That We Might Know Him

The search after God is not reserved only for the unsaved. If our search ended after we experienced salvation, our search ended prematurely. We must continue to search out God and His ways for the rest of our lives. To know Him should become the passion, the drive, the focus, the yearning of our hearts.

We cannot learn to know Him unless we are with Him. We cannot experience His grace unless we are with Him. Without Him we can do nothing but with Him we can do all things. Then why is it so easy to spend so little conscious time with Him? Because we live in the flesh. Only He can awaken and nurture in us our need of Him as well as our awareness of that need.

How do I search for God with all my heart?

Ask the Father to draw you: "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6:44).

Forsake your own thoughts and your own ways: "Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD" (Isaiah 55:6,7).

Choose His thoughts and His ways: "Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart" (Psalm 119:2).

Serve Him willingly and faithfully: "Know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever" (1 Chronicles 28:9).

Make knowing Him and His truth your life focus and purpose: "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God" (Psalm 42:1). "O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is" (Psalm 63:1).

Why would God send His Son after sending all those prophets?

• clarify and sharpen the message (Matthew 5:22,28,32, etc)
• convey the importance of the message (Luke 20:13)
• allow us to perceive His love (1 John 3:16)
• only His Son could redeem us (Hebrews 10:4)
• show us the Father (John 14:9)

What does this passage tell us about Jesus?

• messenger from the Father (2)
• Son of God (2)
• heir of all things (2)
• made the worlds (2,10)
• brightness of God's glory (3)
• express image of God's person (3)
• upholds all things by the word of His power (3)
• purged our sings (3)
• sits on the right hand of God (3)
• much better than the angels (4)
• inherited a more excellent name than the angels (4)
• firstbegotten of the Father (6)
• He is God (8)
• loves righteousness and hates iniquity (9)
• above His fellows (9)
• everlasting and unchanging (11,12)
• He shall wrap things up (12)

Why should I want to know Jesus personally and intimately?

• because He wants to relate to me that way
• to receive grace and peace (2 Peter 1:2)
• John 14:6
• "this is life eternal" (John 17:3)
• I want to be His sheep (John 10:4,14)
• avoid the judgment (2 Thessalonians 1:8)
• He is life (1 John 5:11,12)

How should knowing Jesus affect my view of this world?

• being here is a temporary arrangement
• less attached to stuff here
• affection set above
• aware of the needs around me