Drawing Near to God

Drawing Near To God James 4:8

Drawing near to God is regulated by two conditions;

1.) You have to be drawn by God. (John 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. Joh 6:37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. ) But then Christ placed that responsibility upon himself, (John 12:32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. )

2.) You have to reciprocate with a positive response. We can find this all throughout history. We often call it conviction. Wesley called it awakening.

Drawing near to God is an Old Testament term which means, “To appropriate God according to the means by which he has revealed himself. “ To draw according to Webster, means to pull along, to cause to move forward by force applied in advance of the thing moved, as y a rope or chaing. It differs from drag only in this, drag is more generally applied to things moved along the ground by sliding, or moved with greater toil or difficulty. Strong’s tells us the phrase is one word, Nagash (naw-gash’) it is used 187 times in the OT. It means religiously to worship, causatively to present, cause to come higher, present.” It is used for several occasions in scripture –

· Intercession – Gen 18:23 And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?

· Reconciliation – Gen 33:3 And he[Jacob] passed over before them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.

· Supplication – Gen. 44:18 Then Judah came near unto him, and said, Oh my lord, let thy servant, I pray thee, speak a word in my lord's ears, and let not thine anger burn against thy servant: for thou art even as Pharaoh. (Judah to Joseph)

· Acceptation – Gen 45:4 And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.

· Proclamation – Josh 3:9 And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, Come hither, and hear the words of the LORD your God. (Proclaiming God’s Battle Plan at Jordan, Soles of their feet touched the water it parted)

· Offering – Mal 3:3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.

There is a pattern in the scriptures especially in the OT how “Drawing Near to God” usually works. I like to put it like this

1. Revelation – God reveals himself Moses burning bush, Abraham we are not sure could be when called out of UR of Chaldees.

2. Declaration – Who God was – (usually revealed by names – I Am that I Am, Elohim, El-Shadi, Jehovah, Jehovah-Nissi, Jehovah-Jirah, Adoni, etc)

3. Expectation – What God wanted –

4. Resignation – Surrender to God’s will

5. Submission – Obedience to the reaveld will of God

6. Commendation – Blessing for obedience (God Rewards Faith)