Knowing Jesus

You can know of Jesus

You can know Jesus

You can be in Jesus

To understand the differences between these I will illustrate from my own experiences. There was a time when I knew of the woman who would one day become my wife. I was introduced to her and was given the opportunity to get to know her. We had an encounter with one another. There was something there that wasn’t there before but that something intrigued us both.

We spent time getting to know each other by talking, by sharing quiet time together, by being alone with each other as opposed to being in a group. After a time, a proposal was made and we married.

It was then that we became intimately involved in everything about each other. We shared deep personal exchanges of our souls with each other. I became aware of her likes and dislikes, and she mine. We learned about and from each other.

We became so close in our relationship and understanding of each other that we became aware of what the other was thinking about.

I knew of her, I came to know her, and I came to be in her and she in me.

In the book of Acts, in chapter 8:1-3, Saul was persecuting believers of the Way. He was bringing charges against them, both men and women, imprisoning them and even committing
them to death.

He knew of Jesus.

In Chapter 9 Saul went to the high priest and asked for letters giving him authority to travel to a city called Damascus and seek out other believers of the Way and do the same to them. While on his way, Saul had an encounter with Jesus. He was blinded and told to go into the city and wait for further instructions. A man named Ananias prayed for Saul and he received his sight and had a radical conversion to becoming a believer of the Way, a believer in Jesus the Christ.

He now knew Jesus.

Over time Saul developed a relationship with Jesus. A relationship that became so intimate that he found himself in Jesus and Jesus in him. A closeness that Saul, who became known as Paul, admitted that he did not even know his old self any longer.

Ask yourself, do you just know of Jesus, or do you know Jesus so intimately that He is now in you and you are in Him? It is a matter of spending time with the One who loves your soul.