Who went to heaven, and cometh down? Who hath gathered the wind in his fists? Who hath bound waters in a garment? Who established all ends of the earth? What is His name? and what is His son’s name?” (Prov 30:4 YLT)
“But the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits” (Dan 11).
What is His name? What is His Son’s name? Do you know Him? Have you met His Son? Answer, if you have understanding. I believe the majority of you reading this book have the spiritual understanding that God was expecting and have answered these questions with an affirmative yes. If you don’t know Him yet, and have not met His Son, I also have good news for you: He’s not far from where you are right now. Bow your head, open your heart, and let the King of glory come in.
Who is this King of glory? The Lord Jesus Christ, our Messiah, the anointed One. He’s God Almighty’s beloved Son, who was sent down to deliver us from sin and Satan, and has translated us into the Kingdom of God. He came in the flesh as Jesus of Nazareth, healed the sick, taught and preached the gospel. When the time came, He was arrested, falsely accused, tried, and crucified, even though Pilate found no fault in Him. He died, was buried, and on the third day, He was raised from the dead. He died for your sin and mine. He died in your place, and all you need to do is accept Him as your Lord and Savior. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed” (Rom 10:9-11). If you have never done this before, this will be a good time to do it.
Tell God you believe in your heart Jesus Christ is His Son. Tell Him you believe Christ died on the cross for you, and was buried, and was raised from the dead for your justification. Tell God you accept Jesus as your Savior, Lord, Physician, and King. Tell Jesus to come into your heart and take over your life, right this moment, and become your Lord and Savior. Thank Him for doing so. Amen.
That’s it! That, my friend, is an encounter with God. It’s an encounter of the ultimate kind. It’s the beginning of an everlasting relationship with the Father God. It’s your introduction to knowing the Most High.
The New Birth is the Beginning of Knowing God
This is how we all became children of God. For “as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12). You, like many of us, have become a new creature in Christ Jesus. And like young children, we must desire the sincere milk of the Word of God, so we might grow by it. He wants us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. He wants to put His Spirit in us so we can walk in wisdom and understanding, and so we can be full of might and of the fear of God. For the “fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Prov 1:7). “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding” (Prov 9:10). This is the introduction to a career in “knowing the Almighty God.”
He Has Made HIM Known
Don’t you desire a career in knowing God? Wouldn’t you give everything up for the opportunity to be His confidant? God has made it possible for any of us to draw nigh unto Him and become His friend. He has paved the way for us to intimately know Him in spirit and in truth. The world cannot know Him. Only those who have Jesus in their hearts, and in whom the Spirit of truth and revelation dwells, can see and know God. To the world He is the “Unknown God.”
“No one has ever seen God. God’s only Son, the one who is closest to the Father’s heart, has made him known” (John 1:18).
The Jews who did not believe the gospel that Paul preached in Thessalonica gathered a company of thugs and set the city in uproar against Paul and Silas and their host brethren. These Jews troubled the people and incited the rulers of the city, telling them that the men, Paul and Silas, who had “turned the world upside down” were in their city also. And they went on a rampage, searching everywhere for Paul. The brethren immediately, by night, sent Paul and Silas out of Thessalonica and brought them to Berea.
The Bible tells us that the Bereans were more noble than those in Thessalonica. And they listened to the preaching of Paul, received the word of God with readiness of mind, and by themselves searched the Scriptures daily to confirm that those things Paul taught were so. But when the troublemakers, the Jews of Thessalonica, heard that the word of God was preached by Paul to the Bereans, they traveled there also, and stirred up the city. Immediately, the brethren at Berea sent Paul away by sea, and he was brought to Athens.
The Athenians were wholly given to idolatry, to philosophy, and to superstition. They were polytheists. And in the city were two sects of philosophers: the Epicureans and the Stoics. These men, like many philosophers of their day, spent most of their time in philosophical debates and in hearing and talking about new things. The Athenians worshipped many gods. After multiplying their idols to the utmost, some Athenians were still apprehensive, thinking that there was still another god they were missing in their collection, and that this “unknown god” they fearfully suspected must be higher than all the idols they already knew and worshipped. To make sure they had everything covered, with respect to all gods, so that no evil would be directed against them from this higher god of whom they had no knowledge, they erected an altar in their city with the inscription “TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.” So they worshipped many gods, they adopted any new god they heard about, and to make sure they were covered, they also worshipped the “unknown God,” whom they believed was higher than all their gods.
Let’s take the lens off the Athenians for a moment and focus it on ourselves. You are a believer, all right! But Who is God to you? Is He someone you know personally, or a stranger you hear about once a week in the house of worship? Is He just the faraway benevolent Almighty to whom you send an SOS or 911 call when in trouble? Do you have an active spiritual relationship with Him like you have with your close friend? I mean, that friend you watch football with, or hang out with for hours; that friend you loved to visit for sleepovers while you were a teenager and you talk to almost every day? Is God known to you as you know this friend of yours? Can you recognize His voice if He calls you from within a crowd? Can you even recognize His voice if you are alone in the room and He speaks to you? Is He to you a God that can be touched, known, heard, loved, worshipped, and adored? Or do you, like the Athenian philosophers, consider Him an “unknown God”? Pause, and think about these words.
