5 Steps To Grow Your Relationship With God

As humans, our natural tendency is to drift away from God. The Bible says in James that if we draw near to God, He will draw near to us (James 4:8).

If you have been desiring to grow deeper in your intimacy with God, here are a few steps that can help you draw near to Him.

How to Draw Near to God

1. Drifting To Drawing

To draw near to God, it requires an intentional change because we don’t naturally drift towards Him. Rather, our drifting from God happens naturally while our drawing towards Him happens intentionally. Intentionality is what will cause your intimacy with God to flourish.

The Bible doesn’t just encourage us to make a decision or have a desire to pursue God. Instead, it says, “draw near,” meaning that we have to take some steps toward God to be close to Him.

This includes choosing where you invest your time, what you believe in your heart, and what you speak with your mouth.

2. Condemnation To Conviction

Another thing to keep in mind is that as you embark on the journey of drawing near to God, you’re going to end up making mistakes. For instance, when a child is first beginning to walk, they don’t immediately begin running marathons. Rather, they stumble a lot. Similarly, the Bible says that the righteous man falls seven times but he gets up (Prov 24:16).

As a Christian, you will experience setbacks, hardships, and your own personal failures. During these times, you must learn to discern between conviction and condemnation.

The Main Differences:

• Conviction is specific; condemnation is general.
• Conviction attacks an issue; condemnation attacks your identity.
• Conviction give you hope; condemnation makes you hopeless.
• Conviction leads to repentance; condemnation leads to remorse.

3. Concealing To Confessing

Next, it’s important to remember that sin grows in the dark and brings more harm and damage, even to our physical bodies (Psalm 32:3-5).

Don’t wait till you get caught, arrested, suspended, separated, or fired. Bring that sin into the light of God by confessing it. Only then, can you experience the transforming grace of God in your heart and life.

4. Guilt To Grace

Another step that takes place as we draw near to God is moving from guilt to grace.

If the devil cannot use condemnation to drive you away from God, he will try guilt. Guilt tells you that you have to work harder and overcompensate to undo the bad you have done. Guilt corrupts our motivation.

When we act from guilt, we no longer have a pure desire to please God but a driving force to try hard. However, trying harder doesn’t produce the righteousness of God or the results we want. Instead, it makes us feel even worse.

Guilt tells us to try harder without giving any help or strength to do so; the grace of God takes us from trying to training (1 Timothy 4:7).

5. Feeling To Feeding

I heard a quote that once said, “All Scripture and no Spirit, we dry up. All Spirit and no Scripture, we blow up. Both Spirit and Scripture, we grow up” (David Watson).

To empower our pursuit of God, we need to focus more on what we are feeding ourselves with rather than how we are feeling. Our feelings are not the best indicator of spiritual things because at times we can feel nothing but that doesn’t mean God has left us. On the contrary, we can feel really good and strong, yet not be in an intimate relationship with God.

One thing that helps is understanding the difference between the written Word of God and the Word of God quickened by the Holy Spirit (John 6:63).

“Logos is the message; rhema is the communication of the message” (New Spirit-Filled Life Bible Notes).

The Main Difference:

• Logos is the Scriptures as a whole; rhema is a portion of that Scripture made alive by the Holy Spirit for a particular situation. 
• Logos is what God said; rhema is what God is saying.
• Logos is the written Word of God, the basis of faith, and the foundation of our doctrinal belief.
• Rhema is God’s specific spoken Word and heaven’s approval to move in the supernatural.

What the Rhema Causes

• It imparts faith (Rom 10:17).
• It feeds (Mat 4:4).
• It cleanses (Eph 5:26).
• It brings breakthrough (Luke 5:5).
• It’s the Sword of the Spirit (Eph 6:17).

Drawing near to God is not a passive drift but an intentional, transformative process. May these tips cause a new fervor within you to draw closer to God. Blessings!

Read: The Conviction of the Holy Spirit