Never Alone Again

Do you notice how Paul placed the importance of knowing Christ, before the importance of knowing the power of His resurrection? He understood that even before we can experience the unhindered flow of God’s resurrection power, we need to experience the joy of knowing Him. It must be the foundation of every other experience we are privileged to enjoy, as being in Him. Whether its healing, deliverance, or answers to prayer, knowing Jesus must come first, because a lifestyle of everything else we can experience in Him, is based on the reality of knowing Him as our first priority. Matthew 6:33 explains how knowing God as our first priority is what causes everything, we need to flow to us! Now, when Paul goes on to say he wanted to know the fellowship of Jesus’ sufferings, being conformed to His death, he was speaking of knowing the reality of his old nature dying with Jesus on the cross. The suffering we are to experience is dying to that old selfish nature that wanted to be independent of God. The AMPC version says, “and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope] that if possible I may attain to the [spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead [even while in the body].” The more we spend time with Jesus, the more we see ourselves as He does – completely in Him! We understand that just as our old nature died with Him on that cross, our new nature was resurrected with Him to a brand-new life of joyful intimacy. Praise God, in Christ Jesus, we will never be independent from Him, but ever filled with His love, life and power. Make knowing and living aware of His presence within you your priority and you will never be alone again.