" To KNOW HIM "

From each sermon at church, my private study of Colossians, my preparation for leading the Spiritual Disciplines Class, my reading of "My Utmost for His Highest", to listening to pastors on the radio...ALL of them are pointing me to this one key concept - TO KNOW HIM.. Now I can understand how that doesn't sound either profound or unique..however might I suggest that very few of us actually comprehend this to the level to which we are capable..Let me explain a little further..
*Our pastor Jeff Long was preaching on the Trinity this past Sunday and made the comment that God the Father, Christ the Son and The Holy Spirit were full of JOY before we ever we created..and that He (God) did not create us to make Him more happy or feel better..So Why then? SO that we could know Him..
*Spiritual Discipline Study I am preparing for right now is about the different disciplines in which to become more Christ like..to attain godliness..Each of the disciplines such as Bible Intake, Prayer, Service, Fasting, etc are all for us to be able to Know God more..Not to earn God's favor or to be a better Christian..But to be more Christ like is to know Him
*My Utmost for His Highest" says on Feb 16th devotion "The inspiration of Spiritual Initiative" and he quotes Ephesians 5:14 " Arise from the dead"..We all have a number of visions and ideals when we are young, but sooner or later we find we have no power to make them real. We can not do the things we long to do and we are apt to settle down and count them as dead..and God has to come and say "Arise from the dead". When the inspiration of God does come, it comes with such miraculous power that we are able to arise from the dead and do the impossible thing. God does not give us overcoming life...He gives us life as we overcome..!!
* In my study of Colossians chapter 1 verse 11 says " strengthened with all might according to His glorious power, for all patience and long suffering with JOY". God will give you everything you need to deal with whatever you are facing..It is promised here and in other places throughout Scripture..2 Peter 1:2-4, John 10:10, Matt 11:28-30 are just a few

So after reading, hearing and meditating on all this recently revealed information... it became clear like the stars on a cool summer night..I felt the Holy Spirit move in me to bring it all home..To complete the particular work of wisdom that He desired for me to fully comprehend..and it culminates in this part of Scripture John 14:19-24...The indwelling of the Father and the Son..and there are two verses in particular that were just illuminated beyond all others for me..Verse 21 " The one who has My commands and keeps them is the one who loves Me. And the one who loves Me will be loved by My Father. I also will love him and will reveal Myself to him." . Don't miss this!!!!!!!!!..I also will love him and REVEAL MYSELF to Him...God wants for us to know Him and He desires to reveal Himself..but there is a key concept that many a Christian today totally miss.. The one who has My commands and KEEPS them..Folks this is not new but is certainly profound for our Western viewpoint of Christianity..We think it OK to attend Church, participate in bible study, tithe and maybe a some service...but intertwine that with an occasional trip to the club, an occasional gossip about a fellow brother or sister, a swipe at another church or past church, moving in with the girlfriend or boyfriend, committing adultery in the heart when we lust after another, etc etc etc..Now I am not saying we have to be perfect...in fact that has nothing to do with what I am getting at..What I am saying is this...GOD wants for us to surrender to Him..Totally and completely..Not 90%, or 95%..and when we do offer ourselves up as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1) then God will reveal Himself to you and Life will take on a totally new meaning...The desire to follow God begins to rule and reign in your heart so that any ungodliness in our lives convicts us to such a degree that it is ceased immediately....See what most of us do (including myself) is we merely nibble on what God has to offer..We are not willing to go all out for God for various reasons... Time, priority, embarrassment, whatever..and when we hold back on God. He cant allow Himself to be fully revealed...because we are not keeping His commands..What we are doing is age old in America..We say (and mainly to ourselves not to other people)..I am mostly good..I do way more good that right..and we find people to compare ourselves against to help make us feel better about the life we are living..when our only comparison should be against Jesus Christ..The only model we should follow..and when we truly see how we stack up against Christ, we begin to see our total depravity and need of His Grace and Mercy..If we compare ourselves against another person, we will find someone who we know we are better than and then we justify our behavior in that manner..losing our sense of depravity and our total dependence on Christ and the Mercy and Grace we absolutely need..and we carry on about life thinking none the more about truly KNOWING GOD..We would rather place God on this high mantel and call on Him and pray to Him..but truly Knowing Him is just for those really religious people if He can be truly known at all..
Then the other verse of that John 14:19-24 is verse 23..I love how The Message captures this verse..it says "If anyone loves me, he will carefully keep my word and my Father will love him—we'll move right into the neighborhood!". Can we imagine for a second what it would mean to have God in our neighborhood..What this is saying..to me at least is ....God will be as real to you as if he were your next door neighbor whom you wave at on a regular basis..He will no longer be this distant deity who only governs the cosmos..but rather a close friend, companion, confidant..Someone who can calm the most ferocious of storms and lift you up out of the most desolate pits..The actual Scripture reads(ESV) "²³Jesus answered him, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.".

Here is where the Spirit unlocked my understanding..This all comes with a catch..The catch is we must KEEP HIS WORD..We must abide in Him only. Not this world or not what this world says or deems acceptable..We have a very special book to filter everything through..and it is sufficient and capable of bringing clarity to any and all circumstances and situations..No one is afforded the "right" to step outside of Scripture to suit themselves...if you do, you will never know what it means to KNOW God..

We we all wonder why things don't go as we want or the peace that we are after is just not there or why the world is SO debased..Those who truly LOVE God will not compromise....They will abide in Him and they will experience a JOY so astonishing that nothing, and I mean NOTHING in this world can compare to..There will be no need to try and please the flesh any longer because it is so far from pleasing when compared to the TRUE JOY of Christ dwelling inside you..

One last point..You will not Fool God nor manipulate Him..You will not be able to just say I love Christ and want to follow Him and still act like the world and do things you know are against His commands..He will not be fooled into revealing himself..ONLY to those who keep His commands..and He will test your outward appearance..to see if what you say is what you truly believe..Gen 22..Abraham was asked to take His most precious of things to sacrifice before GOD..to see where Abraham's loyalty and Faith was truly placed..and Abraham believed so much that he took Issac up on the mountain and took his knife and stretched out his hand to slay his son...WHY? because He had total Faith in God and felt if he did kill his son, God would raise him from the dead..He placed nothing before God Almighty not even his own son.. What do we put before God..Our job, our kids, our freedom, our vices, our time, our spouses..NOTHING belongs ahead of GOD..He wants and desires to reveal Himself to us and for us to get to know the JOY and LOVE that is God himself ...for that is why He created us..Don't count on this world to provide joy and love..It cant..It never could..It never will..You will always come up wanting when placing your desires before God..Give God everything and watch what happens to your life..Unspeakable Joy, uncompromising Peace, Unending Love and forever a changed person..Don't believe me?..Then try it yourself..Please don't take my word for it..Give God your all and see what happens..God doesn't break promises..Get to Know Him personally and when God truly reveals Himself to you..There will be no doubt as evidenced by your life..It will change you from the inside out..If you are not experiencing this then you are holding back..If there is no fruit in your life, then you have yet to experience the God of the Bible...because when you come into direct contact with El Shaddai..He will forever change who you are, what your priorities are and what direction your life takes on..You will have no other desires except for those that bring Glory to Him..

EB
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