Intimacy=Power
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Spiritual authority is rooted in identity, expanded in intimacy, activated by faith......
Rob Reimer
Question:
Do we want more of God’s presence or less of the enemy’s attack and torment?
-We have to persist in pursuit.
-We have to press in and press through.
-Many people don’t develop authority because they don’t press in. They quit.
-The obstacle is an opportunity to develop intimacy.
Strong Marriage example:
Many marriages do not have intimacy in them
We are in a type of marriage with Christ...
22 For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. 24 As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything. 25 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her 26 to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. 27 He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. 28 In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. 29 No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. 30 And we are members of his body. 31 As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” 32 This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. 33 So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
What is intimacy between two people?
Intimacy in a relationship is a feeling of being close, and emotionally connected and supported. It means being able to share a whole range of thoughts, feelings and experiences that we have as human beings.
The highest level of intimacy, requires the greatest amount of trust in our relationship.
It is only when we feel truly safe with somebody, that we become willing to share the deepest core of who we are.
This goes back to what we have as our identity in Christ
Do you feel you can talk to God about every emotion, fear, sin, dissappointment…not just the good stuff
or
Do you feel that in speaking about it you somehow are diminished in God’s eyes
A strong and healthy relationship is built on the three C's:
Communication (Prayer),
Compromise (Us bending to God’s will)
and Commitment(Continuing when its hard)
There are different kinds of marriages:
Couples that are close
Couples that are distant
Couples that are all business
Where are you in your relationship with Christ?
Intimacy Test:
Looking into someone’s eyes.
5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.
How Do We Remain In Christ (Have intimacy with God)?
10 When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.
List of commandments at the back.
State:
We need to engage in spiritual practices that keep us in God’s presence which gives us our authority
Retreat:
Jesus spend consitent time alone with his Father to pray.
After the disciples came back from their mission trip Jesus did something interesting.
30 The apostles returned to Jesus from their ministry tour and told him all they had done and taught. 31 Then Jesus said, “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.” He said this because there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn’t even have time to eat. 32 So they left by boat for a quiet place, where they could be alone.
My Trip Around Gaspe
32 That evening after sunset, many sick and demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus. 33 The whole town gathered at the door to watch. 34 So Jesus healed many people who were sick with various diseases, and he cast out many demons. But because the demons knew who he was, he did not allow them to speak. 35 Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray. 36 Later Simon and the others went out to find him. 37 When they found him, they said, “Everyone is looking for you.”
State: He chose intimacy/prayer with his Father over ministry opportunities
State:
Creating an intimate time with your spouse would not be going to Costco
You would look for something different, peaceful where you would be able to be alone together.
Quote from Soul Care
If we are going to expand our authority, we are going to have to spend some significant block times alone with God that go beyond simply our routine devotional life
Fasting:
16 “And when you fast, don’t make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting. I tell you the truth, that is the only reward they will ever get.
Why do we fast?
Super power?
Makes us feel like we are fullfilling our religious duty
Good Reason to fast:
It develops the ability to deny the flesh/self
If the voice of self desires and wants is denied the voice of the Spirit is increased, given room
Embrace Testing:
Test #1 – A difficult new task
You’ll face this test many times in your life and in your ministry. God will tell you to do something that seems impossible.
It’s like when God called Noah to build the ark when no one on earth had even seen rain.
God may not ask you to build an ark, but he will ask you to reach for an impossible dream or complete an impossible task.
Faith is facing the future without knowing “what” that task may be.
Test #2 – A major change
I call this the “where” test. It’s a test that happens when a major change comes into your life and you don’t know where God is taking you.
Me leaving the radio station.
God tells us to go—and changes everything in our lives in the process—but he doesn’t tell us where.
Faith is following God’s leading without knowing “where.”
Test #3 – A delayed promise
This time you’re asking, “When?” God, when will you answer my prayer? When will our church grow? When will my marriage change?
The Bible tells us Abraham had a similar experience: “Even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise.
Abraham based his life on God’s promises—not explanations. And his faith grew because of it.
Faith is waiting for God’s timing without knowing “when.”
Test #4 – An unsolvable problem
This is the “how” test. You have a problem and do not know how to solve it. Remember when God told Abraham that he would be a father? At 99 years old, it was physically impossible for him and his wife to have a child.
But God did the impossible—through the faith of Sarah (and Abraham). The Bible tells us, “It was by faith that even Sarah was able to have a child, though she was barren and was too old. She believed that God would keep his promise” (Hebrews 11:11 NLT).
Faith is expecting a miracle without knowing “how.”
Test #5 – A senseless loss
Sometimes we face a loss in life that makes no sense. Often, we look for an explanation even when there is none. You can spend your whole life looking to explain the unexplainable.
Our response to this senseless loss is usually, “Why?”
Why did the person I love die?
Why did my dream end?
Why did I lose my job?
Faith is trusting God’s purpose without knowing “why.”
Test #6 – A prolonged pain
This is the “how long” test. It’s about the chronic pain in your life. Whether it’s relational, spiritual, or physical, it is suffering that won’t go away. You simply must live with it.
This test helps you develop faithful persistence.
Faith is persisting through pain without knowing “how long.”
State:
As we allow and add these spiritual disciplines into our life our intimacy/trust and faith in God will grow....increasing our spiritual authority
Spiritual authority is rooted in identity, expanded in intimacy, activated by faith......
Rob Reimer