I12know - What?

Have you ever been to a place, which give you a foretaste of heaven? And once you have been there, what would you take back?

The closest place to heaven for me personally was Urbana Mission Conference 1990. I was surrounded by 20,000 other die hard Christians for a week. Everyone was on fire for God. Everyone was having the same heart and same mind, willing to live and die for Jesus. And the thrill of worship God with thousands of other brothers and sisters could truly give you a foretaste of heaven. In the midst of all that glorious experience, I encountered this treasure for the first time as a quote from Paul.

"I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead..."

I was so captured by the passion, by the pursuit, by the single-mindedness to "know Christ". And I take that verse back with me after the conference. It had become my life verse since then!

I12know!

The verb “to know” here is not just mere intellectual knowledge, but a deeper knowledge by personal experience. If you walked into my church and asked for me, people could say “Yeah, I know him” and introduce you to me. But if you asked my wife something about me, and she said, “I know him!” It meant something else entirely different. It’s the deep, intimate, and personal experience that we desired here.

I12know Christ! For a long time, I thought I knew Him. I was born and raised in a Christian family in Saigon, Vietnam. As a kid, I knew all the stories and doctrines about God, getting medals in those Bible Trivias and competitions. But those knowledge didn't help much. By my teen years, I was addicted to stealing and lusting, and even dabbling with the devil for guidance and protection. Not until when a friend helped me to accept the grace of God into my life back in 1980 that I would start knowing God by experience.

And there are more to know about Christ. I still remember the first time I discover Jesus as the one I have not known before. We were doing a Bible Study about a day in life of Jesus in Mark 1. Typical stuff. Jesus went to church and preached there. In the middle of the service, a person with demonic manifestation started disrupting. And Jesus went, “Shut up! Get out!” And the demon was cast out. After church, Jesus went to Peter's house for lunch. His mom was sick so Jesus took her by the hand and help her up; the fever was gone!

My bible study leader then asked a lame question, "What the differences between the two miracles?" "Well, it's obvious! The first He just said so, and the second one He touched", I replied. My leader followed, "What then is the significance of that difference?" Suddenly, I was blown away by the realization that Jesus, the Son of God, was also so human. He could have shout, "Arise, woman! Your fever had gone!" But no, He came near, stoop down to where she was, took her by the hand and helped her up; so respectfully, so caringly.

I12know Christ! The more I read the gospels, the more I discover, and the more I like what I saw. Jesus was an organized person, he was creative, and he even slept on a cushion! But just knowing the historical Christ is not enough, I want to know what Christ can do today!

I12know the power of His resurrection. I grew up witnessing the revival of God's signs and wonders among the persecuted churches in Vietnam and I want to continue experiencing the power of the Living God, who is still working in the midst of our congregation today.

I don’t want to know just a better way to live life, a new methodology to communicate to people, or even the principles of impacting the world. More than any of that, I want to experience the power of the resurrection, a divine power that cannot be explained, a vivid power that cannot be denied!

A couple of year ago we had a case of demon possession at our church. The senior pastor was away, and it was up to me and the youth pastor to handle the matter. We have no idea what to do. So I studied everything I had so far on that issue, consulted on the phone with a pastor in the next city. I called a fast-and-pray for all the people in the youth group. And as the whole room full of young people praying for us at church; I, the youth pastor, and a medical doctor from our church went out to visit the person. As we gathered around, laid hands and prayed, I spoke up according to Scripture, “What is your name?” And you know what, the demon inside the person answered back to me. Wow! This is unbelievable! This is power encounter! And by the power of God we cast out the demon that day. The person is still here with us today, growing and serving in our church.

And I have experience this supernatural power of His resurrection again and again in our church, where ex-criminals devoted their lives to live for God, where healings took place, and more importantly where many lives are still transforming from darkness into light.

That is the power that I am seeking after, the power that changes lives. But ultimately there is more in Christ than even this power.

I12know the fellowship of sharing in His suffering. This is hard. This is so hard for me. I am the type of person who will switch the TV channel when I see pain and suffering, regardless of orphanage or famine or violence or just imagery of kids with haunting hollowed eyes. Do I really want to know the fellowship of suffering for my life and for my ministry? God, this is hard! I constantly struggle with it. How could I desire such a thing? Although I cited this as my own life verse, the sober reality is that I often desired “the power of his resurrection” more than “the fellowship of his sufferings”.

There is the tendency in the comfortable modern church to shy away from the biblical teachings about suffering. We dread the subject and skirt around it whenever we can. Here, Paul embraced it fully, for he truly understood the glorious joy and hope of the Gospel. Perhaps, in order for us to embrace “the fellowship of his sufferings” like Paul did, we need to start where he started, in the desire to experience “the power of his resurrection” first. If we know the power of his resurrection, we would be able to have the fellowship in his suffering.

In your life and my life, eventually we will face our own suffering. And if we don’t know the fellowship in His suffering we will not be able to deal with our suffering.

But knowing all of the above is not enough. Notice the change as Paul went on “becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead”. It’s no longer about the nouns of “the Christ”, of “the power”, of “the fellowship”; but the verbs of “becoming”, of “attaining”.

The whole thing of I12know must channel into actions. It is the actions of becoming like Jesus, days in days out; of laying my life down, days in days out; of dying to sin, days in days out. Life is a sequence of actions. And if my actions conforming to Him in death; then those actions will also be the same steps which lead to life in Him, and to the resurrection one day before God.

As we pursue the transforming movements of “knowing the power of the resurrection” and “knowing the fellowship of his suffering”, there will be the effects of “becoming like Him in his death” and finally “attaining resurrection from the dead” somehow. The whole thing is an amazing process from God in which we are immersed in.

It was a tall order to pursuit, to follow that passion after Christ. Paul felt the same way. In the verses followed, Paul wrote:

“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Phi.3:12ff)

Christ Jesus had already taken hold of our life; and I trust that He will continue His work so that we can respond to him, and press on! For I am confident, “that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Phi.1:6)

As Christians, we all have a foretaste of what heaven would be like. But in the mean time, what would you take back from that heaven to live our lives here on earth?