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So great a Salvation (Vol.13): Our Intimate Relationship with God

Sunday English Service – 22 AUG 21

Transcript

For the last many weeks, we have been considering our great salvation. I call it, “great salvation” because it is a great salvation that we have received. The Bible itself calls it like that, “so great a salvation”, is what you and I have received. We’ve been looking at that for many weeks. For the last three weeks we’ve been looking at this amazing relationship that we have with God. Every believer is a child of God, and God is their Father. We’ve been looking at this dynamic, this relationship that we have, with God as children of God. And we said that the Bible not only teaches that we are God’s children, part of God’s family, but it also teaches that within the family of God, God has given us a very high status, and honour, and power, and authority, and rights, and so on. And it communicates that idea through the notion that we are sons of God. There’s a reason why the Bible says we are “sons of God”. Because in those days, next to the father, the son had the highest status and honour, and rights, and so on, in the family. And so, the Bible takes that idea and looks at all believers, male and female, and calls all of us as sons. You are all sons of God, it says, right.

So, we’ve been looking at that for the last couple of weeks now. And last week, we looked at how our sonship involves, you know, we looked at the how Paul teaches about sonship in those two important passages. In Romans 8 and Galatians, chapter 4, do you remember? There are few passages that talk about sonship, but these two passages are very clear and explicit teaching, Paul gives us there, in Romans chapter 8 and Galatians 4. And I took you to those two passages last week and we saw how Paul, as soon as he brings the notion of sonship, he immediately says, “We are not slaves but sons”. And that’s what we focused on last week. If you’re a son, then you’re not a slave, so don’t live as a slave, right. That’s what we saw last week, and we saw, in detail, how we don’t have to be slaves; we don’t have to live like slaves to the law, nor do we have to live like slaves to the flesh, because we are slaves to no one and nothing. We are rather, sons of God, right. We’ve been freed from the tyranny of the law. And we’ve been freed from the power of the flesh, so that we can now walk in the new way of the Spirit, and so on, in this higher plane as sons. And so, that’s what we saw last week but today we’re going to move on and go to those same two passages: Romans 8 and Galatians 4. And we’re going to see how Paul develops this.

So, Paul begins by saying you’re not a slave, so don’t behave like the slave, right. And then he starts talking positive aspects of sonship, right. The negative aspect is, don’t live like a slave because you’re not a slave, you’re a son. Now positively, I’ll show you how Paul develops it, and we’ll start talking about the positive aspects of sonship today. Go to Romans chapter 8; I want you to see how Paul develops it, yourself. See how Paul says don’t be like this but, rather, this is the kind of life you ought to live. We’ll pick up what he says and that’s what we’re going to talk about today. Romans 8:15, let me read it: For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

That verse can be divided into two. You did not receive this to end up there, but rather you have received this, to end up here. The first part is what we saw last week: You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall into fear, to end up in fear – that’s what we saw last week. This week we’re going to move on to the second half: but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”. I want to want you to note that, where he says, “By whom we cry, “Abba! Father!””

The first positive thing he seems to say about this sonship is that we now cry to God saying, “Abba! Father!”. We can now address God as “Abba! Father!”. The same thing he mentions in Galatians 4 as well; go to Galatians 4. I want you to see that this is how the Bible presents the notion of sonship, positively. Galatians 4, verse 6. As soon as he says in verse 5, at the end of verse 5, he says, “So that we might receive the adoption as sons”. In verse 6, look how he develops that: And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Again, same thing; two different books, same teaching that believers are now son of God. And as soon as he says that, positively, he immediately wants to say that now we can cry, “Abba! Father!”. So, it must be significant for Paul to repeat it in two different books and both times, this seems to be the first positive benefit or aspect of sonship, that believers can now call God, “Abba! Father!”.

Go back to Romans 8. So today, what we’ll do is we’ll stick mainly with Romans 8. Although most of the things that we say can also be found in Galatians 4, but we’ll stick mainly with Romans 8. And we’re going to focus on verse 15, and 16. 15 is where he says we can call God as “Abba! Father!” and 16, is where he says the Spirit also does something to us. I’ll explain that later. What Paul is trying to do here is, as soon as he says that believers are sons of God, he wants to then say, you know, “Don’t live like a slave; you’re not a slave, you’re a son”. What does it mean to be a son? What is important in being a son? Well, the first thing that’s important is, you need to enjoy an intimate relationship with your Father. You need to enjoy intimacy with the Father. What’s the first positive benefit or aspect of sonship? It is that we can now enjoy intimacy with the Father; we can now enjoy an intimate fellowship with the Father; we can now be close to the Father. That’s what those words, “Cry out, “Abba! Father!” really point to. They point to an intimacy; they point to a close fellowship. Let me just tell you what we’re talking about today. We’re talking about today, how sonship, one of the most important things in sonship is that we can now enjoy intimacy with the Father. One of most important things about being a child of God or a son of God is that we can enjoy close intimacy, close fellowship with our Heavenly Father.

Now notice, we’re not just saying, we are children of God; God is our Father. We’ve already said that. We’re not just saying we are sons of God; God is our Father. We’ve already said that. We’re not just saying, you know, we are not slaves, we are sons, so don’t live like slaves, live like sons. No. Paul is going to the next step; we’re going to the next step. What are we saying? We’re saying, since we’re sons, we can enjoy; since we’re children, we can enjoy the intimacy that belongs to children. We can enjoy the fellowship that children enjoy with their father. We can enjoy that fellowship with our Father. You see, enjoying fellowship, enjoying intimacy is different from just being in a relationship. You know what I mean? You see, there’s a difference between being in a relationship, and enjoying intimacy within that relationship. You can see the difference everywhere. There are homes where, you know, parents and children are living together. Obviously, there is a relationship there, between the parent and the child and they are living together, same home everything. But sometimes, you will find that they’re not very close with one another. They don’t enjoy intimacy; they don’t enjoy fellowship. Yeah, the relationship is there because it’s parent and child; nobody can change that relationship. But the intimacy is not there, the closeness is not there. You can find it in husbands and wives, sometimes. Yeah, they’re married, obviously, there’s a relationship. They’re living together and all that is there, but there is no close fellowship; there’s no closeness.

