Know God

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Jesus Christ, God’s Son, prayed a beautiful prayer for all who say yes to Him and follow His lead. (John 17)  In this prayer Jesus reveals that we have become one with God through Jesus and inherit eternal life. Our faith in Jesus leads us to be reconciled with God. Now we have a genuine relationship with Him– we know God!

After saying all these things, Jesus looked up to and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so he can give glory back to you. For you have given him authority over everyone. He gives eternal life to each one you have given him. And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth. I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. Now, Father, bring me into the glory we shared before the world began.”   John 17:1-5   NLT

Eternal life is to know the only true God and Jesus Christ.  The dance in The Beautiful Dream represents our powerful salvation experience with Jesus.  Though reconciliation with God is a legal transaction in the spiritual realm, it is much more!  The dance was an intimate, love-drenched, unforgettable encounter that left me transformed and in love with Jesus!  The Table in the dream represents our loving family relationship with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We know God by His Spirit.

Know the God Who Leads

“All things have been committed to me by my Father.  No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  Matthew 11:27-30  NIV

A yoke can be a wooden device on the necks of two oxen, often attached to a cart or plow.  One of the oxen is the dominant leader, carrying the greatest workload. They work together like dancers doing much more than just one ox could ever do alone.   One leads and the other follows, but their unity is as if they are one force.

Before we decided to follow Jesus we were spiritually yoked to Satan and his kingdom.  But now we are yoked to King Jesus and His Kingdo  (Ephesians 2:1-10). If we choose to be yoked to Jesus, we must lay down our burdens and our own selfish desires so we can know Him.  To be yoked to Jesus means to listen to Him, learn from Him and obey His Word.  The Lord Jesus protects us from evil spirits as we stay spiritually close to Him.  We will get to know God’s goodness in the worst and the best times if we choose to remain one with Jesus. God’s Spirit will never lead us in the wrong direction.  We can remain in His love, joy and peace.  

Depending on Works to Get to God

Did you know that people can say the right words, do many good works and even do miracles in Jesus’ name but not know God Good works do not earn our entrance to Heaven.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  Many will tell me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, in your name cast out demons, and in your name do many mighty works?’  Then I will tell them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity.’”Matthew 7:21-23  WEB

Our entrance into the presence of God is through Jesus Christ alone– not our works. It was His love that led Him to suffer on the cross for our sin. We can only enter Heaven through knowing and following Jesus. Jesus does His work through us only because He has cleansed us and filled us with His Spirit! We love God and others because God first loved us. (1 John 4:19) (Matthew 22:34-40)

God’s Love in Us Motivates Us to Do Good Works

If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but don’t have love, I am nothing.  If I give away all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but don’t have love, it profits me nothing.  1 Corinthians 13:1-3  WEB

Throughout The Beautiful Dream I felt the overwhelming Love of God!  That is because God is love and His Spirit comes to live inside us. Jesus wants to do miraculous loving works through us because He has compassion for every person in need. But our motivation for doing good is God’s love. Do not fear and do not allow the devil to shame you. Your sins are forgiven and you are reconciled with God.

Boast in the Lord Because You Know Him

Scene three of The Beautiful Dream was my chance to know God. But I was missing it by only daydreaming about Jesus.  Fear of what others thought about me in the natural realm weakened my relationship with God. (Proverbs 29:25) Salvation is not stagnant.  It is a growing relationship with the Lord by paying attention to God’s Spirit.  Otherwise, we will find ourselves dancing alone, pridefully trying to please Him or others in our own power.

This is what the Lord says: “Let no wise man boast of his wisdom, nor let the mighty man boast of his might, nor a rich man boast of his riches; but let the one who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises mercy, justice, and righteousness on the earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord. Jeremiah 9:23-24  NASB

We boast in the Lord, not in ourselves. It is okay for others to boast about us (Proverbs 27:2) and we must learn to give honor to other people (Proverbs 31:28, 31). But we must remain humble, realizing that anything we can do that blesses others is a gift from God. We know God who created us all and has given us the joy of loving others by His Spirit!

Nothing Compares to Knowing the King

Having faith in Jesus is knowing Him every day of our lives.  Because we believe that Jesus, God’s Son, came to earth as a perfect human and took the punishment for our sin on the cross, God sees us as forgiven and welcomes us.  His Blood cleanses us from sin and His power gave us new birth by the Holy Spirit. We not only have faith in God’s mercy and grace– we know Him.

But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ.  More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith.  My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.  Philippians 3:7-11  CSB

Knowing Christ Jesus, our Lord is everything! What the world considers valuable will pass away. But we live to store up treasures in God’s Kingdom that will last forever!  Our relationship with Jesus will cost us everything in this life. But we will have gained eternal life by remaining in Jesus. To know God personally is the beautiful reward of our faith in Jesus!  

They Will All Know Me

“But I will make a new covenant with the whole nation of Israel after I plant them back in the land,” says the Lord. “I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts and minds. I will be their God and they will be my people. People will no longer need to teach their neighbors and relatives to know me. For all of them, from the least important to the most important, will know me,” says the Lord. “For I will forgive their sin and will no longer call to mind the wrong they have done.” Jeremiah 31:33-34  NET

This New Covenant is the Good News of the Kingdom of God through Jesus Christ (the Messiah).  Jesus cleanses us from sin completely when we put our faith in Him. We are spiritually born-again as God’s child and need to grow. The Lord is patient with us, so we must be patient with ourselves and others. What a privilege to know God personally as we await the second coming of Jesus!

So let’s learn, let’s press on to know the Lord.  His appearance is as sure as the dawn; and He will come to us like the rain, as the spring rain waters the earth. Hosea 6:3  NASB