Know and Be Known

Known

What makes you truly, deeply, purely joyful?  What makes you shout for joy? What makes you truly happy? What makes you shine, smile and laugh? What would your husbands, children and friends say makes you joyful? What do you love to talk about more than anything else in the world?

The Bible calls this “Glorying in” or “boasting in”. What do you glory in my friends? 

There are so many ways to answer these questions.  

Financial stability, wisdom, strength, applause from people, a day well lived in the life of the church, religious faithfulness.  

God has taught me so very much over the past few years that we have been in Togo.  Paul said in I Corinthians 15:3 that in his letter he was giving to them only what God had first given to Him, namely the truth of the gospel.  I want to share with you what God has given to me.  The truth that has changed my life.  

In Galatians 4 Paul speaks to the Galatians who had received the gift of salvation through grace. He reminds them of their freedom from the law and rebukes them for continuing to divert their energy to following the law rather than continuing in the gospel grace.  He reminds them that their salvation is found in the fact they were born again into the family of God.

Gal. 4:6-9 “Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son onto our hearts crying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son {daughter}; and if a [daughter] than an heir through God.  8. However at that time when you did not know God you were slaves to those things which by nature are not  gods. BUT, now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?”

This is an amazing teaching about our tendency to try to lean on our own wisdom and strength to gain favor with God and salvation.  But in the center of this amazing teaching is a phrase that jumped off the the page of my Bible when I read it.  My Spirit leapt within me. I wanted to shout for joy! I gloried in the light of this miraculous truth.  That Jesus made it possible for me to know God and be known by Him.  Let the immensity of this truth sink into your heart and soul.  Before Jesus came Yahweh God was to be greatly feared!  Only those specially chosen and set apart from the rest of the people, the priests and the prophets, could even consider coming into the presence of God.  The temple had the Holy of Holies where the presence of God dwelt and no man came to this place without great fear and trembling!  God was present with Israel, but for an individual He was far off.  He was a great and mighty being that could not be personally know except for a select few.  Now, through Jesus we can know God and be known by Him.  WOW!! You can know God, and He knows you. You can come near to Him.  He knows you!  HE knows….you.  This is reason to rejoice, to shine, to boast and to glory!  This is reason to laugh uncontrollable with deep and pure joy.  

What in this life on earth can be compared to this truth?  What else could I possibly want to glory in?  

Jeremiah 9:23 “This is what the Lord says, ‘Let not a man boast in his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast in his strength, let not a rich man boast in his riches. BUT, let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows me. That I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on the earth. For I delight in these things” declares Yahweh”. 

Boast in this one thing alone, my friends, that you know and understand God!

To understand in these verses in Hebrew is the word Sakal.  It means to have comprehension, and insight. The Spirit of God gives us spirit eyes to see God, Yahweh.  Matthew 5:8 “Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God”. How is this possible? Happy and enviable is the one who has been born again by the Spirit of God.  You are made pure, clean, unstained and guiltless through the blood of the Lamb. You are are given freedom from the shackles and stains of sin and the eyes of your heart are made to see God. Your new creation eyes  can look upon Him and experience His beauty, perceive His comings and His going, discern His working in your heart and the hearts of those around you.  If you're born again - created new by the Spirit of God through faith and are walking by grace in line with righteousness, then you have the greatest  of privileges among men - to see God! You get to spend an eternity - from today until forever gazing and perceiving Yahweh; to consider and experience His presence, His glory. 

In Ephesians 3:18-19 Paul prays that we will, “comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and depth and to KNOW the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled up with all the fullness of God.”

To understand Yahweh God is to comprehend that He is love and to experience His love through Jesus by the Holy Spirit to the fullest measure every day.

In Psalm 119:99-100 David proclaims “ I have more insight that all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged because I have observed your precepts.” 

Many men understand much about God.  They glory in their wisdom.  But after a lifetime of communing with God and pondering His ways David was glorying that he knew God!  

This was Paul's point in Galatians 4:9. By the gracious act of God through Jesus we are made sons and daughters of God. We too have come to know God and be Known by Him.  It’s not in doing anything that gives us reason to boast. It is in being; being known by God.  

In Philippians 3:7-11Paul explains that anything in this life that isn't Jesus is a loss to him. He desired nothing more than to be found in Christ and be known by Him. Paul didn't want to be known for his wisdom, strength, impressive family, applauded for his works, religion or goodness.  All he wanted was Jesus.  Jesus was Paul’s prize and glory. Is He yours?

In Hosea 5:15 and Psalm 105:4 we are admonished to have one pursuit - to seek the face of God continually.  Psalm 34:15-16 “The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and His ears are attentive to their cry.”  Oh, the beautiful eyes of God.  They are full of mercy, grace and love for the one who seeks Him with all their heart.  How I long to gaze into the eyes of the lover of my soul. I long for His gaze to be forever toward me. Psalm 102:1 In weariness and distress in this mortal life, David desired one thing that would equally comfort and save. He sought the face and gaze of Yahweh. 

Psalm 27:4 “One thing have I asked from the Lord, that will I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. To behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His temple.”

There is nowhere else I would rather be than enjoying the presence of my God; and I can because of Jesus. The Spirit has made me to be born again. I have gone from death to life.  My spirit is new and pure.  My guilt and shame are gone. So, I am free to enter into the Holy of Holies, the presence of Yahweh and behold His beauty. I am fully known by God and I know Him. 

Hebrews 10:19 says that through the blood of Jesus I come into the presence of God with confidence.

Psalm 100:2,4 I come before Him with joyful singing. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and bless His name. 

The contrast to this found in Matthew 7:21-23.  Many will try to come into His presence with all their wisdom, wealth, strength, personal goodness, their record of service and good works. And Jesus will say to them the scariest words any soul will ever hear. “I never knew you, depart from Me”.

Are you known by Jesus?

Do you know Jesus?

Or, are you content with your god of religious goodness rather than Jesus? Oh beloved, He loves you with a love incredibly full of grace. He doesn't want you to bring Him your filthy rags of righteousness in order to gain access to His presence.  He wants you to come into His presence and seek HIs face for the sake of knowing Him. He is the valuable prize far above any other. His gaze upon you will be your daily delight. It is in His loving you, and knowing you and you loving and knowing Him in return that you will find your joy and reason for boasting! 

One thing will I ask. One thing I desire - Jesus. My Redeemer. Yahweh. The lover of my soul.

Isaiah 58: 2 “Delight in the nearness of God”