Intimacy: Priceless Times with God

By Nicole Jarrett

How many persons would do anything to meet the person they most admire, their favorite movie star, celebrity, superhero? To even get to have a relationship with these persons or those who play the roles is next to impossible. These popular personalities hardly pursue or try to know or build a relationship on a one-on-one basis with their fans. Yet the most important being ever known--the Creator of the world--is seeking out, eager to know His admirers, fans, and loyal followers. God, the Creator of heaven and earth, wants to know you. He loves you. He has prepared a life for you and is preparing for you in eternity.

Intimacy, Priceless Times with God is designed to testify to you about how Nicole Jarrett discovered a lasting relationship with God. As she traverses the terrain of Christianity, she found that Christianity was not a routine and ritualistic event but a relationship of meaningful fulfillment. It is a privilege called to action by the Creator God through guidance from the Holy Spirit. She discovered that life is a gift meant to be victorious. The victorious life needs victorious people. The book is designed to strengthen the Christian and bring clarity to their walk of faith. Let the love that Christ extends to you be your guiding compass. Too many believers are wavering about their identity in Christ, which impacts their daily actions, speech, and thoughts.

Victory comes through faith, in and through Christ Jesus. This faith allows you to believe and find a resting place in God. This faith establishes a peace stance which ricochets from the heart position of the Christian. Therefore, this Christian begins to pursue the God of the Bible that is pursuing them. As the Christian journeys through the salvation long walk, they develop a care-less trust for the Trinity. This care-less trust builds a faithful walk of obedience in Christ. In Intimacy, Priceless Times with God, Nicole speaks about the reality of the walk in Christ and the need to pace yourself and take baby steps. All the pillars, as she calls the chapters, are intertwined, designed to work together to build a lasting foundation of boldness and confidence of the believer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Oct 4, 2023
• ISBN: 9798888324813

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Intimacy

Priceless Times with God

Nicole Jarrett

ISBN 979-8-88832-480-6 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88832-481-3 (digital)

Copyright © 2023 by Nicole Jarrett

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

Structure

Chapter 1

Believe

Baby Steps

What Do You Believe?

Who Is Christ to You?

Doubt Not, Fear Not

When You Sow, Sow Belief

Testify: Speak Well of Jesus and His Bride

Only in Loving Him, Belief Becomes Firm

Chapter 2

Heart Position

A Committed Heart

Pliable Heart

Spiritual Mind

Unraveling and Refocusing the Mind

The Transforming Mind

Chapter 3

Faith Consideration

Faith that Makes the Difference

Obedience to God—His Words, His Instructions

Do You Have Enough Faith?

Dead Things, Can They Live Again?

Sin and Faith

Fear

Pride

Lack of Knowledge

Unbelief

Encourage Yourself

Focusing

Chapter 4

Peace Stance

Walking It Out, Walking with Peace

Chapter 5

Getting to Know

Start with the Word

The Revealed Word

God's Impact through Revelation

The God of the Christian

God Is a Spirit

Divine Knowledge

Intimacy with God

Know What Pleases God

Why Is it So Crucial to Examine What You Know?

Identity

Chapter 6

Care-less Trust

Care-less Trust Takes Courage

They Will Be Like a Tree… It Does Not Fear When Heat Comes

When Trust Is Snowballing

Trust the Name of Jesus

To Trust or Not to Trust?

