Ultimate Privilige

What is the ultimate privilige of the Christian life? Is it to see successful ministry, or meaningful service, have a good family, see many come to know the Lord, see miracles, know the Bible very well, be free of all our bondages, or fill in the blank. I believe the ultimate privilige of the Christian life is said in Hebrews 8:11 "...For all will know Me, from the least to the greatest of them." Also in Ephesians 2:13 "But now in Christ Jesus you who were formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ." This is not some future thing that will happen, I believe Satan has been deceiving through tradition, our wounds from imperfect parents, and just lack of knowledge. We have been brought near not through our own efforts, our acts of service, or our perfection but by the blood of Christ. The kind of "knowing" that is referred to in Hebrews is not some intellectual information, this is knowing by experiencing a relationship (even saying like Adam "knew" Eve and she bore a child). God has invited us into the ultimate privilige to actually know the Creator of the Universe, the King of Kings, and the Alpha and Omega. Unfortunately, we have been deceived to just expect to know about God rather than actual encounter with the Divine. I know of no one who encountered Jesus who was not changed, even those who walked away from Him were impacted or those who insulted Him. I am accepting the invitation that My God has put before me, I will know Him intimately not from a distance. In knowing Him we are transformed, families are changed, circumstances are changed, the physical realm is changed, and the atmosphere of Heaven is brought into earth. We come just as we are, don't think you need to clean up because the blood of Christ is sufficient to clean you up. If only we understood what Jesus has done to make intimacy with the Father available to us. I find in these days that I don't want to pray, trying to get God to do something. I just want to know Him, it is the cry of my heart to know Him deeply and to be known by Him. All of the life, freedom, power, and love flows out of this place of intimacy. I find that I am so weak when I am not in that place of intimacy because human strength is so insufficient when God has called us into the impossible. Seeing God's glory over the earth is a huge dream, the Kingdom of God can only be release in power when we enter into this deep intimacy. I am going deep with Him because I know the life He wants to pour through me is His. I now understand why praise is so powerful because in praise we declare to all of the powers of Hell that we are the Beloved of God and have total access to His throne room through Jesus Christ. It now makes sense why hearing God's voice is often thought of as unusal or impossible, if we can't hear from the One who loves us we will only hear the voice of the Enemy, others disappointment, and the world's constant barrage of expectations. What a joy to hear from the One who knows us best and loves us, then we can really know Him. The Lord recently touched my heart through the 1 John 3 which says "Beloved, now we are children of God....". As I looked up this word I was overwhelmed to see it meant "worthy of love". There are times I don't feel or believe I am worthy of love and yet God chose me and saved me through Jesus Christ so I could know Him and be loved. Everything else that is not consistent with this truth is a lie against my heart. Because of being shown an imperfect love through our parents, it leaves openings for us to internalize lies about who we are. I accept that I am the "Beloved" of God and I announce it to the world. This is the quality of love God has bestowed on us (1 John 3:1) that could take us from "children of wrath" to His Beloved. It is one thing to accept this truth, it is another to walk in and live in the reality of His love for us daily. The Gospel allows us to know Him, be loved by Him, love ourselves, and then love others. This seems to be the order of it but I think we often just go to the last one of trying to love others without any real power and love from God. Be the Beloved today.

In His Love,
Bret