Episode 51 — Intimacy with God: What It Produces and How to Get It

Jacob Paul: Welcome to the truth and love podcast with your hosts Kimberly Faith and John Mack. The truth and love podcast seeks to present God’s timeless truth through the lens of his remarkable love.

Kimberly Faith: Well, dad, it’s been another great morning, just talking about the Lord it, you it isn’t it interesting.

John McLarty: It’s a great subject.

Kimberly Faith: It really is. And it is because it’s a great subject because when you have two people who have an intimate relationship with God, then you had this great common denominator that brings into a house or a room or a front porch, all the fruit of the spirit and the wisdom of the ages.

John McLarty: Well, when you get mom involved, we really have great conversations.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. I mean, it’s anybody. Anybody that has an intimate relationship with God. You know, back in

John McLarty: because it’s our favorite subject.

Kimberly Faith: Exactly. Exactly. As it should be, because that’s where all goodness comes from. And then when you love goodness, real goodness, you can’t help talk about it. Back on July 22, we had episode 45.

We explored the three levels of knowing God.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: You know, acknowledging His existence, receiving His gift of salvation and walking in an intimate relationship with

John McLarty: Him. Yeah, that was a great topic

Kimberly Faith: Yeah, it was, well, it so helpful for me because when you’re talking with people, one of the things I learned back when I got my undergraduate degree in education was if you’re going have an effective conversation and teach somebody something, you got to know where they are. And so where are they coming from? And so when you can perceive that with somebody, then you can know better how to explain a particular concept. And so this kind of provoked, the Holy Spirit in my life to say, okay, Kim, you’ve talked about this intimacy with God. Well, what are the benefits and how do you get it?

And I guess the real practical, this will be a very practical, podcast. Right. And actually the, this podcast, both of these, it’s actually two devotionals for the month of August. And if you want to read the devotionals that go along with these, it’s like, I think August or something along that lines, but also will have the transcript with this podcast as well on the website, gofaithstrong.com. But let’s let’s just kind of first talk about, I wanna read a couple verses starting with, you wanna read second Peter one, two, and three?

John McLarty: Sure. Get to them. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord as his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his glory and virtue.

Kimberly Faith: So he’s given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. I think that’s kind of the key. We’re gonna talk about the benefits. Okay? Because God didn’t intend for our faith and our life to be shallow or stagnant or boring.

And in fact, He has given us everything to live in the great abundance of His blessings. And again, we’re not talking about the prosperity gospel here. We’re not talking about living in the prosperity of things you’re not gonna take with you. We’re talking about the prosperity of things you are gonna take with you, which we know are the souls of men.

John McLarty: But let me add this because this that that verse stimulates a thought. That’s a study I teach. It’s the stair steps to Christian growth. And we won’t get into all of it, but you add to your knowledge virtue and brotherly kindness and patience and temperance, and the end result of all of that is fruitfulness. So it’s that deeper knowledge with God, which is where we’re going.

But that’s a great verse to start this with because the whole passage, if somebody wants to do their own study, go ahead and read up through verse 12 there.

Kimberly Faith: In first Peter.

John McLarty: In first Peter.

Kimberly Faith: Right. I I think I think that in order to want something like intimacy with God, we have to know why it matters. How’s it gonna help us as we’re going to, you know, we’re doing the commute on Monday morning. How’s it gonna help us when we’re dealing with a child who’s maybe committed a crime and is sitting in Department of Corrections, how is it gonna help us when, you know, we have somebody that’s dying that we love very much? And I think that’s what we wanna talk about.

John McLarty: Right. It tremendous brings benefits.

Kimberly Faith: Absolutely. And there’s actually no greater relationship that gives us greater benefits than the relationship with God. But you think about how we pursue relationships with people, business relationships, family relationships, love relationships. We pour our lives out for those relationships. We give so much to get so little.

And God says, if you’ll just give me a mustard seed, you know, I’m gonna flourish a garden that you you’ll get lost in and you’ll be happy you’re lost in it because then you want to bring everybody into it and share it. So that’s what we’re going to talk about. And so the first benefit I want to talk about is how God multiplies our peace. And Isaiah 20 six:three says, you will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you.

John McLarty: Very good.

Kimberly Faith: And this is not Peace is not the absence of problems. I wanna make this very clear. But when we grow in the knowledge of God’s character and His nature, He increases doesn’t God isn’t anxious. God is Jesus is a prince of peace. He’s not anxious.

When we’re in His presence, we’re not either. We have problems, no doubt. No doubt. We have problems, but we’re not anxious.

John McLarty: You know, Kim, this is interesting because I’m about to turn 74. Just two confessions here. But I was saved at 24.

Kimberly Faith: Oh, wow.

John McLarty: So not that I my Christian life has ups and downs in terms of its devotion and, you know, Lynn and I have been absolutely faithful to church for been our forty nine years of of salvation. But I have to remember back to my life pre 24 to think of a life that was just defined by total anxiety Right. Trouble, worrying, depression, social anxieties, you know, back to high school, did someone not look at me and smile? Blah blah blah. You know?

And so I have to I have to think back about people that today that I might be ministering to that aren’t aren’t saved. Right. What they’re experiencing. Right. And it can be just it’s it’s a totality of anxiety that I don’t experience because I’ve just had Jesus for so long.

Right. But we experienced life is full of trouble and we fight anxiety, but if somebody out there is just their life is just total anxiety, Jesus is the answer. He brings peace.

Kimberly Faith: Right. And so I appreciate you bringing that up because, you know, just to be clear, in this podcast, we are talking to born it’s really kind of geared for born again Christians because you’ve already passed that second level of the relationship with You’ve already been born again. But I encounter a lot more anxious Christians and Christians at peace. People who say they’ve been born again and I believe they have. I mean, they have testimony of faith, but that’s what I want to target because you’re right.

And if you’re a 100% right, if you have never experienced the peace that passes understanding, then that means you’re probably not born again. But if you’re a born again Christian, born again believer, there’s only one reason that you’re experiencing anxiety and that’s because you failed to obtain an intimacy with God.

John McLarty: Yeah. And that’s the grace and peace being multiplied by to you, but you’ve been saved. Right. So you’re you have that peace that passes understanding, but it quickly dissipates as the world

Kimberly Faith: We are enemies.

