When I was 12 years old, someone shared a piece of information with me that would change my life—because what began as information resulted in transformation. The news was this: JESUS IS COMING BACK TO EARTH. Hearing this for the first time, my heart was struck with wonder, curiosity, excitement, and even fear. I realized that Jesus wasn’t just from the past, He was also in the future—and it was revealed to me that Jesus was someone I could know in my present. But there was a problem—I didn’t know Jesus. So, as a naive 12-year-old, I sat at the edge of my bed that night and prayed a six-word prayer that transformed my life forever: “Jesus, I want to know YOU.” And Jesus has been answering that prayer ever since.

Knowing God as He Is

In his monumental prison letter to the Philippians, the Apostle Paul uses expansive language to describe the supernatural joy of knowing the Lord. Perhaps this is most powerfully seen in chapter three, where he discounts his past elite status as a zealous Pharisee and his prominent religious and cultural heritage. He then makes this profound declaration:

“Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him” (Phil. 3:7-9).

What does it mean to know Christ? Scholar and commentator Gordan Fee summarizes, “Knowing Christ does not mean to have head knowledge about him but to know him personally and relationally. Paul has thus taken up the Old Testament theme of knowing God and applied it to Christ. It means to know him as child and parent know each other, or wife and husband—knowledge based on personal experience and intimate relationship—and thus to know Christ’s character intimately.”^[1] Christianity is not merely cerebral, it is covenantal. And if we are to know God as He is, we must come to know Him on His terms, not ours. We can know God only because He wants to be known and has revealed Himself to us. But we have a part to play in making this astounding possibility a reality in our everyday lives.

Christianity is not merely cerebral, it is covenantal. And if we are to know God as He is, we must come to know Him on His terms, not ours.

Make it Personal

As Christians, we claim that we can have a personal relationship with God. Is that true? Is your relationship with God really personal? What makes a relationship personal? We can learn some things here from our human relationships. A relationship isn’t personal until you have invested a significant amount of time into it, to the point where you actually know someone. A personal relationship is two-sided, involving give and take. We not only speak—more importantly, we listen. There is time spent, conversation, hurts and pains and life shared; that is what builds a personal relationship. If we’re not careful, we can deceive ourselves into thinking we know God when we actually do not. It is frightening to consider that it’s possible to have much knowledge about God and actually have little to no knowledge of God. When this happens, we will only know God as we are, rather than knowing God as He is.

It is frightening to consider that it’s possible to have much knowledge about God and actually have little to no knowledge of God.

Gordon Fee once again insightfully summarized, “in the present expansive language (the surpassing worth of knowing), the object of knowing is not simply ‘Christ,’ nor even ‘Christ Jesus,’ but Christ Jesus my Lord. Here is both intimacy and devotion.”^[2] In other words, a personal knowledge of God or faith will result in authentic and devoted action. Consider this question: what do you know about God that is absent from your personal experience? Obedience is key in transforming knowledge about God into knowledge of God.

Obedience is key in transforming knowledge about God into knowledge of God.

Paul elaborates on this personal knowledge of God when he declares,

“…that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead” (Phil. 3:10-11).

According to this once-persecutor turned persecuted Apostle, there are two sides of “knowing Jesus,” which are resurrection power and the fellowship of His sufferings. For Paul, the inexpressible joy of knowing Jesus was not antithetical to the inevitable sorrow and suffering that comes from faithfully following Him. Jesus took the persecution of His saints through the hands of Saul personally (see Acts 9:4), and moments after His dramatic conversion, God spoke through Ananias “to show him [Paul] how much he must suffer of my name!” (Acts 9:16). Knowing God as He is means we will be able to walk in His resurrection power. But if we walk in His resurrection power, we will also encounter persecution. Both sides forge a personal relationship with the living Christ.

This is the very reality of which Paul goes on to say, “I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own” (Phil. 4:12). But more on that to come later, in part two of this devotional.

To summarize, knowing God is made possible because He has first known us. We can get personal with God because He has first gotten personal with us. Much to my amazement, my relationship with knowing Jesus as He is began with a simple six-word prayer. He was so good and gracious to answer. Since that day my simple prayer has expanded to seven words: “Jesus, I want to know You more.” He has still been faithful to answer, and He will do the same for you. Truly, there is nothing greater than knowing God as he is.

Knowing God is made possible because He has first known us. We can get personal with God because He has first gotten personal with us.

*check out this song by Shane & Shane called Know You As You Are. 

Copyright © 2025 Justin Jeppesen. All rights reserved.

^[1] Gordon D. Fee, Philippians, vol. 11, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (Westmont, IL: IVP Academic, 1999), 143–144.

^[2]  Gordon D. Fee, Philippians, vol. 11, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (Westmont, IL: IVP Academic, 1999), 144.