Month: August 2026

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Discipleship Devotional #7 – Intimacy with God: Relationship

In modern Christianity, there is a great emphasis placed on what one believes. Most Christian organizations have a statement of belief that outlines the core beliefs that one must hold to be a part of the organization. This emphasis on our beliefs may cause us to be convinced that there is nothing more required, but that would be a grave error. Granted, we must all start with belief. We must believe that God exists. We must believe that Jesus was born of a virgin, suffered, died for our sins, and rose from the dead. However, this is just the very infancy of our faith. Consider this verse:

James 2:19 (NLT)

You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror.

It is quite an indictment that James is making, isn’t it? Just having belief in God is not much better than a demon-level existence. The sad truth is that many of us believe in a God that we have no real relationship with or maybe even any desire to be with.

What are your thoughts on a relational knowledge of God? Do you believe it is possible? How would you describe it? How do you work on it? When do you all meet? What do you all talk about?

Many Christians treat their relationship with God either as:

  • Not a reality for today. Yes, people had encounters with God in the Bible, but that doesn’t happen now, at least not ordinarily. We have the Bible now, and that’s how we relate to God. We read the Bible and do what it says. God has already said all that He’s ever going to say – in the Bible.
  • Or an assumed reality that happens without any tangible evidence that it’s happening. It is assumed that we are in relationship with God all the time without our conscious knowledge or attention.

I wish to propose that a conscious, experiential relationship with God is supposed to be the normal Christian life and that we are meant to do something to pursue that relationship. As God pursues us, we must also pursue Him. God promises that if we truly seek Him, we will find Him (Jeremiah 29:13, Matthew 7:7-8, Hebrews 11:6). This pursuit of God is the #1 responsibility and highest calling of the Christ-follower. At Authentic Joy, we use the following diagram to depict how we can grow in intimacy with God.

So how do we pursue a relationship with God? We must make a shift from academic/cognitive practices to more relational/heart practices. Consider how you get to know a person. We have been largely brought up on a diet of practices that focus on Bible study and one-way prayer. These are not bad. They are just insufficient. They do not teach us how to communicate with God in our heart. Would you invest in a relationship with a person by studying a book about them or talking to them non-stop without bothering to hear what they had to say? Of course not. So why do we think we can build a relationship with God that way? We have to learn new, more relational, ways of reading the Bible and praying. Ways that acknowledge the real presence of a God who wants to connect with us. We have already introduced one such practice – appreciation memories. We will introduce others in time.

For now, let’s start with an intimacy checkup:

  1. I have accepted Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior, but I cannot hear God for myself. I use my judgment, experience, and common sense most of the time. I rely on others such as my pastor/priest to give me direction for important decisions.
  2. I cannot hear God for myself. I study the Bible and apply the principles and values that I learn to my life. I also receive insights from the sermons at church or podcasts (or counsellors when needed) that help me to discern God’s will for my life.
  3. I struggle to get clear direction from God. I believe I can hear Him, but I don’t trust that it’s not just my own thoughts. I often have to receive a message through a scripture verse, multiple times through various different avenues, to be sure that it is from God.
  4. I don’t hear God’s voice (audibly or in my mind/heart), but I know God is speaking to me when ‘coincidences’ (God winks) happen, such as the pastor preaching on a situation that I faced this week. Or if, for example, I see the same phrase in a book, on TV, and on a street sign in the same week.
  5. Sometimes when listening to a sermon or reading the Bible, a phrase or word jumps out at me and burns in my heart in a way that I know in my spirit that God is speaking to me personally.
  6. If I go to the Bible for direction in my quiet time, I often feel that He highlights a passage to me. Sometimes I feel a sense of peace or disturbance in my spirit that lets me know if I am on the right or wrong path as I go about my business during the day.
  7. I often hear God clearly, but sometimes I’m still not sure if it’s just me. Occasionally, I have strong experiences of His presence or direction (maybe even through dreams or visions).
  8. I can get clear insight from God on any issue, but mainly in my quiet time with Him. I can hear Him through impressions, dreams, Bible verses, thoughts in my mind, or pictures in my mind. I know the main way that He usually speaks to me, and I can sense the peace or lack of peace of the Holy Spirit in my spirit as I navigate life.
  9. I can hear God clearly anywhere and anytime. I often experience His presence.
  10. I experience the uninterrupted presence of God throughout the day. I am in continual 2-way conversation with God throughout the day.

