I have always heard people talk about intimacy. I heard it a lot on my race. My coach, Tom, used to talk about just being with God. He encouraged us to spend time with God…intimate time…without music, journal, or Bible. He told us that we needed to learn how to just curl up in Daddy’s lap and let him love us.
I’ve never been opposed to that. But I have not had a lot of intimate relationships in my life. So how do I get there? I just don’t get it…
God has REALLY been putting intimacy on my heart. He wants to teach me how to be intimate with him.
What does that even mean?? When I look up the definition of intimate…I get three parts to the meaning: 
2. private and personal.
3. (of knowledge) detailed; thorough
Whoa. I mean, God wants to KNOW me. up close and personal. He wants to get all up in my crap. He WANTS to. He wants to be close to me. He wants to get personal. He wants to go to the places no-one else wants to go. He wants to have detailed, thorough knowledge of me. But what is more mind blowing to me is that he wants me to KNOW him. up close and personal. He wants me to be close to him. He wants me to have detailed, thorough knowledge of HIM. The depth of this type of relationship just blows my mind.
When I was preparing for the final debrief for my Real Life students, God again placed intimacy on my heart. He pointed me to John 10.
“He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice. They wont’ follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.” (3-5) “I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for my sheep” (14-15)
Sometimes when I read things, I am just smacked in the face with how amazing God is. That happened when I read that. (Ya’ll, I had been looking for specific verses that talked about intimacy and told me how to achieve it. What God is showing me is that the entire dang Bible is about intimacy and how to achieve it. )
Ok, first of all, Jesus is calling me BY NAME. It constantly blows my mind that the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords knows MY NAME. He walks ahead of me. He walks ahead of all of us. He doesn’t push us from behind, but leads us from the front. That means that we have to choose to follow. We have to listen for his voice, and choose to go in the direction we hear it traveling from. We can only recognize this voice if we spend enough time getting to know the sound of it.
Second, Jesus says he knows his sheep and THEY KNOW HIM, just as his Father knows him and he knows his Father. WHAT??? I mean, that verse just kind of blows me away. Just sit there an think about that. He wants us to know him like God the Father knows him. That’s deep. That’s intimate.
This is something deep that God is teaching me and leading me through. There is so much more I want to type, so look for more 🙂