John McLarty: The weeds and the thorns and thistles grow back in.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: And it can.

Kimberly Faith: And so when we create, when we do and we’re gonna talk about in the second part of this podcast, how to the practical steps for getting this intimacy. But if you’re a Christian and you’re experiencing high levels of anxiety, this podcast is for you because it you know, it’s not any great mystery. It’s not like how to get intimacy with God, but we’re gonna go through a few steps and kind of talk about that. Just some basic principles. But another benefit is, we experience God’s divine power.

You know? Second Peter Yeah,

John McLarty: go ahead. That same verse, His divine power. We experience His divine power as He has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him.

Kimberly Faith: So think about, this isn’t willpower. This isn’t me saying, Oh my goodness, how am I going to handle this case? This case seems like the deck is stacked against my client, or how am I gonna pay my bills? Or how am I gonna reach a particular person for Christ? This is the divine power means that He’s in charge.

And when we are able to step back through intimacy with God regularly, like routinely with every problem that comes up, step back and say, God, I don’t have the answer, but you have given me your divine power. And we’re gonna talk about his wisdom. He just says, thank you. I’ll handle this.

John McLarty: Well, you gave the example in the last podcast of your son in a very technical test in the army. And God showed him something, the answer, an answer that he needed. And he related it to God’s divine power.

Kimberly Faith: Absolutely. And the more we seek him, the more he over he empowers us to carry out his divine power and purpose. And it’s so funny because I like to say, I love to let God just blow my mind every day. And he just does. He totally does.

But if we’re too dull of hearing and seeing spiritually to see it because we don’t know him, we don’t have the intimacy, we’ll miss out. We’ll miss out on the whole thing. And so that kinda leads us to the third, benefit, which is And I By no means do I think this list is exclusive. It is just the things that the Lord brought to my heart, just so y’all know. God’s intimacy with God gives us freedom.

And, you know, John eight thirty two, Jesus said, and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free. This is So a lot of people think that freedom is doing anything you want. That’s true freedom. But the problem is we have to choose which master’s going to really set us free. And it’s only the truth and Jesus Christ that gives us the kind of freedom that does not lead us to bondage.

John McLarty: And yeah. That’s so true. It’s a freedom from sin.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: And just to kind of back to my life story, we used to exactly think that freedom was doing anything that popped into your mind. This is the hippie culture of the sixties. It’s like, oh, I think I’ll just go to Boulder today and just leave all these responsibilities and didn’t matter how it impacted anybody else in your life. It’s total selfishness. Yeah.

And we thought that was freedom. And actually, that was enslavement.

Kimberly Faith: Right. Because you never

John McLarty: could our own

Kimberly Faith: mind. You could never get enough.

John McLarty: You could never get enough.

Kimberly Faith: Right. You were a slave to pleasure. You were a slave to wealth. You’re a slave to friends. You’re a slave you you become a puppet A puppet. To things that don’t matter.

John McLarty: To your own mind or other people’s minds. Hey, John. Let’s go do this. Well, think

Kimberly Faith: about the whole fashion industry. Yeah. You know, how it pressures, you know, women and men to look a certain way. And then you get there and then you get old, you know, and you might spend thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours to conform yourself to look like, I don’t know, the Kardashians or whatever. I don’t even know what that even means, but you know, and you just Then you’re a slave to it.

And Jesus says through intimacy with me, you’re gonna be truly free. Meaning you’re gonna be you’re gonna live in the purpose for which you were created no matter how you look, how much you you know, how many talents you have, what your intellect level is, you are gonna be free to to live the life you were created to live.

John McLarty: That’s great. And when you realize that sin sin is destructive.

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm.

John McLarty: So this let’s just take one again, alcoholism. Yeah. Alcoholism, oh, I’m free to drink, you know, and I’m gonna drink now I’m 18 or 21 or whatever the age was back then. Oh, now I can go drink. And that was actually that’s destructive.

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm.

John McLarty: At least to just go down the path of extreme alcoholism. It ruins your life. It ruins other people’s lives. You have a crash. You’ve killed the whole family.

Right. Through Christ, have freedom to say whatever the sin is, whether it’s alcoholism, all kinds of isms, just extremism. Mean, Just being selfish person. I

Kimberly Faith: mean, food, whatever.

John McLarty: We can say no to that through the strength of Christ, through knowledge of him.

Kimberly Faith: And the greater our intimacy with God, the more free we get because it’s like the more we get closer to God and become intimately acquainted with him, the more we know him for who he is and see how great he is. And the more we want to obey Him and His truth, which is the first concept we teach is what is truth, right? What is your source of truth? And then it’s easy to see that becoming an alcoholic is a destructive thing. I’ve had multiple clients in my office who are third time DWI’s.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: And they’re finally waking up because they’re facing a sentence in DLC or in, you know, in the county jail. And it’s like, wow, I need to pivot. Well, it took them a lot longer than some people who, you know, maybe that wasn’t their thing. Then maybe their thing’s pornography or overeating. And, but with Jesus, he says, I’m the only healthy addiction.

Intimacy with me, you’ll become I am so I’ve said this before and I’m gonna say it again. If I can’t have the relationship with God that I have now, I don’t even want to be alive. That’s how addicting it is and wonderful it is. I don’t wanna go back to the person I used to be. It was too enslaving.

So we can be free.

John McLarty: I think if thy word have I hid in my heart that I might sin against thee, the more we know him Uh-huh.

Kimberly Faith: Might not sin.

John McLarty: Yeah. And it’s like, then what don’t need to do.

Kimberly Faith: Right. So it’s interesting, number four kind of ties into number three, because while His presence sets us free, He doesn’t just say, Don’t do all these things. Number four, He gives us divine and satisfaction.

John McLarty: That changes, that’s game changer.

Kimberly Faith: When we have you know, a lot of religions just have the don’t do, don’t do, don’t do, don’t do, don’t don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t dance on the tables. Right? But there’s nothing that they’re offering to give a satisfying and joyful replacement to what we can What the world portrays as, oh, this is how you have a good time. But eternal life, Jesus said, this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. The Bible says that’s I’m sorry, the Bible says it.

