INTIMACY WITH JESUS, THE FATHER, THE SPIRIT
Men and women of lasting significance know their Maker, seek His wisdom, and bow to His government. King David penned the glorious truth of ultimate fulfillment in Psalm 16:5: “Yahweh, You alone are my prize, my pleasure, and my portion. You hold my destiny and its timing in your hands.” Indeed, the Father said of David, the one called to be the shepherd of Israel and the very picture of the Great Shepherd of Israel and the grafted in Gentiles—the King of kings to come, “I have found …a man who always pursues My heart and will accomplish all that I have destined him to do.” (Acts 13:22 TPT)
King David’s heart for God is to be ours in terms of what comprises our chief pursuit. He wrote,
“The one thing I seek above all else: I want to live with Him every moment in His house, (c) beholding the marvelous beauty (d) of Yahweh, filled with awe, delighting in His glory and grace. I want to contemplate (e) in His temple….I heard Your voice in my heart say, ‘Come, seek My face;’ my inner being responded, ‘Yahweh, I’m seeking Your face with all my heart.” (Psalm 27:4, 8 TPT)
(c) A temple had not yet been built when David wrote this psalm. He was saying that he longs to be surrounded with God’s presence, enclosed and encircled with holiness.
(d) The meaning of the Hebrew word for “beauty” (no’am) is not easily conveyed by one English word. It can also be translated “sweetness,” “pleasantness,” “friendliness,” “graciousness,” “goodness,” “loveliness,” “splendor,” or “delightfulness.” Take each of these terms and read the verse again, inserting the possible alternatives. We must be captured by the awesomeness of God each time we come before Him and rejoice in His friendship.
(e) The Hebrew verb baqar can also mean “inquire,” “meditate,” “take pleasure in,” and in a general sense, “worship,” “pray,” or “seek [guidance].” However, baqar comes from a root word that means “to arise at dawn.” Perhaps David was saying that he would arise every dawn to take pleasure in God.
And Paul, at first zealous for what he could accomplish in self-righteousness apart from the true and living Christ, wrote of Jesus once he had encountered Him and become His follower:
“Yes, furthermore, I count everything as loss compared to the possession of the priceless privilege (the overwhelming preciousness, the surpassing worth, and supreme advantage) of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord and of progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him [of perceiving and recognizing and understanding Him more fully and clearly]. For His sake I have lost everything and consider it all rubbish (refuse, dregs), in order that I may (gain) Christ (the Anointed One).”
“[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly]…”
“I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward.” (Philippians 3:8, 10, 14 AMPC)
Because of Paul’s wholehearted surrender to the Lord and the gifts God had put in him, this apostle was chosen to be the master foundation builder for the church. Paul said of himself: “Pattern yourselves after me [follow my example], as I imitate and follow Christ (the Messiah)” (1 Cor. 11:1 AMPC) And he said of his writings: “Hold fast and follow the pattern of wholesome and sound teaching which you have heard from me, in [all] the faith and love which are [for us] in Christ Jesus. Guard and keep [with the greatest care] the precious and excellently adapted [Truth] which has been entrusted [to you, Timothy,] by the [help of the] Holy Spirit Who makes His home in us.” (2 Timothy 1:13-14 AMPC)
Clearly, a chosen destiny has eternal import. The level of fulfillment in fulfilling God’s plans goes way beyond the things of only temporal interest—the fleeting. [The wisdom of 2 Cor. 4:18 speaks: Since we consider and look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are visible are temporal (brief and fleeting), but the things that are invisible are deathless and everlasting. AMPC]
A HIGH TRUST LEVEL AND A YIELDED HEART BASED ON THE TRUTH OF GOD’S WORD
The Proverbs speak the true wisdom to young people who are finding their way. In fact, 8:12, 14 testify of custom plans for every child of God: “I, [the Person of Wisdom or the Spirit of Christ], have at My disposal living understanding to devise a plan for your life….You will find true success when you find Me [Wisdom], for I have insight into wise plans that are designed just for you.” (TPT) And wisdom comes from God’s Word—meditating on it day and night. [See Joshua 1:8 and Psalm 1.] A number of the directives from the Bible give the great guidance from the mind of God:
Trust in the Lord completely, and do not rely on your own opinions. With all your heart rely on Him to guide you, and He will lead you in every decision you make. Become intimate with Him in whatever you do, and He will lead you wherever you go. (Proverbs 3:5-6 TPT)
Before you do anything, put your trust totally in God and not in yourself. Then every plan you make will succeed.(Proverbs 16:3 TPT)
Do yourself a favor and love wisdom. Learn all you can; then watch your life flourish and prosper! (Prov. 19:8 TPT)
The New Testament also encourages having a mind filled with truth in Romans 12:2, “Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think (TPT) so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you].” (AMPC)
The Bible speaks of surrender or yielding the heart to the Lord, the One who lives inside the Christian as perfect Light and Love, as a great key to destiny.
