KNOWING HIM

By Rick Mathes

Philippians 3:10 (NASB77) ¹⁰ that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;

The goal of my soul is to know Jesus. I am completely absorbed in learning all I can about the words and works of Christ. This discipline is called Christology: to know Christ.

It begins for many with intellectual ascent. He is a liar, a lunatic or Lord. There is no middle ground and you must make a decision as to who He is to you. You can’t escape dealing with Jesus so you put your mind to work and study the Word. My focus initially was to disprove the resurrection because without it, Jesus was just an ordinary man and all the miracles were a fraud. So it starts in your mind.

Then it drops to your heart: the seat of your emotional experiences. What does it feel like when you finally believe His is Lord of the universe, created in the flesh? This is mind staggering and most certainly you will feel the effect of this in your emotions.

From there it drops into your soul and you go about the Lord’s business as a faithful saint. You become the skin for His Holy Spirit to dwell, live and work in. Imagine that! You become a living sacrifice to the Lord, the Temple of God: He dwells in you fully.

Knowing Him then is intensely personal. You become closely involved in His day to day activities and it’s by His grace that you can press on, keep the faith, fight the good fight and finish the course.

Once you know, you know Him, you will have a great energy for Him. Your thoughts will soar to dizzy heights as you meditate on who He is that lives in you If all leads inevitably to prayer and praise on a scale you never imagined!

So if I were to sum up our pursuit of knowing God, I would insist that you gain knowledge about God, of God and before God. He will initiative your love, choosing, redeeming, calling and preserving knowledge, experiences and understanding.