And similarly, all believers have a relationship with God. What kind of a relationship? God is their Father; God is our Father; we are His children. All believers have it. We are children, we are sons, God is our Father. But not all believers enjoy intimacy with the Father, close fellowship with the Father. What Paul is saying and what we are saying today, is that all believers can enjoy close fellowship, intimacy with the Father because that’s what sonship is about; that’s one of the first big benefits of sonship; that’s one of the positive things to say about sonship. If you’re a son, then enjoy like a son. Enjoy what? First enjoy the closeness with the Father; be close with your Father; have a close fellowship. Yeah, we’re all in a relationship with God, but enjoy that relationship; enjoy the sweetness of it; enjoy the closeness of it.

This is something different, isn’t it? This is what today’s message is about. How the Christian life can be a life where we enjoy close intimacy, close fellowship, with our Father God. That’s what we’re going to talk about today. From these two verses in Romans 8:15 and 16. You may say, “Well, that doesn’t sound like a very” … Some people may think, not you may say. Some people may think that it doesn’t sound like a very practical truth. Intimacy with God, you know, close fellowship with God; is this really practical, some may wonder, you know. When people are going through so many challenges, fear, loss of job, property, loved ones, and all this is happening, is this doing any good to people? To talk about how you can have an intimate relationship, fellowship with the Father, in close fellowship. This kind of thing, sometimes, is deemed as impractical, just you know, some unbeneficial truth. But what people don’t realize often is, this one thing, if you pay attention to this one thing, if you pursued intimacy with your Father, as a believer—I’m talking to believers today—if you pursued intimacy with your Heavenly Father, if you give that importance in your life; I’m talking if you really pursued it, and if you attained even a certain level of it, my friend, this will solve many, many problems. If this one thing is as it should be, everything else will be as they should be. If this one thing is not as it should be, everything else will be affected. 

People sometimes think, you know, what they need is this or that or the other but what they need, really, is first of all, a relationship with God. And if they have a relationship with God—which every believer has—the next thing they need, is to pay attention to that relationship, which is what close fellowship is. It is paying attention to the relationship and pursuing that fellowship and intimacy with God. I say to you, if you pursue this, and if you can attain even a small level of this, you will receive help for any need or any problem that you may have. I mean, if you are close with the God who made heaven and earth, there is no need that is too great. There is nothing that will be too difficult for you. If you are close with the One for whom all things are possible, then obviously, all things are going to be possible for you also if you’re that close. If you are that close with Him, nothing will perturb you; no challenge will be too big for you. I’m talking about if you are that close to the God, Who rules and reigns over everything, Who holds the world in His hands, if you’re that close with Him, there’s nothing too great that you can’t overcome. You can keep moving ahead in life boldly, with peace, and even joy. If you have a great and deep intimacy with the Father.

So, the idea that, you know, this kind of truth is impractical is completely wrong. There couldn’t be anything more practical than this. This, I say to you, has the potential to solve every problem that you’ve got. If this is neglected, it has the reverse potential of negatively affecting everything. So important is this, for the believer. Now, in case unbelievers are watching, in case a person who has not put their faith in Christ, if they are watching, let me say that the first thing you need is not intimacy but rather a relationship. Only if there is a relationship, you can pursue intimacy in that relationship. Believers have a relationship with God as Father. Now, if you have not put your faith in Christ, what you need, first, is a relationship with God. And the way you get into that relationship is through Christ Jesus. Put your faith in Christ Jesus; enter into a relationship with God; He’ll make you His child, and then you can pursue intimacy. But if you’re not a believer, you can listen and if this kind of fellowship interests you, if you want this kind of closeness with God Almighty, then you call out from wherever you are, for God to save you and make you His child through Christ Jesus. And I believe God can and will do that. So, let’s begin.

I believe I’m talking mostly to believers today. Let’s begin talking about this, how our sonship involves this intimacy with God, and how we can have this, right, from Romans 8:15 and 16. Now, let me begin like this: intimacy always involves two sides, right. We’re talking about two people, getting close. Now whenever you have that, you always have the two sides. One person, you know, does something but the other person, also needs to reciprocate. It’s not enough if one person makes the effort and the other person is not interested. So, it always involves two sides. And similarly, a close fellowship between God and us, involves both sides; an intimacy between us and God, involves us doing things, but it also involves God reciprocating. And you will see that in Romans 8:15 and 16, both are there. First, we’ll look at our side. First, we’ll look at what our side of the intimacy is and then we’ll see about God, right. Now, let me also say in Romans 8:15 and 16, what Paul is doing is, he is capturing a very, what can I say, a very high point in the Christian life. Let me put it like this. Paul is capturing a very beautiful moment in the Christian life, and presenting it to us, as an example and a motivation of what the Christian life can be, in its glory.

It’s like taking a photo, you know. You go to a place, maybe you’re going on a vacation and you’re enjoying something, and you take a photo to remember how amazing it was, how beautiful it was. And when you go back and see that photo, that photo has captured that moment. And in that one image you can see all kinds of things come back to your mind – how beautiful it was and how wonderful it was, right. It’s like that. Paul is taking a photo of one of the climactic points in the Christian life. And he’s presenting it here, for every believer to see how beautiful the Christian life can be. How amazing and how wonderful our relationship with God can be, right. That’s what we’re going to see. It’s like looking at a photo which is so beautiful, so wonderful, right. But like many photos, it doesn’t reflect always everyday life, right. We select when we take a photo and we put it up on social media or something. We select only the best, don’t we? We don’t select the mediocre or the worst; we select the best, and we put it up. Why? We don’t want to put the mediocre or the worst. And Paul is doing that. He’s selecting the best from the Christian life, so to speak. He is selecting the best it can be and presenting it to us. And so, as you jump into this, as we jump into this today, realize that this is the best it can be. It’s meant to be a motivation for us. It is also meant for us to look at this and say, “I want this, and I want to pursue this, and I want to experience this”. He’s presenting the Christian life experience as best as it can be. How close have a fellowship you can have with God, is what he’s about to show us. He’s about to show us a beautiful moment in Romans 8:15 and 16. Let’s look at it. First, from our side, and then from God’s side. 

Romans 8:15; what do we do on our side? How do we get close to God? In this picture, in Romans 8:15, we cry out, “Abba! Father!”. That’s what he says, doesn’t he? You have received the Spirit of adoption—Romans 8:15—by whom we cry out, “Abba! Father!” So, what do we do? Our side of getting close to God is that we cry out, “Abba! Father!” I want you to notice those words. First of all, let’s look at those two words: “Abba! Father!” Both the words simply mean, Father, right. “Abba” is a word like “Appā” in Tamil, or dad, or something like that in English. Father means father. Both of them mean the same thing. Now, father is a word that we are used to seeing a lot in the New Testament, to refer to the First Person of the Trinity: Father. And we’re used to that; we pray saying, “Heavenly Father”. And we’ve seen it many times, we’re used to that. But this word, “Abba”, that this stuff is; that’s where the beauty is. “Father”, we’re used to it, but “Abba” we’re not so used to it.

