The Difference Between Knowing God, and KNOWING God!

Churches filled.  People plowing into a building, in hopes to find their salvation. Dresses.  Heals. Ties picked to match shirts, covering heart’s, needing true deliverance.

And I have never been one for traditionalism. Rituals. Routines. Duty bound religion.

Ever since childhood.  When in the darkness, of a world seeking to drown me. I encountered, Jesus.

And it was seeing His face.  Hearing His voice. His leading me to sit down with the Lion and the Lamb in a field I will never forget…

And it is only after an encounter with the Resurrected One, all in this world somehow looks lifeless, meaningless.

And I read this morning.  Jesus, a freshly risen one.  Comes to the disciples locked in a room.  His followers trembling with fear. (John 20:19)

Yet, the risen Savior speaks through these isolated ones.  “Peace be with you.”

And it was then, the disciples rejoiced at His re-entry.  Re-entry in a world that they were intentionally hiding from.

After all, the true God.  Cannot be killed and not resurrected.  We cannot be hidden beyond the eyes of our constantly pursuing Savior.

Wherever we are, He will find us.  Whether hidden behind fancy shirts, or high heels, or in a room locked up and alone, hoping the world cannot touch us.

And it is there, in our suffering, our deepest needing, that the pierced hands of the Living One is most often given real access to our hearts.

But, the part that gripped me most in this reading?  John 20:22 Then, Jesus breathed on them, and said “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

And I think about how many of us, like the disciples, have walked with Christ, took on his cause, for three and a half years….maybe more.  Maybe decades.

Yet, it isn’t until His eyes fix on us, in our time of wanting, that we know the true power of His living resurrection.

And as I study, I read in many commentaries, that people believe this was truly the hour of the disciples salvation.  They received life at this impartation of the breathe of God.

Still again, how could they have walked with God and not had the fullness of His Spirit with them.

And I wonder if the disciples are much like us?

We can know God, walk with God, serve God….but it isn’t until we truly feel the breathe of The Resurrected One running through us, that we ever become alive.  That we ever know the power of His Spirit inside us.  One who death itself will never hold down.

And I think of Adam.  The first breath.  And Elijah who God passed.

And is it enough, to dress up and play “Good Christian”?  Stand up, sit down, do all the rituals that cause us to feel like “Good people”?  

Isn’t it only the breathe of a resurrected Savior that promises us eternal life?

And I rejoice as I think of Acts and how His Spirit was given after the time of Jesus ascension.  How we, through Spirit and fire, upon waiting, get equipped for real life and ministry.

And how, I don’t want to be a carnal Christian, dressing up my devotion and pretending I am holy.  I don’t want to go to church because other’s, when I was little, told me to….and that’s just “what we do”.

I want to know my God, fully.  Not just walk and talk with Him, but to have such a deficit of deprivation in me, that I cling to Him, fully.  That I willingly sit at His feet and beg Him literally,

“Lord, breathe on me.”

For, I too need peace and the fullness of the Holy Spirit given after His resurrection.  I know, He died for me.  Yet, it is only because of His resurrection, I can be resurrected too.

And I close my eyes. Again. Sitting like a little girl, in the grass with my Savior.  Calling me to reach out and touch the lion and the lamb.  There.  Sitting peacefully with each other.

And I realize, I need not fear Him.  It is His breathe, The breath that created me.  And it is in this refuge of His life that leads me to step out of walls closing in on me.  Religious performances creating counterfeit Christianity….

Finding my God and my Savior.  The only One who will ever deliver me.

The One who comes willingly and wants to breathe on us.

(Linking with Barbie, Hear it Sunday, Use it Monday, Ann)