INTIMACY; A CALL TO GOD HIMSELF

Today is our very first teaching for the year 2024 and I’m so excitedddddd

I began sharing about this in bits since last year and between then and now I’ve heard this same charge shared from a lot of God’s servants that I revere.

I believe so strongly that this is a word from God and very timely, even for the season we are in

In fact, I’d not just say that it is timely

I will say it will be our mode of survival for this year

Let us pray

Our Father and our God

We say thank you for 2024

Thank you for how mindful you are of us and this word you’ve brought to us

As we sit to learn at your feet, let this word come to us with power

Let it cause a change in our lives

Let it well in us an appetite that cannot be satisfied 

In Jesus name 

Amen

My first question to us will be this:

What is intimacy?

PS. No dictionary meaning, in your own words and direct applications/examples.

So for every definition you share, I want a real-life example from you.

E.g. Intimacy is sharing my days with someone even in silence. Intimacy is me staying on call with Bukky from morning till night while we both go about our day

So basically, a personalized definition because we must move beyond head knowledge for this.

Let’s go!

Eniola: Intimacy is having a deep knowledge about someone or something.

Damipe: Intimacy is the place of vulnerability, the place where I want to share and know.

Olamide: Intimacy is being completely open, a personal knowing and relationship with another person, it is sweetest when reciprocated with the same energy.

Miracle: An example and definition of intimacy to me is the closeness and emotional connection I share with my mom...someone I always confide in.

Sumi: For me intimacy is spending or having quality time with someone I appreciate and love. Intimacy is me calling Joyce every time to tell how I feel when I'm happy or worried about something.

Jane: Intimacy is a cordial relationship with someone special, love, trust and more.

Joyce: Intimacy for me is being vulnerable with someone knowing the person is always ready to listen. For example, I always call Sumi and Lidvi to talk to them and they are always ready to listen no matter their mood.

Elizabeth: Intimacy is vulnerability. Being able to share every and anything.

Debola: Intimacy is closeness, e.g; striving to be close and build a relationship with someone so it seems like I know them like the back of my hand and vice versa.

 

Thank you so much, everyone.

I will share a short story

While I was in Macedonia, I used to have a friend.

We will call this friend X. Myself and X would get on Skype calls (that was the only way we could stay on video calls then, Zoom wasn’t out or we didn’t know about it)

This was like 2016/2017. We’d get on Skype, not because we had anything to say to each other o. We will just stay on the call.

Random conversations

I’m studying while X is baking, I’m praying, sometimes X joins or X is busy doing something else, I’m washing plates while X is cooking. Note that X was in another country.

I remember clearly that I had been on a Skype call with X for more than 24 hours

Slept and woke up, and at some point, X slept too while I did other things.

It was just us being, in each other’s company ("being" here is used as a noun)

X and I were far apart from each other. We had nothing to discuss most of the time, but we shared our lives together.

(Disclaimer: X and I were not in a romantic relationship. Just so you don’t wonder too much 😂)

I’m going somewhere with this and I need you guys to stay with me. 

What I shared with X was intimacy. 

Right there in unspoken words, in relaying my day to X. From the random “so I have to stand up from this bed now” or “can you imagine, I just remembered xyz” down to the really serious conversations. 

X was an intimate friend. In fact, for the first 2 years of being friends with X, we never saw each other. We didn’t get to see until 2018.

So my closeness to X wasn’t based on physical proximity but on constant communication and keeping in touch. If you annoyed me between those years, I am sure X knows your name because I’d have mentioned it.

As I continued in this friendship with X, I began to know even certain things about X.

I’d trust X with details about my life also and vice versa.

We can all conclude together with me that what I actually shared with X was intimacy.

We were not just talking, we were living and sharing our lives together.

I’m sharing this analogy because it kind of perfectly mirrors where I’m going to with this teaching.

Some of us over time have mistaken Intimacy with “prayer” or better still, our version of what prayer is, and I believe the Lord will have us correct this.