In our usual prayers, for example, we don’t always say, “Abba, Father”. Maybe some may do it but I’m talking about in general, most Christians don’t. Most Christians do say “Father”, but not “Abba Father”. We’re not used to “Abba” because “Abba” is a term that’s more used in the home, you know. It’s like it was in the local, original language. Hebrews spoke that word at home. Mainly it was used by children they say to address their fathers in a home setting. And so, it was a very personal and intimate and kind of homely word, used by a child to address the father. Nobody ever used that for God. In fact, the Jews did not even like to use the title, “Father” for God. That itself, they got upset with Jesus, if you remember. But “Abba”, is like a whole other level. You can’t call God as your dad. It’s like calling, dad, you know. God is not like your dad in the house, so how dare you call Him dad? – is what they would think, you know. Nobody ever thought of calling God as “Abba”. Why does Paul bring this word in here? Purposely, Paul doesn’t just say, “Father” but he says, “Abba, Father”. Why? It’s to point this out; it’s to point out the intimacy that we can now have.

Here, Paul is not just trying to say, we have this relationship that God is our Father and we are His children. He wants to go beyond that and say that we have the relationship, and we can enjoy the intimacy. This is not just a relationship for the sake of relationships; this is not a relationship that’s just on paper that, you know, we can just say, “Yeah, He’s my Father and I am His child and He’ll, you know, He really takes care of me, and He loves me to a certain extent and, you know, I’m somebody to Him”. No, no. This is a relationship where the closest possible intimacy can be enjoyed. That’s why the word, “Abba” is brought here. To show that, like a child is intimate, is so close, is so free with his or her father in the home, so close, intimate, and free, the believer can be with God Almighty. It’s an astounding thought. Paul brings in this word to highlight this intimacy that we can now have.

Nobody would dare call God as “Abba”; it was too intimate, it was too affectionate, it was too free. Father, lie I said, Father itself, they counted as a disrespect to God. “Abba”, you know, you’ve got to be crazy to call Him that and they would reprimand you. They would repute you if you did something like that. It would be an insult, they thought, to call God like that. Why then, from where did Paul get this idea, to bring in that word, “Abba”? Only one place – Jesus. Where did Paul get this idea that we can now, as believers, call God as “Abba, Father”? There’s only One Person Who ever called God as “Abba” and that’s Jesus. Jesus used the exact same way to address God. These two words, “Abba, Father”, you will see it exactly like this in Mark chapter 14, verse 36, where Jesus is praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. He says, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” He’s praying in the Garden of Gethsemane; He pours His heart out to God, and He just doesn’t say, “Father”, like in some of the other places. Here, He’s pouring His heart out to God, and the words that come out are, “Abba”.

Why did Jesus use the word? Because He had the most special relationship with God. He had a relationship with God that no one else ever had. He was God’s One and Only Son. God was truly His Father. So much so that He could write royally, look at Him and say, “Abba”. Jesus was the only One who dared to use that word. And then, Jesus, it looks like, it seems like, all the evidence points to the fact that Jesus is the One who taught the Apostles that they can also use that word. Not just Father, but Abba. And that is how Paul must have gotten it. That is why he writes in Romans and Galatians, and the people are familiar with this. This is a familiar teaching in the church, that we can now address God like Jesus addressed God. That is an astounding thing, if you think about it. We not only address God like a child in general, addresses God, with such confidence, with such freeness, with such a naturalness, right. Just naturally, we can address God as Abba; we don’t have to be so formal and say “Father”, you know. Like a child, we can address God, like a child addresses his or her father, we can address God informally, with confidence. That is true, but it’s more than that. What Paul is trying to say is, not just like a child in general, but like Jesus addressed God, we can address. There’s a difference, you see that. Not only can we have the confidence that a child has towards his or her father; we can have the kind of confidence Jesus has toward His Father, and that’s a different level, my friend.

I’m not saying believers are equal to Jesus. Obviously, we are not equal to Jesus. But Paul takes the exact same thing that the way Jesus addressed the Father, pulls it up here and says, “Now we cry out, believers cry out, Abba, Father”. What’s he trying to say? He’s trying to say, believers have entered into the same kind of relationship Jesus has with the Father. What kind of relationship? The Father-Son relationship. Believers have entered into that kind of relationship. This is so true; this is not just true on paper; this is not just true for your namesake; this is so true and this can be taken so seriously that we can now address God like Jesus addressed God. That’s what Paul is trying to say. And I believe that’s why he keeps the idea of sonship here. Because even though Abba is connected to a small child calling, more importantly, it is connected to Jesus calling. That’s why he doesn’t say like a child but adoption as sons – we have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” He wants to keep the idea of sonship, because Jesus, as the One and Only Son, calls God, “Abba, Father”. Now, we, as sons of God, can call Him, “Abba, Father”.

So then, what Paul is trying to say is, we can enjoy the kind of intimacy Jesus enjoys with the Father. Now, think about that. That is an astounding thought. And not only that, but he also says, “We can cry out”. Notice the words there, “We cry out, Abba, Father”. We don’t just say, “Abba, Father”; we cry out. Now, what’s involved in that is, if you study the word, you’ll see, it means, most often, a loud cry and it means a spontaneous cry. Not something where you think about it, you know, and say, “Well, yeah, I’m His child; I think I can call Him, Abba”. No, no, no. Spontaneous, without thinking about it, it just comes from inside. Cry out, involves a deep emotion; it’s a crying out from the bottom of your heart, like Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. Again, that’s the example you can use to understand this. In the Garden of Gethsemane, it was not a formal prayer, like what we do sometimes, right, in public, you know and when others are listening, watching. We do a kind of formal prayer because everybody’s watching or whatever. In the Garden of Gethsemane, it was not like that. Jesus goes, He’s in agony, He’s experiencing a lot of mental pressure, He’s about to go to the cross, He’s at a crucial point there, right. And He goes, and you can read the accounts in the Gospels, and one Gospel says that He falls on His knees, falls on His face before God, prays earnestly. See, with that kind of emotion, He cries out to God, “Abba, Father”