As Paul waited for the brethren and Silas at Athens, he was stirred when he saw the city was obsessed with idolatry. He went to the synagogue first, as was his custom, disputed with the Jews, and then went to the marketplace and spoke to the people that met with him. It was here that the philosophers encountered him, thinking he was a hawker of another strange god, for they heard him talk about Jesus, and about Him being raised from the dead. They were curious. So they brought him to Areopagus, who was their Plato, their chief philosopher, to hear what he had to say; for they spent all their time hearing and talking about new things.
“Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.
God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.
And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead” (Act 17:22-31).
In talking to these polytheistic idol worshippers, Paul was also being used to speak to us. We were like them before Christ Jesus found us, but I hope and pray we’re no longer like them. We were captured by those dumb idols in the world and were in bondage, worshipping them. But God delivered us, transformed us, and translated us into His kingdom. And God overlooks the times of ignorance, but calls everyone to repent and serve the Most High as the only God. We have been delivered from idolatry, whether it be from worshipping pagan gods, or wealth, or status in society, or money, or a job, or other men. We have been set free to serve the Lord God of heaven. We have freely made a quality decision to worship the Most High God, and to serve Him alone. Is that true of you today, my friend?
In Him I Live, and Move and Have My Being
The Holy Spirit, through Paul, was telling us in the passage above to put our total dependence on God, in whom we live, and move, and have our being. Now we are in Christ Jesus. He’s the origin of our life and the source of eternal life.
In Him I live and move and have my being
I abide in Him, I live in Him
He is the vine—I am the branch
The branch is in the Vine
The life of the Vine is in the branch
The life of God is in me
His nature, the Love nature is in me
His life flows through my inner man
I will let that life and love dominate me
Through Christ my Lord, I can do all things
It’s He that strengthens me
Christ is my strength
I cannot be defeated
I cannot be conquered
I can do all things, because I’m in HIM
I can do all things, because He’s in me
I can do all things through Christ Who is my strength
It’s in Him I live, It’s in Him I move,
It’s in Him I have my being
I am in Christ Jesus, I put Him on
He is my strength
He became sin for me, and I am the righteousness of God in Him
And I am the righteousness of God in him
He bore my sins on His body on the cross..
So Iam dead to sin, and alive to righteousness
By His stripes, I am healed.
“In Him was life and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). We are in Him. Everything that we are, we are in Him, for we are nothing outside of Him. The totality of our existence is in Him, and nothing is left outside. Without Him we can do nothing, and beside Him we are nothing. It is in Him we live and move, and in Him we are what we are.
We have been born of God and are in Christ Jesus. We live in Him and He lives in us. We have the special privilege of knowing God because the only begotten of the Father, who alone can reveal God to any man, dwells in us and with us. Through Christ our Lord, we can do all things. He strengthens us. The flesh and human reasoning limit us. It makes us look to circumstances, consider the problems, and succumb to the tests and the storms. The flesh makes us utter the language of doubt and confess inability and lack of strength. But the Word of God and faith say: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” The strength of the Almighty is ours. He is with us always. He has promised to be the strength of our lives. Scripture says nothing about our being strong in ourselves. It says God is our strength. It commands us to be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. It tells us to draw close to Him, discover His will and passion, learn His ways, and know Him intimately. For they that know the Almighty God, shall be strong and do exploits.
Therefore, we need to deal with the veil that covers our eyes and stops us from seeing Him clearly. We need to remove the plug that blocks our ears, preventing us from hearing what He’s saying. This of course, is the ever-present veil of the flesh, which presents the biggest obstacle in knowing God who is the Spirit. We are therefore to submit the flesh to the Lord Jesus, in whom the flesh has been dealt with on the cross. We are to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.” “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Rom 8:3, 4).
Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have no obligation to live after the flesh. We are no longer slaves to the flesh, we liberated children of the Most High God. Let us walk in the liberty where Christ has set us free. “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Rom 8:5, 9). We have the Spirit of God. He dwells in us. May God open our eyes to clearly see Him in us and know who we are in Christ Jesus.
Pray to be Strengthened with All Might by His Spirit
Let’s wholeheartedly pray the prayer Apostle Paul prayed for us. Let’s all pray that prayer now:
“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto me the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
The eyes of my understanding being enlightened; that I may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
And what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward me who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,
Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:
Father God, I pray:
“That You would grant me, according to the riches of Your glory, to be strengthened with might by Your Spirit in my inner man;
That Christ may dwell in my hearts by faith; that I, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that I might be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph 1:17-21; Eph 3:16-19, personalized KJV).
Father God, I pray that I’ll “be filled with the knowledge of Your will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That I might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
Who hath delivered me from the power of darkness, and hath translated me into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom I have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence” (Col 1: 9-18). To him be glory and dominion, and power, for ever and ever, Amen.