Making Big Moves With God: Intimacy

0:00Proverbs the 3rd chapter, verses 5 to 6, the message translation. Trust God from the bottom of your heart. Don't try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go, he's the one who will keep you in track. I will be for breakfast. Mildred Kings, they won't go here. Good morning. Welcome to the month of March. And I'm truly excited about this month because this is a month that God has commanded that we make big moves. And so before you rush off to begin to make those big moves, I think this morning we need to have a conversation. I'm really, really, really, very excited about the things that God will do with us this

1:05month. But before you rush off and start doing something powerful before you start doing anything this morning, just give me a few minutes and let's have this conversation. I think this conversation is essential because we're talking about making big moves with God. Not noisy moves, not Instagram announcement moves, not let me update my status first kind of moves. No, I'm talking about God breathed destiny shifting history or dream moves. But here's the plot twist. Big moves don't start big. Yes, they start small, they start quiet. They start in very intimate moments with God. The scripture we read today says, trust God from the bottom of your heart.

2:09Some other versions say, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In other words, stop trying to direct your life, stop trying to be your own GPS. Big moves will require confidence, but not self confidence, I'm talking God confidence. And let me tell you for free, confidence doesn't just fall from the sky, it grows in private. What you want to do is you first need to draw back before you march forward. I'm thinking kind of like an arrow, you know, before an arrow flies forward with power with precision, it must first be pulled back. And the person who has the assignment of pulling back the arrow needs to be a stillful archer

3:11if the arrow is going to hit the right spot. So I'm saying that you need to spend time getting used to the archer's hand because you will be drawn back, you will be stretched back, you will be pressed back. If not, if you release an arrow too early, it drops. If it's never pulled back fully, it doesn't go anywhere. And some of us want forward motion without backward intimacy, but the drawing back is necessary. It's not delay, it's preparation. That tension of being pulled back is not punishment, it's positioning. That quietness, that being away from everything and everyone, that time that makes you feel

4:11like you've been forgotten, it's not stagnation, it's strengthening. Ask Moses, 40 years in the back of the wilderness, that was some pulling back. From being prince of Egypt to becoming a new body, that is some tension. But let me tell you, that was not tension, was actually God's position in. God was not punishing him. One thing I found out is when God pulls you back, God actually draws you back into prayer, into stillness, into private surrender. Why you ask? Because when he releases you, you must not wobble, you must be accurate. Let's look at some people in the Bible and I need to do this because I need you to understand that the things that are going to happen for us in March are not ordinary things.

5:14So they require extraordinary moves, both on God's part and on our part. Let's look at some people in the Bible. Let's look at Mary, the mother of Jesus, for instance. Before she carried Jesus publicly, she had a very private encounter with God. The Bible tells us in Luke the first chapter, if you read from verse 30 to about 30, and I'm going to take some from message translation. It says, the angel said, Mary, you have nothing to fear. We're going to have to talk about fear for doing big moves, but I think we'll talk about that another day. It says, God has a surprise for you. You will become pregnant and give birth to his son and call his name Jesus and Mary said, but how I've never slept with him, man. The angel answered, nothing you see is impossible with God and Mary said, yes, I see it all

6:14now. And the Lord's made ready to serve, let it be with me just as you say. Notice something, because Mary was away from everyone. She was able to hear only the voice of God. She asked questions, she processed, she listened, she surrendered, but it was all done in private. By the time she stood before Joseph, defending her pregnancy. By the time she stood before Elizabeth, celebrating the move of God, by the time she carried a visible bump, by the time the whisper started, her confidence had already been built in secret. One thing I've learned over time is that private conversations with God produce public composure. You cannot stand bold in public if you haven't bowed low in private.

7:16Mary moved because she trusted and she trusted because she had heard. It was a conversation with God that he deeply privately intimate moments where nobody else was there. She was secure in the fact that she knew what she had heard because there was no distraction. Let's look at another woman that well, he will all know that I love her so much. This weekly runs to John's world and finds one of my favorite characters in the Bible, the woman at the well. This woman comes alone at midday, isolated avoiding people, or maybe avoiding people because we don't really know the story, but my guess is that she's avoiding people, but guess what? She meets Jesus. It has a conversation with Jesus, and after Jesus finished talking to her, she asked him questions, he answered, there was nobody there but him and her.

8:16And Jesus said something in John chapter 4 verse 26, the message translation. Jesus said, that's who I am, I am he answering her question as to whether he was the Messiah. You know, that private interaction did something very powerful. It revealed who he was, but it also revealed who she was in that moment. She went from a woman who was ashamed, a woman who was avoiding community, a woman who was defined by her past who had been through five divorces, and the one she was with at that time didn't even have the decency of wanting to give her his name, just a place to stay. But this woman, after encountering Jesus in private became a bold evangelist, she became a town announcer, she became a carrier of revelation, come man see she said, come, come

9:18I see a man who told me everything I have attained, all because of one private moment. Before she moved publicly, she was seen privately. And when you know you're seen by God, let me tell you something, you move differently. Confidence is not noise, it is clarity, it is when you have seen the one who sees you. Let's be honest, a lot of what we call confidence is just performance, but real confidence is born from trusting God. When you trust in the Lord with all your heart, you stop leaning on your limited understanding. Interestingly, that understanding may be good, but trusting in the Lord means that you put aside everything that you know. So when God says to us in March, make big moves, He said, make the moves that I have

10:24planned for you. The confidence that we will have to make those moves will come from knowing who sent us, knowing what he said and knowing that he doesn't lie. We're not going to move because we feel ready, we're not going to move because we know what we need to do, we're going to move because God is faithful. I'll let that sit while you make decisions about spending intimate moments with Him. Good morning, what a wonderful way to start your day. Bible before breakfast with Mildred, King St. Kronkwar.