Day 6 - Friday - My Utmost for His Highest- Logos

 January 7th

Intimate with Jesus

Have I been so long with you, and yet hast thou not known Me? John 14:9.

These words are not spoken as a rebuke, nor even with surprise; Jesus is leading Philip on. The last One with whom we get intimate is Jesus. Before Pentecost, the disciples knew Jesus as the One Who gave them the power to conquer demons and bring about a revival (see Luke 10:18–20 ). It was an extraordinary intimacy, but there was a much closer intimacy to come—“I have called you friends.” Friendship is rare on earth. It means identity in thought and heart, and spirit. The whole discipline of life enables us to enter into this closest relationship with Jesus Christ. We receive His blessings and know His word, but do we know Him?

Fruit-bearing is always mentioned as the manifestation of an intimate union with Jesus Christ (John 15:1–4 ). It is a joy to Jesus when a disciple takes time to step more intimately with Him. Jesus said—“It is expedient for you that I go away”—in that relationship so that He might lead them on.

Once we get intimate with Jesus, we are never lonely, we never need sympathy, we can pour out all the time without being pathetic. The saint who is close with Jesus will never leave impressions of himself, but only the belief that Jesus is having an unhindered way because the last abyss of his nature has been satisfied by Him. The only impression left by such a life is the solid calm sanity that Our Lord gives to those intimate with Him.

 Chambers, Oswald. My Utmost for His Highest: Selections for the Year. Grand Rapids, MI: Oswald Chambers Publications; Marshall Pickering, 1986. Print.