Chapter 7

Obedience

Obedient to God's Commandments

Being Obedient Also Comes with God's Chastening

Perspective Matters

Get Self Out of Obedience

Benefits

A Glance of the New You in Obedience

Pleasing God

Consequences to Disobeying God

Obey Him in Every Way

The Family

Governing Authority

Faithful Obedience

Acknowledge God

Accept

Action

chapter 8

A Resting Place in God

Testimony

The Rest God Intended for His People

Rest as a Spiritual Position

His Presence as a Present

Sin Can Affect the Rest

Take Rest to Listen to God

Introspection or Discussion Section

Self-Awareness Questionnaire

About the Author

Preface

Beginnings

At the beginning, you believe on the Lord, and you were saved. At this point, you have a plethora of emotions, so you have not yet processed anything and everything. At the salvation place, you just know that God has touched you, and you are sure you need to make a decision. You will start out to believe—that is, you started with baby steps toward what you believe. The real situation is this: you already believe, and that is how you accepted Jesus. The Holy Spirit convicted your heart through Jesus Christ, and you moved in obedience. This obedient step led you to walk in faith in Jesus Christ. It is not that you will gain more belief as you mature as a Christian, rather, you will grow in understanding. It is the understanding that exponentially increases. In Ephesians, Apostle Paul asked for spiritual wisdom for the saints. It is the spiritual wisdom that will transform the understanding to the level of affirming your confidence to believe with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

In praying for the spiritual wisdom, it is accompanied by revelation in the knowledge of the Lord and your eyes of understanding enlightened (Eph. 1:16–20). For example, in the New Testament, Jesus is recorded, many times, where He uttered, He opened their understanding, or He opened their eyes. Your faith and belief system will not grow in portion but will grow in change as you understand. In a natural example, when a baby is born, the child has all the features of a human being. The child will not get another pair of feet or hands or any part of them as they grow. Instead, the various parts of the body develop as the child grows. They get stronger and stronger, and, over time, with growth and development, the things they could not do for themselves as a baby, they will eventually end up doing as they grow. It is the same with belief. When you are a child of Christ, you get the portion of faith and belief from Christ. As you grow and mature in Christ, your spiritual development grows. At this stage, you do not need to run to another person to pull on their faith or belief system, but you reach up in prayer to God based on the development that you have attained over time.

Everything is given to us at conversion. The Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us, to allow us to live the life as Christ designed us originally. Through the Holy Spirit, the Father will teach us all things and bring to our remembrance all that Jesus said to us (John 14:26). The Holy Spirit comes in to dwell with us from the moment we accept Jesus.

It is an understanding of what we believe that will allow the Christian to walk in the confidence we get in Christ. What we believe will affect the things we do, think, and speak. It will impact the heart of the believer, which is the mind of the believer. The understanding of what you believe should be pursued with urgency. The understanding is what will impact the prayer life you have—whether one that's filled with victorious results or one that allows you to see good results that are so few and far between, that doubt from the enemy creeps in. Therefore, let us understand a few things that we believe when we say that we are a child of God, made in His likeness, and have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, walking in the rebirth as a new man. A verse from a song by the Grace Thrillers said, Oh the Glory of Jesus shines brighter and brighter… The closer I get, the more I see the Glory of the soon coming King. It is the closeness to the glory that bring the victory in prayer.

As a believer, you are born again, not by rebirth of reentering your mother's womb, but you have been washed in the blood of Jesus by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8–9). You believe that Jesus Christ came in the flesh, He was crucified, died, and rose on the third day. Further, that He is seated at the right hand of the Father. He having conquered is given all power and authority. Through Him, we have access to the Father. He ascended to heaven, and with His ascension, the Holy Spirit came and dwelled on earth. Through this mystery of God, the same Spirit lives in us. His tabernacling in us gives us the ability to walk as sons and daughters of Jesus Christ. He, being a gentleman, does not force us to submit to His leadings, teachings, and counsel, but He gives us free will. Jesus does not only sit at the right hand of the Father, but He daily intercedes on our behalf. Further, the Holy Spirit does His part to advocate for us.

You are to be fully convinced that Jesus is the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father, except through Him (John 14:6). Among the many things that are in the Bible that you believe, you know that Jesus never leaves you nor forsakes you (Deut. 31:8). Jesus is gone to prepare a place for you, and that He will come again to receive you unto Himself. You trust the things that He has promised, you believe and know that Jesus is the Word of God (Rev. 19:13). You have peace in your life because you set your mind on the Spirit (Rom. 8:6). You have faith that Jesus' name is a strong tower that the righteous can run into and find safety. You know that when your mind is stayed on Him, He keeps you in perfect peace. You have determined to keep Jesus as your Shepherd so that He will lead you all the days of your life.

