THAT I MAY KNOW HIM

When those of us who are “born again” speak of “knowing Him” what is it that we mean? What does it really mean to know Him?

I had a moment this morning, as I awakened with thoughts of Him; my spirit and my mind spoke those words (as Paul did), I want to know You, Lord, realizing that knowledge of Him entails more than just a cursory familiarity, but an in-depth embrace of the power of His resurrection—and, the fellowship of His suffering. My mind went to marriage—in the earthly sense. No marriage can be successful where either or both parties is satisfied with a surface relationship, that simply has an appearance of love and affection, but it has to be worked on, developed and matured—with patience and endurance. It won’t happen overnight, it takes time, and study of the other individual’s differences, needs and what makes them tick, and also what brings them joy. It is the same with our relationship with Jesus Christ—that is why the Church is so oft referred to as the Bride of Christ and He is called the Lover of our souls.

I thought of an old choir song: I Want to Know Him (By TETREC Mass Choir)

“I want to know Him and the power of His resurrection;

I want to know Him as I live from day to day.

I want to know Him through my trials and my tribulations,

I want to know Him and the power of His Word….”

To know Him is to know the whole experience of Him, and not simply the fishes and the loaves. We don’t mind the power of His resurrection, so much—at least most of us, don’t, but the fellowship of His suffering, and being made conformable to His death is most assuredly not on our agenda. However, in order to get to the power of His resurrection takes the fellowship of His suffering.  The power of His resurrection is an incredible and awesome thing. Think about it—knowing and having the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the grave. It’s forceful, miraculous, dynamic power—in the Greek, “dunamis”. It’s where the Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel got the name for his invention, dynamite. He very aptly named his discovery. There is the dynamic quality of His resurrection that Jesus desires to impart to us; often though we hold back from this power choosing instead the “fishes and the loaves” that we can see, and touch. He offers us power that expresses itself in terms of eternity, but we want to utilize such dynamic power for the earthly—it’s too weighty, infinite and intense for such run-of-the-mill matters.

How can we really embrace Him, and knowing Him, in His fulness? Paul wrote, “How changed are my ambitions! Now I long to know Christ and the power shown by his resurrection: now I long to share his sufferings, even to die as he died, so that I may perhaps attain as he did, the resurrection from the dead.” [Philippians 3:10,11 J.B. Phillips New Testament]. Our ambition has to change, too. Our longing has to become singly Christ, and nothing else. Nothing or no one else can share the throne with Him, in our lives. In our efforts to become comfortable in the earth, we have become cozy with the earthy—we know the things of the earth more than we know Him—our longing is misplaced. That is what John told us to guard against in his letter, “Do not love or cherish the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him.” In our love for this world, we miss out on the power of His resurrection, because we lose focus. Hebrews 12:1-3 appeals to us to “strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us, Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection]. He, for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Just think of Him Who endured from sinners such grievous opposition and bitter hostility against Himself [reckon up and consider it all in comparison with your trials], so that you may not grow weary or exhausted, losing heart and relaxing and fainting in your minds.” [Amplified Bible]

That is what we do—and that is how we do it. Jesus Is our perfect Example. We endure by staying focused on our Goal. Our eyes must stay the course as we see Jesus enduring the shame, knowing that His power to endure the shame empowers us to do the same. His concentration on the prize outweighed His will to let the cup pass, and it will do the same in our lives. We will be able to endure whatever the enemy brings our way only if we remain focused on the Prize—the Hope of our calling. Being consumed with weights and encumbrances—not always sin, distracts us from the task at hand. We cannot truly find our delight in the Lord, when our delight and desire is for encumbrances.

Oh, that I may know Him.

To know the fellowship of His suffering—and even to embrace it is to accept my own suffering and chastening. As Jesus accepted the will of the Father and drank from the bitter cup of the weight of the sin of the entire world (past, present  and future), so must we accept chastening. Jesus knew that in His suffering there would be this joy—it was before Him, but only after the cross. No cross, no crown. It cost Him dearly. When we are chastened and experience suffering, it too, has purpose—it is our “cross” experience. This is how we come to know Him in the fellowship of His suffering—we don’t die on an actual physical cross, but we die to self, to our desires, to sin—to things that please the flesh and choose the “joy that is set before” us. “For the time being no discipline brings joy, but seems grievous and painful; but afterwards it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it [a harvest of fruit which consists in righteousness—in conformity to God’s will in purpose, thought, and action, resulting in right living and right standing with God]. So then, brace up and reinvigorate and set right your slackened and weakened and drooping hands and strengthen your feeble and palsied and tottering knees, And cut through and make firm and plain and smooth, straight paths for your feet [yes, make them safe and upright and happy paths that go in the right direction], so that the lame and halting [limbs] may not be put out of joint, but rather may be cured.”

I want to know Him. He Is the longing of my heart.