How do we really know Jesus?
A few weeks ago I promised to give you my best three suggestions for moving beyond knowing about Jesus, to really knowing Him. Over the last two weeks, I’ve shared the first two:
- We know Jesus from what we read about Him…specifically in the four Gospels.
- We know Jesus by eating Him.
This week I’d like to share with you my third recommendation:
We know Jesus by practicing acting like Him.
I’m not really that good at being like Him, so I act like Him. I’m acting. Pretending. But doing it with the desire to be like Him. That’s what I want. But because I’m a knucklehead, I act. Of course, our ultimate dream is to really be Christlike. To have every part of us so in love with God that we find ourselves, almost as an afterthought, like Jesus.
So practice. Practice acting like Jesus.
Review the Gospels several times a day. I know them well enough now that I can literally scroll through all eighty-nine chapters and find several examples of how Jesus acted or spoke in a given situation and attempt to do something similar in my current circumstance. You can’t imagine how helpful that is if you haven’t done it. In order to do so, you have to know the Gospels inside and out and recognize that you have Jesus residing in you by the Holy Spirit’s power. Get used to this and it’ll change your life. We speak of what we know. Know Jesus and you will speak Jesus.
This excerpt is taken from Carl’s book, Speaking of Jesus.
