Understanding the fundamentals of Intimacy with God (Part 1)

(Choral singing) [Voiceover 1] Church fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God greatly desires a godly home. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness on Family Tent Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 1] Thank you for all he is and for all that he is to us. Our God indeed is faithful. We are starting this evening, our brethren joining us on Telegram and on Mixlr. We had a little technical challenge and so we have started rather really late. But whichever way it's going to go today, I trust the Lord it will still be a time in his presence. So brethren who are here physically, I believe they understand what is going on. But brethren online, we're just making you to know that we're having some technical challenges. But we have been able to overcome those technical challenges and so we are here with you right now. Let's take this song together. "Be magnified, O Lord." (Sings) Be magnified, O Lord. You are highly exalted. And there is nothing you can't do. O Lord, our eyes are on you. Be magnified, O Lord. Be magnified. Our God, as we come into your presence this evening, Lord we pray for we who are here physically, our brethren joining us on Telegram and on Mixlr. Lord our God, we pray as we move on again this year, we trust in you that you will begin with us. You will go ahead of us. You will be in our midst continually as you have always done. Lord our God, our eyes are on you this particular evening. Lord speak to us as we move on from where we left the matter. Lord we pray, Baba meet with us. Meet us where we need you most. Lord speak into our situation. Give us light and direction in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank you eternal Father. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Yeah, last week we opened the year 2024 with what looks like a prophetic direction for the year 2024. And we looked at "God who teaches us to profit." God who teaches us to profit. And we saw that it is very, very important for every child of God to know that if they must profit, all their profit is in God. The design of God for man ever from the beginning of creation was for man to profit. And God teaches man how to profit. We saw how God teaches man how to profit. We saw that there is the open will of God that we ought to follow. And then there is the revealed will of God that comes by intimacy with God. And the more we get into that intimacy with God, we are able to see how God teaches us to profit. And we used the household of Abraham as a perfect example of that. We saw how God told Abraham, "Go to a land that I will show you." And then getting to the land, Abraham, there was famine in the land, he ran down to Egypt. In Egypt he encountered problem. God brought him back again to the land that God has shown him. In the days of Isaac, the same famine came up again. And Isaac was to leave the land. But we saw how God taught him to profit, brought him back again. And then Jacob came to the scene. And God told Jacob, "You go down to Egypt." And we saw that, be careful about the year. Experience may be a serious distraction and a destruction. Be careful to know what God is saying and to work with God. Be careful to know what God is saying. If Jacob had followed experience that, "God told my father this, God told my grandfather this, then let me go their way," it would have been a very, very serious error for Jacob. But we saw that in everything that God did with Jacob, with Isaac, with Abraham, what was the concern of God? How they will walk and how they will profit. And that was the fundamental thing we're looking at: "God who teaches us to profit." Now, when we were concluding last week, I noted that, look, it comes very, very clear that if any man must profit with God, then he must deliberately become intimate with God. If any man must profit—because we're looking at this year, we're saying that "God who teaches us to profit." And we're going to make profit. We're not going to make losses. We have prayed that into our lives. We trust God that that is what it's going to be. That we are going to profit this year. There will be no loss. There will be no loss. That's our desire, that's our trust. And we saw something very clear in God teaching us to profit, that we must share intimacy with God. Now look at that. I want to open to something in Psalm 25. Let's look at that scripture. Psalm 25. Something very, very fundamental about this matter of profiting with God. I said a man who must profit with God must be intimate with God. A man who must profit with God must do everything to share intimacy with God. Look at what the scripture says in Psalm 25. Psalm 25, I will read verses 12 and 13, and then I will go down further again to read another verse in that same chapter. Look at verse 12. It says—I'm reading from the NIV translation—"Who then is the man that fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way chosen for him." There is a way that is chosen for you. Then he said, "He himself shall dwell in prosperity, and his descendant