Today's devotion in "My Utmost For His Highest" by Oswald Chambers is entitled "Does He Know Me?". MY question to YOU is, "Do YOU know HIM?" Here is the first portion of the devotion:
When I have sadly misunderstood Him? (see John 20:11-18). It is possible to know all about doctrine and still not know Jesus. A person’s soul is in grave danger when the knowledge of doctrine surpasses Jesus, avoiding intimate touch with Him. Why was Mary weeping? Doctrine meant no more to her than the grass under her feet. In fact, any Pharisee could have made a fool of Mary doctrinally, but one thing they could never ridicule was the fact that Jesus had cast seven demons out of her (see Luke 8:2); yet His blessings were nothing to her in comparison with knowing Jesus Himself. “. . . she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. . . . Jesus said to her, ’Mary!’ ” (John 20:14, 16). Once He called Mary by her name, she immediately knew that she had a personal history with the One who spoke. “She turned and said to Him, ’Rabboni!’ ” (John 20:16).
Mary KNEW Jesus! She walked with Him, talked with Him, and, most importantly, listened to Him! THAT is where she developed that intimate fellowship with her Lord! Paul says this in Philippians 3:10-11:
10 [For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope] 11 That if possible I may attain to the [spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead [even while in the body]. AMP
Paul did NOT walk with Jesus during His earthly ministry, but he DID spend intimate time with Him AFTER the Resurrection! Look at Galatians 1:15-16:
15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, 16 To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood: KJV
You and I can KNOW Jesus in the same way that Mary and Paul KNEW Him! How? Look at Philippians 3:12-14:
12 Not that I have now attained [this ideal], or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own. 13 I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward. AMP
We MUST pursue knowing Him the same way we would go after hidden treasure that we KNEW was there! Make it your #1 priority to learn something new about Jesus every day! You will be surprised how very much He desires to fellowship with you! Start today! Here is Hillsong with "To Know You More":
Shalom in Him!
