Personally Knowing Jesus
2”May grace (God’s favor) and peace (which is perfect well-being, all necessary good, all spiritual prosperity, and freedom from fears and agitating passions and moral conflicts) be multiplied to you in [the full, personal, precise, and correct] knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. 3For His divine power has bestowed upon us all things that [are requisite and suited] to life and godliness, through the [full, personal] knowledge of Him Who called us by and to His own glory and excellence (virtue).” 2 Peter 1:2-3 Amplified Bible
It is that knowledge of Him that leads to all the other things that we require for our life and ministry. That knowledge does not come as a result of anything but this, the simple desire to know Him better in our daily lives. The verses above describe the power of that “knowing” Him. It is important to remember that “knowing” Jesus indicates more than just head knowledge. It is deeper than just what we think of as knowing someone or mere familiarity. “Knowing” is a word that implies a deeply personal and intimate relationship like that found between a husband and wife. In this kind of “knowing” Jesus, we position ourselves for the outpouring of all the things that have already been established and prepared for us.
Both of the above verses begin with tremendous and awesome descriptions of the great things that await us in Jesus. You read these and you want these things. Perhaps the best way to summarize them is that it is the favor of God in our lives, through His divine power at work in our lives, to bring to us from the spiritual holds that already contain every good and awesome thing for us. And all of those awesome gifts are summed up with the phrase “perfect well-being”
We are complete when we are well and whole in all the elements of our being, spirit, soul, and body. That is what is promised for us, wholeness and well-being (which means everything that you require and need for His full blessing) in you, spirit and soul and body. Everything that “is required for life and godliness” is included which covers everything you could ever possibly need, and according to these verses, they are yours. They are obtained through the knowledge of Him. That is the only way, there is no other. The knowing of Jesus, the deep personal knowledge of Him comes only by spending time with Jesus both in the Word and in time just spent with you and Him, your creator who knows you entirely and wants you to know Him better!
J Todd Hostetler