We can do many kinds of Christian activities and remain unchanged, but when we draw near to the Lord Himself, we are never the same again. We become living demonstrations of the power of God's presence.
It amazes me how many believers miss the point of Christianity. They are truly saved. They go to church faithfully. They read their Bibles. But even so, they neglect to do the one thing Jesus died and rose again to enable them to do.

They neglect to draw near to God. They don't take the time to come into His presence every day to fellowship with Him. They aren't getting to know Him for themselves in a personal and intimate way. Although He has become their very own Father and they His very own children, God still seems distant and unapproachable to them. He is a concept rather than a companion, a theological figure rather than a dear and divine friend.

That kind of distant relationship with God is a Christianized version of religion that substitutes outward forms for inward experience. It fails to provide the one thing that will satisfy the truly born again heart—a deep and intimate fellowship with God.

Such fellowship is the primary point of the New Covenant. God Himself said so.

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. (Hebrews 8:10–11 NKJV)

The reason God instituted the New Covenant was not just so we could go to heaven when we die. Thank God for that but it wasn't the primary point. God made a New Covenant so we could all get to know Him!

The word for know in Hebrews 8:11 means to become acquainted with someone by intimate, personal experience. It means to know them like family members know each other, to know someone like a husband or a wife! That's what God wanted from the New Covenant. He wanted His people to know Him firsthand in an intimate and personal way.

Yes, You Can!
That's why just two chapters later, the writer of Hebrews says:

Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith…. (Hebrews 10:19-22 NKJV)

What does that verse tell us to do? It tells us to draw near. That's how we get to know the Lord. We draw near to Him! We don't get to know Him just by coming to church. We don't get to know Him just by reading the Bible. We don't get to know Him just by watching Christian television. I'm in favor of all those things and they can be a great blessing. But you can do them all every day of the week and if you never in your heart draw near to God, you won’t get much out of them.

"But, Lynne, I can't draw near to God," you may say. "I just don't know how!"

That's not true! No matter how frustrated you may have been in the past when you've tried to sense the presence of God, no matter how many dry prayer times you may have had, the Bible says you can experience the presence of the Lord. You are divinely equipped to do so.

When you were born again, your heart was made alive to God (Romans 6:11). If you're alive to something, that means you can perceive and respond to it, right? Your body is alive to this natural realm, so you're able to interact easily with it. When it's cold outside, you can feel it. When the sun shines, you can see it. When somebody calls your name, you can hear it.

Now, consider this. Your spirit is just as alive to God as your body is to this natural realm. Perhaps even more so because your body has limitations and imperfections, and your spirit doesn't. I realize you may not feel like your spirit is alive to God but it is, nevertheless, because the Bible says so. What you must do then is just believe that fact by faith and begin to act on it.

A Good Way to Start
What kind of actions do you take? Exactly what can you do to begin drawing near to God? I'll help you get started sharing with you some of the ways the Lord has taught me.

One way to do it is by praying the scripture. That way of drawing near to God involves both reading the Bible and prayer. Often, when we read the Bible, we make it our aim to read as much of it as possible in one sitting. But I want to suggest you do something very different. The next time you read your Bible, instead of reading as much as you can as fast as you can, read very slowly. Determine in advance that it doesn't matter how much you read but how deeply you read. Set your heart not on gaining information but on getting revelation.

Certainly Bible study is very good and the Word itself admonishes us to "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15 KJV). But you must distinguish between Bible study and drawing near to God. When you are studying, your mind is searching for information. When you are using the Word to fellowship with God, your heart is seeking to relate directly to Him.

Begin by choosing a passage of scripture. Then purposely and by faith come quietly and humbly before the Lord. Let your heart become aware of the fact that He is there with you and in you. Read slowly and carefully, word by word and phrase by phrase.

Watch Your Heart
Resist the temptation to rush ahead and read the whole passage. Instead, turn inward and become aware of your heart's response to what you are reading. As you do, you will become aware of the quickening of the Holy Spirit upon some words or phrases. It will seem as though God is touching you through them.

When that happens, you may want to lift that portion of the scripture to the Lord in prayer. Speak it out to Him and say about it whatever comes to your heart to say. On the other hand, you might be led simply to read it again and again, holding it and imprinting it on your heart. Mentally, you might not understand exactly why the Holy Spirit is emphasizing it so much but that doesn't matter. Just trust your heart and follow Him.

That happened to me not long ago when I was visiting Israel. Early in the day, I was riding through the Arab villages thinking about their need to know Jesus. I was touched by their seemingly hopeless conditions and saddened by the fact that they didn't know how to lay hold of the mercy of God.