Intimacy is not just talking to God or praying to God.

It is living with God!

Doing life with God!

And this is the call God has put out;

A call to do life with God Himself

What some of us have been doing is routine; we ask God for our needs, we pray to Him, we worship, and then we go back to our lives.

But you see, God is calling us to something deeper; God is calling us to Himself!

In Sumi’s definition of intimacy, she mentioned she speaks with Joyce every time.

Good mood, bad mood

Sweet day, bad day

She speaks with Joyce. 

I believe this is both ways too.

That Joyce enjoys speaking with Sumi and sharing her own day also, that’s why that line of communication is still open and access granted.

God is calling us to share our lives with Him and the sweet part?

God wants to share His life with us 🥰

I’m sure you are wondering: 

“Does God have a life like we do?”

“What happens in His day-to-day?”

 

So I’m going to ask us 

Do you think God has a life? 

Day-to-day activities that He’d also like to gist you about?

Have you ever even thought about it from this angle?

Sumi: I've never, the imagination I have of God is Him sitting and watching over me, listening to me and talking back to me.

So when it comes to having a relationship with God, there are 2 different groups 

1. Those of us who cultivate a relationship with God for what He can do for us. When you see people in this category praying for 5 hours, it is because they are praying for strength, spiritual growth or asking God something.

2. ⁠The second category are those who seek God for who He is. Just enjoying God.

 

One of the words that the Lord laid to share with us:

So many of us are looking to grow spiritually this year, but He is not calling us to spiritual maturity actually, He is calling us to keep company with Him.

God is calling us to keep company with Him.

When I heard this, I was like wait, you don’t want us to grow in the spirit? 😭😭

But He said, “No”

I am calling all to keep company with Me, growth will come from here.

But don’t seek growth above all else 

Seek My company!

Live out your days before Me 

Live out your days with Me

God wants to speak with us as He did with Abraham, even more intimately (thanks to the sacrifice of Christ and now the Holy Spirit)

He wants to tell us things on His mind and He wants to listen to ours. He wants us to share our daily lives completely with Him even beyond prayer time.

And as we begin to practice doing life with Him, the companionship moves beyond church gatherings, prayer times to ordinary moments of life.

Joyce: What if I can’t get Him when he talks 😢?

On recognizing God’s voice, I will use a practical example;

Precious is my friend, we sleep together on the same bed, we’ve been sleeping side by side for years.

What this means is that when Precious is talking, I will know she is the one.

I just know her voice

How?

Because we talk every time

I also know what she can say and what she can’t say.

Another example I will give:

In my house, we drink sachet water. If I open a sachet of water and drink from it then drop it, you can call any of my siblings and ask who drank the water they will tell you it is me. If anybody drinks water and remains it. Just by looking at the mouth of the sachet water (the place it is cut open), we all know who drank the water and remained it

I always open pure water as if there is a saw that is not working properly on my mouth. 😂

I open it wide and halfway so I’m not cutting it off completely.

How do my family people find out this? They live with me, they’ve seen me do this many times.

What this means is that, 

Don’t try to figure it out all at once.

Just show up with God, with time, it will all come together.

Friendship is built!

So stay building

Also, believe that God can actually speak to you. You are built with ears that hear. I’m going to share a series on hearing God and developing this when I’m done with my teaching.

Back to our conversation on Intimacy

 

*INTIMACY CAN BE LEARNT*

Have you ever looked at someone and just covet their relationship with God?

The way they act like it’s just them and God in this world, as if they have special access and every other person is here to watch? 

Well, I put it to you that even you too can be them.

Actually, God wants this. 

God wants to have something special with you too as He has with them.

And the good news?

It can be learnt.

 

“And Solomon, my son, learn to know the God of your ancestors intimately. Worship and serve him with your whole heart and a willing mind. For the Lord sees every heart and knows every plan and thought. If you seek him, you will find him. But if you forsake him, he will reject you forever.

