Several months ago, nearly a year to be honest, I bought a workbook entitled "Discipleship Evangelism," a book meant to shepherd people through the discipleship process. Lately, under conviction of the Holy Spirit, I’ve been praying about whether or not I’ve ever truly “discipled” someone, or if I’ve simply spent my Christian life attempting to win “converts,” and I’ve been continually reminded of this book. So, with that heavy on my heart, I’ve decided to work through the book myself, to ground myself in the truths I want to be able to teach others, and to share with you what I’m studying here in my blog. So here we are: Lesson 1: Eternal Life.
The first lesson is focused on John 17:3, which says, “Eternal life is to know you, the only true God, and to know Jesus Christ, the one you sent.” And in this lesson, Andrew Wommack writes,
“Many people think that everlasting life is living forever. Well, every person lives forever. It’s a misconception to think that when a person dies they cease to exist. The spirit and the soul go back to God. The body decays in the grave. The truth is, every person who has ever lived on the face of the earth will continue to live in spirit form … Eternal life is just what Jesus said in John 17:3 – to know God and Jesus Christ. It’s more than an intellectual knowledge. This word ‘know’ is used throughout Scripture to describe the most intimate, personal relationship that you can have … The real purpose of salvation is to have intimacy – a personal relationship with the Lord God.”
I love that. I love that God doesn’t want mindless robots serving Him, that He doesn’t just want to deliver us from our sin, but that He wants relationship with us, that He longs for us to know Him so personally, so tenderly. Isaiah 43:10, in the Contemporary English Version, says, “My people, you are my witnesses and my chosen servant. I want you to know me, to trust me, and understand that I alone am God. I have always been God; there can be no others.” Do you hear that love in the voice of our Creator, wooing His people into deeper relationship with Him? This is the essence of the Gospel, the Good News we were commanded to share, the life-changing passion that can set the captives free from their chains, that can turn mourning into dancing! This is why Christ came to die for our sins! To allow us to know the heart of our Father in Heaven! Church was never meant to be cold, calloused, or impersonal. The Bible refers to Jesus as our Bridegroom, for goodness’ sake! How could spending time with one’s Bridegroom be as lifeless as we’ve allowed it to become? How could the joyous salvation and Good News we have in Christ be whittled down to “say a prayer, sit in church, be good, and you’ll go to Heaven?” We’re deceiving people by not telling them how God longs to know them, not just give them fire insurance. We’re allowing them to stay captive to emptiness and loneliness apart from the saving nature of God. He never intended this. He intended that we would carry His love so vibrantly, that we would share and teach each other and talk to each other about our living relationship with Christ!
And what happens when we know God, you ask? Check it out:
- Daniel 11:32, in the God’s Word Translation, says, “But the people who know their God will be strong and do great things.”
- 1 John 2:3, in the Message, says, “Here’s how we can be sure that we know God in the right way: keep his commandments.” (What’s different about obeying God when you know Him versus obeying out of religious duty and thinking it’ll make you good enough? Your attitude. When you are obeying out of lifeless religiosity – you’re begrudgingly obedient; you feel you have to. When it’s out of relationship, you obey out of trust. You know His nature enough to trust that He’s not asking you to do anything that will not ultimately be for your benefit or for the benefit of the Kingdom – even if we can’t see how.)
- Jeremiah 22:16, in the NCV, says, “He helped those who were poor and needy, so everything went well for him. That is what it means to know God,’ says the Lord.” (Again, done out of love for our Savior, for the people He came to save, and trust in His character …)
- Psalm 25:14, in the Living Bible, says, “Friendship with God is reserved for those who reverence Him. With them alone He shares the secrets of His promises.” (In the Voice Translation it talks about those who “have intimacy with Him.”)
- 2 Peter 1:2, in the NCV, says, “Grace and peace be given to you more and more, because you truly know God and Jesus our Lord.”
- Hosea 6:3, in the LB, says, “Oh, that we might know the Lord! Let us press on to know him, and He will respond to us as surely as the coming of dawn or the rain of early spring.” (The CEV says, “He will refresh us like rain renewing the earth in the springtime.”)
Isn’t that amazing? As if it wasn’t great enough to be loved by the Great God of the Universe, to be in daily communion with Him, He promises us so much more! He promises to respond to us, to refresh us, to share the promises of His Word with us! How glorious!
