God CAN become your friend
DO YOU “KNOW” JESUS?
“7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the KNOWLEDGE of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may KNOW Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3).
“And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may KNOW Him who is true;” (1 John 5:20).
Your Father in Heaven sent Jesus down here as a human being to accomplish MANY things, not just to bring us forgiveness of sin. He also came to do combat with Satan; He also came to bring hope by destroying death; He came to become a new Adam, and gather humans under a new covering; He came to teach us deeper lessons about the heart and will of God; He came to show us what to do and what to avoid doing along with the heart attitudes to have when doing and avoiding them; He came to make possible the fulfillment of the Pentecostal Promise made in Joel 2:28; and those are only SOME of the goals that brought Him here.
I want to talk about one more reason why He came: that you or I might “know” Him.
In part, you can get to “know” someone by getting to know ABOUT them, by watching them in action. So, by watching Him or by reading those Gospels, you could get to “know that” that Jesus could heal sick people, expose and drive away demons, defy gravity by walking on top of the water; you could “know that” that He was courageous enough to challenge the most powerful religious and secular people around Him. You could also get to “know that” that He is the Messiah; and you could even get to “know that” He is the only-begotten Son of God!
But while the “knowing” that Paul and John were writing about above INCLUDED those forms of “knowing,” the Gospels show us something additional about how Jesus got his disciples to know Him.
In part, He also got them to know Him in the same way you got to know your best friend or the person who became the love of your life. And how does that happen?
Regarding your deep personal friends, you want to spend more and more time with them because you see something within them that you want to be near and make become a part of you. They may even awaken something within you that you did not sense within you before they came along. And this kind of “knowing” is deeper than knowing ABOUT them. Jesus came to set in motion a natural and supernatural process that would actually bring Him INTO you – LITERALLY, bring Him into you. He started on them from the outside, but by the end of the gospel accounts He had clearly started to bring them INSIDE of Him. Initially, He had accepted them as “disciples” in the way that other Rabbis had acquired disciples – a formal relationship of teacher and student, or boss and apprentice. That went on for most of those three years He was with them. But during that time, He continually revealed to them more and more about what made Him “tick,” by the way He spoke, by the occasions that revealed both His passions and His compassion. They could become awestruck by His power, but they were also getting “infected” by what was INSIDE of Him, in the same way that you got “infected” by the qualities you sensed within that person who was going to become your best friend or the love of your life.
But at the very end of those three years, He did something new; He called them “friends”: “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15).
What Jesus was able to accomplish in creating His relationship with them while on the earth He is still able to accomplish between Him and you from Heaven, through the combined resources of His Holy and Pentecostal Spirit plus that inspired written record of His presence with them. You and I are in NO way at a disadvantage when we compare ourselves with those who saw Him in the flesh! That is why it is so very important that you learn how to RECEIVE the Holy Spirit in the same way that THEY received the Holy Spirit, as clearly described in the Book of Acts (see Acts 2, 8, 10 & 19). Through your own THINKING, you can believe that the “love of your life” loves you by observing their behavior toward you, but nothing convinces you more than when he/she TELLS you: “I love you!” The Spirit that those original Christians received at Pentecost lets you know from the INSIDE things like, “I am your friend” or “I am on your side” or “I love you!” This I do know from personal experience.
And it is that relationship of “best friend” that creates the intense PERSONAL loyalty between people, a loyalty and affection that you may have already experienced with another human being. That deep friendship creates within you a desire to LOOK for ways in which you can please your friend. It is that intense PERSONAL loyalty to Jesus that we see expressed in Paul and John above.
So, my question to you is this: when you examine carefully and honestly the nature of the relationship you have with Jesus, can you see any sign of that personal friendship toward Him? Can you see any signs of it FROM Him?
It is very possible to have within you a Jesus who is, experientially, the figurehead of a religious structure you have embraced. Experientially, He could just be the one who is the Author of that Holy Book you love, the Book that contains the truths you now embrace, the Book that defines all the “musts” and “must nots” you now embrace. He can be the figurehead that makes sure you will go to heaven and avoid the lake of fire. He can be the Messiah of the SECOND Coming, who is going to destroy all of the secular progressives and dictators who try to destroy the values that are sacred to you, and create that new heaven and earth for which you long. If so, you do not yet “know” Jesus in the way Paul and John were writing about.
Jesus can be ALL of those very important things to you, and yet not have become your deep friend – because you have not learned to look Him RIGHT IN THE EYES, pouring out your heart to Him, confessing all your failures to Him, praising Him PERSONALLY every time you recognize a blessing or inner victory coming your way, and by just talking to Him a lot every day. That is what friends do, you know!
JESUS’S own wonderful friend, whom He called “the Holy Spirit” can come upon you and into you – into your spirit, into your soul, AND into your body – just like is described in His Book of Acts. That wonderful friend of His is the same EXACT Spirit that was within Jesus during the three Gospel years, and He will bring with Him the same relationship reality and “feelings” that He also enjoys with Jesus and His Father. You don’t have to first EARN that relationship by your diligent behavior – it is His gift to you, a gift that will THEN motivate you from within to plunge into that diligent behavior, but now ARMED with Him inside of you.
His presence within you is what will enable Jesus to become the best friend you have ever known!
IS THIS NOT THE DESIRE OF YOUR HEART?
