Message 14 - By Leroy Surface

To Know THE LORD!

Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth. O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away. Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth. For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

Hosea 6:1-6

This text is a prophecy of the three days of Jesus’ death and resurrection at Calvary. On the first day He was “torn” and “smitten,” and on the “third day” God raised Him from the dead. Paul referred to this prophecy in I Corinthians 15:3-4 when he reminded the people of the gospel he had preached to them, “how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.” Hosea 6:2 is the only place in the Old Testament that speaks of “third day resurrection.”

Hosea’s prophecy actually goes beyond the fact of Jesus’ sufferings for us, and foretells the believers identity “with” Christ in His sufferings and resurrection. Hosea is speaking to the people of Israel who had turned away from God and suffered horrible things due to their backsliding. His call is to “Return to the LORD: for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up.”  Notice it is in the “third day” that “He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight.”  The gospel truth of the believer’s identity with Christ in His sufferings and resurrection are well documented by the Apostle Paul: “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him… (Romans 6:6), and, “But God, who is rich in mercy… hath quickened us together with Christ…” (Ephesians 2:4-5).  Our old man died “with Christ,” and a new man was quickened (resurrected) with Him. Our redemption is complete, finished at the cross. All who believe are “born again,” as Peter said, “by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (I Peter 1:3). It is not a “process” we go through, nor is it by any works of righteousness which we have done. In fact, it is through the “righteousness of God” which was manifest on the cross at Calvary that we who believe are “born of God.”

The prophet Hosea’s message did not end at Christ’s resurrection, however. He continued, “Then shall we know, IF we follow on to know the LORD….”  Notice that biggest little word in the English language, “IF.” There are things a child of God will never “know” unless they “follow on to know the Lord.”  Among those things is that which is mentioned in this text; they will never “know” Him as the “rain.”  Sadly, most Christians today have never known Him as the rain. He promised to come to us “as the latter and former rain unto the earth.”  We know what the rain does in the earth. There is the rain that causes the seed to spring up and grow. There is also the rain that brings the grain to its fullness, and gives a wonderful harvest. This is what the Lord is to His people when He comes to them “as the rain.”  They grow and become fruitful, and a wonderful harvest of souls is brought into the kingdom. Without the “rain,” a person will never really know the blessings of God, only the “goodness” of religion. God says their “goodness” is “as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.”  I think about the heavy morning dew that seems to refresh the plants for a few hours. By ten o’clock the dew is gone, however, and the plants begin to wither again under the blistering afternoon sun. They will soon perish if the rain does not come, because the dew is not sufficient. So it is with those who “receive the Lord,” but never “follow on to know Him.”  They will perish without the rain; because they will never endure the heat of the day. It was God who told the people in verse four, “Your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away. Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth.”

“For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings…”  God wants you to “know Him.”  Don’t mistake this for “knowing about Him:” a person could make a lifetime study of the Lord; memorize all the words of Jesus, know all the doctrines of the Bible, and quote all the epistles of the apostles, and still not “know the Lord.”  God wants you to know Him in the truest and most intimate sense of the word.

Knowledge

There are several different Greek words in the scriptures that were translated as the English word “know.” The most common of these is the Greek word “eido,” which simply means “to see,” and speaks of “mechanical, passive, and casual vision.”  It is used seven hundred and nineteen times in the New Testament. This is the word the Lord uses in the second and third chapters of Revelation where He speaks to each to the seven churches of Asia, saying, “I know thy works… .”  Many years ago I was taught that God “examines” our works to see what we are, but this is not the correct definition in this text. God does not need a “microscope” to see His people. He does not need to “study” them to know them. He can “tell at a glance” what our spiritual condition is. It only took a “casual glance” for Jesus to know that the people at Ephesus had lost their first love. He could just as easily see that the church of Laodicea was lukewarm, and so could the world around them. The lost souls around us can easily see whether our love and fervor are real.

