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? ðŸ˜ðŸ˜
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 ðŸ˜
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 ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜
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.
