The Habitat of Intimacy

“LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary? . . .” Psalm 15:1

Many of you reading this will be familiar with the idea that we are in the single largest transition in 2,000 years of church history. As we review past seasons, observe the current times, and listen to the prophetic indications of God’s direction, we are seeing the shift from the Ruler season into the Mercy season.

One of the many hallmarks of the Mercy season is that unity is no longer the key to spiritual authority. Intimacy is.

As a result, there has been much emphasis in the past 20 years on two angles of intimacy: female and male.

The female flavor of intimacy has been represented by the bridal motif. We are invited to know Christ beyond the veil and to relate to Him as our Bridegroom.

The masculine side of intimacy is about restoring our relationship as sons of God. We enter into intimacy with God as sons – not orphans and not slaves.

The flaw in these models has been an underlying message that the deepest intimacy comes in withdrawal from distraction and separation from everything else.

There is some truth to that. Quiet isolation and freedom from distraction can enhance the experience of intimacy. From the beginning of His ministry (e.g., Mark 1:35) to the end at the Garden of Gethsemane, we see Jesus getting away from the crowds and from His disciples to spend time alone with the Father.

But the bulk of Scripture does not recommend to us a monastic mindset. Scripture’s practical yet extraordinary message to us is that God wants to have deepest intimacy with us in the context of daily life.

Before sin was in the picture and when intimacy was perfect, God walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden where they worked. And He told them to get busy. He wanted them to care for the Garden. He wanted them to take the Garden to the non-garden part of the world. He wanted them to learn every kind of science and social study necessary so that they could expand it all. And in that place of expansion there would be intimacy with Him.

In the Millennial kingdom, there is a temple. But the focus of the Millennium is actually on agriculture. On our reconnection with nature and its restoration. And in that daily work we will experience God.

Scripture shows us that God wants to meet us in the marketplace, in our families, in our communities. That is the message so often missed.

The familiar song of Psalm 15 opens with the question, “LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill?” Psalm 15:1

To dwell means to make yourself at home. It is the Hebrew word for settling down. The picture is not one of standing at attention, perching dutifully at your office desk, or sitting up straight to do your schoolwork. The modern equivalent would be sitting in a recliner, taking off your shoes and planning to stay in that spot for a long time.

The answer to the question about who can walk in that type of ongoing intimacy – experiencing it hour after hour and living on His holy hill – surprises us. The rest of the passage has nothing to do with religious activities, drawing apart or offering sacrifices. It is about our social interactions.

God’s deepest desire is for us to master walking in the culture, living daily life, in such a way that we experience intimacy with Him while we do it.

Intimacy should be portable. It is not bad to withdraw and to have special times apart with the King. The monastic movement isn’t wrong; it’s just incomplete. Intimacy is not about a place you go or a thing you do. It is a relationship that you experience in the middle of all of it.

A married couple whose only intimacy is physical intimacy in the bedroom has a pitiful marriage. They should know intimacy also at the soccer game and in the kitchen and doing the laundry and planning to remodel the living room. It is all a playing field for walking in intimacy.

We can be at home with our King on the freeway in bumper-to-bumper traffic. We can do intimacy with Him in the middle of the project at work. We can experience Him on aisle 3 of the grocery store and during the list of phone calls and at the dinner table and in the doctor’s office.

I bless you, spirit, with learning to enjoy intimacy with your King in the crowded thoroughfares of life. I bless you to anticipate meeting God. May you pause enough at those places where He surprises you so that it is more than a passing acknowledgment. I bless you to see Him show up and to savor the encounter. That is how you can stay in that place of intimacy with Him all during the day.

From the dominion mandate in Eden to the Great Commission and Pentecost, your King intended for you to have intimacy with Him in the context of work. I bless you to find your deepest intimacy and your deepest joy in partnering with Jesus in the work He entrusts to you.

I bless you to find deep joy in those times apart with Him. And I bless you to find joy deeper still in the portable flavor of intimacy that comes in the midst of serving your King on a daily basis in the marketplace and in your family. I bless you to live an integrated lifestyle that is marked by dwelling, being at home with Him, in intimacy wherever you are. I bless you in Jesus’ name.

By Arthur Burk with Margaret Lehman
All Scripture is from NIV unless noted.

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