I Know him so well - part 2

Last week I ended my blog with the following song (based around scriptural truths) which was a ‘re-write’ of the song from Chess ‘I know him so well’.

“Jesus is so good he loves eternally. Perfect situations will come to pass and he is with me constantly, Jesus is completely on my side. He moved his world to be with me and the gap between us is always closed.

Isn’t is good

Isn’t it fine

Jesus is mine

I can know him so well”.

This week I want to look at how those who belong to Jesus can have an intimate relationship with the Creator of the Universe, yes let me repeat that you can have an intimate relationship with the Creator of the Universe, and then for those of you who follow my ‘blogs’ but don’t know Jesus encourage you to follow him.

Many of us, including experienced Church Pastors like myself, may have seasons when we feel we are not hearing from God or that our relationship with him is not intimate.

The first thing I would like to highlight is that the way God designed us to have relationship with him and one another was based on a ‘bridge’ between our hearts.

By the heart I am not talking about a physical organ but the seat of our emotions which ultimately determines what we do. You may have been brought up to behave in a certain way that purveys good moral standards even what some would call Godly living but are extremely frustrated, sad or angry at times (if not all the time), maybe this is because you are behaving contradictory to what you feel in your heart?

We sometimes think that those unhealthy thoughts and feelings we have come from circumstances, difficulties, hurt from others, although such factors clearly impact our lives Jesus tell us that it is “out of the heart comes evil thoughts--murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.” (Matthew 15:19) Remember he also said that holding anger against someone in your heart was equivalent to murder (Matthew 5:22) and (Matthew 5:27-28) looking lustfully at a woman was equivalent to adultery!!

To know anyone more we need to spend time with them. God cannot stand SIN and will not allow it in his presence and therefore based on the above verses who can say they can spend time with God getting to know him?

There would appear to be a chasm between us and God.

Fortunately, Jesus has bridged the gap for us by taking all our sin once and for all on the cross. Our responsibility is to continually confess our sins (1 John 1:9) and trust in the blood of Jesus to purify us (1 John 1:7). Jesus said ‘Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God’ (Matthew 5:8), the Greek word for see is horaō, which is used to denote supernatural knowledge e.g. when it is is translated as the word perceived in Acts 8:23.

Because of the ‘purifying’ work of Jesus, not anything we have done, we can enter into God’s presence when we are reading the word of God, praying or just going about our everyday activities.

Then he communicates with us in our hearts (giving us supernatural knowledge), how can I support this statement;

The Bible uses the noun heart over 800 times and it is the sixth most commonly used noun in God’s word following:

God, Lord, King, Man and Sin.

God is communicating to us that he is Lord of our lives and as King should have the seat of authority in our hearts not our own desires to do things our way (that is my definition of SIN - doing things our way NOT God’s way and holding on to the desire to do things our way).

God tells us above all else guard the heart for the heart is the wellspring of life. (Proverbs 4:23)

You see it is with the heart that we know God (Hebrews 8:10-11), not by great teaching (as valuable as that is -, not by prophetic words (as important as they are for growing God’s Kingdom), not from Godly Counsel (although the Bible commends this). Teaching, prophetic words and Godly counsel are useful in helping God guide us and knowing ‘about him’ more, but to know him more we need to hear him with our hearts.

Many say we know God through reading his word but without wanting to be pedantic I must make a distinction here, often we know about God through reading his word, it is only when we read the word empowered by his Spirit and wanting to receive more of him in our hearts that we grow to know him more as a person. If my wife wrote an autobiography you would feel you knew something about her through reading the book but you would not know her as a person until you met her, spent time in her company and conversed with her. We spend time in God’s company by communicating with him through our hearts and minds, as we read the word of God, look at nature ([Romans 1:20] For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made…………………………….), and examine our conscience in light of God’s word (Psalm 139:23-24).

The wonderful news is that wherever we are and whatever we do every day we can see God’s creation and we can examine ourselves and ask God to examine our hearts to test our motivations. In other words, we can get to know him more at any time in the day.

How do we cultivate such practice, well this week I have been struck by the desire in this world to reduce waiting times, none of us want to wait at the doctors, wait in queues or wait in traffic jams. It is in waiting though that we find out about ourselves and others, when you wait and pause in a conversation you allow the other person ‘space’ to speak and out of the overflow of the heart a man speaks (Matthew 5:18), when you wait for a child to learn something new they either grow or reveal an area within themselves that is not an innate strength, long periods of inactivity are regularly followed by breakthroughs in creativity (often while we wait and relax something is growing within us).

I believe that when we read the word, when we pray, when we go about our everyday activities, we should wait on the Lord in our hearts and minds then we will not only know ourselves and others better but know God better.

The Bible tells us that by waiting on the Lord:

We receive strength and courage in our hearts (Psalm 27:14 & 31:24)

We are blessed (Isaiah 30:18)

We have supernatural levels of energy (Isaiah 40:31)

God acts on our behalf (Isaiah 64:4)

We experience his goodness towards us (Lamentations 3:25)

God hears us (Micah 7:7)

We receive empowerment from God (Acts 1 and 2)

What are you waiting for this week or in this season in your life?

Rather than be frustrated, inpatient, angry, confused or hurt use this time to get to know God more.

If you are not waiting for anything I am sure this week you will have to wait for something or someone, grab that time to get to know God more. However busy you are there are times of waiting in all our days.

Finally, if you don’t know the creator of this world but want a personal relationship with him, (by the way who would not want to be connected with someone who is perfect, all powerful, loves us eternally and always for those he is in relationship with) I would encourage you to watch the youtube video above entitled the ‘bridge’ and then if God touches your heart pray the following prayer.

The Sinner's Prayer (by Dr. Ray Pritchard)

“Lord Jesus, for too long I’ve kept you out of my life. I know that I am a sinner and that I cannot save myself. No longer will I close the door when I hear you knocking. By faith I gratefully receive your gift of salvation. I am ready to trust you as my Lord and Saviour. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for coming to earth. I believe you are the Son of God who died on the cross for my sins and rose from the dead on the third day. Thank you for bearing my sins and giving me the gift of eternal life. I believe your words are true. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus, and be my Saviour. Amen.”

#Knowing #heart #waiting