Later in the lesson, Andrew writes: “There are multitudes of people who have cried out to God for the forgiveness of their sins but have never had intimacy with God as a goal.” I imagine some of you just got a little defensive. But it’s true. Think about all the so called “Christians” you’ve known who never lived the faith outside of church, but because they attended services and had prayed a prayer once years before, are convinced that’s “good enough.” Titus 1:16 says of such people, “They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.” But more than that, we’re warned about thinking that we’re ok with God because we “do stuff for Him.” Matthew 7:22-23 tell us that many will come saying, “Didn’t I do many good things in your name?” and Jesus will turn them away. Verse 23 in the ESV says, “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” Duty and religious shows have never impressed God. He wants to know us and be known by us.
The Bible has a lot to say about those who don’t know God. First of all, it gives us warning signs of a life lived without relationship with God, a set of actions that could be considered the antithesis of the fruits of the Spirit. Just in a brief study of the Word, these are some of the verses I’ve discovered on this subject:
- 1 Thessalonians 4:5, in the ERV, says, “Don’t let your sexual desires control you like the people who don’t know God.”
- Luke 12:30, in the CEV says, “Only people who don’t know God are always worrying about such things. Your Father knows what you need.”
- Matthew 6:7, in the CEV, says, “When you pray, don’t talk on and on as people who don’t know God. They think God likes to hear long prayers.” (The Living Bible says, “Don’t recite the same prayer over and over as the heathen do, who think prayers are answered only b repeating them again and again.”)
- Hosea 5:4, in the CEV, very bluntly says, “Your evil deeds are the reason you won’t return to me, your Lord God. And your constant craving for sex keeps you from knowing me.”
- 2 Corinthians 10:4b-5a, in the CEV, suggest pride can keep people from knowing God when it says, “We destroy arguments and every bit of pride that keeps anyone from knowing God.”
- 1 John 4:8, in the God’s Word Translation, says, “The person who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, because God is love.”
- 2 Thessalonians 1:8, in the CEV, says, “Our Lord Jesus will punish anyone who doesn’t know God and won’t obey His message.”
Is your soul stinging with conviction? The first time I studied these out, the Lord revealed to me that in some areas, I had substituted knowing about Him for knowing Him personally (especially in the last couple! Oh my goodness!), and it was a struggle for me. But the verses that stung the most were in Romans 1:21-22, in the Living Bible, which say,
“Yes, they knew about Him all right, but they wouldn’t admit it or worship Him or even thank Him for all his daily care. And after awhile they began to think up silly ideas of what God was like and what He wanted them to do. The result was that their foolish minds became dark and confused. Claiming themselves to be wise without God, they became utter fools instead …”
You see, when we won’t worship God or thank Him, we prove we don’t really know Him at all. And when we don’t know Him, but claim to be a “Christian” anyway, we are a dangerous influence on those around us who don’t know Christ – because we “think up silly ideas of what God is like and what He wants us to do” – and they don’t like what they see. When we are in true fellowship and communion with our Savior, when John 17:3 is really real to us, then we can’t help but be thankful and worshipful of our God! We are so aware of how much He has forgiven us of, how great His mercies to us are, how wonderful His plans are for us and how attentive His care is for us – that we can’t help singing out praise to our God! To really know God is to be transformed, to be freed from worry because we know and trust His character, to have dynamic conversations with God (not simply monotonous repetitive mantras that we chant when we want something) … To really know God, requires that we give up our “religious” practices and instead, develop traditions of communion with our God. It’s like being married, as I’m learning. As a married couple, my husband and I do not do things mechanically, because we have to, because ceremony says so. We interact in a real way. Yes, we have habits and things we like to do for each other on a regular basis, habits of communication and fellowship and laughter and even conflict that allow us to be ever in the process of knowing each other better. Thus, people who truly know God will indeed have some routines – and they’ll be good! They’ll routinely attend church, serve God, obey the Word – but not because they’re gritting their teeth and feel forced into it! They’ll do it because they love God, because they want more time to fellowship with Him! Likewise, Caleb and I don’t have the same conversations every day. We don’t see each other for an hour each week, spend ten minutes daily reading love notes we wrote each other way back when, and call it good! That’s not the kind of relationship we should have with anyone –let alone the God who died to save us from sin! He wants to know us!
So, the point of this first lesson? To challenge our idea of what’s “good enough,” about what will “get us into Heaven,” and invite us into a personal, life-changing relationship with God, to know Him as more than a textbook, more than a “something” but rather as a dynamic and personable someone.
As I leave you with these thoughts, I pray Ephesians 1:17 over you:
“I ask the glorious Father and God of our Lord Jesus Christ to give you his Spirit. The Spirit will make you wise, and let you understand what it means to know God.”
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