KNOWING JESUS

Affirming that we know God is a basic thing as a Christian. Getting to know Jesus in a deep and personal way is another thing. Christians know Jesus, and other people might say they know Jesus as well. But the question is, how well do we know him?

Developing a relationship with someone requires a commitment of time and energy. So it is with your relationship with Jesus Christ; it takes time to learn some of the basic principles of the Christian life. 

 The greatest desire of the noble men in the bible like Paul, David and Moses was to know Jesus. 

In Philippians 3:10, Paul stated; “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death”.

Paul testified that he wanted to understand Jesus better. He wanted to have intimate knowledge of God—knowing Him more and more.

In Psalm 27:4, “One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.” David denoted that we should all continuously desire and grow more in love with God.

As we grow spiritually, we thirst and hunger for an intimate relationship with Jesus. However, it takes a heart of sincerity to have the yearning to learn about Jesus and to intensify relationship with Him. 

As Paul’s example, he desired for the presence of God that’s why he obeyed the Law. Sadly, some Christians think that abiding by the rules is being intimate with God. In Matthew 15:8, people, specifically the Pharisees were so legalistic and just focused on externalism. It’s like merely following a set of rules and it is considered as “legalism”—and God treat this as an insincere act. But God does not tolerate superficial relationship.

11)      THAT I MAY KNOW HIM...  (Philippians 3:10a)

From the time that we committed ourselves to God and surrendered our lives to Him, we became naturally thirsty about knowing about Him further because of His goodness.

But, did we know that it’s possible to be a Christian and not really know God? When the Bible talks about knowing God, it’s not referring to a mere intellectual exercise. Knowing God does not mean knowing facts about God. To know God is not just reciting His biblical resume or hearing testimony of what He has done in someone else’s life. Knowing God involves encountering Him and finding out that He is who He says He is. (John 14:8-9).

22)      THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION …  (Philippians 3:10b)

Paul stated that he wanted to understand Jesus better. He wanted to understand and experience the power found in Jesus' resurrection. He wanted to understand and experience the fellowship found in Jesus' sufferings. In trying times, that we used to think that there is no more hope left for us. But God has the power to give life and nothing is impossible to Him. God has given us the victory so we can have hope--Christ resurrection power.

33)      THE FELLOWSHIP OF HIS SUFFERING… (Philippians 3:10c)

Being made conformable to his death - In all things, being just like Christ - to live as he did, and to die as he did. There can be no doubt that Paul means to say that he esteemed it so desirable to be just like Christ, that he would regard it as an honor to die in the same manner. He would rejoice to go with him to the cross, and to pass through the circumstances of scorn and pain which attended such a death. Sometimes God uses ‘pain’ as megaphone to awaken us and remind us that God is there whenever we’re focusing on some unnecessary things. Some of us even experienced persecution by pursuing the work of Christ (Matthew 5:11-12).Christians are being condemned by friends, hounded by their own family and insulted by colleagues by being different and not doing the common stuffs that non-believers do. It’s hard to be different because we are social beings and we opt for sense of belongingness. Nonetheless, the Bible commanded us that we should be happy for being so.

Many who know a lot about Jesus but they don’t know Jesus in a personal and intimate way. Let us not be contented with our knowledge of Jesus, but our goal should have the desire to have a more loving relationship with Him always.