June 19 I Friday
Nehemiah 12-13
Acts 4:23-37

“This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put My laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people.” —Hebrews 8:10

A new righteousness imputed to us by the indwelling Spirit of Christ goes hand in hand with a new relationship. They do not stand on their own, and this new relationship is as Jesus said, “that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent” (John 17:3).
It is knowing God and Jesus Christ that is the root of every spiritual benefit and blessing. Peter tells us, “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him…” (2 Peter 1:3). This is not by intellectual knowledge of Christ but by personal experience of Him. The richness of our knowledge of Christ will be expressed in the richness of the “everything we need” being experienced in our lives.
Many key people in the Bible were brought into an experience of God, which led to a knowledge of God, but our experiences of God are not a “presto” kind of event. Boom! And we want to move onto the next step. As it was with Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David and many others, their knowledge of God came as they allowed God to take them on a journey that was a blend of their own self-interests and desire to do the will of God. Little by little, God would break their self-interests, but it was a process, which resulted in God using them in extraordinary and significant ways.
We can tell God right now that we want to know Him intimately by personal experience of Him. God will honour that request and lead us on a journey with many wonderful encouragements along the way, but also obstacles and testing which we must be prepared for. If we really mean business with God, it is essential we spend time in our Bibles, because it is the only revelation God gave us of Himself and His Son. Ask the Holy Spirit to give understanding and God will speak in a way that begins to form a strong, penetrating and lasting relationship.
We cannot come to know God outside of His Word, nor can we approach God with an inflated ego. God says, “…they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest” (Hebrews 8:11). This is a progression in which the least is the starting point where we come to Christ, in all our sin and failure, and He begins to build us up. The measure to which the commandments become promises to us will be in direct proportion to our experience of God. Our experience of God will be in direct proportion to our humility before God, which is lived out in a committed relationship with Him.
Prayer: Dear Lord, I want to know You more and I ask You to take me on a journey as there cannot be anything better than to personally experience You. Thank You, Lord.