The Battle of Secrets vs. Intimacy

"And yet it is through this system of defense Christ walks with ease, never seeming to fear that He would do damage by rummaging around in the tender complexity of a persons identity. Instead, He goes nearly immediately to our greatest fears, our most injured spaces, and speaks to those places with AUTHORITY." -Donald Miller

Shhh.....
When people keep secrets from God. When we do not reveal to him our inner most beings. we are defining ourselves by those secrets. I have been listening to the Mill online (the college group from New Life Church) and they have been doing a series on secrets. We often define secrets as sin that we are in that we don't want any one to know about, usually pertaining to sexual sin. But secrets can also be about things that have happened to us in the past, people we hate, things that we have done in the past, and of course the places we struggle in during this present time. How then do we trust God and how do we walk out the process of freedom so that we may become more intimate with God? This requires a level of trust in God that is well, honestly quite terrifying. (*side note: as well as trusting in people God has placed in our lives the scripture says to confess one to another... He uses people to bring healing, but ultimately He is the one who truly heals). We have to trust that God is who His word says He is, and that we will not be rejected by Him due to things that we have allowed to trap us. We need to strip ourselves of shame,pride, guilt, self-loathing, unforegiveness...ect. We need to not believe the lie of the enemy that says "If they only knew what I was like..." God's word commands that we do not hide in the darkness but that we reveal all to Him who is Light, who is truth, who is Redemption, who is Love, who is God.
**Rom.6:11-23,Rom.8:1-17, 1 Cor.13:4-12, 1Cor 5:17-21, Gal 2:20-21, Gal 5:1, Eph.4:17-32, Eph.5:1-21, Eph.6:10-20, 1Thess 2:2-6, Titus 3:5-11

Life:
This week my co-leader to KENYA and I challenged our team our team to pursuit God like never before. To seek true intimacey with the father with the desire to know Him. To shift their perspectives off of the craziness of life, and to desire first only Him. So, in light of this team challenge I have spent most of this break alone in my room seeking after God. Psalms 139:23 says "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way of the everlasting." As I read this scripture at the begining of the break I was all fired up saying "Yes Lord! remove what you do not find as sweet fragrence to you! Make what is in the dark become light!" and then He answered. And he began to dig. and I began to hurt. What happened to fluffy encounters with God? (that was sarcasm.) At first I pulled back, last year was a pain in the ... and I did not want to revisit the pain. I felt I had already learned what I needed to. But God kept bringing me back to those places of pain and confusion and frustration until I would talk it out with Him.you see, I have secrets from God. rather, I have secrets that I don't share with Him he already knows them...anyways.

Example you ask?
Adam and Eve. God knew when Adam and Eve tried to keep a secret from Him. They were defined by their secret sin. They ran from God when ever they felt him drawing near (take note that God continued to pursuit...His Love is greater**Rom.8:38-39!), only creating further distance, rather than that place of intimacy that occured when walking with their Father in the Garden. This was a moment of great tragedy. At that moment Adam and Eve forgot that God was good, they forgot their place as children of God, everything they did was to protect, their secret (even wearing clothes!) We need to remember that God is good. Of course, God as the loving father, sent His only Son to reconcile us to Him that we may once again walk in intimacy with Him.


So, Secrets versus Intimacy? There are no secrets in intimacy.

The Middle East: Prayers to sweep the Desert.

I have never been to the middle east. But my prayers have often been carried in that direction. This year I have been taking a class called "History of Modern Islam." In this class we have been building an understanding of the Islamic Religion, which has an emphasis on power, obedience and submission in the Islamic religion. As I heard more information I felt very fortunate to have a relationship with the Lord. We should daily be thankful for the freeing and intimate love of the Father, and because of that love our hearts should break for the lost who do not know God and have fallen into bondage serving false gods. I heard this sweet quote once that said: "We cannot intercede for people unless our hearts break for the thing God's heart breaks for." My challenge for you is to allow God to break your heart for the people who do not know the Love of God. Those people could be in the middle east, in the United States, your city, your school or your family.
*Below are some statistics about the middle east, it shows that 99.8% of the people in Afghanistan are Muslim, meaning that 99.8% of the people are living in darkness, unaware of the love of God. As you read this may your heart be challenged to Pray for the Lost that they would have a hunger for God, that they will no longer be satisfied with a cheap version of love and intimacy, and that they will no longer live in darkness but be exposed the light.




John 3:16-17 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condem the world, but to save the world through him."