In John 8:54-55 Jesus was disputing with the Jews, about whether or not they knew God, when He says, “Ye say, that He is your God: yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying.”  In this text Jesus uses another Greek word for “known” when He said, “Ye have not known Him.”  The Greek word was “ginosko,” which speaks of “absolute knowledge.” It was used two hundred and fifty times in the New Testament. The Jews claimed that the Father of Jesus was their God, but they had no true or absolute knowledge of Him. They knew all about Him through Moses and the scriptures, but they did not know Him. When Jesus said, “But I know Him,” He used the same word we spoke of in the previous paragraph, meaning “mechanical, passive, and casual vision.”  Jesus was saying, “I see Him… .”  He did not “try” to see Him, He did not “see through a glass darkly,” as Paul said in I Corinthians 13:12. Instead, Jesus saw Him “face to face.”  Jesus was always beholding the face of His Father, and He would have been a liar if He had said that He didn’t.

Another Greek word that was translated “knowledge” is the word “epignosis,” which means “recognition, i.e. full discernment, acknowledgement.”  The “root” of this word is “epiginosko,” which means “to know upon some mark, i.e. recognize; by implication, to become fully acquainted with.” It is all too easy to think that the “knowledge of the Lord” is simply to know “about Him.”  When Jesus told the Jews in John 8:32, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free,” He was speaking of an “absolute knowledge” of the truth, which can only be received through the love and the fellowship of the truth. There is no “set of facts” about Jesus that can be given to a person, that the intellectually believing of those facts would make the believer thereof free. There are no ordinances one can keep, no commandments one can obey, and no principles one can apply that can or will bring the “rest” and the “glorious liberty” that is promised to those who come to Jesus. We must “know Him” in the sense of the Greek word “genosko,” which speaks of that “absolute knowledge” that comes only through time spent in His presence. This is what Hosea meant when he said, “If we follow on to know Him.”

Jesus had twelve disciples who later became His apostles. In Luke 10:1, He called another group of seventy disciples, and sent them out two by two to preach the kingdom of God. In every case when Jesus called a disciple, He simply said, “follow me.” Those who left everything to follow Jesus became His “disciples indeed” (John 8:31).  Those who did not, Jesus said, were “not fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).  In the sixth chapter of John, Jesus told the Jews that He is the “bread from heaven;” that He would give His body and His blood; and that they must eat of Him if they would have life. In John 6:66-67 the scripture records that, “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?.”  Of the dozens of disciples who set out to follow Jesus, the greatest majority turned away that day and “walked no more with Him.”  It was only the twelve who continued in His word, and only eleven of those “followed on to know Him.”

How Can We Know Him?

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:1

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life….

I John 1:1

The translators did a grave injustice to the message when they translated I John 1:1. The verse is speaking of the “Word of life,” and refers to John 1:1 where John said, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  The translators treated the Greek word, “WORD,” which was “with God,” and “was God” as a “thing” instead of as a “person,” when they translated I John 1:1 “That which was from the beginning… .” John was speaking of Jesus Christ, the “Word made flesh” (John 1:14).  The Greek words used in the text translate perfectly as, “He who was from the beginning, whom we have heard, whom we have seen with our eyes, whom we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life…” (John 1:1). I recall the excitement expressed by Philip when he rushed to tell Nathanael, John 1:45, “We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”  Oh how little they knew of Him, believing Him to be the “son of Joseph;” but they were also persuaded that He was the Messiah of promise, and they were ready to lay their lives down to follow Him. During the next three and a half years, as they continued to follow Him, the disciples would come to know Him (at least after the flesh). John said “we heard Him, we saw Him, we looked upon Him, and our hands have handled Him.”  They knew Him as a friend, a brother, and a teacher; and believed Him to be the Messiah, the Son of God; but it was not until after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus that they really came to “know Him.”  The realization that they had seen, heard, and handled the eternal Word of life, who was “with God” and who “was God,” was overwhelming to them. Their hands had handled the creator of heaven and earth, and they had not known Him. Peter had professed as a matter of faith that Jesus was the Son of God (Matthew 16:16), but it was the resurrection that declared to the entire world that Jesus Christ is the Son of God with power (Romans 1:4). All doubts were removed. It was fully sixty-five years after John first met Jesus that he penned his first epistle, and the “excitement” was still there. This time, however, it is not about the carpenter from Nazareth, because now John had really came to know Him. Now it’s, “He who was from the beginning… , the Word of life who created all things… , which we have heard… , which we have seen… , which we have handled... , who was with God in the beginning… , who was God… ,” and, ”...we KNOW Him... .”

