Intimacy with God

Welcome back to Ignite. I want to talk to you about having intimacy with God. Did you know you could have intimacy with God? Let me give you something really corny. If I had a profound effect on my life, it really did. When I was age 10, I was in the backyard of a house playing with ants. We had been infestated with ants and I got very intrigued with ants. So one day I went out and I just started watching them and how they carry these gigantic things or much larger than themselves. And they're also busy and they all know what they're doing. And I wondered as a 10-year-old, what would it be like to be an ant? What is their worldview? I didn't use those terms, of course. What is it possessing to be about their business and be so busy? They have a plan and everything. How could they, the only way they hit me, the only way I could understand the mindset of an ant would be to be an ant. Okay. Silly thought. Let me put it a whole different perspective for you. Think of the difference between an ant and an ant. Okay, which is great. It's huge. Let's take them on God for a moment. You ever look at a satellite view of earth? Of course you have. Have you ever seen people? No, don't see people. That's just from a satellite view or the astronaut circling the earth. You can't see a person. Hard to see a city, right? Now, think about the speed of light. Do you know the speed of light is astounding. We learned this when we were kids. The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second. What? The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second. Have you been following this latest telescope we have in space now, the James Webb telescope? Have you been following this? The hull was huge. This is way beyond that. The James Webb satellite now looks. Get this 13.6 billion light years away. 13.6 billion light years away and the speed of light is 186,000 miles per second. That's the long ways away. And that's just what we see, right? That's not the end scene. That's just only what man can see in our own humanness. Do you get my point? The distance between God and man is a whole lot bigger than between me as a 10-year-old and those ants. I'm a dirt in the backyard that day. Forget this. He made us in his own image. And he loves us. He loves us. And he wants us to spend eternity with him. And he wants us to reign with him or the angels. Wow. How could we? How could we possibly tabulate that? Who could know the mind of God? It's incredible. And yet we tell him, boil off and just, you know, a ton of time for you. Seriously? The incredible thing to all this is that we can actually have intimacy with God. You can have intimacy with God. I have it all the time. I talk to you. I interview them on our website igniteamerica.com. You go in there. We have all the types of people that are sharing the faith all over the place. And they're just slightly different from me. You don't have to look like Mary Maguire. I can reach some people. You can reach some people. I can't reach some people. You reach me. You may not be able to reach some people. I reach them together. We can reach them. Okay. And so we see with God, knowing God, you know, for years I told God I loved him because I knew I should tell him. I love him. I love you, God. I didn't really love him. I did, but I didn't. You know what I mean? It wasn't to the core. Hey, I love you, bro. There's a lot of levels of love. And then there's a goppy love. He said, when you love me with your whole heart, to those who love me, to those who live for my purpose, when you really love him, you'll live for his purpose. You'll tell people about him. It's first love. When God is your first love, you'll do the first work. You'll tell people about him. Most avid faith shares are new Christians because there's no question who God is. He's their first love and they can't wait to tell people about him. That's how he wants you to live your entire life. And when you do that, you have intimacy with God. The ultimate verse in this subject is an Isaiah of all places. Boy, Isaiah, what a rich book. Do you know it's the only book in the Old Testament that was preserved in its entirety? And it's certainly perhaps the most incredible book in the Old Testament that confirms the birth death resurrection of Jesus Christ, the whole story there. I mean, it's this amazing rich book. Isaiah 43, 10. God says, um, that's it, the Lord. Now, think of all the verses that Bible tell you why you should share your faith. Oh, no, excuse me. Tell you you should share your faith. Share your faith. Reclaim the good news over and over. Generate Genesis to revelations. He tells you those kinds of things. But Isaiah 43, 10 actually tells us why. He says, let's say at the Lord, I've wanted you as my witness. Let me jump back just for a moment. Do you remember in Jeremiah chapter 1? He says, before I put you, before I placed you in your mother's womb, I set you aside to be my witness, right? Does it get any earlier in your life than that? Before God sets you in your mother's womb, he set you apart to be a witness for him. Okay? Now he says, why? I say at 43, 10, I have coined you as my witness so that you will believe. What? If I was God, I'd say I have coined you as my witness so that they will believe. Right? Makes sense. But do you know that when God's working with you, his whole focus is you. Not at how he can use you. His focus is on you, saving you. He wants you. He spends full time with you. It's incredible. Well, how does that work exactly? How does sharing my faith confirm my faith? In fact, the scripture doesn't say, I've coined you as my witness so that you will believe more. He doesn't say that. He's actually saying, this is how you believe. This is how you know. This is how you understand that I am God by being my witness. That takes sharing your faith through a whole other level. Let me explain how that works. And it happens all the time for anybody who's moving everybody every day closer to Jesus. You're up into somebody. It's a God ordained conversation. You can't prepare for those conversations. You just can't. They just found they got cancer. The kids just commit suicide. They're getting divorced. You don't, you have no idea. The stories that come are just mind-boggling. You can't prepare for those stories. And Mark 1311 says, don't, don't prepare. This is against everything you've been taught about sharing your faith. Get to all prepared. Get your story down. Oh, if you get your story down, I have a hundred stories. Which story should I get down? How on earth would I come up with one life story that I've all memorized and get ready to tell somebody that probably will not fit 99% of the people I'm talking to. And having a script and going through all that, people are hurting. They've got a problem. They're, they're in frenic need of help. And I want to go through a step-by-step process of explaining salvation. I don't think so. So all the pressure goes off. You're just loving on them. That's all you do. You're just loving on them. And all of a sudden you find out that you didn't have to prepare and Luke 12, 12. I love Luke 12, 12. He says, the Holy Spirit will give you the words to say when you need them. Wow. And he does. And he brings the remembrance scriptures. You haven't thought about for years. And when you're sharing where they all said scriptures are coming out of you and words are coming out of you. And in the process you feel God flowing through you. This is how you're supposed to live your life. This is the life of intimacy. When you see that happening and you feel God speaking through you, you know, he's salvation that person in front of you. He's changing the life in front of you. It's his words coming out in your mouth. Not yours. It's not your thoughts as his thoughts. And you see the life in front of you and changing that changes you. And does it ever? If you've never felt that experience, folks, you're missing out on the entirety of what Christianity's all about and you really don't know God. Try it. It's amazing. There's no words to describe. There's no other activity in the human experience that matches allowing God to speak through you and changing the lives in front of you. And when you do that, you're going to have intimacy with God every day. I often mention this and I do it often, not all the time, but often I finish through one of those conversations. I step away and I look up and I see Jesus smiling at me. Oh, that's a great feeling. You know we can grieve God and we often do. But did you know you give Jesus joy when you fall his lead, when you fall the lead of the Holy Spirit? And when I step away from one of those encounters, I look up and I see Jesus smiling at me and get this. It's not my joy. That's my strength. It's God's joy. You can give God joy. You look up and it's like Jesus say, wait and go, Barry, I said that enough. You listen to me. I spoke through you a pull it off way to go. Yes. I think that doesn't point about to my stuff. He better believe it. And I have intimacy with God and I enjoy it every day and so can you. See you next time.