Do They Recognize That I Have Been With Jesus? – By Dawn Hill

[Ron McGatlin]

Do They Recognize That I Have Been With Jesus? – By Dawn Hill

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.- Acts 4:13

The last nine words of this passage ring through my spirit, as if echoing down a long corridor. A question has been weighing heavily on me for the past several days, ever since the Holy Spirit led me to Acts 4:13. My mind wonders of Peter as he stood with John before distinguished elders, rulers, and priests, an uneducated and seemingly common fisherman who had denied Jesus three times while warming himself in front of a fire was now releasing the fire of the Holy Spirit from within.  I wonder if this question crossed his mind.  “Do they recognize that I have been with Jesus?” It is a question for us all.

Intimacy with Christ, that deep place of relationship and communion, is vital in the life of every believer professing Jesus Christ. Without intimacy, without knowing Him, we spiritually suffocate under a blanket of stagnation, and the cobwebs of complacency soon cloak the threshold to the secret place, leaving no recognition of having been with Jesus.

This word is not to bring criticism, but to stir a love sickness within you for that longing to be recognized as having been with Him. I believe there are many facets of God and His nature that we are to embrace and to emanate as we become one with Christ, and the most important is intimacy.

That I may know Him

I hear the call of His heart so strongly in this hour for His bride to know Him, to be known by Him, and to be known as having been with Him. Before we can emanate His holiness, purity, and righteousness, we must know Him. We must be intimately acquainted with His ways and His Word. When we read His Word as more of a documentary than a love story, we overlook the wedding vows, the covenant of marriage to our Beloved.

Can I be transparent with you in this moment? My heart aches to know Him even more deeply. When I think of eternity, I do not contemplate seeing saved family members and loved ones. My eyes are set on the throne room. I long to worship Him forever and to never take my eyes off of Him. My heart’s cry harmonizes with King David’s, “One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple.” (Psalm 27:4)

 

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