Our Passion and Pursuit

He said, "My supreme passion will now be to know Him and then make Him known."
Do you remember Paul's response to Christ after a light and a voice that caused him to fall to the ground blinded? A broken Paul could only ask first, "Who are you, LORD?" And THEN he asked, "What do you want me to do? That order never changed in Paul's life.
3:12 - I press on to take hold of that which Christ has taken hold of me - to know Him was his central purpose and therefore his passion
3:13 - But one thing I do- not these 40 things I dabble at. His central, intense focus of life was to know Him.
3:14 - I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me. His call was first and dominantly to a Person, and then to a mission. He had a Heavenward calling to a Person who had given him an earthly mission.

Paul never allowed his primary passion of knowing Christ to be overridden by his global vision for the world. His burden and desire to bring the Gospel to the Gentile world flowed out of his passion to know Christ. Ministry to people was the result of an overflow of abiding in and knowing Christ.

Was Paul an exception, or is this the pattern of other godly leaders in Scripture? It is obviously a pattern.

Consider with me other key portions of Scripture that emphasize knowing God:
Jeremiah 9:23, 24 - "Let him who boasts, boast about this, that he understands and knows me..."
Isaiah 43:7-10 - "You are my servant whom I have chosen, so that you might know and believe me and understand that I am He...I have created you for My glory."
Psalm 103: 7 – "He made known His ways (His very nature and character) to
Moses, His deeds to the people of Israel." What do we want God to reveal to us?...just His works, or His nature and self through an intimate relationship?
Exodus 33:11- Moses cried out to God – "Show me your ways that I might know You."
Ephesians 1:17 - "May He give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you might know Him better."
John 17:3 - "Now this is eternal life: that they might know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent."

In the last few months I have gone through the Old Testament looking for what was important to God in spiritual leaders, kings, and priests, and how God measured success in their lives. The findings were revealing, the perspective life-changing. What was important and valued by God in these leaders was evidenced by what God called them – what they were known for by God. That was their ultimate testimony. It revealed their passion in life. Interestingly, it was not their accomplishments, titles, or positions in life.

G.H. Morrison said, "The acid test of a successful life is this: does it win the praise of God?"

Consider these spiritual leaders from Abraham to Paul. What was their ultimate testimony from God's point of view? Is there a pattern of what was important to God?

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