I don’t think those are the words of Jesus. Those are the words, from John seventeen:three. And eternal life doesn’t start when we die. I mean, we don’t start experiencing, we don’t have to wait to start experiencing the glorious life that God’s given

John McLarty: us We have eternally.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. That begins the moment we’re born again. That means our purpose and our satisfaction doesn’t have to be tied to our career, our status, our looks, our title, our money, our possessions, our family, our friends, none of that. It’s tied to the person of Jesus Christ and the intimacy we have with him. And that’s glorious.

John McLarty: And people live for that. Even lost people, it’s so common to wanna be part of something bigger than just yourself.

Kimberly Faith: Which is from God.

John McLarty: Which is from God.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: This is to be a part of not just some, you know, the latest cause, but to be a part of God’s own purpose.

Kimberly Faith: Well, and and when we when we come to a point in intimacy with God where his presence and in in in his glory becomes our greatest source of satisfaction. There is nothing like it. And the Bible makes it clear that nothing compares to that. You know, if you believe that God’s word is true and that’s the source of truth, well, he says, the Bible says in Jeremiah nine twenty three and twenty four, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man glory in his might.

Let nor let the rich man glory in his riches, but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, exercising loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight, say is the Lord. That’s amazing.

John McLarty: That’s such a more correct picture of God, loving kindness.

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm.

John McLarty: He’s he he wants to lead us into the loving kindness from him to us Right. And then through through us to others.

Kimberly Faith: Right. We’re a river.

John McLarty: People recognize that.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: Love and kindness.

Kimberly Faith: Just like in, I think it was, I don’t it was this podcast, the last podcast. When the lady in my office said, Why do you care about me? Why do you care about me? I’m like, I don’t. That is Jesus.

Right. It’s absolutely Jesus. I don’t even know you, you know? But she knew I cared about her and I could point her to Jesus because that’s what He does. When we are intimate with Him, when we have that ongoing intimacy, the purpose and satisfaction He gives us can’t be hidden.

It can’t be hidden because we’re constantly glorifying God. I wasn’t glorying with this lady in the fact that I’m this great lawyer because I’m really not, that can help her out of her trouble. That wasn’t even really, we talked about that, but the more important conversation was why God loves her.

John McLarty: Well, you are a pretty good lawyer. Well, that’s what I’m told,

Kimberly Faith: but you know, I Yeah.

John McLarty: You give glory to God.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. So, this fourth thing is so important that we understand that intimacy with God gives us this divine purpose. The purpose we We’re like, I always use this crazy example, you know, my Toyota 4Runner that has 250,000 miles on it is not designed to drive down the middle of the Mississippi River. It was designed to run on I44.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: And it wouldn’t be functional in the Mississippi River. And when we are in God’s living in God’s divine purpose, we’re running down I-forty 4 hammering on all eight, you know? And it’s just a great feeling, you know?

John McLarty: Yeah. We’re feeling, you know, not in the wrong way, but we’re feeling accomplished. Yeah. Like we’re doing something important with our life.

Kimberly Faith: Exactly. Which is that purpose.

John McLarty: Our efforts matter.

Kimberly Faith: You know, I was talking to a guy, this is a little bit of a rabbit, but I was talking to this guy who was, you know, he just wrecked his life. Okay? And I said, I didn’t You know, he said he didn’t believe in God. I said, okay, all right. You know what?

That’s your belief. I’m gonna respect it. But let me ask you a question. Do you think you were created for greatness? He said, yeah.

He said, I do. I said, do you know why you think that despite the fact your life was a train wreck?

John McLarty: Mhmm.

Kimberly Faith: And he goes, no, I don’t. I said, well, I think you should check your source of truth because the Bible says you were created for greatness. Right. And it said and and that God planted that knowledge in you. He goes, it does?

I said, yeah. Have you ever read Romans chapter one? And so I read it to him. And I said, have you read the verses that you know, these verses in in in Jeremiah that talks about that we were created for God’s glory. You are created for the for the glory of the creator who created you and created everything that you admire.

He said, that’s mind blowing. I’ve never I never knew God’s word said that. Anyway, precipitated the whole conversation.

John McLarty: That’s great.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. But but that’s, you know, and so what what Yeah. Anyway, I could go on and on about our purpose, but let’s go to number five, which is God The the gift of intimacy is that God gives us supernatural strength. And you wanna read some of those verses we’ve got there, dad?

John McLarty: Sure. This is Daniel eleven thirty two. The people who know their God shall be strong and carry out great exploits. So, you know, have you experienced God’s supernatural strength in your life? I have just an example the other day.

This I was checking out at at a a pharmacy just getting some medication, and I was going to give two tracks to the lady that was doing my

Kimberly Faith: Checking you out.

John McLarty: Checking you out. Checking me out. And then just I’ve never had this happen, actually. She stopped in the middle of taking care of me because somebody had come up to the drive through.

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm.

John McLarty: She says, oh, and she says, named another lady’s name, says, come over and finish John up. I’ve got to do the drive through window. So this lady that came up, I said, well, I guess I’m going to give a track to her. And she looked at it and she said she said, oh, well, I’m going to a women’s fellowship tonight. And it’s from it has something to do with Mission Boulevard Baptist Church.

I said, no. That’s the church I go to.

Kimberly Faith: That’s hilarious.

John McLarty: And it turns out, at that very moment, my wife and and a church member, Patty, had been praying for this lady to come to this women’s fellowship and have a connection, have some sort of, you know, as a new person.

Kimberly Faith: And

John McLarty: so I said, oh, you’re gonna meet my wife there. And I showed her a picture of Lynn, you know, And back in our TV I thought, that’s God.

Kimberly Faith: That’s the

John McLarty: strength of God, the power of God.

Kimberly Faith: That’s a great example.

John McLarty: And it just excited me. It just made my day. Thought, I a part, I was this little part of this little chain that’s reaching out to this lady.

Kimberly Faith: Right. One person being targeted from 15 different directions because she’s important to God.

John McLarty: And then all the errands I did, I did like three errands before that. So the timing of that. Then I was there at that moment. Right. And then the lady that was checking me out just dropped me in the middle of the transaction.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: And went over to the drive through window. Amazing. And it was just the power of God.

