John17:3(Amp) says, "And this is Eternal Life; (it means) to know (to perceive, recognize, become acquainted with and understand) You, the Only True and Real God, and (likewise) to know Him, Jesus [as the] Christ (the Anointed One, the Messiah), Whom You have sent."
It's been difficult for most of us to "know" God, because we've tried to know Him by our natural mind and it's way of thinking. Jesus says in John4:24(Amp), "God is a Spirit (a Spiritual Being) and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth (reality)."
After we're born of God through the Spirit, we have the ability to know Him by the Spirit Who lives in us. Jesus says in John6:63(Amp), "It is the Spirit Who gives Life (He is the Life-Giver); the flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it). The Words (Truths) that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life."
So many believers struggle with our relationship with the Father, without connecting to Him like we wish. We've attended different churches and fellowships of varying doctrines, hoping to be filled with Truth that will help us walk according to God's Word. We can be taught the Revelation knowledge of God's Word, but it must get into our own spirit to become Revelation to us. It might be Truth and Spirit, but it must go from our intellect and into our spirit, in order to make it ours.
Everything Jesus spoke was "Spirit and Truth," but He spoke to those who walked by Law and sacrifice, so the hearers remained carnal in their thinking. Paul wrote about those he ministered to in Rom.10:2(Amp) saying, "I bear them witness that they have a (certain) zeal and enthusiasm for God, but it is not enlightened and according to correct and vital knowledge."
The people couldn't understand the Revelation Paul was preaching, because of their unrenewed minds. They had "zeal and enthusiasm" for God and they truly wanted to know the Father, but that could only come through God's Word and the Spirit. Like so many believers today, they fashioned religious reasons why it didn't work in their lives. Many true Christian, born-again persons who attend church, still have little idea Who God is.
Jesus said in John6:63(Amp), "The Words (Truths) that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life." We have the ability to read the Words by our intellect, but we don't have Revelation of them in our spirit. This requires meditating on, reflecting on and allowing the Spirit Word to be revealed as Spirit and Life to our spirit. God's Word must be received into our spirit, before it becomes Revelation knowledge to us.
Spiritual Truth to a carnal, unrenewed mind, is just religion and not reality. The people Paul wrote about had a zeal for God, but it was without knowledge. Prov.20:27(Amp) says, "The spirit of man (that factor in human personality which proceeds immediately from God) is the Lamp of the Lord, searching all his innermost parts." Prov.29:18(Amp) goes on, "Where there is no vision (no redemptive Revelation of God) the people perish; but he who keeps the Law (the Word of God), Blessed, happy, fortunate is he."
Psalm119:130(Amp) says, "The entrance and unfolding of Your Words give Light, their unfolding gives understanding, discernment and comprehension to the simple." Paul writes to the believers in Col.1:9(Amp), saying, "For this reason we also from the day we heard of it, have not ceased to pray and make special request for you, asking that you may be filled with the full, deep and clear knowledge of His will in all Spiritual Wisdom, in comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God, and in understanding and discernment of Spiritual things."
Jesus tells His followers in Matt.6:63(Amp), "Seek (aim at and strive after) first of all, His Kingdom and His Righteousness (His way of doing and being right); and then all these things taken together will be given you besides." We have our right standing and righteousness of God, by faith in Jesus. If we don't have Revelation knowledge of this though, then we will struggle walking in God's way of doing and being right.
The Kingdom of Heaven is a place. The Kingdom of God is a method of doing what the Kingdom works by. Jesus said in Matt.18:18(Amp), "Truly I tell you, whatever you forbid and declare to be improper and unlawful on earth, must be what is already forbidden in Heaven, and whatever you permit and declare proper and unlawful on earth must be what is already permitted in Heaven." Jesus told His followers in Matt.6:9-10(Amp), "Pray like this; Our Father Who is in Heaven, hallowed (kept Holy) is Your Name Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven."
When we know the Father in Spirit and Truth, we will know what is proper or improper and what is lawful and unlawful. We will know what is according to God's way of doing and being right.
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