Intimacy with God

Cultivating a Life of Deep Friendship Through Obedience

Randy Clark

• Publisher: Thomas Nelson
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9780785224341
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Denominations

What does it mean to pursue an intimate relationship with God?

• intimacy, obedience, and the miraculous as a blueprint for all believers. Combining sound biblical teaching with keen insight and compelling personal accounts from others, Dr. Clark invites us to go deeper by exploring the following questions:

• How do we achieve true intimacy in our relationship with God?
• What does it mean to express faith that results in the miraculous?
• What does the Bible say about the balance between obedience and grace?

A clear understanding of the integral relationship between intimacy and obedience provides a framework in today's world for glorifying God, particularly through the miraculous, as Dr. Clark has so profoundly demonstrated during his many years of ministry. He longs for you to renew your knowledge of God's deep love for His children and how fervently God desires a life of intimate friendship with you.

ONE

TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY DISCIPLESHIP AND THE SUPERNATURAL

MIRACLES, HEALING, SIGNS AND WONDERS AS found in Scripture have not ceased. I say this with confidence based on personal experience from fifty years of ministry, ten years of biblical and theological education, many years of studying church history, and the recorded experience of the mission field since the beginning of the twentieth century and continuing today in the twenty-first century.

In Acts 1:8, before Jesus’ ascension, He told His disciples the means by which they were to fulfill their commission of spreading the gospel and teaching the new believers all that He had taught them. Jesus said, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (NKJV).

The church has often focused on fulfilling the Great Commission to make disciples, as given by Christ in Matthew 28:19–20, but does not connect the need for the power of the Holy Spirit to fulfill it. It is as if we forgot that Christ demonstrated the kingdom of God through the power of God as well as taught about it with words.¹ According to Scripture, we are called to do no less.

I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ. (Rom. 15:18–19 ESV)

I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power. (1 Cor. 2:3–5)

The kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. (1 Cor. 4:20)

When the power of the Holy Spirit is connected to the commission to advance the kingdom, that commission is accomplished exponentially. The healings, deliverances, and other signs and wonders demonstrate that the kingdom of God is at hand. Church history up to the present day reveals this, showing us how the Holy Spirit’s power is integrally connected to missions. You can read more about this in my book Supernatural Missions.² One of the primary purposes of the miracles of Jesus, which are also referred to as His works, is to bring people to faith in Jesus, resulting in the new believers being filled with the Holy Spirit so they, too, can advance the kingdom of God on the earth through the power and authority given to them. Jesus has come from God to reveal God. Jesus is the incarnation of God—the second person of the Trinity. He is the pioneer of our faith. In 1 Corinthians 4:16–17, Paul told new believers: “I urge you, then, be imitators of me. That is why I sent you Timothy . . . to remind you of my ways in Christ” (ESV). Again, in 1 Corinthians 11:1, Paul wrote, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” This is the biblical understanding of discipleship. It is not limited to knowing what the Master taught, but also involves following the Master’s example of how to live and what to do. With this in mind, discipleship must include doing what He commands. His commission to us is a command to declare the gospel of the kingdom of heaven and to heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead, and preach the good news to the poor.³

As we study the role of the supernatural in the church, we find that it has a biblical aspect, a historical aspect, and a missiological aspect. The biblical aspect will be laid out in the remainder of this book. Ramsay MacMullen, emeritus professor of history at Yale University, emphasized that the primary reason people came to faith in Jesus during the first four hundred years of Christianity was the signs and wonders and the healings and deliverances worked by the early church.⁴ Francis MacNutt’s books Healing and Healing Reawakening, and my School of Healing and Impartation 1 Workbook, point out the importance of healing throughout the history of the church. Today, in the twenty-first century, this is the existential truth for almost all Muslims and other majority world people who are turning to Christ, as well as a host of other people groups worldwide, including first-world people.

Matt Scott is presently in my physical healing course at Global Awakening Theological Seminary. Matt was at one time a senior sales representative for an orthopedic implant company. In 2011 he founded The Gathering Place Church in Alabama, beginning with his family in their living room. In summer 2019 he resigned his sales rep position to serve full time as the lead pastor at The Gathering Place. In December of that year his church had experienced an unexpected outpouring of the power of God while in a season of praying and fasting and began to see healings on a weekly basis. They now have had more than two hundred documented healings. In the eight years prior to this, their church rarely saw any signs of physical healings. The following testimony is from Matt.

