In every setting, there are people who stick out in the crowd: athletes who seem to defy gravity, geniuses who can do math equations I can’t even bear to look at, and beauty queens who make every head turn.
What about spirituality? Are there some men and women who have a “superhuman” spiritual gene? How did David become the “apple of God’s eye?” Why were John the Baptist, Moses, Mary, and Daniel so highly favored by God?
The list of “super-Christians” isn’t limited to the Bible. Throughout history and even in our time, some men and women are marked by a profound intimacy with the Creator. Some are famous and others completely obscure. I’ve always wondered what made them a cut above in the spiritual realm. Just as I could never hope to be a great athlete or Nobel Prize winning genius, I also assumed that reaching great spiritual heights and depths was impossible. Until recently...
I had the incredible opportunity for four years to sit behind the microphones at Focus On the Family and talk to some of the “super-Christians” of our day. I expected to meet people who were somehow different. Would Max Lucado turn my water into a soy latte? Would Jerry Bridges have a halo around his head? What I realized is that these people are normal, but they have an abnormal relationship with God.
What sets apart those who walk intimately with God from the “average Christian”? Is it some special anointing? Perhaps. But Scripture seems to reveal that those who have a close walk with God are individuals who have made Him the all-consuming pursuit of their lives.
David wrote, “One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple.” (Ps. 27:4, emphasis added)
Paul wrote, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.” (Phil. 3:8)
If we are honest, most of us don’t count everything else as loss compared to knowing Christ. We tend to reserve some percentage of our hearts for what we want. God’s eyes search the earth to find those who say, “You can have it all! I’m 100% in. Make me exactly who You want me to be because there is nothing on earth or in heaven I desire other than you.”
The truth is, we have as much intimacy with God as we really want.
How about you? How deeply do you desire to know God? Is your desire for the Lord so great that people can see a “normal” person who has an abnormal relationship with her Creator?
This post was written by Julie Slattery.