1 Chronicles 28:9 NLT

Learn to know the God of your ancestors intimately!

How would Solomon have achieved this?

By first looking at God’s relationship with His ancestors.

See, we have past questions with answers in it.

The Bible is such a wholesome book!

Start with the study of the word, progress in prayer, and then move to the questions, to the talks, the gists, etc.

We can't know God in a day.

The same way you didn’t become close friends with that friend in a day.

You did this by spending time with them.

So start with spending time with God

*START OFF INTENTIONALLY* 

I’m meeting with God at this time every day and show up!

Don’t miss it for anything, prioritize it like your life depends on it.

Go on dates with the Holy Spirit, random ice cream dates, take your notebook with you.

Use a nose mask please (so people don’t start wondering why you are talking to yourself) 

Go to the park, just you and God.

Let God know that you actually mean business and let me tell you, you will meet the shocker of your life.

What you will meet is a God that has desired this so much even more than you!

A God in waiting!

Nobody was born knowing God, people grow in the knowledge of God.

How?

In the study of the word

In prayer

And in constant communion with God

 

*LOVE IS THE MOTIVE AND DRIVING FORCE OF INTIMACY*

The third thing I will be speaking about is this;

While we may start with duty and obligation (because of survival), this cannot sustain us.

Love has to be our driving force, we can’t survive this walk with duty.

Do you know why?

Even God is not meeting with us from a place of duty and obligation. 

God is meeting with us out of love

Imagine that I was doing 2 days Skype call out of obligation. 

Lmao

I'd have been so tired and looking for a way to end the call.

In fact, knowing me, I’d have used scope to switch off my data so the network will go off in between the call 😭

We must do these things from a place of love!

I tell you, begin to pray for a desire of God in your heart;

The one thing I ask of the Lord— the thing I seek most— is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, delighting in the Lord’s perfections and meditating in his Temple.

Psalms 27:4 NLT

One thing I ask of the Lord, it is what I seek the most

When we look at the beginning of Psalms 27, we will see that David was at first speaking on adversaries and just look at how he switches.

Even in the midst of a raging war, it is just one thing I desire.

“Here’s the one thing I crave from Yahweh, the one thing I seek above all else: I want to live with him every moment in his house, beholding the marvelous beauty of Yahweh, filled with awe, delighting in his glory and grace. I want to contemplate in his temple.”

Psalms 27:4 TPT

I ask only one thing from the Lord. This is what I want most: Let me live in the Lord’s house all my life, enjoying the Lord’s beauty and spending time in his palace.

Psalms 27:4 ERV

I’m asking God for one thing, only one thing: To live with him in his house my whole life long. I’ll contemplate his beauty; I’ll study at his feet.

Psalms 27:4 MSG

Only one thing!

A lot of us know this scripture. I've known it forever but one day, the Lord opened it up to me in a different light.

This was David's prayer shortly before he was anointed King and you could see something in it.

David wasn't praying this out of obligation, there was a hunger for a conversation, friendship with God borne out of love and intimacy. It wasn't a means to an end.

It wasn't so he could defeat nations or do ministry better.

It wasn't asking so God could give him the answers he had been waiting for.

David had just one thing he wanted, it wasn’t wisdom or strength or that he will do exploits for God.

It was to just BE before God

David was in love with God!

A gone man.

A completely gone man!

See, we must get to this point in this walk. The point where the thought of God gives us butterflies in our tummy. 

Not when your alarm rings that it is prayer time but you are gisting with Tobi and you just quickly want to off the alarm and continue like it is disturbing you.

Imagine a married woman completely smitten by her husband, I don’t want to know the kind of gist you people are gisting, if they get a call from their partner, their face literally lights up.

If God will now help you, the partner will come around physically. It will almost look like you don’t exist the minute they are in each other’s company.

