Three times this week I have experienced the word “intimate” in relationship to an experience of God. The first time, I was driving in the car, listening to an Ernest Holmes tape; the second was listening to an essay by a SOM 300 student, and yesterday I saw it in the daily reading in the Science of Mind magazine. When this happens, I KNOW the Universe is trying to get my attention!

I’ve never really associated that word with my spiritual practice. Perhaps I should see what it actually means:
1. Closely connected (intimate relationship) 2. cozy (quiet, private, relaxed with each other) 3. private and personal (confidential) 4. thorough (very great and detailed as a result of extensive study or close experience = intimate knowledge) 5. Adhering closely (intimate union) 6. innermost (proceeding from within the innermost nature of something) or as a noun: a close personal friend.

Yes! All these definitions fit my ideal relationship to The Divine exactly. Yet, some might ask - how does one become intimate with an abstract principle?

Dr. Holmes writes on page 141 of the Science of Mind”
PERSONALITY CANNOT EMERGE FROM A PRINCIPLE WHICH DOES NOT CONTAIN THE INHERENT POSSIBILITY OF PERSONALITY. In each one of us, to each one of us, through each one of us, something is personalized, and that which is personalized is personal to its own personification! Spiritual evolution should make the Infinite not more distant; but more intimate.”

In other words, we are meant to know God not just through our minds, but through our hearts as well. Some of us are so busy using Principle as a quick fix or to manifest desires, that we’ve ignored the greatest Love relationship we could ever have! Let’s get intimate – and be the Beloved!!

SPIRITUAL MIND TREATMENT
(An affirmative prayer - written in the first person to help you make it your own)

I live in a Divine atmosphere of Love. God is Love, everywhere present, infinitely intelligent and absolutely unconditional. Love fills up every cell and atom of my being. It surrounds me and supports me. It is my life.

Today I declare I am experiencing the greatest intimate relationship possible. I have let go of my doubts and fears. I have released my judgments. I have opened my mind and heart to the Love within me, letting It in with grace. God loves by means of me and It moves through me, as me, into the world. I live in and act from my firm foundation of Love. I am the Beloved in whom God is well pleased.

How grateful I am, to willingly experience an intimate experience of Divine Love. And so it is.