---

On my second trip to India, I encountered a situation that challenged my theology pertaining to healing. At the time of this trip, I believed that healing was the byproduct of faith. I thought that it was a benefit offered to believers and was subsequent to justification—saving faith.

While on my trip, one of the local pastors invited me to come with him to a village where I was asked to share my testimony, share the gospel, and offer an opportunity for unbelievers to accept Christ. After sharing my testimony and completing my gospel presentation, I asked if anyone wanted to accept Jesus Christ. No one responded. I was disheartened by the lack of interest.

But just as we were about to thank them for their time and dismiss ourselves, one of the people came forward and said, “Please pray for me. I am deaf in left ear, and almost deaf in right ear.” I thought to myself, God, should I pray healing over someone who did not accept an invitation to follow You? If they did not have faith to accept Jesus, they cannot possibly have faith for Jesus to heal them. But oddly I felt the Lord impress upon me to pray for his healing. I must admit that at this point I lacked faith for his healing and felt that the man’s faith was minimal at best. But regardless, we prayed.

No sooner than I had said the words, “Come, Holy Spirit,” the man began to squint as if in pain and then grabbed his ears with both hands. Immediately his eyes popped open and he looked around the room in shock. I didn’t know if his condition was better or worse. Then all of a sudden he shouted in his native tongue, “I can hear!” Everyone in the room cheered and then he ran out of the room. I was very confused. I wanted to lead him to the person who healed him (Jesus), but he ran out before we could talk.

In a matter of two minutes, the man returned with a friend who was also deaf. He said, “Pray for her. She’s deaf too.” We prayed and her ears opened as well! They both ran out and went to retrieve another person who was deaf. God opened the third person’s ears as well! In a matter of ten minutes, God had healed three people who did not believe in Jesus or originally have faith for Jesus to heal them. And as previously stated, my faith was minimal at best. What was going on?

At that point the Indian pastor began to speak. He talked for five minutes in their language. While I did not know what he was saying, I could tell that they were engaged. They were all nodding their heads in agreement. When finished, he looked at me and said, “They are now ready to accept Christ.”

I said, “Which ones?”

He said, “All of them.”

It was the easiest salvation prayer I have ever led. Without hesitation, all twenty-five people in the room accepted Jesus.

The next day we returned, and news had spread concerning the healings. We prayed for many more individuals. Some were healed on the spot and some were not. Regardless, in less than three days more than one hundred people accepted Jesus in that village! This event challenged and eventually changed my theology that required faith for healing. Many times since this event, God has prompted me to begin my evangelistic efforts not with my story, or the gospel presentation, but with praying for the sick. I am finding that in many cases God will heal people’s bodies first, then heal their souls second.

In one case I was invited to a home filled with many radical Muslims and Hindus. I was advised to break the ice by sharing stories about America and my culture, and then if received well to “carefully” communicate the gospel to them. But as I was about to begin, my attention was drawn to a man standing along the wall with a shoulder sling. I felt the Spirit of God say, Begin by praying for his healing. I asked my translator if this would be okay. He said, “Yes, but be careful not to say the name Jesus out loud in your prayer. These men are accustomed to healing prayers but may have problems with the name of Jesus.”

At this point I was a little nervous, but decided to move forward with prayer. I began to pray by audibly saying, “God, I know that You love this man and You love all these in the room. Lord, the Enemy has deceived most of them into believing things that are false and things that will ultimately lead them to death. Will You please come now and show them Your love? Will You please heal this man and offer me an opportunity to introduce them to You?”

After the prayer the man just sat there. Everyone in the room was staring at the two of us. When I asked if he felt anything he said, “No.”

My heart sank. I asked the Lord, What now?

I felt the Lord say, Tell him to move it. So I asked if he would move his shoulder a little to see if it still hurt. Very gently he began to move his shoulder. He moved it slowly from front to back. When he realized it was no longer in pain, he began to move it more. He moved it from side to side and then up and down. Finally he took the sling off and raised his hand over his head. The Lord had completely healed him! At that point a once-abrasive audience was very curious about what happened. After I told them about Jesus and God’s love for them, they all accepted Christ.

