Finding Intimacy with God: The Journey Beyond Salvation

By Kim Jordan

UNDERNEATH THE WOUNDS

Salvation is the beginning of one's relationship with God. The wounds the soul has experienced can interfere with developing intimacy with the Lord. When you are stuck in pain, you may never walk in the greatness you were created to produce. 

Taking the jo

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Mar 3, 2023
• ISBN: 9798887382609

Kim Jordan

Kim is a licensed professional clinical counselor specializing in trauma therapy. After retiring from the army, she founded Emotional Care, LLC. Emotional Care provides educational workshops and individual, group, and family counseling services. She received her MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Ashland Theological Seminary in Ashland, Ohio. Kim provides trauma therapy to combat veterans and veterans who struggle with military sexual trauma. She is a clinician for Ohio Assist, a statewide program that provides EMDR therapy to first responders.

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Finding Intimacy with God

A Journey Beyond Salvation

Finding Intimacy with God: A Journey Beyond Salvation

Trilogy Christian Publishers A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Trinity Broadcasting Network

2442 Michelle Drive Tustin, CA 92780

Copyright © 2023 by Kim Jordan

Scripture quotations marked BSB are taken from The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible, BSB. Copyright ©2016, 2018 by Bible Hub. Used by Permission. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. www.berean.bible Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.TM Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.TM Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. Public domain.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without written permission from the author. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA.

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Trilogy Christian Publishing/TBN and colophon are trademarks of Trinity Broadcasting Network.

Cover design by: Kristy Swank

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Trilogy Christian Publishing.

Trilogy Disclaimer: The views and content expressed in this book are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect the views and doctrine of Trilogy Christian Publishing or the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

Manufactured in the United States of America

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN: 979-8-88738-259-3

E-ISBN: 979-8-88738-260-9

Dedication

This book is dedicated to the Lord our Savior and those who desire intimacy with Him.

‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on the list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself…’

(Matthew 22:37–39, MSG)

Preface

Intimacy with God is personal. It goes beyond church hurt, misinterpretations of Scripture, and pain experienced from childhood into adulthood. Intimacy with God digs deep into the soul and resolves rejection, abandonment, and abusive pain. It is love experienced unconditionally. When you develop a personal, intimate relationship with God, your life will never be the same. Your soul pants after God with excitement. You began to thirst for what God has planned for your daily life. You learn not to worry about destructive behaviors in the world, in your family, in your marriage, or past. You begin to believe in the depth of your soul and spirit that God is truly in control. The desires of your flesh, though present, become less desirable. You begin to feel anchored and grounded in a relationship that is untouchable. You come to appreciate obedience and find it worthwhile to throw off disobedience. You finally realize that what God says and does is in your best interest, even when you cannot see or understand it. You are no longer afraid to communicate a small request to Him, for He cares about your every thought and deed.

When your soul is free from hurt and pain and begins to align with your spirit, you position yourself to experience intimacy with God. Intimacy with God fills voids and longings with satisfying peace. You recognize the greatness within you, and you become aware of your creativity. Positivity comes to you daily. When negative thoughts and memories come, you are able to shoo them away quickly. If they linger and depression comes, this is a sign that you need emotional healing.

When you have intimacy with God, you know who you are, and you become grounded in that knowledge. This alone brings an element of peace and joy. When you experience intimacy with God daily, guided by His Spirit, you become unstoppable. You truly believe you can do all things through Christ, who gives you strength. You begin to speak things into existence. You see the miracles of God daily. You are able to feel the presence of God. When you cannot feel His presence, you stand in, knowing He is with you and guides you every step of your life. There is no better feeling than knowing God has your back. You no longer doubt His actions throughout your life. It is as if a blanket of love has covered your life. He is with you in your doing and your being. This is not perfection, or maybe it is. To have the Almighty overshadow your life is affirming; knowing you are kept from day to day is deeper than a feeling.

You experience liberation; this is true freedom. You walk in your calling and ministry with joy, thirsting for more of the creativity the Lord puts before you. The passion for creating is impeccable.

The scripture says, with all thy getting get understanding (Proverbs 4:7, KJV). Understanding is an important and powerful component of communication and experiencing intimacy with the Savior.

Intimacy with God is the best thing you can do for your life, the lives of your loved ones, and your future generations.

Introduction

I am a trauma therapist, and I see miraculous events take place in the lives of people daily. It is not my intention to glorify the spirit of man but to bring awareness to the power of God in creating such unique beings. This book was written to bring awareness to the struggle that remains after salvation. And, more importantly, to help believers to reconnect with their Creator on a deeper, more intimate level.

Many believers have become intimate with church settings, activities, positions, behaviors, and church doctrine. There are some who believe a perfect lifestyle or church work is intimacy with God. Few believers realize that this is not the same as having an intimate relationship with God.

The Book of Genesis gives revelation to the loss of intimacy between God and mankind. When Eve and Adam tasted of the forbidden fruit, their relationship with God and their relationship between their own soul and spirit suffered a great loss. There was a severing between the spirit of man and his soul. The soul of mankind has longed to reconcile with God and its own spirit since that great loss.

I imagine Adam and Eve were oblivious to what it meant to gain knowledge of good and evil. When the choice to do something different than what God had commanded was made, the course of life God planned for His creation changed forever. The mental capacity, which is the soul of the human mind, could not remain in good health after gaining such knowledge.

The idea or belief that God, their protector, would no longer protect them from the evil they had become aware of manifested. They lost their trust in Him. Shame and fear were experienced for the first time. Adam and Eve covered their body parts and hid from God. Guilt, embarrassment, and discord arose between them. They accused one another before God. Harmony, peace, and innocence became something of the past.

Though the spirit of man remains undamaged, the soul lost its ability to function according to its original design. Many parts of the soul became extreme to defend themselves against what this new knowledge revealed. Throughout generations, these extreme parts caused the soul to lose trust in God and its own spirit and align with the desires of the flesh (body). Without intimacy between God and its own spirit, the soul of many humans began to question the meaning of life, finding it difficult to understand its own purpose.

Because the soul has aligned with the flesh, the soul has become selfish in nature, striving to please itself more than God. Self-pleasure, not self-love, created more voids and unfulfillment. Man turned to other humans to fill their voids instead of turning to God.

Finding intimacy with God is a journey that starts with healing the brokenness of the soul and then rediscovering who you are according to God’s creation of you. It is necessary to know the spirit that God created within you. And it is necessary