Standsure Ministries

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INTIMACY WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT
By Wayne C Anderson

OUR FELLOWSHIP WITH THE FATHER OF LIGHTS

To have fellowship with the Father can mean denial of fellowship with others.

• “And he said to them all, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23)

• “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.” (James 4:8)

Often times in the Church, we become involved in the “food, fun and fellowship” to the establishment of a kind of social order. Though it cannot be denied that fellowship with other believers is important to spiritual growth, this can be greatly overdone. Fellowship with the Father will mean not having the kind of fellowship with others that consumes time and energy, but a developing of desire to be alone with Him.

• “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” (1 John 1:3)

It takes the brave, to leave the activities of the day and find a certain place, just to be alone with God, to love the Holy Spirit as one would a romantic lover, to exit the crowd and get alone just to talk with and be with Him. On many occasions the Holy Spirit has given me a gentle nudge during my work day and said, “I’d like to have lunch with you.” I stop what I am doing and go to lunch with only Him. It’s wonderful. Imagine sitting across the table from the Wisdom of the ages, the Creator of the universe. Abiding in Him is the most romantic adventure that a love thirsty soul could experience.

Sometimes I’ve had to cancel an important meeting for Him. I must thoughtfully look for ways to show my preferences toward Him instead of just taking life as it comes.

At times, my life gets so busy that I need to prove to myself that my wife is most important in my life. I must make choices that say I’m staying with her I’m leaving the world behind to be in contact with her only. This strengthens my covenant with my wife. Whether she knows fully what I am doing or not is immaterial. She does need to know that I hold her in the highest regard in my life, however.

There are covenant acts of intimacy that “strengthen” a relationship. When we practice those covenant acts of intimacy with desire in our hearts, the covenant of relationship becomes stronger and the love is more of a force for victory.

For my birthday, one year, my wife Irene took me on a romantic holiday for two nights and three days, to the famous Rosario Resort in the San Juan Islands, of Washington State. Rosario is a picturesque old mansion that is nestled into a cove on Orcas Island, in the Straits of Juan de Fuca, where the Pacific Ocean makes its way in between the landmasses of two mountain chains. Eventually it forms into Puget Sound, where the Port of Seattle is, with the Olympic Peninsular mountains on one side, the beautiful Cascade mountains on the other, and majestic Mount Rainier overlooking the Sound and the city. This is some of the most exquisite scenery in the world. We were seated across the table from each other, in Rosario’s beautiful restaurant, in a wonder filled atmosphere of romance, totally in love with each other.

A man by the name of Christopher Peacock was playing a grand piano, and there were a number of other couples around us at other tables eating and laughing and obviously enjoying each other’s company. Irene and I were simply enjoying each other. One couple that was also dining in the restaurant got up and went over to the piano and began holding each other and slow dancing.

Now this wasn’t the sort of place for dancing and thus, it was an “out of place” sort of thing to do. This just was not the sort of restaurant where one would dance, and it put an uncomfortable feeling in the atmosphere, at first. It was kind of a shock. Irene looked at me and said, “Are they supposed to be doing that?” I returned her query with an anecdote so that we both laughed, and then the voice of the Lord came to me so loud that I actually thought that everyone in the place heard Him. He said, “Wayne, I want to dance with you.”

I looked at Irene and asked, “Did you hear that?” She answered, “Hear what?” So, I told her that the Lord had just spoken to me and said, “Wayne, I want to dance with you.” Tears came to her eyes, and to mine, as the presence of the Lord filled the area where we were seated. Irene then said, “You know, intimacy and strong covenant is made when two dance together.”

The Lord was speaking to us of His longing to have the covenant intimacy and of sharing time and hearts with us. He was also showing us how important He feels that dancing with Him can be. He is the Lord of the dance.

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In the following weeks, I will be placing some short blog posts on different subjects concerning Intimacy with the Holy Spirit. Some guidance and remembrances of how to remain “heart to heart” with Him and some guidances for getting intimate with the Lord.

So, please watch for the posts and comment to keep me encouraged if you’d like more. Also please use the comment section of the blog post page to ask questions that you might have along the way.

Remember that the oldest and the first blog post is on the bottom of the front page and you can use the “Categories” selection to the right for the entire group of posts.