To truly know Him

Introduction

We are still in passion week and Jesus is really pressing into His disciples now. The disciples are very sad about what Jesus is telling them essentially. They should be the ones comforting Jesus, but Jesus is the one that is comforting them. I find this an interesting thought. Preachers all the time say that a troubled heart is sinful, but clearly Jesus heart of troubled. It is just what he chose to do with those thoughts. Whether he allowed his thoughts to consume him or not.

How do you know you know Him?

Christ centers around this constant idea of knowing Him and if you know Him now you can see in John chapter 14 you can see the Father and not just see the Father but actually know the Father, but what does that even mean? I think it is a very important question to ask ourselves. To stop and do a reality check in our lives and ask “do I really know Him like I say I do?” And if I know Him is there something different in my life that says in fact that I do.

So how do we know we know Him? I am not talking about just salvation here and becoming a believer. I am talking about actually knowing him. Deeply and intimately and resoundingly really knowing Him

John says later in his letter

1 John 2:3–6 NIV

3 We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. 4 Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

1 John

We know Him by keeping His word. His commands. This is a demonstration of us Knowing Christ and Knowing the Father.

But here is the thing it isn’t about being motivated to keep His commands out of fear, but rather it is birthed from a place of actually coming to love Him in the first place. I know this is contrary to maybe the way that many of us have grown up. We were sort of scared into church. Scared into praying. Scared into reading the Bible, but fear doesn’t really get us to a place of knowing God as He wants to be known. People that we love we are going to want to get to know more right? I can say pretty confidently that I have no desire to meet or know someone more that I fear. I don’t believe that was ever God’s intention.

So what are the commands that we need to follow? Is it the law? Is it the 10 commandments?

Matthew 22:36–40 NIV

36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

All the commandments are summed up by these two commandments Christ gives this expert of the law.

To know Him is to love and to love well. To know Him is to allow the fruit of the Spirit to be visible in your life. Not out of force but out of the natural effect of Knowing Him. So how do we get there?

To truly know not just know about

“It is a solemn thing, and no small scandal in the kingdom, to see God’s children starving while actually seated at the Father’s table.”  - AW Tozer

I believe there are a lot of people who are just living saved without experiencing the deep life that God also wants to offer us. Like AW Tozer says we are sitting at the table but we are still starving. We know about the salvation he has invited us into, but do we really know Him and if we are outside of knowing Him how do we really get there.

This seems to be where many believers lose interest in Christianity. We take out the aspect of really coming to know Him well.

In reality it all stems down to this concept. First do we want to know Him or are we content where we are at? Second if we do want to know Him are we willing to lose our self in the process. This is where a lot of people get caught up. I listened to a Dan Moehler sermon recently and I love a quote he established as a main idea. Wake up everyday realizing no one owes you anything. I believe here are 4 steps we can take in the process of coming to know God more.

1) Realize it is not about you anymore

This one is the most difficult to combat but we must come to realize our life is now His. He paid the price and we owe it all to Him.

2) Leave the past behind.

This one haunts a lot of people. I know from past personal experience that leaving the past behind is hard and a lot of times there is still that one thing that one mistake that haunts you, but what I want to understand is to come to fully know Him we must leave the past and the feelings of the past behind. I want us to understand this one thing God sees you after the blood of His son Jesus as if you had never sinned. Your mistakes, your pain, your doubts, and your fears do not allow them to control you because He sees you as if you had never had them.

3) Allow yourself to die

Not physically, but we all have desires that are part of our daily lives that we have never learned from him. If you look at Christ and you don’t see what you do in His life that means it was never a part of Him and it should not be a part of you now. It is time to allow that to die.

When we begin to do these things daily we will see an increase in knowing Him without all the distractions that are thrown in the way of our relationship with Him.

The more you know Him the more He leads you

Look at

It is better that Christ goes away so that the Holy Spirit can come. I mean think about this statement for a moment. The physical person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is saying it is better to have the Holy SPirit around than the physical person of Jesus. That is how important the Holy Spirit is in the life of a believer and if we begin to realize and think that way I think we will begin to live out our lives a lot more influenced by the 3rd person of the trinity that is the Holy Spirit.

Allow yourself to become sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit and the direction of the Holy Spirit. So how do we do that? The same way that we come to know Him more. Take up your cross. Leave the past behind. Crucify your desires daily. Realize it isn’t about you and all the sudden your attention and the tuning of your listening is going to be on what the Holy Spirit is saying for your life.

The Christian life becomes exciting when their is an intimate knowing and a sensitive ear to what the Holy Spirit is saying to us. I mean every single day is an opportunity to allow your relationship with the Holy Spirit to impact the life of someone around you. Take everyday as an opportunity to impact people when the Spirit of God is speaking to you.

The Holy Spirit is a helper, a mediator, an intercessor to walk about this life as it was intended.