What God wants is our heart and our desire to be in relationship and right standing with him. There are many spiritual disciplines such as fasting, going to church and loving our neighbours which are good for us to practice and are biblical prescriptions. However, God is ultimately interested in the contents of our heart and our motives and desires. “For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart”” (1 Samuel 16:7).
We see God having relationships with bible prophets who he shared his mind and his thoughts with and with whom he had constant fellowship. God showed Moses ahead of time what he planned to do in Egypt and allowed Moses to see how Pharaoh would respond. (Exodus 3)
Abraham could hear God speak and heeded his instructions to leave his country and to go where God was leading him. (Genesis 12:1) God spoke to prophets through dreams, visions and angels were sent to deliver messages to his people. At other times, it was clear that prophets such as Samuel and Moses heard God audibly. (Numbers 12:8; 1 Samuel 3)
David was King and referred to in Acts as a prophet who had an intimate relationship with God and prophesied of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. (Acts 2:29-31) David’s Psalms were mainly dedicated to intimate worship and he spoke of his soul longing after God as the deer panting for water. (Psalm 42:1) Other times David described a relationship where he and God were inseparable. “Where shall I go from thy Spirit? Or where shall I flee from thy presence?” (Psalms 139:7)
You don’t need to be a prophet to cultivate intimacy with God. If you spend time in his presence in prayer and worship with a desire to know him more, then you can grow closer to God. He wants to reveal himself to us and to help us to understand who he is. There is so much that we can learn about God when we constantly seek his face and when we stay in his presence.
A.P.-Y.
Devotional Inspirations 