In the Dark
Yesterday morning, right before service, during pre-service prayer, the electricity for half of the county went out. I had just prayed “Lord, what ever is entertainment about our worship be turned off and let your anointing fill this place.”
The Lord has a sense of humor. He also had something wonderful in store for his children.
We opened the windows and we opened the doors and we let the light in. In shadowed grayness we worshiped. No microphones, no video screens, just voices and acoustic instruments.
His presence was just as sweet, if not sweeter than any other service we’ve had this year. I did not want to let the moment pass. The sense of community, and family was strong. Perhaps, amid all the jokes about forgetting to pay the electric bill, we were enjoying the moment. It had a hint of the unknown, and an air of expectation.
We sang, we prayed, we listened to the word, we prayed more. We worshiped more.
The intimacy was beautiful.
“My lover said to me, “Rise up, my darling! Come away with me, my fair one! Look, the winter is past, and the rains are over and gone. The flowers are springing up, the season of singing birds has come, and the cooing of turtledoves fills the air. The fig trees are forming young fruit, and the fragrant grapevines are blossoming. Rise up, my darling! Come away with me, my fair one!” Song of Solomon 2:10-13
Come Away
Sometimes we need to get away from the noise and the bustle of life and have intimate moments with an infinite God. (Tweet That)
We need to fall into him and let him consume us. We need to let the winters of our hard hearts melt and become fertile ground once more.
Intimacy with God is about letting everything else go, for a raw, open, honest moment with him. The newness of his anointing is like the smells of spring: new grass after a rain and flowers kissed by dew.
That is why the service in the dark was so amazing. The smell of rain drifted in as our worship rose and mingled with the song God sings over us. Our song was not measured by the production value or the sound quality, but by its authenticity before a holy God.
Hidden Moments
When I was growing up, I used to hear men and women say they got alone with God in their “Prayer Closets”. It was a weird perversion of Matthew 6:6. “ But when you pray, go into your [most] private room, and, closing the door, pray to your Father, Who is in secret; and your Father, Who sees in secret, will reward you in the open.”
God does not want us to brag about our prayer time, but to keep it private. These are hidden moments of intimacy. There are other ways you can create intimacy too. Here are a few:
- Quite time in the word of God - You do not have to read endless chapters or the bible in 30 days or what ever the latest fad is. Instead take a smaller portion of the word and make it your spiritual food. Savor it, and look at it closely. What is God saying in that small passage that you might have missed if you read more?
- Private worship time – There are moments of worship that are joyful, there are moments of worship that are quiet and then there are the moments of worship that are full of the sweetness of weeping. Worship is a song not sung beautifully but sung honestly. You may not sound like a professional. Few of us do. But if you sing from your very heart with a sincere desire to please our father, then you are on the right track. Worship brings breakthrough, but first it brings intimacy. Corporate song service can be worshipful, but this kind of worship is what God desires from us because it is individual and based on our relationship rather than our attendance.
- Keep an open dialogue – Prayer is conversation with God. What Jesus did for us on the cross allows us open access to come boldly before our Father. We are more than mere servants of God, we are sons and daughters. In that relationship, we can ask our Dad for anything, and if we ask with good motives, He will give. Open communication is a hallmark of relationship. It opens us up for examination before God and grants him better access in our lives because it keeps us in a place of surrender.
When we have intimacy with our Father, our day to day life begins to change. Instead of going from bad to worse moments we begin to go from glory to glory. The bad stuff may still happen, but we will no longer mark our days with a list of those things. Instead we mark our days with the moments spent with our Lord. This is just one thing intimacy can bring.
Join the Conversation
What is your favorite way to spend time with our Dad? Leave your comment below.
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