To Know Him

Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may KNOW thee….

Exodus 33:13

That I may KNOW him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

Philippians 3:10-1

Two of the greatest men of all time, Moses from the Old Testament, and Paul from the New Testament, had one common goal, to “know God.”  Moses met God at the “burning bush” in the wilderness of Sinai. God introduced Himself to Moses as “The God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”  He sent Moses into Egypt to bring the children of Israel out. The greatest signs and wonders ever recorded were done at the hand of Moses as God worked through him to deliver His people, yet less than six months after they leave Egypt Moses is found praying in the wilderness, “Shew me now thy way, that I may know thee.”  One would think the burning bush experience, and the great miracles that God worked through Moses would have satisfied him, but Moses yearned to really know this God that both his father and Abraham before him knew. There are many, too numerous to number, who have “tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come… (Hebrews 6:4-5),” who have “fallen away,” and do not “follow on to know Him” (Hosea 6:3).  The writer of Hebrews says they “put Him to an open shame.”  Moses was not so!  He told God, “I want to know you… I want to see you… to see your glory.” Moses saw the glory of God, the glory that was far beyond and greater than the miracles, and plagues and judgments of God in Egypt. It was far greater than seeing the Red Sea open, for he saw God. The children of Israel knew it was so because of the glory of his countenance when Moses came down from the Mount of God.

Saul of Tarsus met Jesus on the road to Damascus. Saul was a Jesus hater. He persecuted the church, and made “havoc” of it in Jerusalem. He received letters of authority to take Christians from Damascus and bring them to Jerusalem in chains to be tried for heresy because of their faith in Jesus. On his journey to Damascus the scripture says that a great light, brighter than the noonday sun, shone on him and he fell to the ground, blinded in his eyes. He heard a voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why persecuteth thou me?”  Saul answered, “Who art thou, Lord?”  He heard the answer, “I am Jesus whom thou persecuteth. It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.”  Saul of Tarsus, the Jesus hater, immediately answered, “What would you have me do, Lord.”  Talk about an instant conversion, Saul of Tarsus received it. There was no lifetime process of being sanctified. He was converted on the spot, and three days later he was healed of blindness and filled with the Holy Ghost. Immediately he began to convince the Jews in the synagogues of Damascus that Jesus is the Messiah. Years later, Saul, now known as Paul, relates to this time of his conversion in the third chapter of Philippians. On one hand it was a time of great loss. In Philippians 3:8 he said, “…for whom I have suffered the loss of all things…”  Is that the way you feel about serving Christ?  Does it seem that you had to “give up everything” to be a Christian? This was not Paul’s attitude, as we will see in his complete statement. He began by listing everything he had trusted in as a Jew:

Philippians 3:5-6

1.    “Circumcised the eighth day,”

2.    “…of the stock of Israel,”

3.    “…of the tribe of Benjamin,”

4.    “…an Hebrew of the Hebrews;”

5.    “…as touching (concerning) the law, a Pharisee;”

6.    “Concerning zeal, persecuting the church;”

7.    “…touching (concerning) the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.”