Again, some of the great truths in the Bible are really, on the one hand, they are so great and deep, on the other hand, they’re so simple. It’s like how a child cries out, basically. Adults don’t cry out, right, and when the child cries out also, we say, “Keep quiet!”. The child just, no hesitation, no fear, no shyness, just cries out. The child is in trouble, it just cries out, “Appā!”, “Dad!”, “Daddy!” Sometimes, the child is not even in that much trouble but shouts, cries out on the street, with everybody listening, watching, we feel bad, we say, “Keep quiet!” And the child just—smaller children, I’m talking about—they just, they’re so free. That’s the kind of cry it talks about here. It’s not a calculated, thoughtful cry, no. It’s a loud, spontaneous, deep emotion involved cry from the depths of the heart. It’s not just saying, “Abba, Father”; it’s crying out, “Abba, Father!” But it’s unthinkable that we can do this with God. A child crying out, saying, “Daddy” or “Dad”, or “Appā” is one thing, but going before a King, nobody cries out, do they? I mean, think about it, if you go before a king, you speak calmly, you measure your words, your tone and your, you know, you speak very formally, respectfully. You don’t cry out; you don’t utter a loud cry like that. It’s astonishing that Paul would say believers can go before the King of Kings and just utter a loud, spontaneous, deep, heart filled cry.

If a believer is really able to cry out like this – remember, I’m not talking about this as, this is not, when we say to ourselves, “Yeah, I am a believer; He’s my Father; I am His child, so I can cry out. Why not? I can address Him as “Appā” or “Dad”, and so, I’m going to do it. No, it’s not like that. I say to you again, it’s a spontaneous thing. It just comes out with such confidence, with such ease. It’s so natural. If a believer can really do this, cry out, “Abba, Father!”, he must be a believer. Otherwise, it’s not possible. They simply won’t have the guts. They may say, “Father”, but “Abba”? I don’t think so. You know, you must be a believer to be able to do that, and that doesn’t mean, if you’re not doing that, you’re not a believer. Don’t misunderstand. I’m saying, if you really can cry out like this, you must be a believer; that itself, shows you’re a believer. Only a person like that, only a true believer can cry out like that. But that doesn’t mean just because a person doesn’t cry out like this, that they’re not a believer because there are many believers, who are true believers and yet, do not cry out like this. But that is why we are preaching today, why we’re talking about this.

You see, the one who makes the believer cry out like this, is who? You see, there’s no way a believer can cry out like this by himself or herself. There’s no way, by himself or herself, a believer has so much guts to do this, unless the Holy Spirit within them, causes them to cry out. That’s what this verse says. He says, “You received the Spirit of adoption— capitalist ‘S’—so that Spirit of adoption; that’s the Holy Spirit. It’s made clear in the next verse, that it’s the Holy Spirit. You received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out. We don’t cry out by ourselves, but by the Spirit, we cry out. Only the Spirit can make us cry out like this. Only the Spirit can give this kind of confidence, this kind of ease, this kind of natural feeling for you to cry out like that. No one but the Holy Spirit can make you do this. Holy Spirit makes us to cry out, gives us that confidence, and just causes us to cry out, really. In fact, in Galatians, Paul puts it even more strongly. He says, in Romans, he says, “We cry out, by the Spirit”. In Galatians 4, if you read that verse 6, right. He says, “The Spirit, Himself, cries out from within our hearts”. Galatians 4:6, he says, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So, the Spirit is sent into our hearts, and He cries from within our hearts, “Abba! Father!”, he says in Galatians. But in Romans, he says, with a more complex way, he says, “We cry out by the Spirit”; the Spirit causes us to cry out. The point is, without the Holy Spirit, this is impossible; without the Holy Spirit dwelling in the believer, and producing this cry, this is not possible.

So, let me ask you, my friend. Have you experienced this? This, here, is a wonderful snapshot. Paul has captured a beautiful moment of how amazing the Christian life can be. Where, you can go to the God who created the heavens and the earth, and boldly, easily, comfortably, naturally, spontaneously, loudly, cry out, “Abba!”, “Dad!” It’s unbelievable, isn’t it? Have you experienced something like this? Preaching today so that the Holy Spirit can give you this kind of experience, this kind of closeness with the Father. But this is only from our side. Now, let’s go to the other side, from God’s side. Intimacy always involves an approach from both parties, isn’t it? So, we approach God with this kind of boldness, given to us by the Holy Spirit. We cry out, “Abba! Father!” Now, what does God do? God reciprocates. This is now even more wonderful.

Look at Romans 8:16. We just looked at Romans 8:15; now, let’s look at 16. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Now, notice the words: “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit”. 15 said, “The Spirit, by whom we cry out”. 16 says, “The Spirit himself”. Paul is trying to emphasize, now here, we don’t have any role. In verse 15, we did have a role. The Holy Spirit only made us and produce the cry and helped us and calls us but we cried out from our mouth. But in 16, we don’t have any role. It is the Spirit himself, without us, without our help, the Spirit himself bears witness. What does he do? Bear witness with our spirit that we are children of God. The Spirit himself impresses within our heart, this amazing truth that we are children of God. This is God Himself responding. The Holy Spirit is God, my friend; He’s third Person of the Trinity. And when He does something, God is doing it. He is God. And this verse says that when we cry out, “Abba, Father”, He responds by Himself, witnessing with our spirit, impressing upon our heart that we are children of God. Now, this is even more wonderful. As amazing as it is to cry out loudly, spontaneously, with deep emotion, “Abba! Father!” to Almighty God, more amazing than that is, God reciprocating through the Holy Spirit.

Let me illustrate this. See, think about a child, you know, just easily, naturally, boldly, loudly, crying out, “Daddy!” or “Dad!” or “Appā!”, or whatever, right, that kind of intimate term. When you see a child is doing that, you can assume that the child has a certain confidence that, that is my father, I am his child. I have every right to call him “Dad” or “Appā” and when I do call him, he hears me and when he hears me, he will come, he will help me, he takes care of me, right. There’s this confidence that I am his son and he is my father and we are in this special relationship and I can. You know, the child, without even thinking about all this, calls the father, “Appā” or “Dad”, right? But you can assume that there is some level of confidence in the child, otherwise the child won’t be calling the father as “Dad” or “Appā”. That itself, shows a certain level of confidence and ease and boldness and so on. So, think about a scenario when the child is calling, “Appā!” or “Daddy”, whatever and the father comes and he picks up the child and he looks at the child and says, “Of all the children in the world, I love you the most, because you are my child”. Imagine he says that to that child. The child was calling him, “Daddy” and “Appā” and the father came and picked up the child and said, “Of all the children in the world. I love you the most because you are my child”. Not everybody else, you are my child.