---

Matt Scott and many others, such as Leif Hetland,⁵ Heidi Baker,⁶and Robbie Dawkins,⁷ are witnessing the supernatural power of God to bring, in Leif’s case, more than one million unbelievers and people of other faiths to Jesus. The same is true of Heidi’s ministry, and, in Robbie’s case, hundreds, including Taliban members. These are exciting times for the church.

ADVANCING GOD’S KINGDOM ON THE EARTH

When I have an opportunity to teach on the subject of leadership—what it means to become a history maker or a powerful leader in the church—I emphasize two things. The first is the need for a powerful personal encounter with God that comes in the form of an impartation, a filling with His Holy Spirit that baptizes and sanctifies. The second is having a certainty regarding your destiny—a strong call from God. With these two things, you will have the grace, power, and faith to persevere in the face of great hardship. Without them you will not be able to fulfill His call on your life, for it is “‘not by might nor by power, but by [God’s] Spirit,’ says the LORD” (Zech. 4:6). When you are willing and certain of your calling, His Spirit working in you can accomplish extraordinary things to advance His kingdom on the earth.

A great many revivalist evangelists in history were also healing evangelists. We see this from the great advance in missions at the beginning of the twentieth century and even more at the middle of the twentieth century, related to the role of healing evangelists who were touched in the revival of the late 1940s and early 1950s. This is also often the pattern throughout church history. Healing evangelists were heroes of the faith who heard and obeyed. It was the hearing of the word of the Lord that gave them faith to do mighty exploits in the name of the Lord. Revival is characterized by the power of God, when people are touched so powerfully that they yield their lives to the purposes of God (1 Thess. 1:5; Acts 1:8; 2:1–4; 4:23–33). The fruit of these outpourings of the Spirit is seen in salvations, new churches planted, and people called to crosscultural missions, among other things. Historic revival movements such as the First and Second Great Awakenings, the Welsh Revival, the Azusa Street Revival, the 1948 Healing Revival, and more recently the Billy Graham crusades, the Charismatic Renewal of 1960, the Jesus Movement, the Toronto Blessing, the Pensacola Revival, the Smithton Outpouring, and visitations at evangelical colleges in the last decade of the twentieth century—all have revealed the face of God in the power of the Holy Spirit. Millions have responded, daring to do what seems impossible.

An event called The Send in Brazil filled three stadiums in January 2020 with about 160,000 in attendance. I had the privilege of addressing all three stadiums simultaneously on the last night. This event was a call to the churches in Brazil to send forth the laborers into the harvest, to send out laborers to the lost, the poor, the marginalized, and to the nations.⁸ I led a short impartation service, and many attested to being powerfully touched by the Holy Spirit. Many were healed during this one-day event. It was a demonstration that the younger generation realizes discipleship to Jesus involves doing the works He prepared in advance for us to walk in (Eph. 2:8–10). The Bible is never to be reduced to an ethical manual for living. It is so much more. Bible study is intended to lead to doing what the Bible tells us to do, which involves two kinds of fruit: the fruit of being (Gal. 5:22–23) and the fruit of doing (John 14:12–14).

The connection Jesus made between power and mission in Acts 1:8 is reflected in both Matthew’s gospel (28:18–20) and Luke’s gospel (24:45–49), with the promise of the Spirit connected to mission that was fulfilled in Luke’s second volume, the book of Acts. Power in this context is a delegated authority from Jesus connected to the glory of God. We will study the relationship between glory and power in greater depth later, but for now it is sufficient to understand that miracles, signs, and wonders reveal God’s glory. He is the source of this power to move in the miraculous. It is His energy working in us that powerfully produces compassion, love, faith, enabling grace, the ability to suffer, and perseverance for the advance of the gospel in the world.

Do power and the gifts exist for the church or for the mission? I believe they exist primarily for the mission and are done through the church. It is important to remember that Christ died for the church; however, the church’s job is to find other “sheep” and bring them into the fold (John 10:16), and to make known the manifold wisdom of God to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places through the church (Eph. 3:10). A second question is, What is the primary purpose of the power of God? Is it to bear witness to the apostles and their teaching as evidence of correct doctrine, or to display God’s compas...