Stop trying to get closer to God. As a believer, you are as close to God as you will ever be in your born-again spirit. I didn’t say that you and I would always feel close to God. Our feelings are often wrong. A Christian trying to get closer to God is like a pregnant woman trying to get more pregnant. She can’t, pregnant is pregnant, there is no such thing as, a little more pregnant. Granted, a woman that is eight months pregnant looks more pregnant, she feels ‘more pregnant’, but the truth is she’s been pregnant since conception. Statements like, “I just want to get closer to God” or preachers telling us that we need to “get closer to God” are statements that I’ve heard spoken my entire Christian life. I would often hear Christians refer to a certain believer as one who was “close to God”. They would urge me to get that guy to pray for your need because he’s close to God, implying that people ‘closer to God’ have a better chance at getting their prayers answered.
What’s the Problem?
The problem is in what we are communicating with this phrase and in what we believe about our relationship with God. Don’t you know that when you were born-again, that you were placed in Christ (2 COR. 5:17), that you are now joined to the Lord and you are one spirit with Him (1 COR. 6:17). You are IN, stop trying to get more in. If you are in the building, why would you pray to get more in the building? You’re in, just rest in the building. In is in! Another problem is that it communicates that our relationship with God is based on distance. This is the reason I hear Christians saying things like, “God is a million miles away”. We start thinking, “how near or how far am I from God right now”, followed by, “what did I do to cause this distance and what can I do to get close to God again?” The truth is there is nothing you can do to get close to God but believe in Him. The only time that you were not close to God is when you were lost, when you were a sinner, when you we not born-again.
Some have used a verse out of the Book of James to try and prove that we can get closer to God. Let’s look at the whole verse: Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded (James 4:8). This admonition to draw near to God is not to believers, but to “you sinners”. In James 4: 2-4, he says, “You lust, You murder and covet, You fight and war, Adulterers and adulteresses”.
His Blood Makes Us Close
Ephesians 2:12-13 (NKJV) 12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
The blood of Christ has brought you close! Nothing can ever make us “not-near” to Him. You may feel like you’re not near Him or that He is not near you, but that’s a lie. Don’t believe it. The message of the New Testament Bible repeatedly speaks about our God who is with us and in us and we are in Him. God and His Kingdom are not some far off reality. God is not “up there” or “out there” somewhere, but is in your heart. We are the temple of God – He literally lives in us! None of us are “closer” to God than anyone else as believers. We all live IN HIM and He lives IN US! We can grow in God, we can manifest more of God to this world, but we cannot get closer to God. Let’s stop trying to get closer to God and let’s start abiding in the one who abides in us!
Thank you for the reminder.
Thank you Pastor Dell for your constant encouragement to all who hear your words. Opening up the eyes of many to God’s word. Thank you.