Kimberly Faith: Well, you know, and that’s so just just for everybody’s benefit, you know, that is one of a million ways God manifests his power. And there are I was I keep mentioning this. I was sick, gosh, right after my son’s wedding in May and just so sick for like two weeks. I couldn’t was so weak and still kind of and even months later struggling with this. But there were mornings I would, I knew I had so much to do.

And I would say, Lord, I need your strength. If I’m to do the things that you have for me to do and make a living and teach a Bible study and, you know, write devotionals and do the podcast and all this stuff, you’re going to have to get me out of this bed.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: And He would. And that’s a very simple example, but it’s not like God’s power is limited to one compartment. It’s so multifaceted. If we’ll just ask Him, you know, the book of James, I think it says, You have not because you ask not because you wanna consume it on your own lusts, right? Just paraphrasing.

John McLarty: It literally give you the strength and the willpower

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: Just get out of bed when

Kimberly Faith: you’re finished. Go on a diet. You know, if you wanna be healthy for God’s glory, he will give you the strength to do that. If you want to to serve him and you’re you’ve been so sick, you ask the Lord for your his strength and he will give it to you if it’s his will. Right?

I mean, it’s not always, sometimes you just lay in the bed. So the sixth benefit of being intimate with God is he awakens joy. I say awakens because if you’re born again, Jesus, is the source of joy already lives in you. Right. Okay?

And why don’t you read the

John McLarty: Well, I love this benefit. I’ll read the verse and then comment on it. You will show me the path of life and your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. That’s Psalm sixteen eleven.

And this is kind of a huge deal, Lynn, I’ve gone through. We’ve gone through a lot of trouble, troubling times the last three years, and we just made a decision. We can’t minister if we’re under this funky cloud of despair you know, just like situations were unknown. Right. The outcome was unknown.

There was no thing we could do to change. We just had to rest in God and say and say, Lord, give us the joy of just your presence.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: Because we have people to minister to, and he gave us the joy. He gave us that joy, and it was supernatural. And it’s so important. People if we’re witnessing to people and wanting to share Jesus with people, no. Come accept Jesus into your life.

Mhmm. And your life is this miserable wreck of depression and So, you know, not only for the benefit of others, but it’s great to just live life with joy.

Kimberly Faith: Well, you know, intimacy with God gives us supernatural joy.

John McLarty: It does.

Kimberly Faith: And there’s, And know, really there’s-

John McLarty: Even in troubling times.

Kimberly Faith: Well, especially in troubling

John McLarty: Yes, because it’s more pronounced.

Kimberly Faith: It’s more pronounced and it’s more We’re more able to give credit to God. Exactly. You know, you’re on a beach in Hawaii, it’s easy to be joyful. But if you’re walking through a valley where maybe one of your children has just gone way out in the left field and you want to, you just, your heart is breaking and the person you know, you’re talking to knows that. What more powerful testimony of the joy of intimacy with God than to say when Because they’re going to recognize that.

How can you even have peace and joy while you’re going through or if you have cancer or you’re in the And you can point back to God and say, God and I are tight and he’s got this. And like, oh my goodness. Like, The most incredible example to me is right out of the book of Daniel where Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were, you know, that Nebuchadnezzar was saying, you know, you’re gonna bow down and worship this idol or I’m gonna throw you in the fine art fiery furnace. I mean, they basically told him to stand down. They said, oh, you know what?

Oh, Nebuchadnezzar, we are careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, oh, king. But if it if not if not not

John McLarty: If we die.

Kimberly Faith: Be it known to you, oh king, that we will not serve your gods or worship your image because they had intimacy with They knew their life was just a vapor. Their physical life was a vapor. They had intimacy with God and they knew didn’t matter. Didn’t matter. And that’s amazing.

So we can have joy even in the the mouth of the furnace. So and and just to you know, that makes joy something much greater than happiness. Happiness is a fleeting emotion. Joy is satisfaction.

John McLarty: In the Fox’s book of martyrs or people can read about the martyrs. One of their greatest testimonies is they die willingly. Yeah. And they have, you know, a smile on their face. They look up to heaven and they say, you know, father, forgive them.

And then, Jesus, into thy hands, commend my spirit.

Kimberly Faith: Right. Like Thomas, when he was being stoned, you know, was praying for his the people that were tormenting

John McLarty: him. Stephen.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. Oh, Stephen, not Thomas. Yeah. Stephen. So, this joy, it’s it’s real and an amazing experience, especially in the face of trouble.

And then the seventh benefit is from intimacy with God is we have this wisdom and understanding.

John McLarty: Yeah, I’ll read that one. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, of course, out of Proverbs, and the knowledge of the holy one is understanding.

Kimberly Faith: And

John McLarty: to have that wisdom from God is just I can’t see around that corner, but

Kimberly Faith: He’s God already there.

John McLarty: He’s already there.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. You know, we talked about in the last podcast, the idea that our ignorance of God really is a huge wall to having his understanding and his wisdom and walking in the path that he has for us. And we use the example of a of Roger Staubach offering to coach Mhmm. Some teenage aspiring football player and the football player not knowing who, quote, the old man was and turning him down. Right.

And I and I I I love that idea because I think our wisdom you know, God’s we we talked about God’s ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. It’s mind blowing. I mean, we don’t even we can’t create one cell in a living body. And God created, you know, innumerable cells and innumerable stars and innumerable systems, and we just it’s mind blowing.

All of it’s mind blowing. And yet we would cut off his wisdom by not being intimate with him. That’s just dumb.

John McLarty: And then that we can tap in to the wisdom of the creator of the universe.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. It’s mind blowing.

John McLarty: And he wants to give us those those correct decisions.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And I think the question

John McLarty: And counsel for ourselves and other people.

Kimberly Faith: The question I have to ask myself, you know, like, how stupid do you wanna be, Kim? You know, do you wanna walk through life blind and and or do you want to pursue intimacy with God so that you can see what you need to see to keep from falling in the pit, so to speak.

John McLarty: I’ll read our our family verse. It’s Proverbs three, five and seven two seven. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not into thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. That is so exciting.

Yeah. That he wants to direct our paths.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: Right. If we will acknowledge him in all of our ways, then we’ll seek his wisdom. It’s not like he wants to hide it from us.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. That’s right.