Saul of Tarsus had always considered these things to be a great advantage to him. Certainly he did have the advantage of having been born to Jewish parents in a home where he would learn the scriptures from his youth up. That same advantage is given to those born in Christian homes, but if they grow up to “trust” in their baptism, church membership, discipleship, principles, traditions, and good lifestyle, their “advantage” becomes detrimental to them. When Saul met Jesus, everything changed. His world was turned upside down, or should we say, right side up?  Paul begins by telling us of his “change of attitude.” In Philippians 3:7 he said, “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.”  The word “loss” here means “detriment.”  He now understood that the things that had been so precious to him throughout his lifetime had actually hindered him. They were “detrimental” to him. What a shock to learn that the “precious things” we cling to and defend so vehemently may be the very thing that keeps us from knowing Christ. Paul continued in the next verse, “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ…”  It is at this point that Paul starts another “list.”  His old list of things he trusted in was nothing but garbage (dung), and he said so. There was no “longing” in his heart to go back to the things that had hindered him for so long. He had no feeling that “I have given up so much for Jesus!” Instead, he said, “I have lost it all, and consider it to be nothing but garbage that I might win Christ.”  Now consider Paul’s list of reasons why he counted everything other than Christ to be but dung.

Philippians 3:8-11

1.    “…that I may win Christ,”

2.    “…and be found in Him,”

3.    “…That I may know him,”

4.    “…and the power of his resurrection,”

5.    “…and the fellowship of his sufferings,”

6.    “…being made conformable unto his death;”

7.    “…if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.”

From the moment Saul of Tarsus heard Jesus speaking to him on that road to Damascus, he was obsessed with “knowing” Jesus Christ in every aspect of knowing Him. He sought an “absolute knowledge” of the Lord, and not just the superficial. As Moses before him had considered the “reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt” (Hebrews 11:26), so it was that Saul saw such treasure in Christ that he would lose everything else to win (gain) Christ. He spent the remainder of his life on this earth preaching “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Ephesians 3:8).

The Righteousness of God

Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:

II Peter 1:1

The church of Jesus Christ on this earth is a body formed of those who have obtained that same precious faith with the apostles of Jesus Christ. Christianity is not a “do it yourself” religion. This wonderful faith and salvation is “obtained;” it is not something you develop, or grow into. Peter said it is obtained “through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”  We will examine the “righteousness of God.”

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed….

Romans 1:16-17

The “gospel” is “good news,” first and foremost because it reveals the “righteousness of God” to fallen humanity. Many people believe it is the “Law of Moses” that reveals the righteousness of God in commandments and ordinances. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Romans 3:19 gives the purpose of the Law of Moses, saying, “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.”  The Law of Moses was given because of Israel’s transgression against God in refusing to hear and obey His voice. They called for Moses to speak to them and they would obey his voice, hence, the Law of Moses, which was not given for life or righteousness (Galatians 3:21), but to shut mouths and establish guilt. The only “righteousness” the Law of Moses could administer was “death” to the sinner, and it found every man to be a sinner. Paul concludes with the law in Romans 2:20, saying, “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight.”

But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

Romans 3:21-22

The “righteousness of God” is manifested, not in the law, but without the Law of Moses. It is a righteousness that is received “by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.” Paul sets the stage for the “revelation” of the righteousness of God, saying, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”   Through the gospel, God’s righteousness is given to sinners.  If they believe the gospel, they are “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24).  It is in the next two verses that the “righteousness of God” is revealed.

Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

Romans 3:25-26

The word “whom” speaks of “Christ Jesus,” whom God “set forth” on the cross to be a “propitiation,” that is, an “atoning victim” for the sin of the world. It is through “faith in His blood” that the sins of the world are “remitted.”  The text tells us this was done to “declare His (God’s) righteousness for the remission of sins that are past.”  That the eternal Word, which was in the beginning with God and was God, who created all things that are made, would be made flesh for the sole purpose of shedding His blood and dying for the sin of a lost world, resounds from the lowest valleys and to the highest mountains that GOD IS RIGHTEOUS. Jesus Christ, the Son of God taking upon Himself both the curse of sin and the curse of the law through the shame of the cross declares the righteousness of God. Christ-crucified is the righteousness of God to all who believe.

