The process.
So this shift from behavior modification to divine intimacy shifts our process.
In behavior-modification Christianity, the process is: you’re doing bad stuff, Jesus came to save you, now stop doing bad stuff.
In a faith based on intimacy with God, our process becomes one of discovery.
God’s heart for us meant he pursued us with everything, including his own son. So Jesus came as a sacrifice for humanity—as the great reconciler to rejoin the Creator with his creation. As we discover God’s heart for us, we are drawn into a greater place of intimacy. In that place, we discover the fullness of our life, our value, our identity and purpose.
There is a shift in behavior in the Christian process. But this shift doesn’t come from the belief that “God is mad, so I better stop doing that stuff.” Rather, it comes from the intimate whisper of God declaring the value, purpose and power of our lives.
An example: While behavior modification might say, “Don’t cuss. It makes God mad.” A life of intimacy reveals a deeper reality.
As we draw near to God and begin to discover the power therein, we see that our words have the power to shift environments. We see that in the tongue is the power of life and death. We see Elijah, who was a human just like us, able to control rain with the power of speech. Jesus was able to calm the storm by the authority of his voice. As God speaks to us the depths of our identity, our words shift because we see the power and opportunity in them.
We see ourselves and the things around us the way he sees them because we’ve been with him.
And we reclaim a higher purpose.