shall be established upon the earth." Now when it came to verse 14, look at what it says. What did it say? It says, "The secret of the Lord is with those who fear him, and he will show them his covenant." Now, it's trying to make us to see something. We saw that one thing about God teaching us to profit is that he must be able to speak to us. He must be able to direct us. And we said ourselves last week, build your Beer-Sheba. Beer-Sheba was the place where God told Jacob, "Don't be afraid to go. This way you will profit. Don't be afraid you will not make any loss." And there will be so many projects before us this year, so many decisions that we need to take. Some of them we're wondering, "Should I take it? Should I not take it? Should I take this path? Should I not take it? Should I take the job? Should I not? Should I involve in this? Should I not? Should I travel or not travel? Should I do or not do?" We need Beer-Sheba. That's the place of intimacy, that place of God's speaking. But we're seeing something here. It says, "Who then is the man who fears the Lord? God will show him the path that he should choose." What am I trying to say? That path of your profit, that path, that thing that God has shown you, that profit that God wants to show you, how God will join you in that path, how God will show you that path, how God will bring you to that path, that place that God has designed for your profit, how God will establish you in that profit, how God will move you from glory to glory and profit and profit in that that God has shown you, [background music begins] that is Beer-Sheba. That is intimacy. That's what God has designed for your life. Who? Whoever? Who? Who? He says "Who then is the man that fears the Lord? God will show him the path that he should choose." And that is what I want to do this evening, actually. I want to start something that may take us I don't know how many Mondays. But what I've decided I want to do, because I mentioned last week on how you can start intimacy with God basically. It is not complicated. It is not complicated. Once you are born again, you are deliberately obeying scriptures, you are deliberately studying scripture, meditating on it, you are deliberately giving attention to it. And as you continue to do that consistently, what happens? Your intimacy with God begins to grow. But what I want to do however, as we start to look at this intimacy with God, because that is the basis of our profit, my concern is: what are the fundamentals of intimacy with God? And that is the journey we want to take this evening. We will just start it basically. We'll now begin to build on the pillars. What are the fundamentals? If anybody must profit with God, he must be intimate with God. This year is a year you must make up your mind. It's a year of deeper walk with God. It's a year of deeper, higher and closer walk. Because that is the way of profit. Deeper, higher and closer walk with God. And my concern as we start this January, maybe it will take up between January, February and March, I don't know. But I wanted to address the fundamentals of intimacy with God. So that you begin to see how this thing connect. I tell people intimacy with God is not complicated. And many times intimacy with God is not necessarily looking... sometimes people think that intimacy with God have to do with I don't know how to say it now, or how better I want to express myself. It has to do with some spiritualism thing, some something that has to do with seeing angels, talking with demons, having connection with some things in the... no, it's not necessary. I want to show you scriptures in 1 John. I will read two scriptures and then you will see what I'm trying to say, that intimacy, the fundamental of intimacy with God is not a complicated thing. Look at 1 John. 1 John chapter 4. I will read two scriptures, two verses in 1 John chapter 4. Fundamentals of intimacy with God. 1 John chapter 4. Let's look at 1 John chapter 4. Let's look at the verse 12 of 1 John 4 and then we'll look at around the verse 19. Look at what the Bible says. "No one has done what? No one has seen God at any time." Who has seen God among us? Is there anybody here among us, brethren online if you have seen God at any time, please send your message to us either on Telegram or WhatsApp or Mixlr. Tell us that you have seen God. If you have seen God before. Anybody here who has seen God? Oh, nobody has seen God. But the brethren are praying hard that they should see God. Is that not true? "No man has seen God at any time." Look at what follows. "If we love one another, God abides in us and his love has been perfected in us." So how do you know a man has seen God? Just from this scripture. How do you know a man has seen God before? How do you know a man who has seen God? The man who has love. It means that if you want to know who has seen God, nobody has seen God anywhere at any time. But you can know who God is living inside. You can know who met God at a point. You can know who is sharing intimacy with God. You can know the person. How will you know the person? He says if we love one another then God is inside us. I'm talking about the fundamentals of intimacy with God. Now look at another thing again. Fundamentals of intimacy with God. See, if you want to profit this year, there are certain fundamental things we need to... for some of us it will be looking like entirely something new. For some of us it's going to be strong warning of reminders. For some of us it's going to be clear instructions of returning. For some of us it's going to be God making you to take him serious. Make up your mind it's time for a higher, deeper and closer walk. And the basis of that is going to be in God. He's fundamental things. Look at the next thing I want you to see again. 