not about where you are called or your goals for the future, (there's nothing wrong with all that, and there is a time for all that) but above all that, apart from all that, God would like to get beyond all the "stuff" and tell you exactly what His thoughts are toward you.

The primary call on every individual is for intimacy with God. Everything happens out of intimacy. Everything we do and achieve for God comes out of intimacy. Every victory we have comes out of intimacy. Whatever we achieve in this life proves that we have intimacy with Him.

Many of us are accustomed to scheduling God into our busy lives, or just praying when there is a crisis or a need. Maybe it's our shopping list, maybe it's the family breakthrough. It may even be a worthwhile cause. It's all good, but it's all secondary.

The primary relationship we have with God is that of ministry to Him in worship and hearing feedback from Him about us.

He wants to talk to you, He really does. He wants to talk to you about you. It's not bad news.

Have you ever talked to someone that you're nervous around and they're looking right into your eyes and you're looking everywhere but into their eyes? You're looking at their shoes and at the ceiling and you look back and they're still looking at you so you look away and look around and you look back and they're still looking at you and you're just as nervous as can be?

That's God, and He's just looking right into your eyes. Sometimes we're just uncomfortable with that, so we're looking everywhere but there.

He's looking deeply into us, and it makes us nervous. We've got the theology about His goodness but when it comes down to practice we're just a little unsure about getting that close.

He really wants to talk to you about you.

He would like to describe to you what it means to Him for you to be the apple of His eye.

He would like to tell you about His imagination, about you before you were even conceived.

He said to Jeremiah, "before you were conceived, I knew you." I knew you. I've been imagining this moment when I would have the privilege of loving you and walking with you.

I started thinking about you before you were even conceived.

Jeremiah 29:11 (NASB) tells us that all of His thoughts are for our welfare. He doesn't have a thought about our calamity, which means He didn't do any of the calamity. He doesn't have sickness to give, so He doesn't give sickness.

Every thought He has for you is about your welfare, and your future is full of hope and promise.

I go to that place of intimacy for no other reason than just to be with Him. It's not for my ministry, it's not so I can get holier, its not so I can re-confess what I've already confessed.

It's just for Him.
It's just for me.

Personally, I pray for "stuff" less and less, I don't have my list. This may be a phase, it may not. It may last for the rest of my life, I don't know.

I do know that I need to know His nature. It's more important than anything else because breakthrough comes out of that. I need to be with Him for no other reason than just to be with Him. I hear His voice, Song of Solomon 8:14 "Make haste, my beloved, and come quickly...", and I go.

My greatest pleasure is the intimacy I have with Him for no other reason than that He loves me and I have the privilege of loving Him back and in that context, a lover's heart gets turned into a warrior's heart. Lovers just fight better. Love releases the warrior in me. And all victory is born out of that.