Welcome back to Ignite, I want to talk to you about having intimacy with God. Did you know you could have intimacy with God? Let me give you something really corny. But it had a profound effect on my life. It really did. When I was age 10, I was in the backyard of my house playing with ants. We had been infested with ants. And I got very intrigued with ants, so one day I went out and I just started watching them and how they carry these gigantic things that are much larger than themselves. And they’re all so busy and they all know what they’re doing. And I wondered, as a 10-year-old what would it be like to be an ant. What is their worldview? I didn’t use those terms. Of course. What, what is it that possessed me to be about their business and be so busy that they have a plan and everything? How could they? The only way hit me the only way I could understand the mindset of an ant would be to be an ant. Okay, silly thought.
Let me put it in a whole different perspective for you. Think of the difference, the difference between us and an ant, okay, which is great. It’s huge. Let’s think about God for a moment. You ever look at a satellite view of Earth? Of course you have, ever seen any people? Nope. Don’t see the people. That’s just from a satellite view. Or the astronauts circling the Earth. You can’t see a person, hardly see a city, right? Now think about the speed of light. Did you know the speed of light is astounding? We learned this when we were kids. The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second. What? The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second. Have you been following this latest telescope we have in space now the James Webb Telescope? Have you’ve been following this? The Hubble was huge. This is way beyond that, the James Webb satellite now looks… get this 13.6 billion light years away. 13.6 billion light years away and the speed of light is 186,000 miles per second. That’s a long ways away. And that’s just what we see, right? That’s not the unseen that’s just only what man can see in our own humaneness. Do you get my point? The difference between God and man is a whole lot bigger than between me as a 10-year-old and those ants in the dirt in the backyard that day, but get this: He made us in His own image. He loves us. He loves us. And He wants us to spend eternity with Him and He wants us to reign with him or the angels. Wow. Okay, how could we? How can we possibly calculate that? Who could know the mind of God? It’s incredible. Yet we tell him, blow him off and just you know, I don’t have time for you. Seriously?
The incredible thing to all this is that we can actually have intimacy with God. You can have intimacy with God. I have it all the time. I talk to you, I interview on our website igniteamerica.com You go on there. We interview all types of people that are sharing their faith all over the place that they’re decidedly different from me. You don’t have to look like Barry Meguiar. I can reach some people, you can reach some people. I can’t reach people you reach, you may have never reached the people I reach. Together we can reach them, okay. Intimacy with God, knowing God, yeah. You know, for years I told God I loved Him. Because I knew I should tell Him I love Him. I love you God. I didn’t really love Him. I did. But I didn’t, you know what I mean? It it wasn’t to the core. Hey I love you bro and there are a lot of levels of love and then there’s this agape love. He says, when you love Me with your whole heart to those who love me to those who live for my purpose, when you really love him, you live for His purpose, you tell people about Him. It’s first love. When God is your first love, you’ll do the first work. You’ll tell people about Him. Most avid faith sharers are new Christians, because there’s no question who God is. He’s their first love, and they can’t wait to tell people about Him. That’s how he wants you to live your entire life. And when you do that, you have intimacy with God. The ultimate verse in this subject is in Isaiah, of all places, boy, Isaiah, what a rich book. Do you know it’s the only book in the Old Testament is, it was preserved in its entirety. And it’s, it’s certainly, perhaps the most incredible book of the Old Testament, that confirms the birth, death, resurrection of Jesus Christ, the whole story there. I mean, it’s it’s amazing, rich book. Isaiah 43:10. God says, thus saith the Lord. Now, think of all the verses of the Bible tell you why you should share your faith or excuse me, tell you, you should share your faith. Share your faith, reclaim the good news over and over. Genesis, Genesis to Revelations, He tells you those kinds of things. But Isaiah 43:10 actually tells us why. He says, thus saith the Lord, I appointed you, as my witness. Let me jump back. Just for a minute, you remember in Jeremiah, chapter one, He says, before I appointed, before I placed you in your mother’s womb, I set you aside to be my witness, right? This is again an earlier your life than that before God sets you and your mother’s womb He set you apart to be a witness for Him. Okay? Now, he says, why? Isaiah 43:10, I appoint you as my witness, so that you will believe. If I was God, I’d say I appoint you as my witness so they will believe. Right? Make sense? But do you know that when God’s working with you His whole focus is you not at how He can use you. His focus is on you, saving you. He wants you. He spends full time with you. It’s incredible. Well, how does that work? Exactly? How are sharing my faith, confirm my faith? In fact, the Scripture didn’t say I appoint you as my witness so that you will believe more. It doesn’t say that. He’s actually saying this is how you believe, this is how you know. This is how you understand that I am God, by being my witness. That takes share your faith to a whole nother level.
Let me explain how that works. And it happens all the time. For anybody who’s who’s moving everybody, every day, closer to Jesus. You bump into somebody. It’s a God-ordained conversation. You can’t prepare for those conversations. You just can’t. They just found they got cancer. Their kid just committed suicide. They’re getting a divorce. You don’t, you have no idea. The stories that come are just mind-boggling. You can’t prepare for those stories. And Mark 13:11 says don’t, don’t prepare. This is against everything you’ve been taught about sharing your faith. Get all prepared, get your story down, you have to get your story down. I have 100 stories. Which story should I get down? How on earth would I come up with one life story that I have all memorized to get ready to tell somebody that probably will not fit 99% of people I’m talking to and having a script and going through all that? People are hurting, they got a problem. They’re, they’re in frantic need of help. And I want to go through step by step process of explaining salvation. I don’t think so. So all the pressure goes off, you’re just loving on them. That’s all you’re doing, you’re just loving on them. And all of a sudden, you find out that you didn’t have to prepare and Luke 12:12, I love Luke 12:12. He says, the Holy Spirit will give you the words to say when you need them. Wow. And He does and he brings remembered scriptures you haven’t thought about for years. And when you’re sharing with them, all a sudden scriptures are coming out of you and words are coming out of you. And in the process, you feel God flowing through you. This is how you’re supposed to live your life. This is the life of intimacy. When you see that happening, and you feel God speaking through you, you know, He’s salvation that person in front of you. He’s changing the life in front of you. It’s His words coming out of your mouth, not yours it’s not your thoughts it’s His thoughts. And you see the life in front of you changing that changes you. Does it ever. If you’ve never felt that experience, folks, you’re missing out on the entirety what Christianity is all about, and you really don’t know God. Try it. It’s amazing. There’s no words to describe, there’s no other there’s no other activity in the human experience that matches allowing God to speak through you and changing the lives in front of you. And when you do that, you’re gonna have intimacy with God. Every day. I often mentioned this, and I do it often not all the time, but often. I finished one of those conversations, I step away and I look up and I see Jesus smiling at me. Oh, that’s a great feeling. You know, we can grieve God and we often do. But did you know you can give Jesus joy when you follow His lead? When you follow the lead of the Holy Spirit, and when I step away from one of those encounters, I look up and I see Jesus smiling at me. Get this it’s not my joy. That’s my strength. It’s God’s joy. You can give God joy. You look up and it’s just like Jesus says, way to go Barry, I set that up. You listen to me, I spoke through you. You pulled it off way to go. Yes! Think that doesn’t put a bounce in my step? You better believe it. And I have intimacy with God and I enjoy it every day. And so can you. See you next time.
