Intimacy is significant in the process of my growing relationship with God. It is the place where I get to KNOW God. How He sees me, feels about me, and His heart and His nature are all revealed and discovered there.
Intimacy, the thing God has most desired, is what the enemy has attempted to block or interrupt. Ironically, this is also what my own mindset seemed to be in conflict with the most.
My performance mindset has been my greatest challenge as I have stepped out in prophetic intercession, the Warrior Commission training, and growth in my own prophetic gifting. Almost always it seemed to be centered around the idea of the right answer and the most appropriate response. Wondering if I really heard and understood what God had shown me.
But thanks to God’s grace, the Holy Spirit’s light and correction, along with good friends, the performance mindset has been destroyed!
Graham Cooke has said there is one fight to gain territory and another to keep it. And, even though I have overcome those performance mindsets, the enemy continues to push and shove to get me to react in those old ways.
Friends have been important in helping me see that a performance driven person is “not who I am.” The Father has used the enemy’s pressure to be performance based for my good and allowed it to see His plan for me fulfilled. As pressure comes, I am now more quickly able to step into my place of peace, and draw nearer to God.
In that place of loving acceptance, the “performance” falls away and a clarity of who God is for me in this situation comes into focus. As I draw near to Him, He is faithful to draw near to me.
In that nearness, He lovingly whispers in my ear, or places a knowing in my heart, about who He knows me to be. He gives me an understanding of His heart and nature so that I can step into that new territory or stand in that newly opened space. That’s when knowing who I am and who He is for me comes to be.
Learning to step into my place of peace and rest has been important to growing in intimacy. And whether it’s in a prophetic activation, an intercessory activity, or a training application resulting in an evidence of a transformed life, intimacy with Him is the main focus for me.
Mark Barber
Warrior Commission Member
