Knowing And Being Known By God

Day 37

Knowing And Being Known By God

 

In Jamaica, for many years (over a decade) we ran many programmes in inner city communities. Its a tough context and these programmes varied in effectiveness but we battled on, committed to being there and shining God’s love into these communities.

But then one day God stopped us in our tracks. 

David, my husband found that in January of one year he simply couldn’t keep going with business as usual. It was like an internal or spiritual hand brake had been pulled and everything ground to a halt. 

Rather than attempting to proceed, he took his Bible, some books and pens and retreated to the hills to spend time listening to God and journalling. What came out of that moment was a very clear ‘God challenge’ eventuating in a much needed course correction. God called David out to own the truth that he had been more concerned with our team turning up to run programmes than he had been in the spiritual growth and discipleship of that team. The mission was at the heart of all we were doing, but our (and our team’s) personal connection with Jesus wasn’t. Sure, on one level it was all about Jesus- we were there because we loved Him and were called by Him to be there. But our actual work on the ground was fuelled by our own strength because we weren’t making time with Jesus in fellowship with one another a priority over our mission programme planning.

So, after this Challenge from the Holy Spirit we flipped it all around. We established a fortnightly gathering on a Sunday afternoon (after church) where our whole team shared a meal together, spent time in groups of three for accountability and sharing and then enjoyed a robust bible study. 

I cannot truly capture what a difference this afternoon together made to the life of our  team and the effectiveness of all we were doing. One of our team members captured it beautifully when he said after a while “I feel like before I was working for God, but now I’m working with God”.

The spiritual life and fellowship we found in that simple shared meal, Bible wrestle and sharing space fuelled everything else we were doing, making it much more alive, fruitful and effective. The life of Jesus started showing up everywhere in that suddenly there were miracles of provision, people making significant life decisions, more effective and inspired strategic direction, miraculous healings and a spirit of joy and fun in the ministry rather than tiredness and drivenness. 

When we learned how to have deep fellowship with Jesus at the core of all we were doing, finally there was a core, a deep spiritual centre fuelling and flourishing everything else. 

In the book of John (chapter 15:4-6) when Jesus said… “Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” …He wasn’t talking metaphorically, poetically or ideologically. He was explaining that His presence with us is not a religious idea we subscribe to, but a reality we are to live in.

Sure we can do lots of busy kingdom activity without His Holy Spirit, even activity that has all the trappings of the supernatural, but at the end of the day it will just be driven busyness. 

Apart from Him we can do nothing.

So when Jesus sits on this breezy Galilean hillside He makes this startling statement to stop everyone in their tracks. 

‘Many will say to me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?” Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!”’

Matthew 7:22-23

This statement is a direct follow on from His earlier one where he says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.’

Both these statements are sandwiched between a discussion of true fruitfulness beforehand, (“Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.” Matthew 7:19-20) and the importance of ‘doing’ this Kingdom…(“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” Matthew 7:24).

So active participation in this Kingdom is essential. This Kingdom is something we ‘do’. But our actions must always spring from the deeper source, “No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”

The deeper source Jesus points to is intimate connection with our Heavenly Father (through Him). Being busy about our spiritual and religious activities is not the same as knowing and being known by Him and letting this deep personal relationship with God fuel all our activities. In fact activity in His name but not in His Spirit earns this rebuke…

‘Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!”’

Matthew 7:22-23

The word here for ‘knew’ is the Greek word ginōskō, is most often used to mean ‘to know’ but also to express “to learn or perceive, feel, to become known , to understand, sexual intercourse between a man and a woman, and to become acquainted with.”

Though it is used in many ways with varying depths of meaning, the point behind them all is that it is the kind of knowing that is beyond mere superficial information. It is the kind of knowing that involves experience and presence and a moving in the direction of intimate understanding. 

The point is, Jesus is say that we are not called to be distant acquaintances working for God, but rather we are intimate family members working with God.

Though this is a Kingdom that we ‘do’, it is not a Kingdom that we do without deep abiding intimacy with our Heavenly Father. To truly know God and be known by Him is to live fully in the reality that assumes His intimate presence and His loving Lordship over our daily lives: To know and love God and to know that we are known and loved by God. To live in the confident intimacy described by the psalmist when he writes…

‘You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.’ 

Psalm 139:1-3 

It is interesting that it is religious and supernatural actions that Jesus criticises in Matthew 7:22-23 as being undertaken without His intimate presence…“Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?”

Jesus doesn’t call us to do things in His name. He calls us to do things in His Spirit. Supernatural signs are not the measure of intimacy with God. Love is. Intimate love for God and then springing from that deep well within, love for others.

Paul of Tarsus picks up this very point when He writes these well worn words in His first  letter to the Corinthians…

“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud…”

1 Corinthians 13:1-4

We do not need to produce or perform to be welcome into God’s Kingdom. We are not cogs in the machine of big business or workers in the factory of an institution. Our worth is not in what we do. Our worth is in the Kingdom family we belong to, and the Father who loves us and longs for intimate connection with us: To know us and to be known by us. 

As an intimate friend. 

“I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.”

John 15:15-16

 

Journaling the Journey 

Supernatural signs are not the measure of knowing God. 

To truly know God and be known by Him is to live fully in the reality that assumes His presence and His Lordship over our daily lives. 

Ask Him to reveal His presence to you today and to help you live more fully in the reality of this.

Today’s Mountainside Photograph was taken by David Campbell at Trestle Mountain in the Kunanyi Mountain Range,  Southern Tasmania, Australia.