Customer Reviews

Drawing Near: A Life of Intimacy with God

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

John Bevere's latest book totally blew my mind. As soon as I started reading, the words literally grabbed ny heart, and I immediately began to seek the face of God. Within minutes of this new found truth, God's presence filled my room. I couldn't stop reading this book. I have recommended it to everyone I have come in contact with.

Never have I read a book that challenged me to really know God not just more intimately, but as intimately as possible. God desires to be with us more then we desire to be with Him, and He proved it over and over again in the Bible, passionately seeking the heart of man. Nothing gives God more pleasure than when His people passionately seek Him. John Bevere writes one of the best books I have ever read.

Our pastor recommended this book to our congregation, in preparation for going through the 12 week DVD series that accompanies the book. I can't begin to tell you how it opens you up to a whole new level of intimacy with God. You actally begin to pursue a relationship with the Creator rather than the created things we are so easily distracted by. I HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone who is serious about taking your relationship to a level like that of Abraham, Enoch, Moses, David . . . those who walk with God, and whom God calls friend.

This book is a life changing for anyone who reads it. To truly know the Love of God and what that means in ones life, is completely AWESOME. This is a must read for any Christian.

Wow. That was my most common response at the close of each chapter of this book. Drawing Near ranks up there with some of my favorite books of all time. It was fabulous teaching from the Word of God. It was so clear from reading this book that John Bevere lives the life that he teaches on. Many of his concepts are things that I've thought about in prayer but couldn't quite articulate. This is a message from God to the church and is very close to my heart.
Drawing Near is all about the presence of God. It's a book about living in His presence and being intimate with the Lord. It's not really a step by step or "How to" kind of book. Instead, it contains Biblical keys to the presence of the Lord and is designed to stir a passion in your heart to seek Him. Bevere makes it clear that there isn't a step by step process when drawing near to God. Each individual has a relationship with the Lord that looks entirely different. But there are some things that scripture teaches that can either help or hinder us from entering His presence.
Some of the keys that Bevere teaches on include guarding your hunger for God, cultivating a heart that desires God above all else, the fear of the Lord, humility, obedience to His Word, being filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues, and approaching God in faith and expectation. Understanding these principles and putting them into practice will lead to a life of intimacy and true relationship with Almighty God.
This book gets five stars. It's a phenomenal book that will definitely be on Danny's most recommended list. There aren't all that many books out there that literally change the way you interact with the Lord. This book is one of them. Home run John Bevere.

I'd never heard of John Bevere before I read this book, and so knew nothing about him and his ministry. If I did, I may not have been so surprised at where the book leads, but as it was I felt a bit misled and almost deceived.

The first half of the book made some good points, based on the signature verse from James which says that if we draw near to God, then He will draw near to us. Bevere uses a range of Biblical examples to illustrate the point that God wants to be intimate with us, and what we are missing out on if we don't seek this kind of intimacy. His analysis of Moses and the Israelites, contrasting their relationships to God, was particularly insightful.

So in the second half of the book, Bevere promises to show us how we can develop such an intimate relationship with God, but then boils his answer essentially down to just one thing - tongues. To sum up the gist of it, Bevere argues that speaking in tongues is the primary method for Christians to achieve a deep and intimate fellowship with God, specifically the Holy Spirit. Now I have nothing major against Pentecostalism and tongues, and I'll admit I found his initial points on this issue, from the book of Acts, quite interesting - but it deteriorated from there. Bevere then falls into the trap firstly of implying that any Christian who does not speak in tongues is missing out and is in effect a lower class of Christian than those who do. It then gets worse as he attributes the inability of some Christians to speak in tongues (even when they want to) to a lack of faith - and how do we get faith? Well according to Bevere, faith comes from hearing the word and obedience to it. ie. if we are obedient to the word, then we will get the degree of faith that will allow us to have the gift of tongues, which is the means by which we are able to achieve intimacy with God. Sounds awfully merit based to me - not a lot of room for God's grace and intiative in there.

So although Bevere made a lot of good points early on, and even some of his "tongues" material was thought provoking, ultimately his book deteriorated into a merit or works based message that left me greatly disappointed. People who already subscribe to these kind of beliefs will be edified by this book. Others will either be made to feel bad, or like me, misled, as there was no mention of where this book was going in the early chapters and certainly not in the book blurb.

If you are serious about becoming intimate with God on HIS terms and are willing listen to the Holy Spirit through God's word, this is a very insightful book. I've given many copies of this away and have yet to hear from anyone who has read it that it is anything less than wonderful, powerful, liberating, and straight-forward. Every book I've read by John Bevere has been outstanding and this one tops them all.

John's strong stance on God's Word comes across with power, love and conviction. He uses good Biblical sense and many scriptures to teach us how we can come to know Christ in a deeper and more meaningful way, not only to strengthen our walk but so that it can spread to others through the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This book is not the church-as-usual kind of stuff. It's for the one who wants to follow Jesus 24/7 and not just on Sunday. I learned a lot, was challenged and walked away a better man. Why the 4 stars? Because too much of last quarter of the book dealt with speaking in tongues (which by the way I firmly believe in and practice). Of course the book should have talked about it but it went way too long and a bit overboard. While I do believe the baptism of the Holy Spirit is required for an intimate relationship with God I do not believe it is necessary to speak in tongues to draw close to God however John seems to think it is. Sure it helps but it isn't the magic bullet. With this said I still highly recommend this book and think it would be great for a Bible study or just your personal growth. As always, pray and let the Holy Spirit teach you in all things.

James 4:8-9 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.

1 Star = I've been robbed!
2 Stars = Why'd I finish it?
3 Stars = Good
4 Stars = Excellent
5 Stars = Life changing

Thank you sir for writing this book. I am going to make a personal point to read it at least once a year to refresh myself on its contents. This book comes straight from the throne room of heaven and the heart of God. These may sound like strong words - but they are the truth. The way you explain concepts of 'relationship' and bring in contextual scripture passages to demonstrate your point is so eye-opening that I sit there and literally say 'wow - I have read that a hundred times and never got that!' The contents of this book resonate as the truth to my soul and I highly recommend it to everybody who wants to unlock and deepen their relationship with the Lord.

This book does a very good job in explaining what your true purpose in life is and that is to have a deep abiding intimate relationship with your Creator through the redemptive work of His Son Jesus Christ while being empowered by the Holy Spirit to depart from sin and live a godly life full of God's blessings.

I deeply enjoyed the book Drawing Near: A Life of Intimacy with God. It brought to light new things, reminded me of past things, and helped feed the hunger to know more of God. You will not be disappointed with this purchase.