1 John chapter 4. He says, "If someone says 'I love God' and hates his brother, he is what? He's a what? He's a liar. For he who does not love brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?" Now, listen. Nobody has seen God. But if we love one another, God abides. Look at the same thing again in verse 20. "If someone says 'I love God' and I'm walking with this God and I'm sharing intimacy with this God and I'm knowing this God, I share intimacy with him, and that person does not love brother, then what the Bible call him? What the Bible call the person? The person is a liar." I'm talk about intimacy with God. When we talk about intimacy, deeper and higher and closer intimacy with God. I mean when a man is set to walk with God. When a man is set to walk with God. That path that God has chosen. How God will join him in that path. How God will show him that path. How God will bring him into that path. That place that God has designed for your life. How God will establish you in that profit. How God will move you from glory to glory. How God will make you to become what he wants you to become. [background music intensifies] That Beer-Sheba that God has designed for your life. That thing that God has shown you. That profit that God wants to show you. How God will join you in that path. How God will show you that path. How God will bring you to that path. That path of your profit. That path. That thing that God has shown you. That profit that God wants to show you. How God will join you in that path. How God will show you that path. How God will bring you to that path. It's not complicated. It's not complicated. Also God has shown me something. That thing about intimacy with God. That intimacy with God. That intimacy with God. As powerful as God is, as great as God is, that also he has designed his work, that also he has shown the path, he wants you to see. There must be a connection between you and God. Everything about the Lord Jesus. Everything about the Lord Jesus before he was born. Everything about the Lord Jesus. Everything about Jesus. That also he has designed that he must invest his life into some people's life. As Lord as he is Lord, he would have ended in that Lord. Am I making sense to you? Everything, the ultimate plan of salvation would have gone nowhere. Immediately he died, that was the end. The ultimate of the Lord Jesus Christ, the ultimate plan that God had for him, the joy that God set before him, everything that he was looking forward into, please, what was this centered into? What was it about? Him that he must invest himself into. He invested himself... they were some were tax collectors, he gathered them. "Hey you come, come. I know you, I know you very well." And then he began to invest himself. "This is how to do it. Come, this is how... this is why we will bring this one back. Why are you so foolish? It should not be like this. It should not be like this. You, if he has prayed that... these people, they are not serious. I can you, you will deny me. You, I'm trying to... you will do this, everything about God would have perished with him." The ultimate of Jesus was the connection between what? The almightiness of God and the ordinariness of men. Is that not true, brethren? It was the connection. And I'm telling you the ultimate about your own life, if you have think it's just about you just playing with one God inside the sky, you will die inside that sky. If you are thinking that is how it is, it is not so, brethren. It is not so. The ultimate plan of God for your life, that which you become, the continuity of that, the establishment of that is a connection between the almightiness of God and your own interconnection with what? With fellow human beings. So if you are thinking of profit, if you are thinking of not making loss, if you are thinking about all of these, then you must have a clear understanding that shared intimacy with God has some fundamentals in its manifestation. There are certain things that make you know whether you are becoming more and more intimate with God. Look at this very simple thing. Sometimes when God begin to call your attention to certain things, they are very important. And that's one thing I've noticed about the Lord Jesus. Very simple things, but they are the fundamental things of life. Look at Matthew. Look at Matthew chapter 1. It looks like just a mere genealogy, but honestly it is not. Look at Matthew chapter 1. The book want to begin the story of Jesus Christ, isn't it? It said, "The book of genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham." This book is genealogy of who? Of Jesus Christ. The son of who? Of Jesus Christ, the son of David. Then the son of who? The son of Abraham. They now started the story. They now want to tell you how all these things connected. Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob. That was where I left you with last week, you remember? It was Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that was the matter last week about God who teaches you to profit. I hope you still remember. God began to raise some men and he wanted these men to profit. We saw that it was when they alternated God that they made losses. Is that not true? When they stood with God, there was no loss. When he ran from where God said, "I..." there was losses. But when he come back again in that place again, there will be profit. When he alternated again to Ishmael, there was confusion again in their marriage. When he came back again, "Walk before me and be perfect," there was profit. These men, God wanted them to profit. Every call of God upon your life is to make you profit. That is the truth. When God calls you into a thing, that has been the design of God. He says as many as he call he justify, those he justify he glorify. That is God. God don't bring to shame. God don't take a man to disgrace a man. No, that's not the way of God. The man may pass through so many things, and that's why he said, "Mark the perfect, behold the upright. The end of that man is peace." When the devil has a plan for you, it is how to finish you. It's how to disgrace you. It's how to kill you. It is how to bring you to nothing and reduce you. It's how to take away joy, peace and rest from you. But when God begin to have a plan for your life, when God begin to call you into his plan, it is how to bless you. It is how to increase you. It is how to make you into plenty. I'm showing you something in this place. Oh, a scripture just flashed into my mind. Isaiah chapter 51. Isaiah 51. Let me just show you something Isaiah chapter 51. Look at what God was discussing with these people and he was making them see a very, very fundamental thing. "Listen to me! Listen! You who follow after righteousness. Listen to God! Listen, you who seek the Lord! Look to the rock from which you were hewn. To the hole of the pit from which you were dug." What did the next thing that you see there? When they should look to that place. He said, "Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you. For I called him alone and I did what? I blessed him and increased him." Now, the reason why God was saying they should look back is because why? God will do what? God will comfort Zion. God will comfort Zion. Why? Why is he saying they should look back? He wants to make them see that I don't bring people into anything to make them to make losses. No! No! He says, "Look, you who follow righteousness, if you are following righteousness and you are seeking God, God is saying look, look back! Go and look at when I call people. When Abraham, when I called him, how many was he? He was just one person. What did I do to him? I increased him, I blessed him." If you are following righteousness, if you are seeking God, God is saying look, look back! Go and look at what I do with men that walks with me. Look back! But in making our concern in the matter of this profit, but I'm showing you that there is a connection between this profiting, this almightiness of God and the ordinariness of human. That's what I want to show you. Check out all of these things. Abraham and Sarah. Isaac came into the picture. Jacob came into the picture. Joseph who came into the picture. And then Jacob was to decide whether to go to Egypt or not to go to Egypt. That Egypt was the place of his profit. Now look at something. Joseph was betrayed by his brothers. Hated, betrayed and sold. When he got to Egypt, he began to rise in Egypt in the house of Potiphar. Rising and rising and rising. The plan was that eventually he will be feeding everybody in the land of Egypt. Is that not true? That feeding everybody in the land of Egypt, was it about Egypt or about Jacob? It was because Jacob will be brought down to Egypt. Now look at it. Joseph, the ultimate plan of God for Joseph was that Joseph, through Joseph, Jacob, Israel will come to Egypt. Why should Israel come to Egypt? Because out of Egypt, God is going to call out Jesus. You know Jesus went to Egypt. Now look at the connection about seeing God and man. The ordinary thing that should happen when Joseph saw his brothers and he's rising in Egypt was to kill them. Is that not the ordinary thing? If he does not kill them because he is a believer, put them in prison. When he lock all of them in prison out of what they did, what happens to the ultimate plan of God for Joseph? Take it the other way. He did not kill them, but he began to live in malice towards them because of what they did. Maybe he spared them because of his father. They have brought his father, he has seen his father