His desire is to be your personal Savior and by His Holy Spirit to reveal Himself to you. You can know Him, have fellowship with Him, and be His son or daughter. Christianity is an experimental faith. The religions of the world are contemplative in nature. You can meditate on their ideas and even mentally worship some kind of god. Our Christian faith is real and life changing because our God wants to be your Heavenly Father and He wants to live at the center of your person. Jesus is the door into this wonderful life.

The greatest experience with Jesus that I have ever known came exploding into my life by spending a lengthy period reading the Book of St. John on my knees. I put aside all books, CDs, audios, etc. just to read and devour this Holy Spirit anointed book. I only prayed one prayer as I searched each verse for truth. I prayed, “I want to know and experience Jesus Christ as my personal Savior and Lord.” Yes, I was already “born again.” In fact, I was already a pastor at a church in Rockwell, North Carolina, but I was hungry to know Him even as Apostle Paul had declared long into His ministry. “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;” (Philippians 3:10)

I remember being at the altar of that little church each day for an hour or two simply reading, searching the verses of this book for each jewel of truth about Him. It seemed like each verse was on fire as I continued to search. A few days into this experience He became so real that, today, as I write these words, I remember the beauty of His presence. This experience was the defining moment of my life. I have never been the same. No longer was He just my Savior, He was my Lord. Until this day I have continued to experience Him in this same real way. He visited me at that altar. I have never needed, as some are teaching, to practice His presence. When He is so real and our fellowship with Him is personal, you will never need “to practice.” The whole idea of practicing Him is “contemplative religion” not “Biblical Christianity.” We must know Him, not practice Him.

I would challenge you at this challenging time to commit yourself to a fresh encounter with Jesus Christ. He is knowable. That’s the very purpose of His coming. “He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:” (St. John 1:11-12) If you decide that you must know Him or know Him more intimately, as your need may be, He has promised to give you the power by His Spirit to personally and experimentally “know Him.” His Spirit came at Pentecost to reveal Jesus Christ to every hungry, surrendering soul. He wants you to know Him because He wants to be personal in your life. This is not something in your head; it’s in your heart and your innermost being.

Apostle Paul experienced Jesus on the road to Damascus in Acts, Chapter 9. When the Lord arrested him, he surrendered all and was transformed from a persecutor to an Apostle. To the Roman christians, he wrote about this experimental faith he had encountered as he had raged against the church. He said, “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” (Romans 8:11)

The only real religion is “experimental” Christianity.” He wants to redeem you, reveal Himself to you, and be the Lord of your life. He is personally knowable. Please do not accept less.