John McLarty: He wants to show us the correct path.

Kimberly Faith: And that goes back to seeking him is seeking intimacy with Him.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: And intimacy is something that requires us to because God is who He is. It requires us to change, not Him. And that’s I think that’s the big We want God to conform to our ways instead of us conforming to God’s ways. And that’s because we want our own way. We’re you know, that’s original sin, independence in the garden.

Right? I can be like God, so therefore I have to obey God.

John McLarty: That’s a good point. We can’t just live in sin Right. Live in the flesh and then and treat this wisdom, this joy, as like a genie in a jug. Oh, I need God’s wisdom now. I need God’s joy now.

And we’ve got to have that, just that intimate life requires obedience.

Kimberly Faith: Well, it’s kinda like if, you know, know, you and mom have married

John McLarty: But it brings joy.

Kimberly Faith: You and mom have been married for fifty years. And, you know, you all do things for each other and you have an intimacy. But if she decided that she was gonna shack up with some other guy or even kiss another guy, it would destroy the intimacy because it would be a crime against your love.

John McLarty: That’s that’s very true.

Kimberly Faith: And and not that I wanted to put that thought in your mind, but I’m just saying that’s a very radical example of a real radical behavior that

John McLarty: we do.

Kimberly Faith: We say Us

John McLarty: being unfaithful to God.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And when we

John McLarty: say Damages the relationship immediately.

Kimberly Faith: When I say, well, my way is better than your way, God, even if it’s just a simple thing. Not it’s not like I’m, you know, gonna go, you know, maybe become, you know, part of a profession that it would would be maybe like denigrating to God. You know, anything that is not that violates God’s word, whether that’s failing to pray without ceasing or failing to, you know, to read my read God’s word or or whether it’s a sin of commission like lying, you know, it violates that intimacy. And what do we forfeit? We forfeit all these benefits.

John McLarty: Kim, this is so much one plus one equals two. I just I know Christians that I I actually believe are Christians, and they just say they they’re just shacking up.

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm.

John McLarty: And then just their life is just trouble. Yeah. I mean, we said life involves trouble when God gives us peace, but their life is just like some of your clients.

Kimberly Faith: They’re just

John McLarty: DUIs and trouble. Right. You know, they’re about to go to jail. And I’m going like, don’t you Yeah. You know, it’s kind of

Kimberly Faith: It makes sense.

John McLarty: You know, get your life right with God and things will

Kimberly Faith: You have to do things God’s

John McLarty: better for you.

Kimberly Faith: If you want God’s benefits, you need to do things his way because the benefit package has a cost and it’s called obedience. And if you choose to obey your own ways, then your benefit package looks a lot different than what God offers and it’s not so great.

John McLarty: And you’re operating in your own wisdom.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: And understanding. And how’s that working out for you?

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: I’m sure you asked that like that. It’s Oh, something similar to some of your clients. How’s that working out for you?

Kimberly Faith: Exactly. I mean, it is-

John McLarty: You’re facing, you know, whatever.

Kimberly Faith: Well, and and and again, not to I don’t wanna be I try to be ugly about it, but really It’s

John McLarty: not it’s not ugliness.

Kimberly Faith: It’s it’s coming face to face with the truth.

John McLarty: Yeah. And we we want people to share in this all these benefits.

Kimberly Faith: Right. Right. And just like our children, you know, we want our children to have the benefits of our presence, the benefits But of our hard if they’re going to abuse those benefits, then we withhold them. And God, you know, God loves us more than we love our children. Jesus said that.

So we had the benefit of his wisdom and understanding. And then the eighth benefit is just refreshing and restoration. And do you want to read that verse in Hosea?

John McLarty: Hosea six:three, Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord. His going forth is established as the morning. He will come to us like the rain, like the latter and former rain to the earth. I mean, there’s So just kind of back to our front porch. I love it sitting on the front porch and this is the the rain.

Just see the rain refreshing my wildflowers.

Kimberly Faith: Right. You do have kind of nice patch of wildflowers in the front yard for those bees.

John McLarty: And that’s what the Lord He is refreshing and restores.

Kimberly Faith: He truly is. And you know we know And know that when when we violate that intimacy through our sin, our own choices, we know when it’s not there. We know when we’ve lost it. I can tell when I’ve walked into the desert out of the refreshing oasis. And as soon as that happens, I want back.

And the Lord’s so gracious and merciful. And I kind of finally wanna wrap up this portion by saying, God, I think this is the best benefit of intimacy with God and that is His love. John four:seven-eight says, Beloved, let us love one another for God is of love and everyone who I’m sorry, everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God for God is love. God’s love is the only real love.

It’s the only real love because he emptied himself of everything, gave up everything for us. Jesus, you in the last podcast, talk about people who criticize Christians and you say, woah, we got it. We’re all flawed, but look at Jesus. He was love. He is love.

And that kind of love, when we have experienced that through intimacy, there’s not a love on earth that I can think of. Even though my love for my children, which is probably one of the greatest, deepest, most abiding loves I think that I have experienced. There’s no love like it. I would first, you know, when you have it, you would forsake everything to keep that experience because it’s mind blowing that He would love me when And forgive me when He knows that tomorrow I’m gonna do the same thing. You know?

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: That’s you don’t don’t find that anywhere. No human can give you that.

John McLarty: You know, and it’s it’s a particular aspect of love. I’ve been reading a lot in the Psalms and it’s just full of God’s loving kindness. Mhmm. And I just contrast it’s a if someone’s drowning Mhmm. And you pull them out, set them on the bank, that was a loving thing to do.

You could have been selfish and just let them drown. Right. But God doesn’t just pull us up on the bank and leave us. It’s like you pull somebody up at the bank and say, oh, come to my house. I wanna feed you some lunch.

Mhmm. Oh, do you need a job? Is your life okay?

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm.

John McLarty: And it’s this loving kindness that God shows us, not just this bare minimum love. He wants to show us loving kindness.

Kimberly Faith: And he wants us to keep he wants to keep us from jumping back into the river. Yeah. He takes it a step further and says, hey, I’ll teach you. This is what this is all about, this intimacy. I’ll teach you how to stay out of the danger if you’ll let me do that.

