John Bevere - Drawing near : a life of intimacy with God

DRAWING NEAR

A LIFE of INTIMACY with GOD

CONTENTS

I n 1991 God spoke a very clear word to my heart, Son, I want you to write.

The days following were filled with mixed emotions. On the one hand, fear gripped me and bombarded my mind with thoughts of certain failure; on the other hand, I felt as if I should laugh. I hated writing! In school I stared for hours at blank pages of paper when I was assigned any creative writing. Then I flunked the verbal portion of the SAT tests. My extreme dislike for anything of a literary nature drove me to an engineering major in college.

Now God was telling me to write. No way! I could not have heard correctly, I reasoned. So I hedged, but after ten months of doing nothing, God sent two women to me from two different states within two weeks of each other, who repeated identical messages. They both kindly, but firmly warned, John, if you dont write the books the Lord has given you, He will give them to someone else but you will be judged for it.

When the second woman spoke, the fear of God hit me, and outweighed both my fear and dislike of writing. I began. I remember what happened when I made the decision to obey; thoughts rapidly came together as I typed, which I had never contemplated or heard before. I quickly realized these werent my messagesthey were His. Twelve years have passed since that day; now the messages He gave in book form are in twenty-five languages and number well over a million.

After writing the first, I made a personal promise to God that I would never write a book just to write. I would only write if He told me to do so. This vow was tested; each year from 1992 to 1999 He gave me the message I was to write, but after writing Under Cover , I went three years without a word from God to write. Publishers frequently approached me to ask what my next book would be and if they could publish it, but I wouldnt make a move. I didnt have a word from God yet.

Finally after three years, God again gave the word to writethe message you now hold in your hands. I believe one reason for the delay had to do with what the Holy Spirit needed to do in me before this book could be properly brought forth. I have been a believer for twenty-five years, yet I have never been so hungry to be near Him. I have found a deeper intimacy with the Lord in the last year and a half than I have ever known before. I have never wept as much in all my life as I have in the last eighteen months. Ive been overwhelmed in hotel rooms, airplanes, my office, car, home, and in the great outdoors as I spend time in focused prayer. The reality of His presence has never been so real and tangible.

I believe this book is a compilation of years of training by the Holy Spirit and contains an invitation from the heart of God to a place of intimacy with you, His child. Before you begin I would like to pray together. Speak these words from your heart and know I have prayed them for you aloud in my study. We have the promise of Jesus that when we agree on earth concerning anything that they [we] ask, it will be done for them [us] by My Father in heaven (Matt. 18:19). Lets petition together:

Now believe and thank God for fulfilling your earnest prayer. I rejoice in knowing even now the Holy Spirit has begun to position you for greater intimacy by lifting your prayer to the holy throne of the only One who can truly satisfy your every longing. May the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit become more real to you than ever before!

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

J AMES 4:8

T here is a callno, a crycoming from the heart of God and with each passing day its intensity increases: Why are you satisfied without My presence; why do you remain distant when you could have intimacy with Me?

All of us have friends or people we admire and want to be closer with. They hold a special place in our hearts, and spending time with them is a treat, especially when it comes at their invitation. Such a request to share their company fills us with anticipation, joy, and excitement. We happily do whatever it takes to clear our calendar and accept their request.

Within the book of James we find the greatest invitation ever issued, Draw near to God and He will draw near to you (4:8). Stop a moment and ponder this: the Creator of the universe, the earth, and all its inhabitants, requests your presence. Not only your presence, but He desires to be intimately close, for we are told he is a God who is passionate about his relationship with you (Ex. 34:14 NLT).

This is Gods unwavering desire. He is the One who has issued the invitation, for He longs to be known by His children. Since the fall of man it has taken thousands of years, intricate preparations, and a huge price to open the way for this kind of close relationship. John, one of Jesus closest friends, reported,

Adam knew the Lord openly; but because of sin, or disobedience, was separated from His glorious presence, and his fate extended to all mankind. Men and women could no longer see or know God as Adam once had. However, the Father yearned with great passion and compassion to redeem our fellowship from this terrible separation. In answer He sent Jesus, whod been with the Father from the beginning, God manifested in the flesh, to pay the price that would liberate us from darkness in order to reconcile us to God, if we receive Him as our Lord.

However, this reunion of God and man has not been preached nor experienced in its fullest extent. Weve emphasized the liberation from sin and death, but neglected to declare the intimate fellowship awaiting all whove been made free. This neglect is costly and even disastrous, as so many miss the beauty of knowing God intimately. A parallel of this tragedy was played out in the Old Testament with the descendants of Abraham.

T WO T OTALLY D IFFERENT M OTIVES

I have always been amazed by the contrast of attitudes and behavioral patterns of Moses and his kinsmen, the children of Israel. The book of Exodus opens with Abrahams descendants suffering under harsh captivity. They had been in Egypt for almost four hundred years. In the beginning they enjoyed favor, but it was not long before they were enslaved and cruelly mistreated. In their agony they began to cry out to God for deliverance.

The Lord was moved by their prayers and sent a deliverer by the name of Moses. Though born a Hebrew, hed escaped slavery and was raised as a grandson to Pharaoh in his household. As a prince of Egypt, he was moved by the plight of his brethren but had to flee for his life to the wilderness only to return years later and deliver Israel from their bondage by Gods Word and power.