To Know Him

John 17:1-3 (NLT) 1 After saying all these things, Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so he can give glory back to you. 2 For you have given him authority over everyone. He gives eternal life to each one you have given him. 3 And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.

In this verse we see that to know God, we must come to know (in our spirit) and understand with our soul the three aspects of God that are revealed to us in this realm. We saw in the 14th chapter of John that as we give a covenant response to God, there are three stages of revelation of God to us. The first response we give of love and obedience result in the Son asking the Father to send to us the Holy Spirit to abide in us. Today, I want to direct your attention to this first step.

Jesus was sent to this earth, this "water realm", to take our punishment for the broken covenant God made with mankind. Jesus came from God's eternal spirit realm to us to not only provide a way of salvation, but to also provide the way for us to live in His realm while in this realm. He lived in both realms at the same time. He did this so we can follow Him and do as He was doing. When I saw that Jesus opened the door to far more than I had even realized and began to search to enter that door, understanding of many Scriptures that were being preached with limitations attached led me to challenges of my response to God. I could no longer be casual to those things that I associated with being a Christian, i.e., going to church, reading the Bible, worshipping God and living for Him. A scripture in Colossians became a new signpost in my journey to knowing Him.
Colossians 3:17(NLT) And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. The Holy Spirit showed me that the dual life Jesus lived in the flesh on this earth was truly the door to enter into the Life that is lived in His Presence.

Hebrews 10:19-23 (NASB) 19Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; And for comparison, the same scripture in the New Living Translation:19 And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. 20 By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. 21 And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, 22 let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.

This passage has been almost always linked to our privilege of prayer. I saw it as a new way to live my life--to enter into that dual existance in two realms at once. Jesus prayed that we would be in this world but not of it. Only our bodies are limited to this realm, but if the age in which we live has not so completely controlled our thinking and desires, we can live in His Presence. Then the release from our bodies is not a tragedy but a glorious step of freedom into the Life we are already living in Him.

Now, how do we do this? By making friends with the Holy Spirit. The disciples loved Jesus. They lived with Jesus for a little over three years. They saw His reactions, heard His teaching, witnessed His works and felt His love. But when they saw the death of His flesh body, they thought the whole thing was over. It was the Holy Spirit, leading them into Truth, filling them with the same Spirit that empowered Jesus, Who opened the door of Jesus into the Life of Jesus. Jesus is the door. The Holy Spirit will prepare you, sanctify you, change your thought life, your emotional life, your motivations and desires until you begin to yearn to know Him. I realized one day that very few people give a whole lot of thought to knowing God. Only by the Holy Spirit can you yearn to know Him with a desire that transcends all other desires.

If you have not been filled with the Holy Spirit, begin to ask and seek for Him to fill you. Make friends with Him. Talk to Him, yield your will to His leading and learn to walk with the Holy Spirit. That is taking the first step.