Intimacy in worship lifts our souls to be in line with the flow of the Spirit from within us, reaching upwards to the Throne to bless Our Father and Our Saviour.
Our Spirit is one with the Lord since we were born again, but often the affairs of life will draw our emotions and our will away from the heart of Our Father, and our mind away from the Mind of Christ. Worship helps us as we focus our attention on Jesus to express our gratitude and love to Him. It aligns our mind to be thinking of Him with deep affection. In worship we have chosen, by using our will, to say within ourselves "I want to worship You Lord, with all of my heart, and with all of my mind!" And soon our emotions get aligned to that focus of our will and of our mind. That is what Paul meant when he said " We all.... beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord..." It happens when we worship Him anywhere, especially when our heart and mind are aligned, or get tuned in, to worship Him.
Intimacy in worship links our spirit to the heart of Our Father and to the mind of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and there is a transformation that takes place, every time we worship like that (in spirit and in truth), we are "changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even by the Spirit of the Lord." Worship makes us a little more like the One we love, time after time.
Intimacy in intercession lifts us up to the throne to sit together with Our King Jesus, to share in His ministry of intercession for the saints. We go into the throne room humbly, on our knees, in petition. But when we sit with Him we gain faith and know His mind so we can decree things that He has shown us. Then we come out standing strong in authority.
There is a new authority for those who draw near like this. They hear his voice and so know his mind. They feel His heart beat, and are filled with His compassion for others. They have entered the Presence, and will leave changed, and made able to repeat the royal decrees of the King in a world out of order.
Intimacy can also be enjoyed through meditation of the scriptures. In times like this His Word is opened up to us and our spirit, which is joined to the Lord, rejoices in the truth. Then His Word becomes flesh in us as He feeds us with its wisdom and truth. Through it we receive revelations of Who Jesus really is, and what He has done for us, and what He is doing in us - now. Our experience of Him is expanded as our revelation of more of Him overwhelms our previous limitations. We didn't know He could be so near to us! We did not know His Word could change us so much! We know things abut Him that we did not know before. And because of that we could not believe Him to be what we now KNOW Him to be. And that encounter with Him, through His Word changes us into people of faith in the Living Christ, Who has become all we need, and all we want, through intimacy.
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