Week two the focus is shifting from identity and who we are, to calling and what we’re made for. Again, the first page is background Scripture to start connecting our hearts with the ideas, and the second is passages to meditate on. Return to these as often as you like (our suggestion is every day during this period!), dialog with the Lord about what they mean to Him, use the questions at the bottom as fuel, and then pray it: God if that’s what’s in your heart than do … in me, and do … in my city and in the nations of the earth!
Week 2: The Central Call of the Church – Intimacy with God
PDF Version: Week 2 – Intimacy with God
Background Verses: The identity of priesthood speaks about who we are and how God sees us: first and foremost as a people chosen by God for God to have God and to belong to God. The call of intimacy speaks about how then we ought to live: our path forward into fullness and our measure of success is in loving God and being loved by God. By God’s indisputable choice, our lives are measured and defined not by many things, but by one thing – our relationship with God.
Matthew 22:37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
That God calls our love for Him first and most important greatly simplifies what it means to pursue God and to be a disciple of Christ. There is one simple, defining issue: we must get more and more connected to Him. All that we’re longing to see in our lives and in the Church corporately does not mean there is a long list of things we need to get good at – an effective witness, a life of power, dynamic worship, exciting preaching, good answers for this issue and that one – there is only one thing we need to get good at – we will bear more fruit as we get more connected to Him.
John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
Similarly, there is one thing, not many, to worry about doing if we want to give ourselves to God: sit at His feet and hear His words – build real relationship with God.
Luke 10:38 Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” 41 And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. 42 But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”
Jesus has a very straightforward strategy for perfecting His Church – invite her to be with Him and make a way for her to draw close and see His glory and hear His name, which will cause her to love Him and open up her heart to receive more of Him.
John 17:24 “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. 26 And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”
He will be her fullness and coming to know Him will cause her heart to adore and receive Him. God puts us in the humble place of receiving – knowing His love so that we can be filled with His fullness. It doesn’t come from us, it comes from the life-giving connection He gave us with Himself.
Ephesians 3:16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Colossians 1:27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery… which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.
Meditation Passage 1: Matthew 22:37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Food for Thought: What does it tell us about our nature (in the image of God) and the nature of love that God would ask for love from heart, soul and mind, not just obedience? What does “balance” look like in light of the call to love God with all? What does it look like to not be worried about many things, but about doing this one thing well? What does love for self and for our neighbor look like in light of the fact that we were made to love God with all?
Meditation Passage 2: Psalm 27:4 One thing I have desired of the Lord, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, And to inquire in His temple.
Food for Thought: God calls David “a man after His own heart” – more than just David’s personal preference, how is this desire an answer to the cry of God’s heart (see John 17:24-26 on page 1)? What’s it feel like to have only one desire? What does it look like to not just desire, but seek after intimacy with God? What activities does David give himself to in the house of the Lord?