Consider these two verses in the fifth chapter of Romans that give the basis for the righteousness of God at Calvary.

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

Romans 5:12

This text speaks of Adam through whom sin entered into the world. Some refuse the idea of “original sin” because the verses ends with “…death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”  These believe that every man is a free moral agent that chooses to either sin or do righteousness. Fallen man is not a “free moral agent.”  He is a slave to sin, and he is born into this world that way. It is true that all have sinned, but men sin because they are sinners, and they are sinners because that one man, Adam, disobeyed God six thousand years ago, and sin became the nature of all who would ever be born of Adam. No man or woman since Adam made the choice to sin or to disobey God because Adam made the choice for us all. We had no choice in the matter of sin, and justice saw that this was not just. If we were all sinners because the first man disobeyed God, justice required that there would be another man who would obey God to make men righteous. The second man could not be a fallen man, and herein was the dilemma; for “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).  Now we will see another verse of scripture.

For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

Romans 5:19

Thank God, there was a second man who would obey God and make men righteous. Paul tells us who that second man is, in I Corinthians 15:47: “The first man is of the earth, earthy (Adam): the second man is the Lord from heaven” (Jesus Christ). Paul tells the Philippians about the “obedience” of Christ that has redeemed us: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross”  (Philippians 2:5-8). It was the obedience of the sinless Son of God that has justified as many as will believe upon Him, and they are “made righteous” through His obedience to the “death of the cross.”  It is the “second man” who suffered and died to save us from sin, that declares the Righteousness of God to a lost world.

Grace and Peace Multiplied

Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,

II Peter 1:2

Romans 5:1-2, Paul says, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand... .” The immediate result of justification by faith is “peace with God” and “grace to stand.”  Peter says that grace and peace will be “multiplied” through the “knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.”  This is the reason for the exhortation to “follow on to know the Lord.”  Those who do not find that grace and peace soon begin to decline until serving the Lord becomes a labor to them. Many, who have been truly saved, look back wistfully at the early days of salvation, remembering their first love, and the joy and peace that flooded their entire being. They were free! Their hearts were clean and pure. They knew the miracle of salvation had come to them. They abounded in every fruit of the Spirit: but only months later they find themselves back in a struggle with sinful desires. They identify with the man in Romans seven, and their teachers tell them their struggle is completely normal. Love, joy, and peace seem to be nonexistent in their walk, and they find it difficult to worship God or to rejoice in Jesus. Their experience has become nothing more than a form, and service for them is just going through the motions. This, however, is certainly not the will of God for them. God has promised that His grace and peace will increase, only, as we “follow on to know Him.”

Renewed Daily

Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

II Corinthians 4:16

Many have been taught they must crucify themselves everyday. This is an error, which leads many sincere Christians into the never-ending struggle of self-crucifixion. There is no foundation for this teaching in the Bible. Those who believe in self-crucifixion will immediately tell you that Paul said he had to die to sin every day, but they cannot tell you where to find it in the scriptures. In fact, Paul did say, “I die daily” in I Corinthians 15:31. He was not speaking of dying to sin however, but was expressing his willingness at any time to die the martyr’s death if need be, to preach the gospel to the lost. The Child of God, just as Paul said in Galatians 2:20, is “crucified with Christ.”  He is not a sinner, and need not struggle with sin. It is necessary, however, that we be “renewed” everyday. Dead to sin is a constant state with a child of God. Sin cannot revive unless that person is “moved away” from Christ and the hope of the gospel. Quickening and renewal, however, are a day by day affair for a Christian.

Do you remember the manna from heaven that fed the children of Israel in the wilderness?  They had to gather the manna every day. Two-day-old manna would breed worms and stink, so each day the people gathered only enough manna for that day. Early each morning they went out of the camp to gather manna for that day. The manna was a vital necessity, for without it they would soon perish in the wilderness, but with the manna they were renewed day by day. Jesus made it clear in the sixth chapter of John that He is the manna from heaven. He is our spiritual meat, and he is our spiritual drink (I Corinthians 10:3-4), and if we do not eat and drink of Him we cannot survive.

