That I May Know Him

When everything has been said and done, the ultimate joy of life is still to know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. He created us with a hole in our heart the size of His love and nothing else will ever fit that hole. Here’s how the Apostle Paul explained that empty space. “For the creature (that’s us) was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope.” (Romans 8:20) This word “vanity” is absolutely the greatest description of a man without God found in the Bible. It’s vanity, emptiness, boredom, and sheer terror to try to navigate the sea of life without the built-in compass of His living presence. Human life is barely less than divine and requires the touch of His person to raise the bar to survival level. As one song said, “I never lived until I lived for Jesus.”

Men, women – all of us – have been corrupted by sin, and that nature of sin has robbed us of the wonderful life that man was intended to naturally enjoy. Jesus Christ, Son of God, born of a virgin, came to be God’s Daystar to bring us back into fellowship with Him. It is not just learning Bible verses, or doing good works, or receiving the Lord’s communion; it is spiritual life that every soul has the capacity to receive and desperately needs. The Son of God gave His greatest lessons around this truth about His life and that He came to give us that life. Christianity is the only heart and soul religion in the world. Other religions deal with the emotions or the mind, but Jesus comes straight to the heart.

He said, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” (St. John 6:51) The religious of His day strove with that saying and tried to make a flesh- thing out of His words. They said, “…How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (St. John 6:52b) The Son of God then pushed the issue by saying, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.” (St. John 6:53b-58) This is the heart and soul of the Gospel. We must welcome Him into ourselves to become our life or all we will have is a religion just like false religions.

After the Lord had really gotten their attention, and there was a rumble in the crowd, He laid bare the meaning of His words. He said, “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” (St. John 6:63) At this time, the peripheral disciples forsook Him and fled because they wanted a man to follow, a cause to fight, or a system to believe. He came to impart Himself to the world and this meant a totally new way of living, and godless men cannot handle that. It was clear in these last words of explanation that Jesus was demanding that His disciples give up their lives to become totally dependent on His life. This is the place of spiritual dynamics that takes His supernatural life and floods our heart and soul with Him.

The heart of transformed Christians is the title for this “Salty Saints”. It was the Apostle Paul that uttered these words, “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.” (Philippians 3:10) Much of the world knows about Him, and multitudes have learned enough of His words to have some level of Christian emotion; but this Apostle named “four” characteristics of the profound depth of a transformed life. All of it is simply “Jesus Christ”. Knowing Him, sharing the power of His resurrection, suffering with Him in tough moments, and actually sharing His death to the world is the heart and soul of a new way to live. It is so wonderful that the glories of this world lose its luster, and things become non-essential while the sacrifices of faith become joy and pleasure.

He is ready to reveal Himself to you. When He becomes so all-important to you that you can start saying “no” to spending all of your time on self and withdraw to the altar of surrender and spiritual hunger, He will then draw close to you. Time is the substance of spiritual consecration. Time is the heart of going on with God. Time is the soul of a great Spirit-filled life. Without time with Him, your spiritual life will vanish, and you will never “know Him” as these words challenge you. He promises, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” (St. John 1:12)