Later that night after I went back to my room, I was reading Ephesians 2:12 and the Lord quickened a phrase to me there: "…having no hope and without God in the world." As the presence of the Lord drew my heart to those words, they brought back to me the terrible plight of the people I had seen that day. So I lifted those words to the Lord and as I did, I found myself pouring out my heart in prayer for the Arab people. I wept as I sensed God’s heart for those who were truly without hope and without God in the world!

After you have prayed or pondered in your heart that particular portion of scripture, you may sense that the Lord is leading you to read on. When that happens, then slowly and gently begin to read the next portion. When you're finished, you may find you've actually read very little of the Word. But that small amount will have benefited you greatly.

Instead of just skimming the surface of the Bible, you will have plunged deeply into it and found not just words but God Himself! You will have sensed His very presence breaking out like a sweet aroma in your heart. As you continue to cultivate this kind of reading and prayer, you will learn more and more to follow the leadings and quickenings of the Holy Spirit. You'll develop a rich prayer life that flows from your innermost being.

Beholding the Lord
A second way to draw near to God is by doing what might simply be called "beholding the Lord." When you do this, you will also begin by reading scripture but in a different way. Instead of focusing on the scripture and finding God there, you will simply use a verse or a phrase from the Bible to still your mind so that your heart can tune into the presence of the Lord.

If you've spent much time in fellowship with the Lord, you already know that your mind can be your greatest obstacle to overcome. It is accustomed to being allowed to wander wherever it pleases from this thought to that one in a random sort of way. The moment you try to make it settle down before the Lord, if it is untrained, it wiggles and squirms like a child in church. And just like you must train the child to be still, out of love and respect for the Lord, you must make your mind be still also.

As you come before the Lord to behold and wait upon Him, make use of the scripture to quiet your mind. Before you even begin to read, turn your heart toward the Lord. Inwardly come into His presence by simple faith, trusting that through the blood of Jesus you can do so. Then begin to read a portion of scripture. Once you begin to sense the presence of the Lord, don't concern yourself with the content of the verse. Focus instead upon the Lord Himself.

Remember that your purpose is not to read the Bible in this case but to fellowship directly with the Lord. The reading is just an aid to help you turn away from outward distractions and turn inward to the center of your being which is your spirit. It is there where the Spirit of the Lord dwells. So when you tune into your spirit (or your heart) you are also tuning in to Him.

Once you have done that, hold your heart in His presence. Acknowledge and appreciate Him. If your mind starts to wander to other things, don't try to correct it by changing what you're thinking. That distracts you more from your heart and pushes you back into the mental realm. Just quiet your mind again by returning it to the scripture with which you began. Gently turn it inward once more toward your spirit. As you do so, you'll get more and more free from distractions and you'll experience your nearness to God.

The Fingerprints of God
One of the reasons we often miss the presence of the Lord, even when we're in church, is because we are so occupied with outward things. We are watching the worship leader or struggling to keep our attention on the preacher thinking that we're going to find God there. But we must realize that God is living inside us. John 14:23 says He makes His home in our hearts.

Once we understand that and begin to cultivate our ability to tune into Him there, we'll find we can have a distinct experience of His presence any time we desire. We will be able to perceive not only that He is there but that He is moving in us. Very often, we will sense Him communicating with us not through words but simply with a sweet and silent touch.

At those times, instead of thinking feverishly about scriptural truths, our minds will be at rest. Our lips may very well be still, sensing no need for spoken prayer. To the uneducated bystander, it would appear that nothing is happening. Yet the fact is that something very wonderful is happening. We are experiencing God's touch. And although we may not be able to explain it, we know that His touch is changing us somehow.

As long as we sense that divine touch, we should endeavor to stay before Him quietly allowing Him to work in us that which is pleasing in His sight.

Many years ago, the Lord assured me of that. He told me that every touch from Him leaves His divine impression on my soul. It engraves His character and His nature upon me. It is as though in times of prayer when I come to Him, He touches me and leaves His fingerprint upon my heart. I cannot see it with my eyes, but it is surely there.

There is no touch like His touch. The Bible says, "As many as touched him were made whole" (Mark 6:56 KJV). That was true when Jesus walked the earth, and it is true today. When we come into His presence, when we encounter Him in intimate and personal ways, He is able to do in us and for us what most needs to be done. When we draw near and touch Him, we are made whole.

"Is that really true?" someone might ask. "Can it really be that such a simple thing as sitting quietly and beholding the Lord could make such a radical difference in our lives?"

Absolutely. That is the undeniable, scriptural truth. And it is why drawing near to God is the whole point of real Christianity.

We can do many kinds of Christian activities and remain unchanged, but when we draw near to the Lord Himself, we are never the same again. We become living demonstrations of the power of God's presence. We become walking proof that what the apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 3:18 is eternally true:

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. (NKJV)

Source: Winner's Way Magazine
Excerpt permission granted by Mac Hammond Ministries