Do You Really Know Jesus? by Jason Kruse

12/12/2011 20:45

By Jason Kruse

 

This question may seem odd to you at first. Yet as you ask yourself that question, what is your answer? Do you know Him because of what your pastor has said about Him? Do you know Him because of what one of or both of your parents have shared about Him? Do you only think you know Him or do you really know Him? When I say know, let me define the word know as Jesus would define it in the original language, found from the text of the scripture in Matthew 7:23, where Jesus was speaking of those who did not "know" Him the way they should have. The word know, there is the word: "ginosko," in the Greek and it means: to be aware of, feel, have known or knowledge of, perceive, be resolved, can speak, be sure and understand.

 

Now that is a very deep meaning for one word. Yet in the Greek language, a word can be more easily differentiated from another because there are more words that have different meanings associated with them. In English, we have one word, for instance, "know." This can mean several things depending on how it I used within a sentence. Yet in Greek, Hebrew and other languages, they have separate words for those different contextual meanings. One is: "gonosko," another is: "eido," and still another is: "epibareo." Those are just 3 of the different words in Greek for the one word in English.
 

So when we really want to understand something properly in and from the word of God, we often must get out our concordance and do these word studies so that we can get the full meaning for what we are trying to understand, instead of just having a vague definition of what we think we "know." We can be really proud about this stuff too.

 

Especially here is America. If you tell someone that they actually do not know something the way they think they do and you are sure about it but they are not, they can easily get offended and never speak to you again. It is pretty sad that this goes on every day, even within the church, mind you. This is also exactly what keeps so many in bondage: PRIDE. What an awful state to be in that we must do everything in our power to avoid, even if we need to ask God to humble us because we are not able to do it. Better to even have Him do it than for us to meet destruction! "My people perish for lack of knowledge," says His word. I wonder why so many have no knowledge. Well it seems that it is probably one of a few things: pride, stubbornness, laziness, fear or disability and no one to stand up and help the misfortunate. What happened to fighting for the poor and oppressed? What happened to standing up for those who cannot speak for themselves? I tell you that I desire to do it if I am able to. We could sure use some more lawyers who would take up the cause of those who cannot fight for themselves, when they can actually make a difference with their expertise in a court of law. This is commanded by God in the book of Isaiah Chapter 58.

 

How does this Relate to Knowing Christ?

 

It relates because if we want to really know Jesus as He described we should know Him above, and then we will make every effort to know His word. Psalms Chapter 138:2 says "He magnified His word above all His name." That is pretty powerful, don't' you think? If God is placing more magnification upon His word that even ALL of His name, then that means we should also magnify His word even above His name. What do you mean Rev. Kruse? I mean that if we want to know the Lord then just knowing the names of God and all of their splendor is not the basket where we should lay our eggs. We should lay them IN HIS WORD. When you come into relationship with the word of God, to where you actually begin to become one with His word, then you are beginning to really know the Lord God, Jesus Christ, Jehovah, Yahweh, I AM Who I AM, Elohim, Adonai. Yes, that is right. We need to "lift up" the word of God more than we do the name of God, which is part of the Hebrew definition for the word "magnified," in the verse above. It is the word: "gadal." It means: "to be or make large, or honor, advance, boast, bring up, exceed, excellent, grow, increase, "lift up," magnify, be much set by, nourish, pass, promote, proudly (spoken), tower." If God does, than so should we.

 

If you really want to know the Lord than you have got to really know His word, not just His name or what someone keeps telling you about Him. YOU have to know His word for yourself, not through someone else all the time. These teachings are good, from whoever they come through, but they should always have with them the intention to lead you toward your own experience with the Lord, and to become more dependent upon Him, not me or any other teacher, preacher, prophet, apostle, pastor or evangelist. It was never supposed to be like that and it is time that each and every Christian gets ahold of their own relationship, experientially with the Lord because their whole existence could depend upon it. For Jesus said Himself in the first verse quoted in this teaching, that: "many will come in that day saying, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy, cast out demons and do miracles in your name. And I will say, depart from me. I never "knew" you, you workers of lawlessness." That is the other side of the subject......we must not only know the Lord in a progressive manner, but allow Him to know us through our obedience to the Father and His commandments. That is what it means to love God: "to keep His commandments and His commandments are not burdensome," as it say in 1 John 5:3. We can actually delight in obeying God as we simply surrender to the flow of grace coming from the Holy Spirit, who is the "Spirit of Grace," as we remain humble. "For God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble."

 

Let's press in to know Him through His precious grace that He has lavishly given to us, by His Spirit,

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