The Apostle Paul wrote about "knowing Jesus Christ and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings".
The Apostle John was instructed to write "you have persevered and have labored for My name's sake -- nevertheless, I have this against you, that you have left your first love". He also wrote "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me".
The Apostle John also wrote "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me". He also quoted Jesus, writing "I pray for those who will believe in me, that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me".
The Apostle Paul also wrote "For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord".
A profound fact of life is that the Creator of all things, as powerful and holy and perfect as He is, nevertheless loves us with an everlasting love and deeply and passionately desires that we live in intimacy with Him on a daily basis. All of life begins making sense when we walk with Him, and the Holy Spirit guides us into all truth as we yield to Him.
It is our deep, intimate, devotion to God that serves as the foundation for all fruitfulness in our lives. Evangelism becomes an overflow of our love relationship with Him. As we are intimate with Him the love of God motivates us and flows through us to impact every life we come into contact with. It is by walking closely with God that He influences every aspect of our being, and we begin to influence everything around us in a Godly way.
There is no higher calling than to enter into intimacy with the living God through Jesus Christ His Son. It is what we are made for, and where we ultimately find our greatest satisfaction. Our personal relationship with God must be the foundation for all ministry we are involved with, or we are missing the entire point of existence. If we want to become more fruitful in ministry, then learn to be more attentive to the voice of the Holy Spirit, and increasingly take a posture of meekness and yieldedness before God, desiring nothing more than being intimate with Him.
If we want to know God, to please God, and to have a closer walk with Him, then we find ways to worship Him like we never have before, to obey Him when we don't feel like it, to prefer Him above our own desires, and to yield to Him in everything and at all times. This is the core of our lives, our motivation, our passion. In this all else falls into place, into perspective, and all else becomes an instrument to fulfill God's desire to be close with us, and we find nothing else more thrilling than to see His desire fulfilled.
May this be our quest. The pursuit of God, to know Him intimately and to walk in holiness, is the highest pursuit known to mankind. To know God, to love Him, to yield to Him in every way -- right now.
