By Pastor Jeff,
Believing is a very important part of the Christian life, after all we are called “Believers”. The word “believe” and the word faith” are very closely related so John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” and Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:” We could almost interchange the words and have the same meaning.
So believing is not something that we need to be debate as being required in our salvation but I want to ask the question, can we believe yet not know? In my own personal relationship with Jesus Christ I will say yes. I was a born again, baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of my sins, filled with the Holy Ghost speaking in other tongues, believer for ten plus years but really felt that I didn’t know Him! Philippians 3:10 says this, “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;”. Though I was an active member in the church, taught Sunday School, faithful giver of time and money, I have to confess that I really didn’t have a personal relationship that others and the writers of the epistles had and it bothered me to the point of the thought of abandoning my walk with God.
Corporate prayer is a good thing, but nothing beats the in your “closet” one on one prayer to change ones life and relationship with Jesus Christ. I began to spend time often locked in the church (you can have closet prayer time in your home as well) late at night by myself, often on my face trying to meet my Savior who gave His life for me. Was it easy, No! at first 5 minutes seemed like an eternity, I had trouble just concentrating on Him and not my own concerns and schedule. I strived to hear His voice for I had fooled myself to thinking that reading the word of God was all I needed to do to hear Him. The bible tells us that His sheep hear His voice, so I felt that must mean I’m not one of His sheep because I had never heard Him in a spiritual sense. But as I began to surrender my thoughts, body, and spirit to His presence I began to spend more and more time, 5 minutes turned into 30 minutes, then and hour, then several hours. You can never get to know somebody if you never spend time with them can you? Would you be able to build a strong relationship with your wife if you never spent time with them? After a rather surprisingly short point of time I did hear His voice, ironically is was the word NO! to something I was asking of Him but nevertheless I “KNOW” it was Jesus Christ speaking. Since then my life has changed dramatically and I walk daily with the assurance of not only believing but knowing who I am in Christ Jesus and knowing Him personally.
I encourage you to build that relationship with Jesus Christ so that there will be no question of who you are in Him and that He hears you and more importantly you hear and KNOW Him!
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