What is the foundation of intimacy with God? As someone who treasures a personal relationship with God, it can be easy to fall into the trap of basing relationship upon emotions, feelings and experiences while diminishing the unadulterated Word of God and the atonement for our sins only found through Jesus Christ. The more you and I get to know the Lord through His Word, the written Word of God, the more we understand that our personal relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit cannot rest solely in experiences and emotions, but it must be solidified and tested in the intimate understanding and time spent in His Word that is God breathed and inspired by the Holy Spirit. This is the foundation of intimacy with God.

We find several passages in Scripture where God speaks of writing His Word on our hearts. In Jeremiah 31:33 and Hebrews 8:10 it says,

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

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Hebrews 10:16 says, “This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My Laws in their hearts and inscribe them on their minds.” Psalm 40:8 says, “I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” We know that the New Covenant has been established through Jesus Christ and His sacrifice and atonement for our sins. He is the Word, and He gave new commands, which fulfilled the Old Covenant: to love the Lord with all of our mind, soul and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. When we know the One who is the Word and we abide in Him, we can truly testify that His Word is written on our hearts of flesh. We demonstrate what Paul said to the Corinthian church, that we are a letter from Christ, written by the Spirit of the Living God on tablets of human hearts (2 Corinthians 3:3).

Who is your foundation?

It is vital as professed believers in Jesus Christ and adopted sons of God that the Word of God, the infallible Word of God is the foundation upon which we base our relationship with God. Jesus Christ is our chief cornerstone, the sure foundation, the Word made flesh. There should be a zeal and a desire for the Word of God in every true believer. David testified of this in Psalm 119:97 when he said, “Oh how I love your law! All day long it is my meditation.” If we do not love the Word and we do not meditate on His Word, then we reject true intimacy with God. And when we meditate on His Word, this means not editing His Word, redacting what offends and separates the true from the false. Meditating on His Word will bring maturity in the body of Christ and will help us to not be deceived by winds of doctrine.

As God calls us into maturity, He desires for His bride to have a solid foundation upon the Word of God, worshiping the Lord in Spirit and in truth. Let me say this with all humility: our foundation cannot be found merely in prophetic words received through fallible vessels, but every word must be tested against Scripture. Intimacy with God is not assured in how many times we fall under the power of God or how many manifestations we attest to witness. Intimacy is not measured in accuracy of prophecy. It is not found in titles or accolades of man. Intimacy is evident in our testifying of Jesus Christ by His Spirit and by the Word of God and consummation is found in the fruits of the Spirit manifesting in our lives as the branches abiding in the Vine. Period. If you want to consummate fellowship with God, you must know His Word. How can we be doers of the Word when we do not even know what it says? Too many messages in this hour are being preached with the Word as a garnish rather than the main course, and the garnish never gets eaten. It simply compliments the “meal” without questioning the substance of the message. What are you eating spiritually?

Fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, you and I have a responsibility to know the Word of God in its proper context. This is not the sole duty of pastors and other leaders. Yes, they are held to a higher accountability as teachers, but each of us will give an account to God. Goosebumps and manifestations are not the plumbline of intimacy with God. You can have every manifestation imagined and yet not know Him or He even be in the midst of those things. I believe that we are heading down a dangerous path when Scripture is not consulted in personal and corporate conduct. The Word of God is the plumbline and a testimony in our lives to how we truly know Christ. With a Word that is God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16), we cannot question the intimate nature of this sure foundation. May we build the house of God on the Rock and not on the sand, and may we demonstrate to fellow believers and to the world that we truly know Him by being a letter from Christ.