Monday, December 18, 2017

Knowing God Intimately

My post today is from my hubby’s Monday Devotional. I trust you will be blessed by this article, which can also be found here: www.changemakersforchrist.org

Friends, greetings in Jesus Name! Today I will be sharing with you on what I title, “Knowing God Intimately”. As a believer, your endurance and perseverance in your walk with God can only come by your depth of knowledge and understanding of His ways – knowing who He is, what He stands for, what He hates, what He loves, and how He operates. This clear knowledge of His personality enables you to clear the fog off your eyes from any wrong perception about His person. I know some people who fell out of the way just by a slight trial of life. Unfortunately, many of such people have made God their enemy. Simply because certain things did not work out as expected, they blame God as the cause. Remember, our God is loving, tenderhearted, caring, and kind. He cannot tempt you with evil, and neither does He tempt any man (James 1:13). He is never the cause of our problems as some thinks. He is the one who tries every possible means to save you from your problems. The real enemy of your destiny is the devil. He hates you with passion!


The bible declares in John 17:3, “And this is life eternal, that they might know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” Why? It is in knowing God and His son Jesus Christ, that you can truly live and lead a successful life. Apostle Paul said, “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection” (Philippians 3:10). Listen, what distinguished Moses from the rest of Israelites was his knowledge of God. Psalm 103:7 says, “He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the people of Israel.” There are certain things others don’t know but you know when God makes His ways known to you. Unfortunately, God cannot make His ways known to you when you do not thirst after Him. Matthew 5:6 says, “Blessed are they that thirst and long after righteousness for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6). What is righteousness? It is having right standing with God. This occurs when you constantly desire to fellowship with God, walking intimately with Him, and learning His ways like Moses did.


Many years ago, when I was learning to drive a car using the manual gear system, I remember starting out with gear one, then I move a while and change to gear two, and to gear three, and to gear four, and finally to gear five depending on my speed or traffic on the road. Really, you don’t start out with gear one and quickly change to gear four. If you do so, the car will stall and malfunction. The general rule is to understand the law of “gradual process”. Likewise, walking with God requires a process. You do not start with God from gear three. No! You have to start from the basics, and learn through the ranks. Jesus said in Matthew 11:29, “Learn of Me”. Therefore, as the year draws to a close, seek to know God, learn of Him, and walk closely with Him through the power of the Holy Spirit. Do not carry-over your mistakes, failures, disappointment, and setbacks of 2017 into the year 2018. You must desire to cross-over to take-over in the New Year. Have a fantastic week. With love, Elvis!