A Great Passion To Know God Intimately Apostle Guillermo Maldonado

To know God intimately should be our greatest passion as believers. Pattern of Passion And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not thus, who is faithful in all my house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even clearly, and not in dark sayings; and the form of the Lord shall he behold: why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? - Numbers 12:6-8 Whenever Moses had a problem and the people would become rebellious, he would seek Gods face. The Bible says this, Moses knew His ways and the people knew His works. It is sad, to know healing but you do not know the God that heals. The people of God knew His mighty works but did not know God. Why? God would speak to Moses face to face. The people of Israel always sought for a king for three reasons: 1. To fight their battles for them. 2. To hear from God for them. 3. To lead them. This is what is happening today in our society. We are seeking a savior to fight our battles, to pay our bills and to lead us. Paul also would do the same, seek Gods face at the sign of problems. Moses and Paul both shared the same passion for God. They had a passion for the church, for miracles and for souls. But the greatest of all passions was to know God intimately. To know Him To know is the word gnosis in Greek; it is the root of the term gnostic. This is informative, mental, scientific and theoretic knowledge. But this is not what Paul meant when he said, To know Him. He did not want to know God with the word gnosis but instead with epignosis. The word epignosis means to acquire a practical contact through experience. Paul wanted to know Him THROUGH experience! In other words: prayer is not a theory, it is an experience. Many of us know about prayer but not pray. It does not matter how much mental knowledge you have of God, if you do not experience God intimately. Mental knowledge is not knowledge from Heaven. Many people know of the things the One does but they do not personally know the One. Theory without experience is good for nothing. There is a difference between knowing OF prayer and actually PRAYING.

A single experience with the face of God is enough to change a life. Those who have had an experience with God speak with precision about God. Through prayer we can experience God every day, we can hear Him and feel Him. We need to hear God and experience God. When you have religion, you lack an experience with God. Why? In religion, they speak of God, believe in God, and preach about God but they have never experienced God. The Base of Christian Life There are three main activities of the human spirit in the Presence of God that we develop in our prayer life: 1. Worship. 2. Communion. 3. Revelation. If you have hunger for God, you need to pray. You will not know Him by acting foolishly. We have been born again and because of that, we have access to the Presence of God. It is in you! Affirm God The consummation of intimacy is worship. Never approach God without worship. The moment you approach God in prayer seeking His face without worship, it is an insult to God. When you worship, you affirm Him for who He is! When you affirm God through worship, He will affirm you back. God wants you to: lift up your hands and worship Him. Christ gave us a pattern in prayer, not a formula with steps; it is a relationship. There are no steps because prayer is not a religious routine. If you want God to come close to you, do not approach Him disrespectfully. Honor Him! Come to Him with gratitude. When you pray and speak to your Father do it with what is inside of you. God does not have communion with someone who approaches Him irreverently. When you speak to God, let it come from within you, stop thinking, Okay, what do I say now. One of the meanings of prayer is communion. Communion comes from worship so without worship there is no communion. Communion with God Communion is the Greek word koinonia which means to have something together in common. It is participation, a common union, companionship, society and intimacy. What do you have in common with God? The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? - 1 Corinthians 10:16

When we go before God, He recognizes that you have something in common with Him and Him with you. That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death. -Philippians 3:10 We have Gods nature and Gods purpose. Communion does not only mean speaking nice words to God. But rather also participate in the sufferings He feels in His heart. Communion also means to share. Join together with Him in how He feels for His people, identify and participate in what God suffers for. When you become insensitive to peoples pain then it is because you have become insensitive to the Presence of God. Our life, relationally, is like a cross. Be vertical with God and horizontal with Christians. I share with God and I share with believers. If you do not do this, your life will be out of balance. When a person has intimate communion with God, you will be very fruitful. Because the place where the fruit comes from is where God makes you pregnant in prayer. When you become One with The One we are together in the same purpose. Jesus always targeted the will of the people, not the mind. I challenge you to make your greatest passion be to know God intimately. Get to know Him intimately through prayer!