“When I stand up to preach the Gospel, I often preach to people who have no idea who God is because they worship idols, very terrible idols. They spread the table for their gods, and I tell them that the Christian God does it the other way around. He spreads the table for His children. In the other religions people always seek God. In the Christian faith, God seeks man.”
Reinhard Bonnke, Evangelist – Christ for all Nations
Nepal. The month began with a small trek to the top of a small mountain, that a hindu temple sat, praying over Kathmandu, and God giving me the word restoration. So now not only did I go through Nepal expecting God to blow my mind with crazy miracles, two weeks of trekking, and beautiful creation, but now I thought I was going to see restoration in the hearts of the Nepali people.
Did I have 14 day trek? Not even close. One of the many difficulties was communication between Nepali people and us. So a lot of the things I expected or things I were told we’d experience didn’t happen … how I expected.
We were given something so much better: a month saturated with new cultural experiences. Mountains that you only dream about we experienced daily. Waking up never knowing what Jesus was going to do. Bus rides from Hell. Grown Nepali men washing your hair. Grown Nepali men wanting to snuggle. Sunsets that feel like God made them just for you. Spontaneous river swims in bone-chilling mountain water.
Greater than all that, Jesus showed me how alive the Holy Spirit is in me and this country. He showed me that the same authority that Jesus has, I’ve been given. I prayed and witnessed physical healing, demons being cast out, and hindu’s choosing Jesus..
Yes! Finally I made it. I succeeded. This is the best day ever! This is what I have been waiting for … That is how I thought it would feel to finally experience the Holy Spirit in all His glory. At least that’s how I thought I would feel when all this happened. Don’t get me wrong it was really amazing, and I’m glad I experienced it, but what I found to be even greater than all that was stated above. So much more satisfying, more exciting.
What I experienced is true Intimacy.
Jesus used our pastor, now my brother, to teach me what it looks like to live into the intimacy with Jesus. I witnessed Pastor fight for people to have that intimacy restored with Jesus more than anything else, because he understood that he was living in intimacy with the father and you saw this simply through his smile. Through the way he loved his family. Through his energy. Through his gentleness. Through the way he loved us, strangers to his home and his land. He was completely lost in the love of the father, and it just overflowed into everything else in his life. He modeled what it looked like to have intimacy with Our Father. And it was contagious.
How is that, that the intimacy that we get to have with Him, is better than any healing, any miracle, or any experience that this world can give?
Why is that?
How can loving someone be so captivating?
What makes intimacy so satisfying?
These are all questions I think about as I write this. Because I look at the words that I wrote before and think how crazy does that sound. Yet, I can write with such conviction because I’ve experienced it. I know it to be true.
Here’s a thought … maybe we’re created for it? I know I am so profound! Joking! I’m certain some, if not most, people have heard something to that degree. However, have you really taken the time to think about that, to allow that to sink into your heart?
Because I look at the world around me and I see mindless robots, performers (aka me), men and women seeking for that satisfaction in everything the world offers but never actually feeling satisfied. I mean I’ve been all around the world and met people that believe that there’s a God that will fulfill that empty place, but they are trying to fill it up with many gods, hoping for the one that will click. That one that will make sense.
Whether you believe in God or not, I think we can all understand what I am talking about. You know, that feeling like you are running as hard as you can, trying to feel something. To earn something. And it never feels in reach.
Even now being in India where the culture is complete opposite of the U.S., the conversations I have on the surface look different but are the same deeply rooted instinctual desires we are desperately running after…
To be accepted.
To be known
To not be alone.
To be in relationship.
Are those not all characteristics of true Intimacy?
We look for intimacy in everything other than the One who created it. I think some of us have experienced intimacy–or what we thought was intimacy–and believe it’s too good to be true. That intimacy is not possible. That intimacy is just vulnerability tied to a ticking time bomb that always ends in part of our self being blown away. We’ll continue to run endlessly if we never recognized what true intimacy is and the deeper underlying truth of why Jesus came.
Jesus didn’t heal the sick, feed the hungry, and perform miracles to bring restoration to intimacy.
No he brought restoration to bring us back into relationship with our father and out of intimacy being restored, miracles happened. When you encounter the love of the Father it is undeniable. It is something that nothing else can compare to. It pulls you in, and you’ll do anything to get more, and you never want to let it go. Our inner being knows this is the one thing that will satisfy.
Why is that?
Because we were made for it.
This month I experienced more than I ever could have wanted. I discovered that restoration isn’t just part of his plan, it IS His plan. I keep learning more about true intimacy and it continues to blow my mind how far this rabbit hole goes. And most of all this month, I met Jesus with skin on, Pastor Bipin, and he showed me the restoration that was happening in Nepal. And, unexpectedly, showed me the restoration that need to happen in me.
p.s. here is some pictures of my time in nepal! Fyi first picture is of pastor Bipin.