and he has buried his father. Next thing, go back to the original plan: wipe them off. Am I correct, brethren? Those six, he should kill them. Father's children, wipe them up for the wickedness that they did. Joseph have done that, not walking in love. What happened to the ultimate plan of God for Joseph? It has been destroyed. I'm telling you, that profit God designed for your life, as you share intimacy with God, what you will begin to see is how you are to conduct yourself towards people. Mark my words. What you will begin to see is how the almightiness of God is connected with the ordinary divinity of men. Almightiness, those mighty things that God wants to do in your life. Nobody has seen God. But you know men who are seeing God by how they connect with other men. So the fundamental for intimacy with God... I want to connect back to last week. Now check out all of these things. Abraham and Sarah. Abraham was a worshipper of idol. Almighty God was busy planning that "I will do this, and so I will do this." How God will give that child, the basis of connection with human beings. All those people was busy planning on an idol. "You follow me, bless you." How it connects with man! You will not enter into the ultimate of God. You will not enter into it. Everything that God is establishing in your life, that ultimate thing that God is doing, that kingdom he want to establish, that path he will be with your brother, this person will be your friend, this one will go like this, this one you will relate to this one this way. Are you understanding what I'm trying to say? So if you are sharing intimacy and you are not seeing human beings, you just see your seeing God. You are not seeing God! That intimacy with God you see people. You will see how God, how he connect. How somebody is making mistake and you need to help that person out. How somebody is poor you need to make that person. How somebody is this you need to invest your life. You will begin to see how it connect. I'm just starting with God himself as they coming to us. And three basic things in the course of this discussion. But I just I want to open today to make us first see it in God. So you don't think that what we are talking about... I want you to see it in God. That everything about Jesus would have ended with Jesus if he did not raise twelve men. If he didn't look for men and call them and begin to share himself with them, everything about him. So I don't know how anything about you will progress and not die with you if you don't relate to men. If it is like that for Jesus, then you should to understand that you you are going nowhere. You are going nowhere. That enemy of your soul that is not make you to enter into what God wants you to enter, that will not make you make your profit is first your attitude to people, your relationship to men, your behavior, what you do to other men. It's connected. Men that God is taking somewhere, the ultimate plan of God is connected to men. And men who enter into that ultimate plan connect themselves with men. That's what I'm trying to make you see. "No man has seen God at any time. But if we love one another, then God abides in us." There is a God working. God is working his plan ultimately through you. God is abiding in you. He's working his ultimate plan, and you will enter into it. Talk to God this evening. Talk to the Lord. God help me to rethink my ways. Your almightiness is connected with ordinariness of men. Your almightiness is connected with the ordinariness of men. Your almightiness is connected with the ordinariness of men. Your almightiness, O God, is connected with the ordinary, the ordinariness, the ordinariness, ordinary man, that ordinary sister, that thing called ordinary. Oh, your almightiness of God is connected with it. Your almighty plan of God is connected with it. That mighty thing in your life is connected with it. Not with God! So the fundamental for intimacy with God... I want to connect back to last week. Let's share the grace together in fellowship, brethren. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us now and forevermore. Amen. [Voiceover 1] This message is coming to you from Family Tent Ministry, a Christian ministry involved in reaching the lives of singles and married through preaching and teaching of God's word, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development and mission aid. Our regular activities are: Discipleship class, every Monday, 5:00 PM; Adeniyi center of singles club, every first Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; Marriage Forum, second Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; family life seminars, regular school outreaches and everyday counseling. For further counseling, you can reach us at our location, Life Camp by the first bridge, Ilere community, opposite Verajoy filling station along Igbatoro road, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. You can also reach us through our social media handles: familytent@yahoo.co.uk, familytentministry01@gmail.com, www.familytentministry.org. Our phone numbers are 08033861136, 07033613848. God bless you all.