Now let me ask you, which will give the child a greater feeling of confidence and joy? I tell you, it’s this only, isn’t it? When the child hears the father, give this assurance, “You are my child; I love you”, that gives the child more confidence, more joy, than the child calling out with confidence, “Father” or “Appā” or “Daddy”. Similarly, if you’re able to cry out, “Abba! Father”, that itself means you have a certain, great deal of confidence and boldness in approaching God, and the Holy Spirit is giving you that and that’s amazing. But what is even better is, when God impresses upon us, that He loves us, that we are His children and God does this through the Holy Spirit. That is what is this “bearing witness”, that’s what this is about. Verse 16, when it talks about, “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God”. It’s like the Father telling us, “You are My child. I love you. You are special to Me. I won’t leave you. I’ll take care of you. Don’t worry, I’m here with you”. It’s like the Father giving us that assurance. 

Assurance is given through the Holy Spirit. Oftentimes, the Holy Spirit will use the Word of God to give us that assurance. I’m sure that many believers have experienced this. Suppose you’re reading God’s Word and reading a passage; one verse jumps out at you. Maybe you’re reading about the love of God and just that passage jumps out and the Holy Spirit uses that Word to impress deeply in your heart that God loves you. It’s like you can hear it directly from God. Have you ever had that kind of experience? “Don’t worry, you’re in My hands, I love you”, that kind of a deep and a sure impression in your heart, left by the Holy Spirit. Many times, the Holy Spirit will do it through God’s Word, as you’re reading the Word, as you’re meditating, as you’re hearing a message or something. A human being cannot do that, preacher cannot do that; only the Holy Spirit can do that kind of thing. Sometimes the Holy Spirit will do it when you’re worshiping God, singing songs to Him, praising Him. Sometimes the Holy Spirit can do it when you’re serving God. Sometimes He can do it when you’re suffering for God, I’m talking about suffering for Christ, for His sake, for the Gospel, and so on. There are many ways and places and kinds and forms in which the Holy Spirit can do this. I would say that most often, it happens through the Word. In general, the Word is the main tool of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit uses the Word, most often, to do anything. That is a principle in the Christian life, you must follow. You must understand that the Holy Spirit likes to use the Word, most often. But I say this, all this, but then, I want to say this also. In Romans 8:16, when it talks about, the Spirit himself bearing witness, this sometimes involves the Spirit bearing witness, apart from words, even the Word of God, and beyond words. Sometimes, you can go beyond words, and express your love, can’t you? Think about a kiss. You can tell a person that you love them or you can express the same thing by kissing them. Pick up your child and you can tell them, “I love you; you’re special to me”. Or sometimes, you feel like just kissing them, and as they receive the kiss, they sense your love. It’s like that. Sometimes a kiss, speaks louder than 1,000 words. It’s like that.

God sometimes gives us a kiss. How? By overwhelming us with a sense of His presence, with a sense of His love. Have you ever felt? I’m asking you. See, again, I say to you, Paul is capturing a beautiful moment and experience in the Christian life, which is amazing. Have you ever had anything like this? Have you ever felt the presence of God overwhelm you, to such a degree, that you felt loved by God so much, that you felt like God is just hugging you tightly and embracing you and kissing you? Do you know what I mean? It’s hard to describe and explain this, but people who have had the experience will know what I’m talking about. Have you ever felt the love of God so strong, the tender mercies of God so strong, that you felt so loved by God, so embraced by God? That is the witness of the Holy Spirit. God embraces you through His Spirit. God kisses you, so to speak, through the Spirit. 

If you remember the ‘Prodigal Son’ story. The prodigal guy who ran away, far, far away from the father, then he comes back, right. And when he goes back, he just can’t seem to accept that the father will ever take him back as a son. So, he rehearses in his mind, how to speak to the father and he plans to say to the father, you know, “I’m not worthy to be a son anymore. I’ll just be in one corner of the house, you know, as your servant and just treat me as a servant, accept me as a servant, that’s enough”. So, he goes with that plan in mind, because he cannot imagine how the father can take him back as a son, and he goes and the father though, is totally opposite. He sees him from afar and he runs toward him and what does he do? He hugs him and he kisses him. Because if you talk anything to this fellow, he won’t listen. He’s rehearsing these words in his mind, thinking about this. So, the father goes one step beyond words. And he hugs the guy and he kisses him. Imagine what he would have felt like; that hug and that kiss would have meant so much to him. It’s like that.

Sometimes God goes the extra mile, so to speak, overwhelms you with His love; that is the witness of the Holy Spirit. All this is possible only through the Holy Spirit. It’s the Holy Spirit that causes us to cry out, “Abba! Father!” It’s the Holy Spirit that bears witness within us, overwhelms us with a sense of God’s presence and God’s love for us, “pours out God’s love within our hearts”, Romans chapter 5 says. This is the kind of intimacy I’m talking about, my friend. This is the beautiful picture that Paul presents in these two verses. He is putting this picture before us and saying, “This is how amazing the Christian life can be; it can be a life where you have this kind of an amazing, close fellowship, intimacy with God Almighty. You can not only call Him, “Abba, Father” but He will reciprocate, embrace you through the Holy Spirit”. The Holy Spirit is the key, you see. The Holy Spirit is the key to the Christian life.