And makes that offer knowing good and well, we’re gonna jump back into the danger again.

John McLarty: And

Kimberly Faith: that we can’t even understand that love. I mean, how many times I mean, think about when I was a teenager, how many times, you know, did you and mom have to forgive me for the just the stupidity and the disobedience and you probably were forgiving me knowing I was gonna do it again, but We lost count. I know, right? No, no. No, I’m not kidding.

I totally acknowledge I own that. I also You

John McLarty: were a lively teenager.

Kimberly Faith: I was a rebellious teenager. But if you had known, if you had known ahead of time, let’s say that I was going to commit all these future transgressions, I think it would have been harder for you to forgive that. I mean, at least it would have been for me. You know, I think about my own kids. Had, I think I had pretty good kids, but, and there were some things that happened now.

Was just like, man, you know, that was

John McLarty: Well, we would have still loved you. You’re pretty lovable kid.

Kimberly Faith: Well, and that’s nice of you, dad. I’m just saying that putting this in context God for myself knows. Think that the crimes against his love are so much greater because it’s what crucified his son. None crimes of against your love caused you to lose somebody in death.

John McLarty: And while we were getting sinners, Christ died

Kimberly Faith: for Right. So let’s kinda I mean, these are I’m sure there are lots more benefits to intimacy with God, but let’s switch gears for a minute because part of this podcast, I I wanna, you know, wanna kinda cover, okay, So what are some ways to get it? Why don’t how do we get an intimacy with God? Well, we know, first of all, we have to be born again. Intimacy with God is impossible unless you are connected to him, which he calls himself the vine.

And you would read that scripture in John fifteen four.

John McLarty: Sure. 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. So

Kimberly Faith: all these things we’ve been talking about, peace, freedom, strength, joy, wisdom, love, purpose, all these things are impossible unless we’re abiding in God. We can have cheap imitations of these things, but we never get the real thing unless we’re connected to the vine, which comes through salvation. But then we’ve already talked about this. Salvation is just the beginning. Then we have to build intimacy on purpose with God.

And just like a marriage, you and mom have spent fifty years building intimacy. Now you can almost read each other’s minds. We probably can read each other’s minds.

John McLarty: So it’s spending time with God, as in Lynn and I spending time with each other. And even as you kind of alluded to, staying faithful to each other. We could spend a lot of time with each other, but if we’re, you know Swingers. Flirting around with others, it’s not gonna work real well.

Kimberly Faith: No. And that actually is our first kind of We have, you know, I know this is I’m not a big list person, but this is kind of nice to have list. And the first thing we’ve got here is make space for God first.

John McLarty: Good.

Kimberly Faith: And right out of Psalm 60 three:one, Oh God, you are my God, early will I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. You know, people that I’ve taught over the years, just in, you know, the How to know God and how to become We have a deeper relationship with God. I hear this a lot. I’m not a morning person.

You know what? That has nothing to do with what God tells us to do. If we are not renewing our minds first thing in the morning, whether you’re a morning person or not a morning person, you are your day is gonna be different. You are gonna miss out on opportunities because if you are not aligning yourself in the morning with God and his will and his purpose and just remembering who he is, you’re you’ve got to make that time. And I’m not again, I’m not trying to be critical, but I’ll if if if you care about people, you tell them the truth.

John McLarty: And that’s a good point because we’re so we we’re born again. We have the nature of Christ in us. That’s our inner man, but we’re in this outer man, the flesh. Mhmm. That is self controlling.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. We’ll wake up in the morning, our list, to do list. Right.

John McLarty: You know? Or even just, you know, to be a little graphic, we need to use the restroom. Right. We need to brush our teeth.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: Maybe we want a cup of coffee. The first things we think about are just Physical. Physical. Right. Which that’s okay to do all those things.

Right. Then if we jump right into our to do list, where’s God?

Kimberly Faith: Exactly. And and it’s it’s kind of like, you know, if you have the kind I mean, I’ll just tell you, when I am close to God, I wake up first thing in the morning and I it’s good morning, God.

John McLarty: Amen.

Kimberly Faith: And wow, thanks for another day. This morning I woke up that way. And I think it’s because we had such a great little revival, time in our living room last night, you know? And and I woke up this morning like, wow, God. And it was it’s a Saturday morning and it’s, you know, it’s 06:00 and I can actually sleep in.

The one day a week I could actually sleep in and the Lord’s like, oh, why don’t we have some time together? And so I was excited about it. That’s that’s what happens when you make God Amen. Make time for God on purpose.

John McLarty: And he shows up.

Kimberly Faith: He never

John McLarty: fails to show up.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. You know? And and and he’s and it’s and another way to look at that is he’s already there. And it’s kinda like your best friend is standing outside the door knocking and you’re ignoring it. Wow.

That’s just so sad. You know, the one that, again, wants to guide you, wants to give you joy, wants to give you peace, wants to strengthen you, wants to give you wisdom is like, hey, I’m here. And you’re like, I gotta do my to do list. I gotta get to the office. I got to I got to I I I. Right?

John McLarty: There’s a verse, I think it’s in Psalms or Proverbs. His mercies are renewed daily.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. Yes. His mercies are new every morning.

John McLarty: Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. So number one, you’ve gotta make the space for God first. That’s got to be the first order of the day. And I also recommend it be the last order of the day, you know, and everywhere in between. But I’m just I’m not talking about, well, it kind of takes us to the next next point, which is communication with God continually.

But making this intentional space is like planning your date with your spouse. But with God, it should be every day.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: You know? And the second thing is communicating with God continually. And this goes to prayer. Prayer is a huge subject. We talk about it a lot in these podcasts.

There’s all kinds of prayer types and venues and reasons. This is the communication part. You know, when you’re in love with somebody, you’re texting them throughout the day. Right? Honey, I love you.

You know, whatever. Right?

John McLarty: Well, this verse, first Thessalonians five seventeen, pray without ceasing, almost requires a broader definition of prayer than just I like that. Being on your knees or, you know, that verbal prayer like we most think of prayer. It’s this it’s this continual communication.