Laying your life down in tender surrender before the Lord will bring life, prosperity, and honor as your reward. (Prov. 22:4 TPT)
The lovers of God who chase after righteousness [letting Christ be their source of righteousness or being right before the Father] will find all their dreams come true: an abundant life drenched with favor and a fountain that overflows with satisfaction. (Proverbs 21:21 TPT)
And the Psalms declare the wisdom of surrender to God also. Truly the One who knows our very thoughts before we think them knows the way of blessing for us:
“Lord, You know everything there is to know about me. You perceive every movement of my heart and soul, and you understand my every thought before it even enters my mind. You are so intimately aware of me, Lord. You read my heart like an open book and you know all the words I’m about to speak before I even start a sentence! You know every step I will take before my journey even begins. You’ve gone into my future to prepare the way, and in kindness you follow behind me to spare me from the harm of my past….You saw who you created me to be before I became me!” (Psalm 139:1-5, 16 TPT)
The Bible even speaks of a book that exists in heaven containing God’s scheduled destiny: “You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in your book!” (Psalm 139:16 TLB)
Our course has God’s full attention: “Every single moment You are thinking of me! How precious and wonderful to consider that You cherish me constantly in your every thought! O God, Your desires toward me are more than the grains of sand on every shore!” (Psalm 139:17-18 TPT)
We can know what David knew. David experienced God’s intimate guidance because he pursued knowing and being known of God. He wrote of the deep trust that resulted in Psalm 37:3-5:
Keep trusting in the Lord and do what is right in His eyes. Fix your heart on the promises of God, and you will dwell in the land, feasting on His faithfulness. (Psalm 37:3 TPT)
Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart. (Psalm 37:4 AMPC)
Give God the right to direct your life, and as you trust Him along the way, you’ll find He pulled it off perfectly! (Psalm 37:5 TPT)
BEING PLANTED IN THE LOCAL CHURCH, THE ONE GOD LEADS YOU TO
The Bible teaches us that we need fellowship and that we are to live in an interdependent way with others who also know the supernatural life of God inside them. Hebrews 10:25 says of believers: Not forsaking or neglecting to assemble together [as believers], as is the habit of some people, but admonishing (warning, urging, and encouraging) one another, and all the more faithfully as you see the day (of Jesus’ coming again) approaching. (AMPC)
We need each other. Ephesians 2:10 speaks of the corporate nature of our destiny:
For we (the Body of Christ) are His masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand in order that we would walk in them. (Eph. 2:10 RcV)
Note 1: The Greek word, poiema, means something that has been made, or something that has been written or composed as a poem. Not only a poetic writing may be considered a poem, but also any work of art that expresses the maker’s wisdom and design. We, the church, the masterpiece of God’s work, are a poem expressing God’s infinite wisdom and divine design. The heavens, the earth, and man, created by God, are not God’s masterpiece; but the church, the Body of Christ, the fullness of the One who fills all in all (Eph. 1:23), the corporate and universal new man (v. 15), is a masterpiece. We have been saved by grace to be God’s masterpiece that we may walk in all the good works prepared beforehand by God.
Note 2: We, the church, the masterpiece of God’s work, are an absolutely new item in the universe, a new invention of God. We were created by God in Christ through regeneration to be His new creation (2 Cor. 5:17)
Our destiny is certain good works that have impact for God in our various spheres of influence, but it’s also becoming like Jesus Christ, the Pattern Son for God’s family of believers. And for this we need the church. Each born again disciple is a vital part of the whole. Ephesians 4 records the true picture of the Body of Christ:
And He has appointed some with grace to be apostles, and some with grace to be prophets, and some with grace to be evangelists, and some with grace to be pastors, and some with grace to be teachers. And their calling is to nurture and prepare all the holy believers to do their own works of ministry, and as they do this they will enlarge and build up the body of Christ. These grace ministries will function until we all attain oneness into the faith, until we all experience the fullness of what it means to know the Son of God, (g) and finally we become one into a perfect man (h) with the full dimensions of spiritual maturity and fully developed into the abundance of Christ. (Eph. 4:11-13 TPT)
(g) The Greek literally means “until we have the full knowledge of the Son of God.”
(h) The Hebrew and Aramaic word for “perfect” is gamar, and the word implies that perfection cannot come to the body of Christ without the example and teaching of these five ministries—apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. To ignore these five ministry gifts of the ascended Christ for today is to [reject] the gifts God has given to the church.
Ephesians 4:11-18 from the Living Bible adds insight: Some of us have been given special ability as apostles; to others he has given the gift of being able to preach (prophesy) well; some have special ability in winning people to Christ, helping them to trust him as their Savior; still others have a gift for caring for God’s people as a shepherd does his sheep, leading and teaching them in the ways of God.12 Why is it that he gives us these special abilities to do certain things best? It is that God’s people will be equipped to do better work for him, building up the Church, the body of Christ, to a position of strength and maturity; 13 until finally we all believe alike about our salvation and about our Savior, God’s Son, and all become full-grown in the Lord—yes, to the point of being filled full with Christ.14 Then we will no longer be like children, forever changing our minds about what we believe because someone has told us something different or has cleverly lied to us and made the lie sound like the truth. 15-16 Instead, we will lovingly follow the truth at all times—speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly—and so become more and more in every way like Christ who is the Head of his body, the Church. Under his direction, the whole body is fitted together perfectly, and each part in its own special way helps the other parts, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.17-18 Let me say this, then, speaking for the Lord: Live no longer as the unsaved do, for they are blinded and confused. Their closed hearts are full of darkness; they are far away from the life of God because they have shut their minds against him, and they cannot understand his ways.
And the Old Testament includes the relevant truth of being knit in with the people of God for one’s good:
Planted in the house of the Lord, they shall flourish in the courts of our God. (Psalm 92:13 AMPC)
by Katherine Bell // Recommended reading: Romans 12 The Passion Translation
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Blessings in return—
bondslave freedom 