In Romans, if you read, if you want to understand the Christian life, you’ve got to read Romans, and understand Romans. And Romans, if you read, you know, Paul, as I told you last week in chapter 7, Paul is talking about how we’ve been freed from the law. And in chapter 8, he talks about how we don’t have to live in bondage to the flesh. And so, the question arises then, how do we live? The answer Paul gives in both 7 and 8. Romans 7 and 8 is, “By the Spirit”. You live by the Spirit. It is the Spirit who writes the law of God in our hearts. It is the Holy Spirit who gives us the power to overcome the flesh. You live by the Spirit; the Holy Spirit is the key to living the Christian life, and the Holy Spirit is the one who leads the way for you, not the law. The Holy Spirit is the One leads you; the Holy Spirit is the One who gives you power over the flesh. And then, he comes to Romans 8:14-15-16, that’s when he talks about, it’s the Holy Spirit who causes you to cry out, “Abba! Father”; it’s the Holy Spirit who bears witness. The Holy Spirit is the key, you see. God in us, only He can make this possible. Only He can give us this experience. You can’t work this out; you can’t try and manipulate and get this. It’s a God-given gift by the Holy Spirit. Have you had this kind of experience, where you can get close to God, boldly, spontaneously? God reciprocates; God overwhelms you with His love, with a sense of His love. I’m not talking do you know God loves you? Yeah, you should know God loves you. I’m not talking about that. Have you sensed God’s love for you? Have you experienced an overflowing of God’s love and sensed it deep in your heart and felt God’s embrace? That is different; that’s what we’re talking about. Have you had this kind of experience?

Paul wants to say every believer can have this kind of experience; not all believers do, but every believer can. And God wants this experience. That is why He sent the Holy Spirit. And He will, I believe, give this experience to those who desire it. Not all believers have this experience but many have. If you read Christian history, you know, take Paul, I mean, Paul himself, must have had the experience otherwise he can’t be talking like this. There’s no way he can talk like this, without the experience. But not only Paul, throughout Christian history, if you read, you’ll see that many different people of God from different backgrounds and different places, they all testify to this and say, “Yeah, I know what he’s talking about. I’ve had this kind of experience. I felt overwhelmed by the love of God. Experienced it, felt it.” We’re talking about feelings today – feelings. Where you feel the love of God, not just know that God loves you but feel the love of God. Yeah, Christian life is not a life built on feelings; we’re not building our life on feelings. We build it on the truth of God’s Word, but at the same time, the Christian life built on God’s Word, God’s truth, is not a life devoid of feelings. If a person says, you know, “Yeah, I believe God loves me because the Word says God loves me but I’ve never felt God’s love”. That is very sad, my friend. God wants more for you. He wants you to know that He loves you. But He wants you to know, that you know, that you know. He wants you to feel it in the depths of your heart.

So many great men of God have talked about how they have felt it. Let me read just some names you may recognize. All different backgrounds, different places, different time periods: George Whitfield, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Finney, D.L Moody, Charles Spurgeon, and many more great men of God, have talked about their experience and how they’ve been overwhelmed with that feeling of God’s love. And not only great men of God like this but so many believers, ordinary believers. What I’m trying to say is you can have this experience. You can have this experience. And when you do have it, and if you… Now listen to me here… Here is Paul giving us a like a snapshot, like he’s capturing a moment of the Christian life, which is so beautiful. What he’s trying to say is, you can live your life to somewhat reflect this. You can live your whole life aiming for this, and at least, attaining some of this. I think that’s what he’s trying to get at. He’s not just trying to say, you can have this only one moment in life. No, he’s trying to say, your whole life can be characterized by this kind of thing. It’s possible. Here’s the goal; here’s the high goal that we can aim for. Now, obviously, like I told you earlier, life is not always as rosy as a photo. I told you earlier, we only present the best in the photos, right. It’s like that. Paul is presenting the best and he realizes the Christian life has its ups and downs, sometimes we feel close to God, sometimes we don’t feel close to God. Sometimes we feel God’s love, sometimes we don’t feel it. He realizes all that but he’s trying to say, believer, you can have this; you can aim for this; you should know that this is possible. If you pursue this and if you can experience even a small fraction of this, I say to you, my friend, the benefits of this are immense.

Let me take a few more minutes here and talk about the benefits of this. If you pursue intimacy with God if you have anything like this. I’m not just a one-time experience, but I’m talking about a life that is characterized by this kind of intimacy and closeness with God—even a small fraction of this—if you live a life like that, if you can enjoy a life of intimacy with God, the benefits are immense. The benefits are infinite literally. I mean, name some benefits. Let me name some practical value in this, right.

One benefit is, when you enjoy intimacy with God, you won’t have any fear. Fear will just disappear. Think about this for a minute. If you are feeling the embrace of the God who made heaven and earth, what fear can take hold of you at that point? At the moment when you feel God’s embrace, at the moment where you feel overwhelmed by the sense of God’s love for you, what fear can take hold of you? Nothing. It is impossible for fear to be there, where God’s love is felt. Perfect love casts out fear. You can’t have fear and love; it can only be one, right. I’m talking about the bad kind of fear, obviously. Either fear is there or love is there. If fear is dominating a person, that itself shows, they’re not enjoying close fellowship with God. It’s as simple as that. If a person is enjoying close fellowship with God, fear will not be dominating. No fear can dominate. No fear. I don’t care what the fear is; no fear can dominate, when you are enjoying close fellowship with God Almighty. Even a small fraction of this kind of fellowship, I’m talking about this, you know, this amazing intimacy we spoke about today, right. People are struggling with all kinds of fear today. And as a Christian, as a believer, there are many ways to overcome fear, many ways to overcome fear. One very simple way is to pursue intimacy, fellowship with God. Fear will disappear; you won’t even know where it went. When you feel His embrace, there is no room for fear.

Let me talk about another benefit: If you are living in close fellowship with God, you won’t live like a slave to the law. Let me explain that. If you’re so close with God, if you experience such intimacy with God, the law is not going to scare you, the law is not going to bother you. I’m talking about the law of God, the rules, the laws of God are not going to be burdensome to you. If you’re so close to God, His commands will be like love requests. If you’re in love with somebody and they want you to do something, you don’t see that as a command, it’s a love request. If you are in such intimacy with God, His commands will no longer look like law and rule and burden, but rather, it will become as 1 John 5 says, “Not burdensome”. It will become a delight to do the will of God. It will no longer be an oppressive force, threatening you; it’ll just lose its tyrannical force. Do you know what I mean? If you’re so close to God, His law will be something you delight in, and not something you are bothered by or pushed down by or feel burdened by.

The reverse is also true. Those who are in bondage to the law, cannot really have great intimacy with the Father. Think about it. Those who are in bondage to the law – we described those kinds of people last week, legalistic people, like the Pharisees, right. They are in bondage to the law. They think they’re living the high life, the very high spiritual life, but they’re living a life as slaves to the law. For them, the law is everything. The law is the way to get to God; the law is the way the please God; the law is the way to get accepted by God; the law is everything. If you do the law, you’re accepted by God. If you if you fail in any of the law, you’re finished. For that kind of person, it’s very hard to pursue intimacy with God because they see God as somebody who’s ready to whack them the moment they disobey, in any area. They see God only through the lens of the law, you see, not through the lens of grace. And so, you know, they see God as, you know, there He is, up there, you know, ready to just judge them, punish them, the moment they break the law, so they’re always living in fear. They cannot have great intimacy with God. It’s impossible to be legalistic and have fellowship with God. Either you have deep fellowship, or you’re legalistic; you can’t be both.

