“Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? And in Thy name have cast out devils? And in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.” {Matthew 7:21-23}
I don’t know about you but this verse used to scare me and even now, once in a while, I talk to the Lord about it to make sure with Him that He knows me. I have to tell you, I don’t think it’s enough to have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, repented of your sins, get baptized in Jesus’ name, get the Spirit of God and then try to live for Him and go to church. It’s good to do all that. But after a while if we’re not careful we can get into a habit of just doing His work without realizing that we actually need to know Him. This is what I am coming to understand after all these years of talking to the Lord and Him coming to reveal and give Himself to me. Unless I know Him for myself for sure, He doesn’t know me. I know it is shocking to say that – that it’s possible He might not know me, but He said it to the people in these scriptures who did many wonderful works in His name. If He said it to them, what is there to exempt me? If He didn’t know them because they worked iniquity, what’s to keep Him from not knowing me as well? Even if I work really hard to keep myself from iniquity, who is to show me that? Who is to show me and help me to make sure that I don’t end up with iniquity in my life? Scary isn’t it?
That’s why again and again the answer is in talking to the Lord. The only way to get exempted from ending up with iniquity is in communicating at all times with the Lord, and asking for more of His Holy Spirit and for more of His power in our lives. We cannot do it. We cannot fight this world on our own power. As a matter of fact we have no power. This is what the Lord said,
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” {John 15:4-7}
This is our answer to Him knowing us: to abide. Abiding in Him. Abide means: to bear patiently, to endure without yielding, to wait, to accept without objection, to remain stable or fixed in a state, and to continue in a place. Abide also is cousin to the word ‘abode’, as in a house or a place of residence or a home.
So you see the key thing is in spending as much time with Jesus every possible minute we can with Him. In a nutshell – all the time! He is our home. He is our shelter. We abide in Him by living daily with Him. We live with Him and He lives in us and us in Him. We do that by always talking to Him and waiting for Him to respond to us. We wait on Him to reveal Himself to us and come to know us. Because think about it, who can know us better than the Lord? How can we ever possibly know if there is any sin in our lives? Who can know our thoughts and our hearts better than Him? No one. Not even ourselves. The Bible expressed it this way,
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.” {Jeremiah 17:9-10}
So no wonder these people in the Lord’s parable who were calling Him Lord, Lord, ended up lost. We can end up lost even if we’ve done everything right or even mighty things for the name of God, simply because we have iniquity in our hearts and only God knows about it. So unless we spend time with Jesus and abide in Him all the time, forget it, we can end up lost too!
The psalmist wrote,
“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” {Psalms 139:23-24}
That’s why it’s so important to truly have a heart to heart talk with the Lord and talk to Him about this issue. We need to come to the Lord and say to Him,
“Father, I don’t want to be lost. Please save me. Please cleanse my heart from all iniquities and unrighteousness. And most importantly Lord Jesus, Savior God, know me. Know me, Lord! Show me, help me to know who You are and You, me! Thank You, Jesus!”
The key thing is in always coming to Him with all of our hearts – hiding nothing from Him. If a thought or a scene in your life comes up as you are talking to the Lord that brings you shame, or is something you feel you shouldn’t have done or said, do not pretend it away. Do not pretend the Lord is ignorant of it, and therefore resist talking to Him about it. By all means, that is your cue to most definitely talk to Him about it. The sooner you get it out in the open with the Lord, the sooner the enemy will stop tormenting you about it and using it against you to keep you from talking to the Lord. There is absolutely nothing we need to hide or be ashamed of with the Lord. He is for us not against us. He has come to save us from our sins, not condemn us. The only way He can help us overcome every bit of sin, shame, guilt, struggle and affliction we go through in this life, is by confessing it to Him and talking to Him about it. There is nothing He doesn’t know already, so we are not fooling the Lord when we hide things from Him. Again, the only way He can help us is by us talking to Him about it and confessing everything to Him.
This is what I have experienced again and again in my life, that when I get up the courage to confess to the Lord the things I am ashamed of, or even things that people have done to me that have hurt me, I find His joy. He gets happy with me. In a nutshell, I make Him proud of me. Because He knows it’s not an easy thing to do, to talk about something I’m admitting I made a mistake on or I’m ashamed of or even something that has hurt me. And because of it He is happy with me. It shows my faith in His great love for me. Instead of condemnation and finger pointing as many of us imagine when we come to the Lord, I’ve found again and again that I make Him happy. I find again and again that He ends up loving me more and actually has told me time and again, “Thank you, Chin,” for telling Him everything and not hiding things from Him.
To know God and Him knowing us is found simply in coming to Him and abiding in Him all the time. Talking to Him, communicating with Him our every thought and desire, asking Him to save us and reveal to us our hearts and who we are so we can make ourselves right with Him. This is so key, this is so important in knowing who Christ is and Him knowing us – abiding in Him, always, all the time, every minute of the day, every moment we can possibly find to talk to Him. He is our life, He is our home, He is our everything. And if we have to, we will fight for Him. The Bible states,
“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.” {Matthew 11:12}
It simply means if we want God to know us we will fight for Him. We will pull out all the stops to talk to Him and seek after Him.
It is important to me that I know Him and He especially knows me. Every day I make this happen by talking to Him, confessing to Him, asking Him to cleanse me and forgive me and fill me with more of His Holy Spirit. Every day I try to abide in Him. I come to Him with all of my heart and soul and I do not hide anything from Him. Whenever He tells me I need to talk to Him, I talk to Him. I ask Him to help me to talk to Him, whatever it is He wants me to talk to Him about. Whenever He shows me an event or an issue in my life that I’m keeping from Him, and He shows me I need to talk to Him about it, even as hard and painful it could be to me I talk to Him about it. I know at the end of the day when it is all said and done, what matters is the life in eternity with God. I know this life I have on this earth is going to end one of these days. My life here on this earth is not forever. Even if I lived to 100 years old it is still very short. That’s why I want to make sure that the Lord knows me and I do that by daily talking to Him and coming to Him, making sure that I know Him and am connected to Him.
“Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” {Luke 21:36}
“Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.” {Matthew 24:44}
“Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.” {Mark 13:33}
“Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving.” {Colossians 4:2}
Prayer
Father, I thank You that You are faithful and gracious in Your love for me. You are not willing that I should perish but that I come to repentance. I thank You Father, that You are ever so gracious and so merciful and are ever ready to forgive me if I just come to You. Thank You so much Lord for Your great love for me.
Lord, please Jesus, forgive me once again and help me to come and make myself clear with You. Help me not to be afraid Lord to keep coming to You and keep confessing to You even how minor a sin is in my life. Help me not to get puffed up and think myself all right when I haven’t asked You to forgive me or asked You what things I should be talking to You about. I need Your help Father, because many times I am hiding things from You. I have sins in my life and are afraid to confess them to You. Please Savior, Jesus, help me. Help me to humble myself before You and come to You and be saved. Because without You I am nothing, I can do nothing, I need You. Please Jesus save me. Help me to please make sure I am right in my heart with you and that if there is any spirit of pride or arrogance or any self-righteousness in me that You would please reveal it to me and save me from them. Help me to do Your will today, Father God. I ask You for all these things in Your most powerful and precious name, Jesus. Thank You, Father God. Amen.
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Rp10/2017
