Deception has crept into mankind through sin and has corrupted these desires. The longing for intimacy still exists, but rather than satisfaction, comfort and protection - the end result has become discontentment, pain and regret. Love is the key ingredient in being intimate and satisfying these desires, yet the enemy has cunningly disguised lust as love, and many fall victim to his schemes, perverting the gifts of God.
Intimacy was originally created to be between God and man, what I call "vertical intimacy". I was meditating on 1 Corinthians 1:4-9 this morning and God began to reveal His desire and His call for us to be intimate with Him through His Son Jesus Christ.
Verse 9 reads: "God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." I looked up the word fellowship in Strong's concordance and found that the word "koinōnia" can be defined as: communing intimately; having intercourse; to connect. Looking again at verse 9, we can clearly see that God has called us to intimately know His Son. This "vertical" intimacy is why God created us. It is the reason why God sent His Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins - so that we could be clothed in His righteousness and be made holy as He is holy. This sanctification (cleansing of our sins) allows us the ability to enter into the presence of a Holy God and begin to intimately "know" Him. God saved us for Himself. He wants to reveal His hidden treasures, His hidden mysteries, He wants to share His joy and bring us pure pleasure in His embrace.
This is why God instituted marriage, to give us a type and shadow of how He wants our relationship to be with Jesus as our husband, us being His wife. The LORD desires that in marriages between a man and a woman, the two become one, grow together in pure intimacy, and experience joy together in fellowship by truly getting to know each other. I call this type of intimacy "horizontal intimacy".
It is only in these two covenants that true intimacy can exist. However, if we are not careful it is possible to allow perversion to enter into even these two holy relationships. Some of us may have fallen victim to the enemy's illusion of experiencing intimacy outside of the covenants set up by God. In doing so, we have perverted our minds and may very well bring something into a relationship that has nothing to do with God. Sometimes soul ties exist, which are emotional ties that develop through relational contact with another person. This happens not only through sexual intercourse, but also occurs when you become so close to someone that they become tied into your soul - you begin to think about them (mind), desire to be around them (will), and/or are affected by them emotionally. It is possible to have a soul tie and not even realize it. Sometimes people suppress them rather than ask God to remove them. This not only affects your intimacy with Jesus, but will also affect your intimacy with your spouse in the event that you are or one day do marry. Soul ties create hurt and can cause people to put up barricades and hold back from being completely open. Their main assignment is to stop true intimacy and unity and instead bring dissention and division. Whether you are aware of a soul tie or not, I adjure you to first examine your relationship with God. Are you experiencing pure intimacy with Him? If not, ask Him to cleanse you, to remove every soul tie that is coming in between you and Him. And He will cleanse you!
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." - 1 John 1:19
If you are married, be open with your spouse! Sometimes details of your past are better left unsaid - you don't want to create unnecessary warfare on either ones behalf. But if there are any issues with you, or if you notice any issues with your spouse, bring them before the LORD and deal with them so that you can experience the pure intimacy that God desires. God wants us free from ALL soul ties so that we can freely get to know Him and our spouse.
If you are not married, now is the time to sanctify yourself and deal with these issues! In the event you do get married one day, you do not want to bring any mess into the relationship. You don't want to bring anything unholy into the bedroom. The marriage bed itself is undefiled, but we can defile it by bringing in our past, our lusts, our perversions, our comparisons, our expectations, our soul ties. Allow God to shower you with His anointing, to remove every burden and destroy every yolk. To sanctify you by the washing of His Word.
Let us all strive to be more intimate with our husband Jesus Christ. Start today. Ask Him to remove every hindrance and be completely open - stand bare and transparent before Him. Our husband is a perfect gentleman, who will never take advantage of us, never hurt us, and will love us unconditionally, even when we don't love Him back.
Feb 18, 2008: I just came across a website link that I thought was very interesting pertaining to this very blog entry: http://www.pureintimacy.org
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