For fourteen years I did prison ministry and then God called me out to start writing. I went from serving Him in front of others to serving others in front of Him. I have been in an intense season of getting dangerously close to God, yet once there finding it to be the safest place anywhere that someone could be.
I never imagined that someone like me could get anywhere so close to our Mighty God. I have discovered that our nearness to Him is never by our qualifications, but only by our desire to be near Him. He wants us close, but will we dare draw near to Him?
Below are some things I have written on this topic. My prayer is that you would dare to draw ever nearer to Him and experience the adventure of life lived near our Mighty God.
Drawing near to the Lord is an act of the heart and not of the mind, because intimacy is founded on love. “If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find Me” (Jeremiah 29:13 NLT).
The only qualification to be near God is a willing heart.
We can go boldly before God, not by our goodness, but because of His abundant grace. “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).
If you really want to be closer to God, then do it. It is not in your effort, but by your submission.
The greatest barrier between you and God is yourself. You even think it will be by your efforts that will draw you closer to God. Drawing near to God is not by sweat but by tears.
We can never do the work to be near God because Jesus alone could do this work for us. “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13).
We think we must do something grand to be nearer to Him. But the grandest truth in all of eternity is that He loves us just as we are.
The goal of drawing near to Jesus is not so He will hear you better, but that you will hear Him better. Your prayer life is your life with Jesus. “Make your life a prayer” (1 Thessalonians 5:17 TPT).
The path to God is on the wings of a prayer. The measure by which God moves in your life is the measure to which your life is devoted to Him in prayer.
We are meant to be near to the Lord, and prayer is the means in which we get there. “Adonai is close to all who call on him, to all who sincerely call on him.” (Psalm 145:18 CJB).
You are nearest to God when you are on your knees. If you want to grow more in your faith, pray more.
You wouldn’t have to keep returning to Him if you would just stay with Him. The Lord Jesus taught us, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
Never be so focused on what you are doing for the Lord that you do not draw near to the Lord. “But it is good for me to draw near to God…” (Psalm 73:28).
There is nothing you cannot take to the Lord Jesus. It is those things you will not take to Him that stand between you and Him. Whether it is a secret sin or a secret shame, take it to the Lord in prayer. Be as honest to Him as you want to be near to Him.
To get close to God you must become further from man. Jesus taught us, “But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly” (Matthew 6:6).
If you want to get closer to Christ, you must get further away from everything that is not of Christ.
People say that they want to be close to God. No, they don’t. Their lives prove it. You can be as near to God as you want.
Until you realize your great distance from God, you will not even know to draw nearer to Him.
If you are not near to God, know it is you that needs to move. “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (James 4:8).
To the degree you want to be near the Lord, you will be. It is not the Lord that resists man, but man who resists the Lord.
If you want to be nearer to God, you must become further from the world.
Anyone can be near to God, but only a few will. Be one of the few.
Blessings to you,
Paul
All Scripture is in red and uses the NKJV (New King James Version) translation unless otherwise noted.
So very true, Paul. The more I cry out to Him, the closer He comes. My plea is for Him to give me His ears, eyes, the mind of Christ…His heart. And He surely does draw near. I see so many, many people in church living defeated, estranged, from a God waiting, yearning, for them to just turn & come to Him. They wonder why I have joy & peace they can’t comprehend even in the darkest valleys. I try to tell them to just ask. Ask Him to give them His heart. The most effective – & hardest – prayer for them is to break them in love & compassion. Abba created us for fellowship with Him & it is worth *everything* it costs to dwell close to Him. To submit & seek the face of God should be our only desire. All else falls in line after that. If they only understood…. We must keep telling them. Great post & a vital plea & challenge. May God’s shalom rest over & within you.
Beautiful words of truth Paul! He loves us just as we are. We don’t have to be perfect in order to go to him. That’s so refreshing to understand from many different viewpoints. Only one path takes us to him. To know He stands there waiting for us always draws me nearer quicker every time. His grace and mercy are the perfect reward for this obedience. God bless you always💜🙏
Oh yes how He loves us! He loves us to degrees we cannot even imagine. He loves us just as we are. We need do nothing more than come to Him. Jesus never said, do this and then follow Me. No, He said follow Me. It is so simple that most do not get it. Blessings to you and thank you for your kind words!