There is much more that we should know and walk in as we trod the journey as a Christian taking Jesus at His every word. It is not a journey that you will learn the lessons the first day. As the Spirit works in you, and you being obedient to Him, He will teach you as you daily submit your way and life to Jesus.

In the place of obedience, the Christian perspective is much different from that of the world. You will learn quickly that Jesus' way and the world's way contradict each other. The way of the world is the way of the flesh, and the flesh and the Spirit never agree. As you walk in this submission, He will strengthen you, and He will help you. It is the Lord's good pleasure to uphold and keep you (Isa. 41:10–13).

Last but by no means least, you will see the term believer or Christian. These two words represent the same. The believer is a person who has accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and have faith in Him. The Christian is a person who is a believer in Jesus Christ and is devoted to follow His example. These two words are used interchangeably because they represent the same person.

Introduction

As a Christian, a follower of Christ, and one who believes in Him, it becomes crucial to make sure that you have a good idea of your understanding of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ became flesh and dwelled among men on earth. He is the begotten Son of God. Through the miraculous works of the Holy Spirit, God allowed Mary to bring forth His Son who would be ransom for the created.

The person who has declared to themselves and the world that they are believers and, as such, a Christian then must contemplate what it means now that they have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and God; what is required of them as a believer in Jesus and how are they positioned in the world? The prophet Hosea said that for lack of knowledge, the people perish. It is the search for knowledge that will allow the Spirit of truth to begin to open your understanding to the kingdom of God. In the kingdom, you first want to understand that through Christ, you were bought at a price, and through Him, you have been saved. By faith, you believe this or else you would not be a follower of Christ. The mystery of the work of the Father through Jesus Christ opens to each person as the Lord bids them, and it opens up as your curious mind seeks understanding.

The faith that you have through Christ allows you to believe the things of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The faith in God is what allows each person to operate in the power and the authority given each believer in Jesus Christ. In this power and authority, you establish some characteristics that allow you to walk in victory. The walk in victory, sometimes, takes a long time for most Christians. Christians walk in defeat because they really do not possess these characteristics. From the day a person is a believer—that is, accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior—you should pursue the things that open your understanding of God and who you are as a new creation in God. In the old man (referring to male and female before you accept Christ), you already know the ins and outs of operating in the world and how to pursue family, education, careers, friendships, wealth, and living healthy.

However, in the kingdom of God, the things that make a believer successful are documented in the Bible, and the believer must study this book, not just for awareness of the content, but willingness to permit the Holy Spirit to permeate your heart with the living Word of God. As such the Word shall leap off the pages and come into your heart with power, conviction, and authority. Let the Word develop you into a mighty servant of God, full of grace and meekness. It is in this place that the eight branches will be discussed below. They have helped me to overcome fear, doubt, and insecurities. I hope they will allow you to live a victorious life in God, full of purpose and testimony to win souls for the kingdom.

The order that you know them will not matter, except for your faith and belief. It is your belief in the Lord that allows you to accept the faith offered in Christ to receive Him as the Lord of your life, resulting in you following Him. In this place of belief, you take His Word and use it in faith as the evidence not seen. It allows you to grow the muscle called faith. These two characteristics continue to balance the salvation journey as you join Jesus to do His will here on earth. Faith without works is dead. You need it to work in your life and the life of others to reveal the true workings of Christ as the book of James have shown and the many testimonies outlined in the book of Hebrews.

The men and women of faith in God exercised their faith in action, and such tremendous acts have been documented in the Bible to inspire the believers, whether new or matured, to be bold and courageous in the promises of God. In the faith step, it only works successfully when the common denominator is the promises of God. They cannot change, but we can change the numerator as the need requires for the various circumstances, challenges, or opportunities that present themselves to prove the truth of God. These numerators have been many, and yet they are not just limited to the biblical numerators but can be contextualized into situations that are present in today's context. The revelation of the usage is the work of the Holy Spirit. He provides you with the spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, and knowledge that will impact how you move and use the truth documented in the Bible.

