Knowing God is Different Than Just Knowing Who God is

Even the Devil Knows Who God is

This past Sunday was confirmation Sunday at church. This is a rite that confirms a person’s baptism and admits that person to full participation in the church. It is the open and outward action of showing one’s belief and acceptance of God.

This journey starts with knowing who God is but doesn’t end there.

It is important for young Christians to be aware and understand what it means to be a Christian. It is equally important for spiritually mature Christians to walk alongside these new Christians and help them with their journey.

Satan is subtle. Just look at what happened in the Garden of Eden.

This is why it’s important to get to know Jesus, to spend time with Him, and to know Him intimately.

Even some of the disciples who were with Jesus struggled with really knowing Him. In Luke 24:13-27, two of the disciples were walking to Emmaus talking about Jesus’ crucifixion when Jesus joined them:

He asked them what they were talking about. Cleopas asked Jesus, “Are you the only person from Jerusalem who didn’t know what was happening there these last few days?”

“What do you mean?” Jesus asked.

They answered:

Those things that happened to Jesus from Nazareth. By what he did and said he showed that he was a powerful prophet, who pleased God and all the people. Then the chief priests and our leaders had him arrested and sentenced to die on a cross. We had hoped that he would be the one to set Israel free! But it has already been three days since all this happened.

Some women in our group surprised us. They had gone to the tomb early in the morning, but did not find the body of Jesus. They came back, saying they had seen a vision of angels who told them that he is alive. Some men from our group went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said. But they didn’t see Jesus either.

 Then Jesus asked the two disciples, “Why can’t you understand? How can you be so slow to believe all that the prophets said? Didn’t you know that the Messiah would have to suffer before he was given his glory?” Jesus then explained everything written about himself in the Scriptures, beginning with the Law of Moses and the Books of the Prophets.

Here are two people that knew Jesus. They hung out with Him. They ate with Him. They were as close to Him as anyone ever was…yet up that point, they missed who He was.

Having our eyes open and being aware is where the journey starts.

The disciples were aware of Jesus and who He was. Their problem was their preconceived ideas. They expected Him to be some great and powerful worldly king.

We need to put our preconceived ideas away and understand who Jesus is.

Often, He does not fit into our picture of who we want Him to be.

The next step on the journey is the most important.

This is where we decide to accept Jesus as our eternal savior…or not.

This requires intentional action on our part. No one can do this for us.

The rest of the journey consists of learning.