24 Sep IHOP (International House of Prayer) Can I have your order please? Part 4
Over the last few weeks, we began to lay some foundational principles of prayer and we began our discussion on “4 Powerful Principles of Prayer”:
- Prayer is a Demonstration of Love.
- Prayer is a Recognition of Grace.
- Prayer is an Invitation to His Will.
This week, let’s continue our discussion…
- Prayer is the Foundation of Intimacy (Phil. 3:10).
We all know many people…we are intimate with a few! Intimacy has its benefits!
Two Interesting Items of Intimacy:
1) Intimacy creates privileges.
God’s most treasured possessions will be entrusted to those who can be trusted. The twelve disciples got to go farther and see more with Jesus than the 70. Peter, James, and John got to go farther and see more with Jesus than the twelve.
Before my dad retired, he was president of a company. Whenever I would call I would initially get the run-around. Understandably so, they were trying to screen the president from unwanted calls. As soon as they discovered that I was Dad’s son, I was immediately patched through! Intimacy has its privileges.
2) Intimacy releases you from offense.
Approximately 14 years ago, I could barely walk and barely talk. I believed in healing and had believed I’d received mine. However for six months I not only did not get any better, I grew worse. I remember being tempted to be offended at God. “After all”, the devil would say, “God could do something about this if He wanted to.” The devil from the beginning of time has always tried to posture God as a “withholder” or a “taker”. However, because I was intimate with God, I knew His character and nature…I knew He was not the problem but the solution!
When you are intimate with God not only will you never be offended at God but you’ll never be offended at man! When I was a young Christian there were times when I would see the “humanity” of leadership and it would bother me. Now because I am intimate with God, if I saw Billy Graham chewing tobacco, drinking a beer and cussing out a McDonald’s worker it would not affect my walk with God one tiny bit. I would be saddened for him and his family and the Body of Christ, but it would not affect my relationship with God at all. Intimacy releases you from offense!
Next week we’ll continue our series.