When I was a young man, I read the Bible a lot and memorized a lot of Scripture. I thought that I knew God because I knew what the Bible said. I assure you, being able to quote by memory what the Bible says does not mean that I know God! Herein lies a great deception in the body of Christ. True Christianity is all about the heart! God is not pleased with you knowing about him – he is only pleased with the faith that causes you to be intimate with him. God wants the passions and longings of your heart to be turned towards him! 

Apostle Paul was one who is desperate to know (to be intimate with) God, and he made this great declaration, “What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Philippians 3:8-11 

The particular Greek word used in this Scripture for “know” is the Greek word “ginosko” and was the idiom used by the Jewish culture for sexual intercourse. Apostle Paul wasn’t trying to learn facts about God as much as he was trying to be intimate with God! Nothing wrong with facts – he just wanted true fellowship with God far more! When Jesus often withdrew to lonely places to pray, it was because he wanted to be intimate with his Father! 

One of the most celebrated and declared attributes of God is that he is love! If there is one thing I have learned in my search to know God, it is that he is love! The word of God declares, “Knowledge puffs up but love builds up.” 1Cor 8:1 Don’t allow the devil to lure you into a heartless and lifeless Christianity that is just about head knowledge and works because the only Christianity that pleases God is the Christianity that is… 

ALL ABOUT THE HEART

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