Make an Appointment

For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.

Hebrews 3:14-15

Would you hear His voice today?  Make an appointment to meet with Him. Our lives have become too fast and our schedules too filled to have time for the Lord. He has been crowded out of our lives and we wonder why we no longer feel His presence, or hear His voice. Our spiritual senses have become dull through lack of use, and we no longer discern the Lord. We expect God to get with the fast pace of this twenty-first century, but He still “walks,” and He expects His people to walk with Him. I am urging you who need renewal to make an appointment with the Lord. Make your appointment early in the morning while the manna is still fresh. Make it before the phone starts ringing, and before the children are up for the day. Come aside to a “secret place” at a secret time. Whether it be in the church altar, in your “closet,” your bedroom, or in your barn, get alone, away from people to a place where you can open and empty your soul to God. Come not with requests for things of this life, but with submission and surrender to Him. Come with one desire, and that to “hear His voice.” When He said, “Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts,” it is a promise that if we will humble ourselves, He will speak to us today. Make your appointment early enough that you can spend time in His presence. Spend about half that time reading His word, and the rest just talking with Him. Elijah sought for the Lord in the wind, and He was not there. He sought Him in the fire, and He was not there, and in the earthquake, and He was not there. Finally, there was a still small voice, and there was God. Seek him daily until you hear that still small voice of God. Feel after Him (Acts 17:27) until His presence comes to you. Paul prayed for the Christians at Ephesus, that the “eyes of their understanding would be enlightened.”  Christians are born blind until God opens their eyes. Seek Him until you see Him.

Five Spiritual Senses

The natural man has what is called the five “senses” built into his body through which he can receive knowledge. These are “touch, taste, smell, seeing and hearing.”  There is absolutely no way a person can receive natural knowledge except through one of these senses. The loss of any one of these prevents them from receiving a full knowledge of any given subject. For example, how could anyone truly know a “rose” if they did not have the sense of “smell?”  They could “see” it and say, “It is a rose.”  They could also “touch” it and even “taste” it, but who can truly know a rose that has not “smelled” its beautiful aroma?  Even so, all “senses” must be awakened to the Lord before any person can say, “I know Him.”

David said in Psalms 34:8, “O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.”  How do we “taste” Him?  Trust Him in all things. Peter speaks to babes in Christ in I Peter 2:2-3 saying, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”  How do you taste Him?  Drink of the sincere milk of the word. In II Corinthians 2:15, Paul says, “For we are unto God a sweet savour (fragrance) of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish.” Notice, he speaks of the “sweet fragrance of Christ.”

In the days of Jesus flesh, his disciples saw Him with their eyes, heard Him with their ears, and handled Him with their hands. The unbelieving Jews did the same also, but it meant nothing to them. It is not through our natural senses that we know Him. It is not through our human ability to touch, taste, smell, see and hear, that we will ever know Him as He is. Time in His presence will awaken all spiritual senses to know Him. You will become sensitive to His Spirit; you will hear His smallest whisper, and your eyes will be enlightened to see the glory that is in His face. You will know Him, and oh how grace will abound. Love, joy, peace, and all the fruit of the Spirit will multiply in you. You will worship God in spirit and in truth, and your rejoicing in Jesus will know no bounds. It’s greatest manifestations will be as you are alone in His presence, feeling His presence, hearing His voice, beholding His face, tasting the good word of God and the powers of the world to come, and smelling that sweet fragrance that is Christ. It will be such as you cannot contain, and it will spill over into public worship. The glory of the Lord will be with you, and the Lord Himself will be your shield and your exceeding great reward (Genesis 15:1).

Message 14 - By Leroy Surface - “To Know THE LORD”

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