On This Day: The ‘Real and Personal’ of Being with Jesus

And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons. (Mark 3:13-15)

   I did not grow up knowing how real and personal a relationship with God should be. My mom was a quiet Christian who took us to church but never talked about it. My dad was an angry agnostic who made it dangerous to talk about anything I was learning. My youthful interactions with the church met my need for belonging, but never taught me how to know Jesus as “God with us”. And my Bible college years taught me to see “experience” as an enemy of the church! 

   All that to say I don’t really know when I realized that a relationship with Jesus Christ in today’s world is supposed to feel both “real and personal”. Yes, by EXPERIENCE!

   I know for sure when I “got it” that this was the case (1992). I am so thankful for how God has worked for a few decades making him and his work all the more real to me. And I praise him for the way knowing him has become increasingly personal as I learn to bare my heart to him in prayer, receive his word into my heart no matter what adjustments must be made, and then join him in his work as best I know to do. 

   When we consider how to apply things Jesus did with his apostles to our lives in the church it helps to remember that the apostles were the “foundation” of the church (see Ephesians 2), while Jesus’ disciples of today are the “living stones” that “are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (I Peter 2:5).

   So, the way we experience Jesus in the “real and personal way” taught in Scripture is by each believer fully living out their place in the body of Christ. We can learn from the example of the apostles that we also have an assignment (our spiritual gifts) and must fulfill our place in the church Jesus is building as surely as they fulfilled their place in laying the foundation. 

   This means that we all must be able to identify that our salvation is both “real and personal”. We also must strive to serve the body of Christ in real ways that are personal expressions of our love and spiritual gifts that people experience in real and personal ways related to building them up in the Lord. And we must make every effort to 

“do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life” (Philippians 2:14-16).

   And, if you do not know how to know Jesus Christ in the real and personal way we see in his word, just ask! Ask God to make this real to you in the most personal of ways. Pray with a genuine hunger and thirst for the righteousness of knowing Jesus Christ your Lord in the most real and personal of ways. Ask fellow believers how the things of God’s word are real and personal to them. Seek this together. Yes, even if you don’t know what it is supposed to feel like! 

   Jesus said that eternal life is “that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). I simply encourage you to not be satisfied with an experience of church life that is not an experience of knowing the Triune God in real and personal ways. 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)