Similarly, I’m talking about how there’s a two-way connection between intimacy with God, and bondage to the law. If you enjoy intimacy with God, you will not live in bondage the law. If you live in bondage to the law, you cannot enjoy intimacy with God. There is also to a connection between intimacy with God, and bondage to the flesh. I’m talking about the benefits of this intimacy, right and how it relates to other areas of the Christian life, and how this can open up, you know, success and victory in many areas. There’s a two-way connection, just like there’s a two-way connection on that side, there’s a two-way connection on this side, between what? Between intimacy with God, and bondage to the flesh. Now let me explain that.

If you are enjoying intimacy with God, it becomes harder for the flesh to dominate you and also vice versa. If you are allowing the flesh to dominate you, then it’s hard to enjoy intimacy with God. Both are true; it’s a two-way connection. I can maybe illustrate it. Imagine a child and a father. If the child does things that the father does not like. Let us imagine that the child disobeys the father completely, you know, rebels, and completely disobeys and acts in a way that is totally not pleasing to the father. That kind of child will not want to get close to the father because he knows he’s done something wrong. And so, he doesn’t want to come and sit and eat with the father, spend time with the father. He doesn’t want to be in the same room as the father, because he knows he has completely disobeyed him. His disobedience hinders his fellowship with the father.

Now, the other way is also true. His fellowship can promote obedience and prevent disobedience. Now, I’ll illustrate that also. Imagine a child who spends the whole day with the father, right. They go and have fun, I mean, they go out and they go have ice cream, they go have food and then they go play and they’re just having the best time of their lives and they enjoy each other’s company, they enjoy what they’re doing the whole day they have such joy. And after that, imagine the child goes. You think the child will be able to do something that is displeasing to the father? It would be very difficult for that child to then disobey the father, knowingly. If he’s presented with an option to disobey and dishonour the father in any way, he’s going to think, “No, no, I just enjoyed my father’s company the whole day. What joy I had, what privileges, what good things I experienced from his hand. I can’t disobey him now”. You know what I mean? It’s very difficult to spend the whole day with your father and then go immediately and disobey him, after experiencing joy in his presence.

It’s a two-way connection. It’s connected to everything, is what I’m trying to say. If you pursue intimacy with God, and if you can attain even a small fraction of it, a small level of what we saw today, that will affect everything in your life. It will make you live that higher kind of life, that higher kind of life. In fact, you know, I believe that God really is inviting us today, to pursue intimacy with Him. In fact, I didn’t want to preach on this. I actually wanted to preach on our inheritance as sons. That what I started preparing for. And then, I think it must have been God only who pointed me to the obvious fact, in both Romans 8 and Galatians 4, that before inheritance is spoken about, intimacy is spoken about, intimacy and assurance. This relating with the Father is given importance, before inheritance. It is placed before inheritance, then only, inheritance comes. If you keep reading, you know, Romans eight, we read 15 and 16, 17 is about the inheritance, being as heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. That’s what I wanted to speak about. But then, the more I began to meditate on it, I realize, you can’t skip this and go to that. You’ve got to go here first, then only there. Intimacy first, then only inheritance. This affects everything. Without this, everything is affected; with this, everything is better.

On Friday evening, in the prayer session, my father spoke about things we can do to promote fellowship, close fellowship with God. He’s talking about that connection between, you know, living, overcoming sin, and how that helps us, or helps promote fellowship with God. And right after, that Sunday, currently, now we are preaching on intimacy with God. These are not coincidences. If you’re a Christian, first of all, you should stop believing in coincidences. God rules and reigns, overall. He orchestrates everything for the wellbeing of his children. And I believe God is inviting you. God is inviting you to pursue intimacy with Him. No matter what you’re going through, God is saying, “You pursue this. You pursue this and I’ll take care of the rest. You pursue this and see what happens. Give this the number one place”. Now, you may say, “Well, how do I pursue it? How do I practically pursue this? And how do I have this experience? Experience sounds great! Romans 8:15-16, the photo looks amazing but how do we get this?” I want to say some words on that and then close.

To answer the question, how. I cannot give you a set formula or a method because that’s not how you attain intimacy. Even in a human relationship, between parent and child or husband and wife, there is no set formula which you can just take and use and that is not going to guarantee intimacy. There’s nothing like that because intimacy is a dynamic thing. It involves two people and their responses and there’s no formula, there’s no method. It’s not something that you can control completely and just manipulate like that. It’s not a mechanical thing; it’s a dynamic thing. It’s something that should happen, you know, in a dynamic and natural way, not in a forced way. Not only that, but I also said, in intimacy, there are two sides. So, when you’re talking about intimacy with God, there’s you and there’s God. So, you can’t control God; you can’t control the Holy Spirit. I can’t; nobody can. We can’t control the Holy Spirit; we can’t manipulate the Holy Spirit; He’s God. Jesus said in John, chapter 3, “The Spirit works as He wishes, the wind blows where it wishes”. The Holy Spirit has the freedom; He’s God. You can’t control or manipulate Him, but He promises to draw near, if we draw near. “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you”, the Scripture says. God is the One inviting us to have fellowship. And so, we believe that God will be faithful to His word and that God wants us more than you want God. Do you believe that? I believe that.

