{"id":5981,"date":"2020-10-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/?p=5981"},"modified":"2024-10-08T15:32:14","modified_gmt":"2024-10-08T15:32:14","slug":"day-45-the-secret-of-intimacy-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/2020\/10\/07\/day-45-the-secret-of-intimacy-first\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 45: The Secret Of Intimacy First"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>\u201cOne thing I have desired of the LORD, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple\u201d\u2014Psalm 27:4<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cIntimacy with God must be our first priority before anything else, even before our works of service. The second commandment (loving others, which are our works of service) \u2018is like\u2019 the first commandment, according to Jesus, and yet Jesus clearly called it \u201csecond\u201d (Matthew 22:39). It\u2019s an extremely close second and difficult to separate from the first, and yet it is second.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u201cIt\u2019s vitally important that we keep first things first. When our love for God gets our first and best attention, then we will function in the spiritual wholeness necessary to execute the second commandment. When our priorities become inverted and we begin placing more emphasis on loving others than loving God, we are headed for certain burnout.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cThe Holy Spirit is profoundly committed to restoring the first commandment to first place in our lives\u2026It\u2019s so important to be able to say, \u2018This is who I am.\u2019 I am not primarily a worker for God; I am first and foremost a lover of God.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u201cThe secret place must have top priority in our calendars and schedules because it is the place where the incubation of intimacy is facilitated. You can\u2019t garner intimacy on the run. You must stop, pull up a table, lay out the bread and the cup, and dine with Him and He with you.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cThe Lord has many ways to bring us to proper priorities. In my case, He simply removed my ministry. Oh how it hurt!\u2026He doesn\u2019t remove everybody\u2019s ministry in order to teach them this valuable lesson. In same cases, He simply starves out our fulfillment in our labors for Him. We\u2019re still doing the same ministry, but it no longer fulfills us. The ministry becomes dry, dusty, lifeless, and laborious. We find ourselves dreading what once energized us.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cHe wants us addicted to the wine of His love (Song of Solomon 1:2), but it\u2019s so easy to become addicted to the wine of ministry. Ministry can be intoxicating. There is a certain \u2018high\u2019 that happens when the grace of God flows through you and ministers to the bride. When her face lights up with the glory of God, you feel a sense of fulfillment and significance because God honored your obedience and blessed others\u2026 It\u2019s not wrong to enjoy ministering to others, but it\u2019s so easy for this to become the addictive wine that intoxicates and fulfills us, and the wine of His love takes second place to this \u2018new wine\u2019 we\u2019ve tasted called ministry.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u201cHe wants us to be people of \u2018one thing\u2019: the passionate pursuit of His face.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cPaul said, \u201cBut one thing I do\u201d\u2014which was the pursuit of \u2018the upward call of God in Christ Jesus\u2019 (Philippians 3:13-14); Mary of Bethany discovered that, \u2018One thing is needed,\u2019 and Jesus added that she had \u2018chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her\u2019 (Luke 10:42). There\u2019s only one thing that is really necessary, and that is to sit at Jesus\u2019 feet and hear His words. David\u2019s one thing was Paul\u2019s one thing was Mary\u2019s one thing. It\u2019s the first commandment in first place, the pursuit of a loving relationship with our dazzling Bridegroom.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u201cAll of hell will militate against your becoming a man or woman of one thing. Circumstances will go haywire; your to-do list will mushroom; the demands on your life will escalate. Satan will employ whatever device will work\u2014anything to keep you from becoming a person of one thing. Because if you find this attainment, you will become a passionate firebrand for God, set ablaze with fiery bridal passions for your Lord, and you will be a dangerous weapon in the hand of your God for endtime exploits. The greatest dimensions of kingdom power will be touched by those who are truly ignited and energized by their personal love relationship with the Lord Jesus.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201c\u2026He is teaching me the secret of loving Him first and deriving my fulfillment and sense of success from the affections He gives me in the secret place. When I\u2019m a success in His arms, the ministry can go well, or it can go not so well; I\u2019m a success on the inside either way. Thus I am stabilized by the power of an inner life with God, rather than being jerked around emotionally by the vicissitudes of the ministry\u2019s ups and downs.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cIn closing, look at Matthew 5:15, \u2018Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.\u2019 The Lord wants to set you ablaze with zeal for the face of Christ so that you might shine with the light of a relationship that enjoys intimacy first. If this fire of love is pure and bright, the Lord will set you on a lampstand so that you might give light to the entire household of faith. But if the light of your life isn\u2019t pure\u2014if it\u2019s energized in part by the wine of ministry\u2014then the Lord will place your light under a basket. Some of the most gifted ministries have been placed under a basket and been limited to a localized sphere of influence because the Lord was not willing to export the impurity of their love to the entire body of Christ.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>&nbsp;<\/em><strong>My Prayer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cOh Lord, purify my heart and motives. May pursuing Your face be my singular most passionate pursuit in life. Deliver me from making the second commandment the first. I know I am called to serve and minister and love others\u2014but Lord, help me never to be intoxicated with that, to the detriment of the true wine of intimacy with You. I confess that many times, the devil had succeeded to keep me chasing secondary things in place of seeking You first. I am sorry for succumbing to Satan\u2019s ploys. Lord, let the desire for Your face consume me. I know that as I grow in this hunger and thirst, kingdom service will automatically blossom as You will open doors for further and farther ministry expressions. But Lord, keep my heart singularly focused on You and Your heart. As You purify my heart and motives, place me as Your light on Your lamp stand for all to see. As I grow in passion for You,&nbsp; grant me victory over all of Satan\u2019s deceptions and distractions. Intoxicate me by Your love and in Your love. Life is so short; may I spend it pursuing Your heart rather than pursuing the things of this world; no matter how good those things are. Oh, that I may grow in experiencing and beholding the beauty of Your face. That is my greatest heart desire. Help me dear Lord. In Your name I pray. Amen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Challenge<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Be ruthless with your calendar and your desires. Make pursuing Jesus your life-priority, and put everything else on a secondary scale. Do it now. Watch out to implement it daily.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cOne thing I have desired of the LORD, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple\u201d\u2014Psalm 27:4 \u201cIntimacy with God must be our first priority before anything else, even before [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-50-days-pilgrim-challenge","category-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/50-days-pilgrim-challenge.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5981"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5983,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5981\/revisions\/5983"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}