This is how we should view God’s company, from a place of love.

Again, ask the Lord ask Him like David did and actually mean it.

Prayer is good

Prayer is warfare, yes

But it is also way more than that 

We must unlock the intimacy part of prayer 

Especially those of us called or eager to do for God

I say this a lot 

God has called us to be laborers in His vineyard, true, and we have plenty work sef. But you see, Jesus didn’t die for us to be just laborers, He died for us to become His bride.

Bride - Weddings

The mark of this is LOVE

So come to God, as His bride

Come with love holding you

Let His love teach you the rhythm of His presence and create stairs for you to climb into His heart.

Love so deep we want to leave every other thing and run to our quiet place, just elope with God.

Gazing upon the beauty of His love and just being in it.

As the bride of Christ, your marriage to Him is kept alive in love.

Stay in love with God

Elope with Him.

Write your feelings to God often too

Write your own psalms 

Again, not out of obligation

Out of love 

And very importantly, think about God a lot.

How many of us pause during the day to just think about God?

Not what we are praying about o, just about God.

How beautiful He is

What He looks like?

Cultivate this

 

*INTIMACY OPENS US UP TO KNOWLEDGE*

One thing about spending time with anyone is that you will pick new things about them.You will pick their behaviors and lingua too.

If you talk with someone a lot and take time to actually listen to them,  you will begin to know things about them that no one knows.

They will also be sharing a lot of things with you in confidence, this is same with our relationship with God.

Some of us think we have to know first to attain intimacy, but you see, these things grow side by side.

David knew a lot of things just by intimacy.

David, though not a prophet made a lot of statements about Christ that could only have come from the place of intimacy.

The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”

Psalms 110:1 NKJV

The Lord (God) said to my lord (Christ)

How did David know?

Intimacy!

He saw what was yet to happen

And even as intimacy opens you up to certain knowledge, that knowledge then further deepens your intimacy with God.

What wonder!

Just come as you are 

Allow God show you Him

You don’t have to go to theology school or be a pastor.

Start where you are with God.

 

*INTIMACY PRECEDES INSIGHT*

”I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.“

Psalms 32:8 NKJV

It is from the place of intimacy that God begins to direct our paths and show us what to do.

You can never miss it.

David never lost a battle in his life.

He was an intimate friend of God, so He’d ask God for every battle.

He discussed everything with God.

Intimacy is key to succeeding in life actually.

 

INTIMACY; THE INVITATION

I have actually enjoyed this teaching so much and I hope you have too

Here is God extending an invitation to each and every one of us.

If you are wondering,

How do I go about this after all I’ve heard

Well, I have an invite card for you.

Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.

James 4:8 NLT

Come close to God!

This is your invite

NKJV says Draw near

MSG says Say a quiet Yes to God

Move your heart closer and closer to God!

And He will come even closer to you 😭😭😭

Again, God wants intimacy with you more than you can imagine

Imagine being in love with someone who is so crazy about you too

Just imagine 

That’s what we have with God;

Love that is already waiting, that will move all to be with us.

God desires to be with you 

God desires to keep company with you more than you can ever imagine 

So he has issued an invitation for you: Draw near!

Mark 1:3 TPT says to clear a straight path for God inside of your heart

 

See

Christ came for our very heartbeat 

Give Him your heart

Let Him be your desire.

 

Practice being with Him even as you go about your day

In the toilet 

As you cook

On your way to work

Practice life with God.

 

ASSIGNMENT

1. Intentionally set up time to meet with God. Look at your schedule and do it tonight. You can adjust every week if need be. But draw it up tonight 

2. ⁠Pick a day in the coming week and go on a date with God. Everyone will share pictures and experiences after (I want to see Jesus in your selfies 😂😂😂. Joke please)

3. ⁠As you start tomorrow, say this prayer:

Lord, what do you want us to talk about today as I go about my work? I want us to talk even while I’m at work

Document when done and share the update.