Thank you for this wonderful word! How much people in the church need to be stirred up to the things of God. To the faith that changes them. To a life that is filled with light, hope. and love. You are doing a great ministry in that people see you and wonder what is going on? Someone at peace and harmony with God is thought strange in the world, and sadly enough, even in our churches. But let them think what they will, you and I know that they long to have such a life of peace and harmony with God. Keep preaching in your living and some are going to hear your message.
Thank for this
You are very welcome!
WOW. THIS REALLY RINGS TRUE. IVE EXPERIENCED THIS.
Nothing compares to an encounter with our Mighty God!
This is good and true but what about those days when Father God seems so far away?
I think that just as our body thirsts and it causes us to seek water, so our spirit thirsts for God and it causes us to seek Him.
I want to be as close to God as possible. I Pray, I cry, I get depressed and anxious. I hurt especially if I feel I hurt. I think I am doing right by telling them when they do wrong. He is now 46 yrs old and I have not seen him for 5 yrs. we began communicating online about 5 months ago. He refuses to call me mom and as of a few days ago has basically cut me off. He talks about al the terrible things I put him through, but does not say what. It was not an easy life, but he was/is the love of my life. I am lost as to understand. I love all people and I was stressed, but always his needs first. I am reading a daily book by Sarah Young. It is great. I do not have a good memory. But these words day by day touch me so deeply. I am at a loss as to what I can do. God Help Me Please. I also have a 29 yr old daughter(daddy’s girl) who shows me no respect at all. I Pray and Pray. Am I getting farther from God?
That devotional by Sarah Young is such a good book for you to be going through during this time in your life. I have had many tell me that “Streams in the Desert” is also very good as we go through the hard seasons. What I think is that we often draw nearest to the Lord when the road is hard. We may think it is not how we would get closer to Him, yet we see throughout scripture how adversity often leads to returning to Him. Consider the prodigal son, it took him to be eating pig food before he would run home. And the father saw him from far off. Praying for your situation with your son. Love him and pray for him, giving him to the Lord and seeking the Lord to how you can love him even when he does not respond. Seek first the Lord, that is always the right thing to do.
Thanks Paul its very true whenever our prayer life changes and we devote ourselves so much in prayer that bring us so near to God and things begin to change addictions leave our lives, sckines go, poverty and others and what you have said that things which stop us from coming near to the father we should always bring them to Him in prayer sometimes we need to empty our hearts to Him to take control everything. Blessing Paul
Oh yes Ken, how much we need to take everything to the Father, that which belongs that He would firm these things up stronger in our life, and that which does not belong, that He would remove those things from our life. He is a good Father, there is nothing we cannot go to Him and find help.
I love this verse: “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).
Another great post Paul! I recently came across this book, The Art of praying the Scriptures ~ A fresh look at Lectio Divina I’ve read the first couple chapters on my Kindle and it’s fascinating! To sum this up it’s praying, meditating, asking questions such as ‘what does this mean Lord’? If a scripture jumps off the page to you, stop right there. Take it apart and turn it into a prayer….
I thought this kinda goes along with your post Paul. As always I look forward to reading your posts.
Lynn I think that is such a great way to get into the Word of God. It follows the inductive study method which yields far more than merely reading the opinions of other men, and instead relying upon the Holy Spirit to help us as we use our own effort to uncover the truths in Scripture. With deductive study methods we approach the Word with a premise, the answer if you will, and then seek to support what we thought the answer should be. Inductive gets into the Word without a preconceived conclusion, and seeks to gather the facts, to have revelations given, such that we can reach the conclusions without any preconceptions.
Thanks for this treasures ! I am experiencing something similar ! God has done so many miracles in my life ! I want to writte a book about it ! Please pray for me . I don’t know how to start but I am waiting the Lords leading !
Oh Amy, it is the most incredible life once we get near to God, and God begins to move in mighty ways around us! I do hope you would write a book, maybe start off with a blog like what I have going. I want to write a book too, so i started with a sentence, and then some short blogs!
Now that things have settled down around here, I’m finally getting caught up on reading my fave blogs. THIS blog post is amazing! Thank you, I really needed to read this right at this moment!
Thank you my friend! It is such an amazing journey we take to get from being on our own all the way to being near to God. It is only a small turn, but it seems as though it is a thousand miles, until we make that small turn, and there He is!