Intimacy with God is the most important element of the discipleship model. There is nothing more critical to your spiritual growth than pursuing a heart-to-heart relationship with God. It fuels everything else and is the most powerful catalyst of your spiritual maturity.

Yet, sadly, how to know God is rarely taught in our faith communities. (I use the word ‘taught’ loosely, as it is less about teaching and more about modelling, supporting and mentoring.) Getting to know God is very personal and practical. You can’t get it from reading a book. God’s relationship with someone will be very unique to them, but we can model what it looks like, encourage them, support them, and provide spiritual direction with the help of the Holy Spirit.

REFLECTION

  • Thinking about belief in God versus relationship with God, what comes up for you?
  • What came up for you based on your intimacy checkup?
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Discipleship Devotional #6 – Listening to God Through Appreciation Memories

A foundation of the Authentic Joy discipleship model is that we focus on the head, heart, and hands to bring holistic transformation to the human being. We do this by focusing on mindsets, values, and habits (also called practices or disciplines). So today we introduce our 1st practice: Listening to God Through Appreciation Memories.

Now, we have been talking about discipleship to Jesus that looks more relational and experiential than transactional and academic. Last time we discussed being loved by God not as an intellectual belief but as a felt reality. The practice we introduce today is a pathway for us into this relational experience of God and Love.

But first, let’s talk a little bit about the brain. The brain has two hemispheres – right and left. These hemispheres are highly interconnected but perform different roles.

Left Hemisphere
• Language and Speech: Dominant for most people in tasks like grammar, vocabulary, and literal meaning.
• Analytical Thinking: Handles logic, reasoning, and step-by-step problem-solving.
• Mathematics and Calculation: Processes numerical and symbolic information.
• Sequential Processing: Prefers structured, linear approaches.

Right Hemisphere
• Spatial Awareness: Important for visual-spatial tasks like map reading and recognizing faces.
• Creativity and Imagination: Associated with artistic ability and holistic thinking.
• Emotional Processing: Plays a role in interpreting tone, facial expressions, and emotional context.
• Pattern Recognition: Good at seeing the “big picture” and integrating information.

Relational circuits are neural networks in the brain that enable us to stay connected, engaged, and emotionally regulated in relationships. They are located primarily in the right hemisphere, which is heavily involved in processing social and emotional information. These circuits help us:
• Experience joy and connection
• Maintain flexibility and resilience
• Respond to others with empathy rather than defensiveness

When these circuits are functioning well, we can manage emotions and stay relational. When they “dim” or shut down (due to stress, trauma, or overwhelming emotion), we enter what some researchers call “enemy mode”—becoming rigid, self-protective, and disconnected from others.

The sad truth is that we have become a very unbalanced left-brained society and, as a consequence, unbalanced left-brained Christians. To deeply connect with God (and people) will require us to understand how we connect with God and others and engage in practices that help us to exercise the ‘relational muscles’ of our right brain.

This is the backdrop upon which I want to introduce Appreciation Memories. Gratitude or appreciation is a fast track to turning our right brain relational circuits on and putting us in a mode that is open to connection. The practice, in simplest terms, is like thinking about all the good things that you appreciate about somebody before initiating a conversation with them, not in an academic, ‘make a list ’ kind of way but by engaging our imagination.

Psalm 100:4 says, “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving.’

God knows that our gateway to connection with Him is gratitude!

So here is the practice:
• Recall an experience that you have had (recently or in the past) where you felt a sense of being at peace, being loved, joyful, grateful, full of awe, or connected to God. It can be a time in nature or with family or with God or doing some activity you love.
• Relive the event in your imagination. What did you see, smell, hear, taste, feel? What emotions did you experience?
• Tell God what you are grateful for in this memory.
• Now ask God: “What do you want to say to me now through this memory?”
• Write down any impressions that you get.
Practice this as often as you can this week.

REFLECTION
• How was this practice for you? Was it easy? Difficult?
• What came up for you as you engaged with God in this way?