How you can have a real, personal, intimate relationship with Jesus

You may have heard about Jesus your whole life—but do you actually know Him? I’m not talking about religion, church attendance, or head knowledge. I mean a real, personal, authentic relationship with the living God. If you’ve ever wondered, “There has to be more than this in the Christian life,”—you’re not alone.

In this episode, we’re going to uncover how to move from knowing about Jesus to truly knowing Him. I want to give you three words that often describe our relationship with Jesus and the third one genuinely has the potentially to radically change your life.

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3 Greek Words

1. Gnostos / Gnosis

• General intellectual knowledge
• Informational — facts, data
• Acts 1:18–19 – [Peter speaking of Judas] (Now this man acquired a field with the price of his unrighteousness, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his intestines gushed out. And it became known to all who were living in Jerusalem …

2. Oida

• Understanding, perception
• “I see”
• To intuitively or factually know
• Often assumes an immediate and/or complete knowing of something
• John 14:5–6 – Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going. How do we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me.”

3. Ginōskō

• Knowledge typically found through experience or relationship, an intimate understanding
• Luke 1:34 (NKJV) – Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”
• John 17:3 – “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
• Matthew 7:21–23 – “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, in Your name did we not prophesy, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name do many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’”

How can you have a real, personal relationship with Jesus?

As Christians, we must move beyond academically knowing Jesus and begin to embrace Him in a real relationship—experiencing His life and growing in intimacy with Him. For this is eternal life—knowing (ginōskō-ing) Jesus (see John 17:3).

• A.W. Tozer – I have often wished that there were some way to bring modern Christians into a deeper spiritual life painlessly by short easy lessons, but such wishes are vain. No shortcut exists! God has not bowed to our nervous haste nor embraced the methods of our … age. It is well that we accept the hard truth now: the man who would know God must give time to Him! He must count no time wasted, which is spent in the cultivation of His acquaintance. ⁽¹⁾

FOOTNOTES

(1) Aiden Wilson Tozer, God’s Pursuit of Man [Divine Conquest] (Camp Hill, PA: WingSpread, 2007), 5.

Photo Credit: Kevin Carden

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Question: Have you experienced what Tozer describes—knowing God through giving time to Him?

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