Deep Unto Deep - Week #6

Chapter Five: Personal Receiving (continued)

This week we will finish up chapter five on the need to really be “alone with the Alone.”

The author says,

“One of the greatest hindrances to this sweet communion is when I bring others with me into this garden of intimacy…

It is a difficult thing to come before the throne of grace entirely alone in the simplicity of just God and my heart. In so many ways, some conscious, some unaware, I come before Him dragging a collection of other people’s attainments or disappointments, strengths and weaknesses…In my emotions, I approach Him as though He were simultaneously thinking of all of these other people when He looks at me. This is partly because of my fear of being alone with Him…It is also because I am so used to living life in the eyes of many, instead of the eyes of One.”

One of the most powerful prayers prayed by men and women in the Scriptures is “Here I am, Lord.” As I’ve meditated on this prayer, its significance has grown in my understanding over the years because it really is a bedrock statement that I am here alone with You, God, and I come with nothing in my hands nor with anyone else alongside me; it’s just You and me. It’s a separation from all else to be with Him alone. (And this can happen in a crowd as well as in the secret place.)

I say this simple phrase many, many times to the Lord; it’s my way of saying that I’m “all ears” and His alone. (This doesn’t mean that I am free from the pull of distractions, etc., but just making the statement helps set the tone for fellowshipping with Him in the uniqueness of His and my relationship.)

Dana says near the end of the chapter that in this journey of intimacy with God “to try to go the way of another only slows our journey for He has formed each one’s way for him or her alone. This is an important truth, for we waste much time and emotion comparing our spiritual lives to those around us a though we could be measured by each other.”

What a joy when the truth begins to really penetrate my thinking that the Lord doesn’t compare me with anyone else!

All of this serves to point out again how important it is that we find our identity in God’s love and affection for us, and we can never encounter this reality without listening to His voice and agreeing with what He says about us. As we persist in this, our inner being is slowly but surely strengthened to stand with boldness before Him to obey what He tells us to do in His name. The only thing that will cause us to endure the pressures of the end of the age is that we are drawing constantly from this spring of Life in Christ Jesus.

Even now, I encourage you to take a moment and set all aside to recognize that God is with you and that He made you a noble being who He enjoys as His child, if you indeed belong to Him in Christ Jesus and are reaching for Him by faith. Your reaching may be very weak, but it counts to Him and He longs for fellowship with you by His Spirit; He longs for you to know that His unfailing and never-ending love for you personally and then your response of love back is what identifies you as a “success” in this life. Ask the Holy Spirit to come to you and lead you to Jesus and the Father, bringing you into that divine circle of love and affection where we are transformed and empowered to obey and follow Him.

Dare to say to Him (and maybe even to others eventually), "I am the disciple whom You love, Lord! That's my primary identity."

Lord, we depend on You alone…no one else can satisfy nor tell me who I am in You and who You are in me. Thank You that You hear and answer the genuine cry of the needy! I love You; most staggering of all is that You love me! Praise Your Name!


Special note: I’ll be traveling to Asia soon and in my absence, Joan Frazerhurst will be filling in for me – thank you, Joan! If I’m able to get online, I may send a note while gone.

For next week, read chapter 6: Dark but Lovely. God bless you…