That I May Know HIM

We are to represent Christ, and we cannot do this without fully yielding ourselves into His mighty hand and learning Him as the Holy Spirit would teach us...if we just present ourselves to Him, a living sacrifice, He would fill us and make us holy and acceptable to the Lord and prove what is right and good with God. In presenting ourselves as a sacrifice to the Lord, WE don't LOSE, NO!! We GAIN!!! Paul said to live is Christ and to die is gain!! Gain what? you ask, HIM is the answer! If we die to self, and this world, we gain HIM...

Php 3:7 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
Php 3:8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
Php 3:9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
Php 3:10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

This is what it is all about...everything we have in this life, our traditions, thoughts, ways, plans, our whole self needs to be brought to Him so He can kill it. It's filthy rags in His holy eyes anyway. He is so much more than we are, so different than we are. Everything we would hold on to and consider necessary is just another thing that separates us from Him! But to give all that up to know HIM, to have Him, to possess and be possessed BY HIM, that is the supreme prize! It's the high calling of God on each and every one of us! That when He comes, we are found IN Him, not having our own righteousness (Isa_64:6) which would be filthy rags, but having HIS righteousness which is perfect and complete covering us. That we may understand, be intimately acquainted with Him through faith, and a divine work of the Holy Ghost He sent to dwell with and in us. His resurrection was a mighty miracle, a supernatural work of the Spirit who quickened Him and brought Him victorious out of the tomb.

Php 3:13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
Php 3:14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

God told Abraham not to fear, that HE was his shield, and exceeding great reward. All through the pages of Scripture the Lord God of Hosts holds up the pattern, the illustration, the revelation of His precious, beloved Son for us. He lifts Him up, invites us to come in through His Son, for fellowship and for life. He wants us to allow His Spirit to make us conformable to the image of His Son, to be like Jesus. We can't get there just by reading the Scriptures, or some new age "christian" book on Jesus. It's a work of the Holy Spirit that can only happen when we bring ourselves to the altar, hungry to see and know Him.

It was the Priest who killed the sacrifice and offered it to God. Is not Christ our High Priest? Every sacrifice had to be brought to the door of the Tabernacle to be slain, then put on the altar and offered. Jesus is the Door. We can't crucify ourselves anymore than He could Himself. But if we sincerely hunger and thirst to know Him, that attraction, that lure to the prize of just knowing HIM, will become more vital to us than those things we clutch like little children, not wanting to release. When we let God and come to the Door, and the Holy Spirit takes the sacrifice (us) and shows us a revelation of Jesus Christ-just like He did Isaiah (Isa_6:1-7) it's going to kill us. It's going to show how pathetic and how foolish are all our attempts to "dress holiness, look holiness, talk holiness, be holiness". All these things are done in the name of religion, for the only way to truly be holiness unto the Lord is to be filled with the Spirit of Jesus Christ-that precious Holy Ghost who cares not for things of this world, but the souls of men, and that Jesus Christ be glorified, and on display for this hurting and lost world to see. Then, the motivation for what we do and how we look will be rooted in truth and reverence for this Holy God we love because He has brought us down to despair and death by showing us how hopelessly inadequate and different we are from Him, and yet He loves us. We owe Him everything!

We are fools if we hold back anything from His Lordship! We give up the pathetic things of this temporary life that are corruptible and He gives us that which is glorious and incorruptible-the knowledge of and intimate friendship with Himself! What could be more precious? NOTHING!!!
Aren't you getting hungry to know Him? Aren't you dissatisfied with the same old routine in church and not seeing any results? Aren't you tired of empty seats in the House of God, while sin and the devil wreak havoc in the lives of those you know and love? The secret power is knowing HIM!! The devil could not run over the disciples, over Paul, because like he said "Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?" The seven sons of Sceva in Acts 19 were just being religious but they didn't know HIM. They hadn't surrendered to Him. Those who fully surrender to HIM-when the devil comes, like Jesus said, he finds nothing in them he can exploit. In short, he runs smack into a wall.

The definition of insanity is for the church to continue in her routine and expect different results. You watch the young people flee out the doors as soon as they're old enough to do so, you see the services all turn out pretty much the same. People let any excuse keep them out of the House of God, because they feel they won't miss anything or it's not important for them to be there. Occaisionally somebody will get a momentary relief and begin to cry and get emotional and lift their hands to heaven, but the next day that pressure is back. I'm sick of it all.

Knowing Jesus Christ is the secret power and the secret place! The Church can't show a needy world Christ if she doesn't know Him herself! That is what the world needs to see is CHRIST on display in His house! That knowledge in the hearts and minds of His Bride will put a glow on her face, a spring in her step, a smile in her eyes, and confidence and authority in her words. But, there is a cost. You must give up everything you are and count it as dung, so you may know HIM and become as He is in this world. Being like Jesus will cost you dearly. Do you love Him more than these things you hold on to? Is He not more precious than anything else? YES....it takes faith to bring yourself to the Door and trust that when He sees the sincerity of your heart, He will give you that revelation of Himself that will kill the sacrifice. It will kill all hope of ever finding anything good enough in yourself to bring to Him. It will kill all hope of ever making it to heaven in your own strength or by religious works. It will kill all desire to be anything but His.

Psa 27:5 For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.
Psa 31:20 Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.
This is in Christ! He's the Rock! He's the strong tower the righteous run into and are safe!
Psa 91:1 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

That place, beloved is in Jesus Christ-and in Him alone. He's calling us, if you hear Him, please come, without delay...please come and see! Come and die, come and know, come and find true life...and love and liberty and everything you will ever need! It's all found in HIM.. Col 2:10 says we are complete in HIM. He is everything we aren't, He has everything we lack, He is everything we need.

Rev 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.