You will be required to open yourself to Him, just as Jesus did while He was here on earth. As soon as Jesus was baptized, we learned that the Spirit of God descended on Him like a dove. He is the perfect example of how the Spirit of truth works. Therefore, as you become a believer, allow the Spirit of Truth to take over your life and develop the mind of Christ in you. As you desire daily the things of God and meditate on His Word so that you know them, you will develop a reverential fear for God because the Word will minister to you, and the testimonies of the biblical characters will invoke the fear of God. You will even learn to desire His presence because as you get familiar with His Word, His presence will begin to manifest in your space. Once you desire the Word, He will turn up. He will come in and dine with you as you speak to Him about what you are reading. You will even find yourself recognizing text you have heard, testimonies you have heard preached in sermons or dramatized or spoken about in conversations with other believers.

Also, as you begin to grow, you will find that the old person that you understand yourself to be will evolve into a person who can be identified as a child of Christ. You reform your thinking, your actions, and your speech. Sometimes, people change their clothes and the places they would hang out for the fun of it or because the transformation convicted them along that path. Again, it will be based on how God convicts your heart. Slowly but surely, your desire for the things of the world transition and evaporate. Your desire at this point is to be a light to beam Christ in the world and also to be the salt that speaks Christ in season and out of season. You are more sensitive to the things of God. You are keener to count your words, thoughts, and actions to ensure that you keep yourself righteous as Christ requires. Keeping yourself righteous is not to think that works can save or justify but more to keep the relationship each have developed with God to remain clean and pure. You want to keep the communication between you and God unhindered. Each time you pray, you repent, but if you are to keep in constant prayer and supplication, then you want a clean space for God to dwell richly in you.

To stand on the foundation of Christ is to accept every promise and every word in faith. God's Word is the only thing He can honor, and He does not deviate from it. It is the premise for your conversation because other than it, the accuser will run rings around you. God expects us to know His Word and use it back to Him to bring Him in remembrance of what He promised. Furthermore, everything that we present to Him has a point of reference in the Bible. We just need to search it out. In addition, allow the Spirit of God to be the guide and teacher as you seek these references.

Only when we understand the character of God and what He truly stands for will you begin to perform well in His kingdom. We are made in His image, and operating contrary to design will allow us to malfunction. Operating in the nature and character like God allows us to flourish. We develop and grow, especially according to the design that was the original blueprint of heaven, the print that was approved in heaven before we were formed into our mother's womb. Our spirit man begins to align with heaven, and it begins to increase in stature and wisdom in the favor of God and man.

This development is crucial for all who live in this earth as human beings because it is the only blueprint that was approved for each individual. Compliance is not if but when. Failure to comply leads to soulish and human development, which leads to emptiness and a life seeking more and more but cannot be satisfied. Unfortunately, this paragraph, especially, will be met with resistance, but God does not compromise on promise and purpose. He can only meet us at the point He established. Anything else is a lie, and the enemy would win.

The eight branches are not an academic piece in theology, but they reflect my experience and understanding as the Holy Spirit guided me to appreciate the Lord Jesus Christ. Not because of religion, but because of biblical wisdom. They are my growing up lessons in the true vine of Christ Jesus. He is the Vine that holds me and strengthens me and you to grow strong and push out more branches. He nourishes and feeds me daily beyond my wildest expectation and that which I deserve. This vine is to help me to become a strong branch. Then, I will in turn push out other branches. They are the firm foundation that the life of Christ operated, and they become the pillars of the church.

