do we know him?

“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 perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” (Matthew 7:22)

Wow! Recently I felt that God was saying to me that He wanted to bring His people back into intimate relationship with Him.

I was convicted.

It is very easy to become busy with our lives, our agendas, with producing lots of good things, attending lots of Christian events and yet miss getting to know Jesus. It is so easy to miss Jesus in all the Christian activities we do – we can even attend prayer meetings or read the Bible yet miss Jesus in the midst of it. Someone wise once said “Do you think you will get to heaven and be able to give Jesus a hug?”

A personal relationship with Jesus is essential in being a disciple. It is through our relationship that Jesus shows us whose we are and who we are. He directs our paths in His ways and not our own and He makes our lives more effective as we hear and see what He is doing and how we can join in. He brings us into spiritual maturity, He increases our faith, He makes our lives about His purpose, He makes us secure without having to compare or compete.

Without developing our personal relationship with Jesus we rely on others to have the relationship for us. How often do we go to people to answer a question we might be struggling with before we ask God what He thinks? How often do we rely on the words of someone’s prayer and not focus on God’s voice? How often do we go to church and rely on the pastors ‘relationship with God’ to tell us about Jesus? How often do we rely on people to validate us and not God? How often do we just get on with doing stuff – even ‘holy stuff’ – without asking whether this is God’s will for us?

Don’t you want to hear His voice for yourself and have your own stories of seeing God move in your life? I do!

Like any relationship it takes time and effort to learn how to communicate with Jesus. Our culture wants everything now, but relationship with God does not necessarily gratify immediately. Perhaps we give up on developing our personal relationship with Jesus because it just seems so hard.

Let’s take up the challenge together to sit in the presence of Jesus and ask Him to speak to us without doing anything. Try imagining He is sitting next to you in the car or walking with you in every situation during your day. Speak to Him as if He is present with you in every moment. After all, He is!