DRAW NEAR: GOD WANTS US TO KNOW HIM

This post is also available in: Español (Spanish)

It is an amazing thought that God wants you and me to get to know Him. God desires for us to draw near to Him. If he did not, He would not have said, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (James 4:8). What an invitation! Will you accept it? God is calling you to draw near so that He can draw near to you. If you want to grow closer to God all you need to do is draw near to Him.

God loves you! I know we know this, but do we understand that God wants to spend time with us? We know we should read His Word and pray. However, do we do it as a chore or is it something that we do to draw closer to Him? When we desire to know God more reading the Bible and praying are no longer a chore or duty, but rather a desire from within.

When we try to read the Bible and pray because we should, it becomes very hard and dry. However, when we realize we have the privilege to know Him better, this is the way it becomes a lot easier and more desirable. Let us look at some benefits of drawing near to God:

1.      We are no longer Orphans

“If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you anotherHelper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. John 14:15-18

God so much wants to have an intimate relationship with you that He sent you a Helper, the Holy Spirit. You are no longer an orphan. You are God’s son or daughter. God has brought us near through His Holy Spirit. Now that His Holy Spirit lives within us we can draw near to Him. 

God wants you to identify with Him as your Father. Maybe your earthly Father disappointed or hurt you, but your Heavenly Father never will. God wants to be close to you. Jesus said, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him” (John 14:23b) Another wonderful promise: God wants to make His home in you!

2.      When you draw near you experience Him.

 ^“Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49).

In this Scripture Jesus is preparing them for the infilling of the Holy Spirit. He was telling them to wait on God or draw near to Him. As they did, they would have an experience with Him. There are times in our lives where God wants to be more real to us than before. Some people are just happy with knowing that Jesus saved them, but there is so much more to the salvation experience.

You can know His Power. He invited His disciples to wait until they received power. He did not want them to preach until they had it. You can find the fulfilment of this in Acts 2:1-4. God still wants His disciples to have this experience with power. This experience was not only for the apostles. If it were, then the gentiles would not have experienced it in Acts 10:44-48.

There are many more experiences that God wants to have with you. He wants to meet with you. Do not just make this a “set time” occasionally. Choose to seek God every day.  He waits for you to draw near to Him. He enjoys our time with Him!

3.      The Apostle Paul longed to draw near to experience Him

that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death (Philippians 3:10).

This verse came from a man who had an amazing salvation experience in Acts 9. He knew he was saved. He had seen many mighty miracles. Yet he still desired to know God more and experience the power of His resurrection. There is always more in God!

Paul was close to God. He received many revelations. God used him in such powerful ways. His secret was that he longed to draw near to God. The more we experience God, the more we will want to experience Him.

4.      As you draw near you too will experience more of Him

that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:16-19).

The Father’s love is so close to you. You can call on Him anytime. You are accepted so you can draw near to Him. Allow Him to come and make His dwelling place in you!

Steven Stoffelsen

Author of Trusting God’s Timing

Founder of House of Refuge Street Ministries