Kimberly Faith: Right. He is your he’s your he’s on your comms all day. He’s on your you’re on his radar, he’s on your radar, and you’re in touch all day long. And, you know, I’ve had periods of my life where that’s been such a strong connection and it’s been so riveting where I’ll be in my office, you know, and the works piling up and things are, you know, there’s it’s crazy and I won’t be paying attention to the connection with God and it just gets crazier. But then there’s other times where I’m totally paying attention with God and he may stop me and do something completely different and then suddenly the work gets done.

John McLarty: Then I can give an example of that. It’s it’s like you’re in touch with God, but it’s not as like it’s not like you’re praying. However, like like me and the lady that was checking me out yesterday, I was just wanting to do God’s will. I wasn’t thinking it over and over in my mind. Right.

I wasn’t praying to God because I was check you know, telling this lady my birthday and picking up this prescription. But when they switched on me and this new lady came up, I could have thought, well, this is a little strange. And there’s like three people in line behind me. Right. So I thought, am I gonna give her a tract?

Then I thought, of course I am. If I had not done that, if that had waylaid me and I had not given her those two tracts, I promise you, when I walked away, I would have felt this Holy Spirit. Grief. Yeah. Yeah.

And I would have either had to go back in an even more awkward way, like, I need to give you these,

Kimberly Faith: or I would

John McLarty: have had to live with this feeling all day long. Right. You know? That’s like you missed An opportunity. An opportunity.

Yeah. And it’s this lack of peace. So it’s like the you kinda don’t know it’s there all the time. Mhmm. Do you get what I’m saying?

Yeah. But you know when it’s not there.

Kimberly Faith: You know when it’s not there.

John McLarty: Because the Lord’s going like, you you were supposed to get for that tract.

Kimberly Faith: It’s it’s so interesting that intimacy with God, when we get it, we know exactly what it feels like. When we lose it, we know what exactly what that feels like. But the saddest thing in the world is for a born again believer never to have experienced that intimacy because you miss the greatest opportunities, eternal opportunities of your lifetime, giving a track to a lady. And it’s a combination of of making it a habit to obey God, which is you were carrying out the great commission. Right?

Handing out your tracks to this this person and developing. So you have this discipline. Intimacy with God requires discipline. And that’s what we’re talking about. Making space with God was number Communicating with God continually.

That is a discipline. To listen to God and be asking for God’s guidance throughout the day is a discipline. And it’s not a discipline I have to, it’s a want to.

John McLarty: And that kind of leads in I’ll just jump into the the point three here because it ties right in. Obey the instructions from God’s word and his spirit.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: Because when you don’t, you lose that communication.

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm. Yeah. Because John fifteen ten says, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.

John McLarty: If you keep my commandments.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. I mean, it’s it’s it’s pretty simple. I mean, God like you said, God doesn’t hide the ball. It’s like, look, live according to my way, and I’m gonna give you all the guidance you need. And it’s and this is not about a feeling.

I just wanna make this this really clear. This isn’t a feeling. Sure, it does have a feeling, but it’s not a feeling. It is an experience. An experience is not something that just disappears.

Experience is a journey. It’s something you go through. And sometimes the experience produces great feelings. Sometimes you’re afraid. Because if you’re experiencing a true relationship with God, there’s going to be an element of adventure, of danger, of fear because you’re going into unknown territory many times.

You’re like, you know, Magellan. You don’t know what the wide, wide sea holds, but you’re okay doing it because you know your captain. And, you know, he already knows what’s on the other side. So, you know, the obeying God’s word is another big subject. But every act of obedience matters and every act of disobedient disobedience matters too.

And kinda like, you know, when when You

John McLarty: know, that sense of purpose we have, but that sense of purpose is thwarted. It’s actually thwarted if we disobey.

Kimberly Faith: Well, we talked about I don’t know which podcast this was. I think we talked about this. I always forget. I get confused with what I’ve talked about where we talked about the one degree. And if you’re a navigator, if you’re if you’re flying when I I learned to fly, I wasn’t very you know, I didn’t pursue the the the I got the, you know, the basics down.

But if you’re using navigation equipment and you’re off even one degree, you won’t notice it in the first 10 miles. By the end of time you’re a 100 miles out

John McLarty: further you go.

Kimberly Faith: You’re going to miss the airport completely. You’re going miss your target completely. That one degree matters. That one act of disobedience, that one area of disobedience in your life, it matters. You’re gonna miss an opportunity.

You may miss the entire purpose that God has for you in a particular time in your life. So this third thing, obeying God’s word. The fourth thing, staying connected to his body. You know, Hebrews ten twenty five makes it very clear. We are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves.

We have to be connected with Christ through his body. And the body of Christ is a local bible believing church that you are connected to, that you not just go to on Sunday mornings and show up just to check the box. They’re your family. They’re your tribe. They’re your community.

You do life together. You bring other people in. Just like this ladies conference, you know, there are people who don’t go to our church that are doing this ladies conference. They’re connecting.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: They’re making friends.

John McLarty: Mhmm.

Kimberly Faith: And they may not even they may go to a different church, but that’s okay. They still have the the camaraderie, you know, that you need. You can’t be you you cannot be a special forces operative by yourself. You need comms. You need supply.

You need a pickup, insertion extraction. Extraction. It’s a team. And and that’s we have to stay connected.

John McLarty: I like to think of every time Lynn and I go to church, we’ve been going for forty nine years. And I’ll just say this, people like the great conversations we have on the porch and we love God and to talk about God. Lynn and I don’t take any credit for that because when we first joined our church Mhmm. We just did we didn’t stand out above anybody. Mhmm.

We just did what everybody else was doing. Right. And that’s just you just go to church all the time.

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm.

John McLarty: And it turns out over forty nine years, I I I use that in terms of getting tune ups. Every time we go to church, you know, you talk about getting off course one degree.

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm.

John McLarty: You get corrected. Yeah. And it’s like you hear a message or just a friend comes up to you and encourages it, or you get a ministry. Somebody needs you to go counsel or have prayer with them. Right.

So you get these course Right. Right. Through the body, through the church ministry.

Kimberly Faith: Exactly. And that kind of brings us to our fifth, you know, way that you create intimacy with God. And that is, you’ve got to cut off what’s choking your connection to the vine. Yes. Has to be pruned.

