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Prayer and Spiritual Intimacy (Part I)
By A. Davinciandres
Traditionally defined, prayer is our communication with God. For some that might not understand how God has defined Himself, prayer is simply a communication with the creative force of the universe. For others, prayer might be talking to nature, to oneself or even meditation. Others might have a bit more fixed definition that could be the act of asking or talking to a God, who can really give the unimaginable. For others, prayer is limited mostly to intercede for work, health, family, friends, peace, etc... Now, let’s focus on the meaning of prayer from my very personal spiritual perspective, hoping that, although many will differ with me about religious beliefs, we might share spiritual principles and the principles of faith that operates in everyone’s prayer. This way, we can enrich and fulfill the purpose of communication with a supernatural being. Let's use the analogy between a parent and child to understand what we do to the Holy Spirit of God in our lives. How many times have parents talking to their children and they do not listen? It also happens between spouses. They might acknowledge someone is talking to them, they say they are hearing, but they are not really listening. Then they might even deny part of the talking if they disagree with what was said. There is something very special called "familiarity" in relationships; or "false intimacy", that alienates us so that we end up losing the blessings of the communication and its real purpose in the relationship. Familiarity impedes meaningful communication; familiarity takes for granted intimacy, when in fact is in the process of been lost forever. Meditate on this example so that you can improve your self-awareness and your prayer life. We are also motivated by carnal interests with which the Holy Spirit of God has no part. Every now and then, It happens that when we believers are in the flesh, we intend to bring the Holy Spirit in our lives by means of prayer, but in daily walk we forget that He even exists. Conscience reminds us of our new relationship, but we failed to treat him as the special guest we invited into our hearts. We treated Him with so much consideration at first and felt so good that we asked politely to deem Himself at home. We started developing a relationship, but did not mature enough within a real spiritual intimacy. Once again, familiarity becomes routine. If our God is real, it is impossible to talk about Prayer without Spirit. How do we relate with the Holy Spirit? How dependable is this connection? Unfortunately, over time and subtly we begin by giving NO more room in our hearts. In other words, we don’t make an interactive plan to deepen our relationship. We like to think that He is within us. Yet we do not share it because we are afraid to say that we do not feel the Spirit dwelling in our lives. But we are unwilling to let Him take possession of our whole being, so we can hear His voice clearly. The problem with that is that when the Spirit came into our lives, our whole attention was fixed on Him. Perhaps we were so broken that right there, in that little space inside our hearts, we were sensitive to His comfort, His words, His direction and His promises. We were receiving meaningful communication, we were listening and God was speaking. But we became stronger and gave Him no more space and the other rooms of our heart were closed and remained in its old condition. If the Holy Spirit could come into every corner of your heart, you would hear his voice constantly in all areas of your life, twenty-four hours a day. Many Christians still wonder why they cannot feel God's voice directing their lives to make wise decisions and discern about important issues. Why they can’t feel the voice of God giving them a word of knowledge? Why they can’t feel God's voice giving a prophetic word for their life or the lives of others? Because they can’t feel confident enough to challenge adverse circumstances in the name of Jesus. Is it related to the size of their faith, their spirituality, or to their prayer life? We don’t know for sure. Think: From the Bible we can discern that the spiritual realm is full of emotions, an infinite variety of feelings. Not that any particular verse declare so, but the creation is plenty of details as variations in the mineral, vegetal or animal kingdom; reason why evolutionist haven’t found any indisputable intermediate proof-link in the fossil registry. There are multi-channels of divine communication as frequencies of vibrations in sounds and values in the color spectrum as well. Humans just filter a limited amount they can translate thru their five senses. Without spiritual maturity the human being is unable to translate spiritual messages within feelings into genuine words. There most be trillions of un-registered, not recorded and un-detected answered prayers in the human history. Think: Prayer and spiritual intimacy is about becoming spiritually sensitive. Nevertheless, the dilemma is fundamental when we look at some character traits of the Holy Spirit. Without Intention to wander or blaspheme, the Spirit of God would be as the female person of God. Is it because God is in part woman? Of course not. God is neither woman nor man, God is Spirit. But it contains all the features from the beginning God placed in us when we were created in His image and likeness. Therefore the Holy Spirit of God is very sensitive, gentle and delicate, as those character traits of the woman who came out of man, these features make her different. What advantage would be for the trinity of an omnipresent God, if the three divine persons were all equal? So the Holy Spirit, who is not a woman, has some characteristics similar to those that God has placed on woman to make her different to men. The sensitivity, gentleness, humility and the God’s edifying wisdom that God intended women to have, are shown in the Holy Spirit. Subsequently, the Holy Spirit of God is very subtle when dealing with free will that God gave man. Would not go where is not invited and is so sensitive to the truth, that even within his divine authority, is always humble in the face of all established authority. Gives you comfort and peace, inspires you and makes you feel glad with the joy of the Lord. Also accompany you, advises you, warns you and also anoints you with spiritual gifts. It teaches you, instructs you, discerns for you and trains you in the way of the Lord. The Holy Spirit alerts your conscience; He gives you messages, gives you words and allows you to feel the love of God. But most significant is that the Holy Spirit does all this in a very subtle and delicate way. Is your heart open to the gifts of God? Is your ear inclined to the soft voice of His Spirit? Are you treating the Spirit of God with the courtesy He deserves? Being in a position of spiritual intimacy without doubt will improve your prayer life and its effectiveness!
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Great analogies and very well written.
Thank you for sharing.
Best wishes.
Frederick
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