Drawing Near: A Life of Intimacy with God

This is the best and what I would consider the most essential spiritual book I have ever read (not including the Bible). It spells out the incredible amount of love God has for each and every one of us, and what He has done to pursue us and make it possible to draw near to Him. The invitation is mind boggling. Even if you know the basics of Christianity, getting this intense Biblical breakdown is so good for the soul. I have recommended this book to tons of people and they are all doing the same. Definitely read it!

This is the best and what I would consider the most essential spiritual book I have ever read (not including the Bible). It spells out the incredible amount of love God has for each and every one of us, and what He has done to pursue us and make it possible to draw near to Him. The invitation is mind boggling. Even if you know the basics of Christianity, getting this intense Biblical breakdown is so good for the soul. I have recommended this book to tons of people and they are all doing the same. Definitely read it!

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.

"For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear something new." - 2 Timothy 4:3

When I was 12-15 years old, I read a lot of John Bevere's books. These books had a tremendously negative impact on my life and it took me several years to fully heal. I almost avoided reviewing these books to keep the peace, but I realized that out of all of the things in my past that need to heal, John Bevere's books stand out as the most unprocessed negative influence. Before I deconstruct why I detest Bevere's books, I would like to thank him for teaching me what to distrust. Bevere has permanently taught me to be wary of Christian opinion authors, especially those who use scripture and miracle claims to back up their unfounded opinions. Because I have mostly healed, I appreciate the lessons I have learned more than the pain caused by applying Bevere's teachings.

“Every day holds something equally new and equally silly. Such is the case when philosophy and science is not at the heart, guiding one’s journey.” - David Milliern

First of all, a disclaimer. I am not against Christianity, and I have read the Bible cover to cover. I believe that Christianity is correct, though I'm not interested in persuading others of this view. I'm writing this review to other Christians who might get hurt by Bevere. Second of all, I read Bevere's books as a naive kid and young teen, believing just about everything that I read. Third, I have a strong associative memory and deliberately tried to apply what I learned, so I cannot make empty claims about Bevere's impact. I understand that many people desperately want to have a spiritual experience, so I expect many dogmatic people to get upset by my review. I don't expect anyone to change their minds. I’d like to clarify that people can still enjoy a “spiritual” experience with false viewpoints, as was clarified by ‘Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.’ There are dogmatists, overconfident claims, and false miracle claims by spiritual teachers in most religions. So don't think that I'm singling Bevere out, although I attest to his tremendously negative impact on my life. The main problem I have with Bevere’s books is they led to unobjective thought process habits that interfered with truth-seeking and were the root of future worries that troubled my mind for years. Since it was Bevere as a whole that helped caused this and not exclusively one book, I am posting this review on all the Bevere content that I’ve read.

“A half-truth is even more dangerous than a lie. A lie, you can detect at some stage, but half a truth is sure to mislead you for long.” - Anurag Shourie

I would also like to clarify that John Bevere does a reasonably good job teaching some biblical truths. This is not enough for his books to be worth reading because merely reading through the new testament will significantly improve your understanding of Christianity while avoiding opinion authors’ landmines.

"Treat others the way you want to be treated - this is the Law and the Prophets." - Matthew 7:12

Now to clarify how I disagree with Bevere’s writings. Bevere explains as if he experienced miracles from God, who supposedly spoke directly with him. I’ve found this claim in other modern Christian books, which I find incredibly unlikely. Bear in mind that these claims exist in any faith; you need more than that to believe them. Nevertheless, I did believe Bevere, which leads to my second point: legalism. Bevere believes that there are several hundred commands that Christians have to keep, followed by various odd beliefs such as a non-literal and non-biblical definition of idolatry - supposedly based on what he “heard” from God. This viewpoint is unscriptural and led to mental chaos as I tried to keep track of all of the various information I received from Bevere. Scripture is quoted out of context to support Bevere's viewpoints, alternating between various translations in order to support his perspective.

"Don't worry about anything." - Philippians 4:6-7

Since I was also reading through scripture on my own, at some point, I stopped trying to apply Bevere, no longer sure what I believed about him. I tolerated this cognitive dissonance for some years, though I was on the lookout for miracles and at times didn’t know if I should interpret my thoughts as mine. This view is irrational, and as a truth-seeker, I could not stop myself from analyzing until I came to a coherent understanding of the situation. Correction took a long time because one of my friends was also delusional, and I was still naive.

“I think that how you've been able to suppress your worries has been important for your development, as dictating what your brain does will induce ever more success in your career.” - David Milliern

Even once I knew that Bevere’s views were incorrect and that scripture is to be trusted, I had spent so much time analyzing that my mind defaulted to analysis even when I already knew if it was correct or not. Hence, my worry habit. Worry tremendously disrupted my mental state for years, interrupting my enjoyment of life and hurting productivity. Even when I fought against worry and succeeded for a time, my bad habits only needed to be reactivated, and I would go through more seasons of mental chaos (this happened last year). One of the main reasons I escaped was that I did a tremendous amount of self-observation and research on how habits and the mind worked. Therefore, I had prepared myself to categorize my thought process to an extreme degree to stop mentally responding to Bevere’s nonsense and any further worry that he caused. Now, seven years after reading John Bevere’s books, I’ve mostly recovered from my bad habits. I could not possibly recommend Bevere less. For the truth-seeking Christian, I recommend the New Testament.

Another great study by John Bevere. He goes right to the heart of the matter. I would recommend this book. Our church used this for a study group session. Very good.

If you are a new Christian or if you are looking for a more intimate relationship with God please read this book. I was part of a study group that used the DVD/Book set for one of our study's and fell in love with this book. I have read this book 4 times now and actually purchased this copy for a new Christian at our Church.

This book was one the medium God used to comfort me during a time when I had nowhere and no one to turn to by GOD! Istrongly recommend this book.
Dr. Israel King, Ph D, Author of [[ASIN:1419662104 How To Keep A Man]]

Love, love, loved this book! This is the 2nd John Bevere book I've read and loved them both!

This book is amazing. It is the most useful and practical book to really experience intimacy with God. I wish I can give it more than 5 stars

So much to still learn. Gets to the nitty-gritty of the choices we have to make if we truly want to get closer to God.