You know, John fifteen:two says, Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. You know, it’s so We talked about this earlier, but every choice that we make matters. It’s either for God or it’s against Him. Those are the words of Jesus, not my words. He said, You’re either for me or against me.

There’s no Switzerland. There’s no neutral ground. All of our decisions, all of our thoughts, all of our words matter.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: And we are either going to, you know, and I’ll tell you, you know, we have to think about what information, what thoughts, what friendships, what words, what actions are suffocating our relationship with God. Is it the social media scrolling? Is it toxic friendship? Is it too we too busy? We have secret sin?

When we are doing, even if we’re doing these first four, then like you said about the body, you know, encouraging tune up, then this will correct itself if we’re spending time with God because the light, like we talked about Jesus is the word in the last podcast, that light is going to reveal what needs to change. You know, whether, whether being overweight because we eat too much and don’t exercise or whether we’re just failing to have to carry out the great commission because we’re afraid and we haven’t been trained. God will reveal that. Or if let’s say we’re into pornography, whatever, you know, it can be what we call We think of the big sins, the little sins, but God, they’re all sins and they all choke the vine.

John McLarty: Those damaging things

Kimberly Faith: That’s in our That’s right.

John McLarty: Need to stop.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And so, mean,

John McLarty: gosh. Just one more thing to add in there because we talked about the fellowship of the brethren. I’ve just started reading back through Proverbs, Proverbs chapter one. And it’s kind of like advice to it’s kind of to young men, but it’s young people. And one of it just hit me.

One of the big things is watch who you hang out with. Yeah. Because Proverbs one one is don’t hang around those thieves and robbers Right. Because you’re gonna get trapped in their trap.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: And so that’s It’s it’s Those connections

Kimberly Faith: It’s so interesting you bring that up.

John McLarty: Hang out with, what we do. Then, you know what? Of course, our own flesh is our own can be our own worst companion if

Kimberly Faith: we

John McLarty: can do it. But then when you get others, you’re you’re surrounded by people that are just following their flesh. Yeah. It’s bad stuff.

Kimberly Faith: You know, back when I used to be defense counsel for drug court, one of the things that and DWI court.

John McLarty: Toxic friendships.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. One of the things the judge would always make it as a requirement for my clients is you can’t He have named this person, this person, this person, this friend, you can’t be around these people. If you are around these people, that’s a violation of the rules and you’ll go to DOC. And you know, I remember a client saying, that seems so radical. I said, wait a minute.Wait a minute. What is this person doing that aligns with what you’re supposed to doing right now? Well, nothing. They’re they’re I said, are they doing things that actually are in violation of your what you’re supposed to doing? Well, yeah.

So why would you wanna be around that person? And I think that, you know, that’s not to say that we don’t have friends or acquaintances with people who need Jesus.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: But we have to If we know that our weakness is alcohol, let’s say, and we know that we are prone to drink too much, then those are the people we don’t need to, you know, we don’t need to put ourselves in that temptation. I think this really cut off what chokes your connection to the mind is because probably

John McLarty: you’re supposed to abide in the mind, going I back to that first

Kimberly Faith: think that’s more about the action itself and less about the people because when we’re connected to the vine, although, I mean, friends can make us We have the wrong friends can influence us wrong. But we’re gonna want to be more connected to people who are also connected to the vine. That way we’re strengthened in the vine so that we can reach the people who aren’t. Right. You know?

And if we aren’t building our intimacy with God, then we’re gonna be too weak to help anybody else. We’ll be a shriveled up vine.

John McLarty: Well, a perfect example of that is when Lynn and I first got saved, we were instructed by the voice of the Lord, the word of God, to not hang around on this the Party Street in Fayetteville.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: But about seven years later, God gave us a restaurant right in the heart of the Dixon Street district. Right. I remember that. Because we were strong enough by then to minister to those people. They weren’t going to influence us.

Kimberly Faith: Right. You were gonna influence

John McLarty: We were there to influence them.

Kimberly Faith: And that’s intimacy with That’s a great summary of what intimacy with God does. It grows us. We wouldn’t put our two year old in charge of driving a locomotive

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: Because they would wreck it. They’re not ready for that. But we could put an adult son like my son

John McLarty: Yes.

Kimberly Faith: In charge of flying an Apache helicopter. But I wouldn’t have trusted him that when he was two, know, would have cost the taxpayers or even 19, you know, would have cost the taxpayers about $30,000,000 or whatever they cost. So I think, again, this is, to me, this has been such a, this list of benefits and this list of just tips to, you know, really how to be intimate with God has been, it’s been such a good thing for me to just have in my, the forefront of my mind. Because the fact is we do what we think is good.

John McLarty: Mhmm.

Kimberly Faith: And there’s nothing better than intimacy with God. And this is the way you get it.

John McLarty: Yeah. And these lists are are the benefits and then the how to’s.

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm.

John McLarty: So somebody, including myself, could go back and review this and study it and go, wow. Yeah. It’s This is a formula for abundant life.

Kimberly Faith: It’s a formula for success.

John McLarty: Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: You know? Eternal success. Amen. Because the only one thing we’re taking with us and that’s the souls of people and, intimacy with God not only benefits when we’re here, but also is an eternal benefit, makes us eternal beneficiaries. Amen.

So well, thanks. This has been a great great talk.

John McLarty: I’ll be looking forward to reviewing this myself.

Kimberly Faith: Have a great week, everyone. Are you looking for a place to recharge your faith, refocus your mind, and reignite your passion for Christ? Head over to gofaithstrong.com, your one stop hub for powerful devotionals, life giving podcasts, uplifting worship music, and real stories from real people walking their faith out just like you. We know life gets busy and it’s easy to feel spiritually drained. That’s why everything we create at Go Faith Strong is designed to be clear, Christ centered, and easy to plug into.

Whether you’ve got just five minutes or you have a whole hour. From Bible based blog posts to worship music, it’s all there to help you stay connected to truth throughout your week. So take a moment today. Visit us at gofaithstrong.com and dive into the resources that were made just for you because faith isn’t meant to be passive. It’s meant to be lived, and we’re here to help you live it strong.

Again, that is gofaithstrong.com. And don’t forget, hit that like, follow, and share button for the podcast.