Introduction
You may have called yourself a Christian for a long time. You go to church, you pray, you open your Bible. But deep down, do you truly know God? Or do you talk about him like someone who has heard about a friend but never actually met him?
A true Waymaker, someone who opens the way, is not someone who talks a lot and knows little. It is someone who, before speaking, knows. And the first person to know, above all else, is God himself. Jesus said it clearly: "Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent" (John 17:3).
This message is an invitation to move beyond a surface level conversation with God and step into a real relationship. A relationship that transforms you, that lights your flame, and that prepares you for eternity.
Outline of the Message
1. Feed Your Spirit Before Your Body
After forty days and forty nights in the wilderness, Jesus is hungry. It is the moment of his greatest human weakness, and that is exactly when Satan shows up: "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread" (Matthew 4:3).
Jesus' answer is sharp: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4).
What Jesus teaches here is essential. Your body needs to be fed, yes. But the true priority is not keeping your body alive. It is feeding your spirit. Because your body will die one day, but your spirit will live forever. And your spirit feeds on one thing alone: the knowledge of God.
The primary need of every human being is not eating, drinking, dressing, or entertainment. It is striving to know God.
2. Knowing Is Far More Than Learning
In Hebrew, the verb to know is yada. A simple word. But it does not describe intellectual knowledge. Knowing God is not stacking up information about him. It is entering into intimacy, a deep relationship with your Creator.
The Bible uses the same word to describe marital intimacy: "Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain" (Genesis 4:1). To know is to be joined together, to become one.
Look at Paul. Before his conversion, he was called Saul. He had been trained by the greatest rabbis. His intellectual knowledge of the Word was immense. He was convinced he knew God, convinced he was in the truth. So much so that he went and persecuted Christians thinking he was serving God.
Then Jesus meets him on the road to Damascus. And Saul stammers out this question that says it all: "Who are you, Lord?" (Acts 9:5). As if he were saying, "I understood nothing. All my knowledge, everything I was taught, is worth nothing if I have not experienced the encounter with you."
Later, he would write to the Philippians that everything he once considered gain, he now counts "as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ" (Philippians 3:8).
3. A Journey, Not an Incident
Meeting God is only the first step. Next comes the journey. A relationship that is not maintained dies. Whether with your husband, your children, your friends. And it is the same with God.
If you do not join yourself to him day after day, your relationship eventually fades out. You have to relate, just as in any human relationship. Spend time, listen, let yourself be confronted.
Jesus walked for three years with his disciples. He could have done everything alone. But he chose twelve ordinary people, he called them to follow him so he could teach them, reveal himself to them, show them the Father.
And yet, the night before his death, Philip says to him: "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us" (John 14:8). Three years with Jesus. And he still had not understood. Jesus answers him: "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9).
How many times are you a Philip? How many times has God tried to reveal himself in your life, through a word, a person, a circumstance, and you did not see it? Pay attention. Everything around you speaks of God, because God longs to make himself known, day after day.
4. Two Tools for Transformation: Prayer and Meditation
God does not just want to reveal himself to you. He wants to transform you, to prepare you for the day you will see him face to face. And two tools make this transformation possible: prayer and meditating on the Word (not just reading it).
There is a huge difference between reciting and praying. Between reading and meditating.
Before you personally meet Jesus, you can pray a lot, for a long time, without your heart being engaged at all. Your mouth moves, but your mind is elsewhere. You can open your Bible every night, read a chapter, and retain nothing. Just to ease your conscience.
When Jesus truly meets you, everything changes. You no longer speak to someone distant, but to a friend. You no longer read out of habit, you search. And it is not only your relationship with God that changes. You yourself begin to change too.
"And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Who needs to be transformed? You. Me. All of us. Without transformation, we are not ready to meet Jesus.
5. The Fingerprint and Access to the Kingdom
Today, your fingerprint unlocks your phone, your computer. On that finger, your identity is recorded. And to enter the Kingdom of heaven, on that same finger, a different identity must be recorded: Jesus.
Without the knowledge of God, without the transformation it produces, without Christ having become your identity, you cannot enter. The Kingdom is prepared for those who prepare themselves.
Key Takeaways
- Your most vital need is not physical, it is spiritual: feeding your spirit through the knowledge of God.
- Knowing God is not knowing about God. It is living out a daily intimacy with him.
- The encounter is a beginning. The daily journey grows the knowledge; without tending it, the relationship dies.
- Prayer and meditating on the Word are the two tools through which God transforms you into his image.
- Hosea says it twice: "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6) and "Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord" (Hosea 6:3).
Personal Application
- Are you living out a real intimacy with God, or are you content just doing things for him?
- Does your prayer look like a conversation with a friend, or a recitation that leaves your mouth full and your heart empty?
- When you open your Bible, are you seeking to meet God, or reading out of obligation?
- How many times this week have you been "like Philip," unable to see God trying to reveal himself to you?
- Is your flame ablaze with the knowledge of God, or only smoldering, about to go out?
Verses Cited
- Matthew 4:3-4
- John 17:3
- Genesis 4:1
- Acts 9:5
- Philippians 3:8
- 1 John 4:8
- John 14:8-9
- 2 Corinthians 3:18
- Hosea 4:6
- Hosea 6:3
FAQ
What does it mean to "be a Waymaker"?
A Waymaker is someone who opens the way. In this message, it is not someone who talks a lot without knowing (an "ultracrepidarian"). It is someone who knows God deeply before bearing witness, and whose life opens a path for others.
How can I know if I truly know God or if I only know him intellectually?
Look at your fruit. A true knowledge of God produces transformation. It changes your prayer (it becomes conversation), your reading (it becomes an encounter), your reactions, your love for others. "Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love" (1 John 4:8).
My flame is almost out, is it too late?
No. The text is clear: God does not snuff out a wick that is still smoldering. If you feel your flame has grown weak, today is the day for a new beginning. The Spirit wants to meet you again and rekindle that fire. All you need to do is not harden your heart and open the door.
to take notes and ask questions.