Structure

The book speaks to some key characteristics that a believer should quickly develop so that they will not walk in defeat. One of the problems I faced as a Christian was that I did not understand Christianity. I went to church and did the rituals, the social engagements, the works but still did not understand. In retrospect, my eyes began to open when I was at my graduation, after completing my executive masters of business administration. As I walked from the car to the ceremony, I heard God spoke into my heart, slowly, he said, Now that you get what you want, it's time to do what I want. I was humbled and also sad. Who knew that pursuing a career one loves was not necessarily the will of God?

I spent another ten years, trying to still work my way to being a good Christian. Slowly, the Holy Spirit began to reveal what it meant to believe and walk in Christ. It took another six years after that to learn that relationship with Him was more important than work. Today, that is still hard to explain to some brothers and sisters in Christ. God wants us to build a relationship with Him first. When we build that relationship, then He leads us into purposeful service in the body of Christ.

Since I learnt the process backward, I thought it was best to share my journey with others so that they would not make the same mistakes I made but learn the following terms and character traits of Jesus early, to eliminate the many mistakes and backsliding processes that I experienced. Take the traits and learn everything you can; and do not only learn the information I present before you, but learn it in the Bible, from the Holy Spirit, and then put it with my discussion as outlined in this book. The teacher is the Holy Spirit. He taught me that I needed to understand these concepts. He said too many believers do not understand who they are and they are living a defeated life. They are being overrun by the works of evil, and instead of living in the power and authority given them, they are walking in fear and doubt.

The eight pillars will help the believer or those who are believers for a long time but do not acknowledge their status in Christ. They are meant to provide the understanding that God gave me as I grew in Him. They are not theological discourse but an open discussion to share my insight as I learn them along the way. All of the pillars will help you to walk in victory. The victory only comes if you believe Jesus at His word. Further, that they all work together for good to the glory of God. None really operates in isolation, but you will sometimes need one more than the other. Sometimes, you might find you need only two throughout the life of a situation you face, but as you complete that process and come out successful to keep the victory, you need to drop those and only walk with one or four. It just depends on what is before you each time. The important thing is to know when to apply each to help you be successful in Christ.

The only way you will know this is through the power of the Holy Spirit. Let me advice you that even before you go any further, make Him your best friend on earth. He is the one who is sent here to help each believer walk in the power and authority of Christ, to help you make it into heaven. Since they are the designer and chief architect of creation, including humanity, then it would make sense to make Him your teacher. I hasten to encourage you not to befriend Him because you want to walk in power and authority. I suggest that you befriend Him from a purely worshipful, respectful, and genuine place of love and adoration. He is gentle, loving, and kind, and most important, He knows your heart position at all times. He will know when you are being honest or you are lying.

Therefore, start at the right place. A genuine desire to walk worthy of God and to grow in the knowledge of Him. Here is where He will turn up and show you things, tell you things you did not know. His thoughts are not our thoughts, so it might take a while to comprehend all that He downloads in you. Be patient to wait, but be persistent to ask so that the answer for any query will not get lost or hidden in the many things you will ask. He speaks with wisdom, so you will need to ask Him to break it down for you as Jesus had to do frequently for the disciples. Note that He loves you more than you love Him, so He will never play tricks on you or give you false information. Lies and deceit are not characteristics of God.

As I outline these in this section of the book, you will find that they are not in chapter order but more a discussion on them to allow you to dig further into the chapters on each topic. Further, it is to get with the Bible and get God to build yourself, to grow in the knowledge of God, and to walk worthy of Him, fully pleasing Him and being fruitful in every good work. Therefore, being strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power.

Each of these characteristics is a reflection of your love and obedience to God. Love is the bond of perfection. That is a promise of your full commitment to Christ. Love, as explained in 1 Corinthians 13, expresses all the fruits of the Spirit and is a good measuring stick to test how much you first love God and, second, how much you love your neighbor.

You can only be obedient to God, if you love Him. When you love Him, you want to please Him at all times. You want to do things that will make Him alone look good or Him alone get the reward for the work. Interestingly, you will benefit beyond anything you can imagine or think. Each of the servants of God in the Bible demonstrated that their work was only possible through God alone, and so they wanted to be reduced and God