God desires you more than you desire God. So, when you take a step toward God, I believe God will take more than a step towards you. But thing is, what I’m trying to say is, there’s no set formula, there’s no set method, there’s no, do this and it’s all set and you can’t control God, you can’t manipulate God. But there are some things that you can do, that increase the chances of intimacy happening. There are some things that you can do that, that put you in a better position to enjoy this. There are some things you can do, where, generally speaking, the Holy Spirit will reciprocate and give you this amazing experience of closeness. Just like in a human relationship, you can do certain things to put yourself in a position to enjoy the closeness in that relationship, or you can do certain things to come away from that closeness. You can do certain things to destroy the intimacy, you can also do certain things to promote intimacy, and so, let me give you some examples of what you can do to promote intimacy with God, increase, put yourself in a better position so that the Holy Spirit can give you this amazing experience. Some simple things you can do, I’m talking about things like spending time with God’s Word. There’s something simple, but the thing is, you should do with this goal. Meaning, you should you do it and we read the Bible. We look at the Word and we meditate on it, we hear the Word for various reasons, with various goals in mind and it’s fine. You know, sometimes we read to receive a promise, sometimes we need to get a solution, sometimes we read to hear God’s voice, whatever, right. All that’s fine but I’m saying, there should also be reading, spending time with God’s Word, just for the sake of getting close to God. Just to hear His voice. Just to hear the sound of His voice. Is that kind of reading there? Do you do that? If you totally leave that out and just read, you know, just two chapters so you can fulfill some law in your head, that I’ve read two chapters today. See, intimacy doesn’t work that way. If you do things out of a sense of duty, in a human relationship, you can imagine that there’s not much room for intimacy to grow there. There should be that sense of love, there should be that sense of, I’m coming to this for God’s sake, to be close to God, and spending time with the Word. 

Let me also say it’s not just, I think, we need to spend time with the great truths of God’s Word. The great truth of God’s Word. I’m talking about the Gospel, what God has done in and through His Son, Jesus Christ. How He has sent His Son to die on the Cross, to rise again for you and me, because He loves us so much, and how He has saved us and all He is prepared for us, and what all He wants to give us. And the amazing kind of life He has planned for us. You need to take these kinds of truths and spend time with that, meditate on that. That’s something I believe that will promote, lead to, this kind of intimacy.

Take Romans 8, for example, before Paul brings in this very lofty, beautiful experience, he spends eight chapters, teaching some of the great truths of Christianity, the Gospel, salvation, right. Before talking about this amazing, high experience that we can have as Christians, as believers, he is teaching, teaching, teaching, teaching for eight chapters. Now, what that shows you, same way in Galatians, for four chapters, gives heavy teaching, then only brings in this. I believe what that shows is, you don’t pursue the experience, you pursue the truth; you pursue the experience through truth. It’s important because in today’s world, people go after the experience, especially – especially in the Pentecostal world. Go after this experience, that experience, you know, this power, that power, this feeling, that feeling, right. We’re talking about experience only today, we’re talking about feelings only today, but the thing is, you don’t get experience by pursuing experience, you get experience by pursuing the truth, by pursuing the Gospel, by pursuing Jesus. When you pursue Jesus, the Holy Spirit shows up. The more you pursue Jesus, the more the Holy Spirit manifests. You shouldn’t flip that.

So, spend time with God and the Word, and the Gospel, the great truths of the Gospel, keep your eyes on Jesus, spend time in prayer. When you pray, again, we can pray with many goals in mind but at least, some of the time, we’ve got to pray just to talk to God. Just to be close to God, we must want to pray, at least, some of the time. Jonathan Edwards said that one of the differences between a real Christian and a moral Christian is, a model Christian always goes to God because of what God can give him or do for him. A moral Christian, namesake Christian, is one who always approaches God only for what God can give them or what God can do for them. A real Christian, a true believer, is one who approaches God, at least, some of the time, for God’s sake Himself. Or you can put it like this: He wants God for who God is. He wants God, just to be close to God, and not just to get something from God, or get God to do something. Yeah, we can get God to do something and God will do and God will hear and God will help and God will. All that is there but, at least, some of the time, the real Christian, the true believer, approaches God, just to be close to God, just to want God, just to be in His presence, just to hear His voice. Because that itself, gives Him great joy, great satisfaction, great peace.

The Psalmist talks about waiting on the Lord. I think that is important. Like I said, you can’t manipulate God, you can’t control God, you can’t control the Holy Spirit. He’s not a power that you can control or something. No, no, He’s a person. And so, we do what the Psalmist does and the Psalmist says, “I wait on the Lord, wait on the Lord, more than a watchman waits for the morning, I wait on the Lord Jesus”. He says, Psalm 130. And some of the time, he’s waiting for an answer; some of the time, he’s waiting for a solution, but some of the time, he’s just waiting for God to manifest His presence, His glory, His love. He’s just waiting to get close to God. I’m talking about how practically you can do things to promote intimacy. You can spend time worshiping God, singing, or just playing a song and just meditating on the words and the truth in the song and just worshiping God. And God, the Holy Spirit has the freedom and the grace to show up and to manifest Himself in special ways to you. You do what you can do. You trust God to be a good and gracious and merciful God, and to give you this amazing kind of experience. I believe God wants to give us this kind of experience, so that He can satisfy us, so that His name and He will be glorified.

Why does God want to give us this kind of experience? Why does God invite us to get near to Him, be close with Him? Is it because He’s lonely or something? No, my friend. He wants you to have the best joy possible. He’s not lonely. The Triune God is never lonely. He doesn’t need our fellowship; He desires our fellowship. Why? For our sake and His glory. For our sake because He wants us to have the best joy possible, the best the joy, the best happiness. The best fulfilment and satisfaction are found in His presence. In His presence, there is fullness of joy, the Bible says. At His right hand, there are pleasures for evermore. So, God wants you to get close to Him because that’s where you can get the greatest joy and satisfaction. Psalm 84:10 says, “One day in courts is better than a thousand days elsewhere”. One day! Psalm 63, let me just read some verses here and then close. It’s talking about how this is so amazing and the Psalmist sees this as so amazing and he longs for this. Look at Psalm 63: O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. He says, “I’m thirsting for You, fainting for You”. Verse 2: So, I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. He says, “I want to look upon You”. Verse 3: Because your steadfast love is better than life… King David is talking here. He’s saying, “Your steadfast love is better than life itself”. My lips will praise you. So, I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands. Verse 5: My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night… He’s saying, “When I think about You in my bed; in the night, when I think about You and meditate on You, when I spend time on You, my soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food”. Like my body is satisfied with yummy food; even then my soul will be satisfied with Your presence, like that. It’ll be so good to my soul, so fulfilling, satisfying, better than eating the best Biriyani! The most scrumptious meal.

My friend, there is a great deal of joy to be had. There is a great deal of satisfaction waiting for you in the presence of God. God is inviting you. Draw near to Him. When you are satisfied the most by Him, is when He gets the most glory. Whatever you are satisfied by, is what you are glorifying the most. And when you are satisfied by God’s presence, just by being close to God, God gets the most glory.

Let’s pray.

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