Abundantly Known, Abundantly Alive

Do you remember the days before smart phones and caller ID? The past when you would pick up the phone, hear a voice on the other end, and instantly recognize who was speaking? Perhaps it was a grandparent, or maybe a friend, but the kind of familiarity that when you heard the voice you knew exactly who was on the line. Our walk with Christ—in relationship—there is a similar feeling, but also the opportunity for something far grander than just knowing who is speaking, but to richly, profoundly, and intimately know the One Who is speaking and to be known in such a way, abundantly.

John 10 offers us a unique perspective of this truth of knowing Christ genuinely in relationship. It never ceases to amaze me studying Scripture not only in English but in its original languages. I love using the Blue Letter Bible App for looking at the original languages!

““Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.” This figure of speech Jesus spoke to them, but they did not understand what those things were which He had been saying to them. So Jesus said to them again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”” John 10:1-10

In the original Greek, John 10 encompasses two forms of the phrase, “knowing.”  The first comes from verse 4, eido, which means to perceive in the way the sheep can recognize a voice. Think of it in the way that you can recognize that voice of a loved one or a friend, you know who is speaking. It is a familiar tone, a comfort because you know who you are hearing from. In this way, consider the ways you know God’s voice. For some He speaks in a gentle whisper, for others through a sermon or a godly friend, for others He may offers dreams or visions, yet when He speaks it is clear to the receiver it is clear to their own heart that He is communicating. We can know too that when we pray, He hears us, even if those prayers are but a desperate whimper. Romans 8 showcases this,

“Now in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” Romans 8:26

We can rest assured that He hears us, He knows our voices, and our prayers do not fall upon deaf ears when we pray in the Name of Jesus. Even our tears can be understood in a profound way, but this way is not just the eido form of recognizing, but something far deeper. 

That deeper, more profound, astounding second way of knowing comes vividly in verse 14: ginosko, which means to know personally, intimately, at that soul level. And that is where God knows His sheep and where the sheep not only recognize Him but really, truly know Him. It is a relationship-filled meaning in which mere recognition is but the threshold of the door.

The Lord desires that we have that ginosko relationship with Him, not just the eido one. What a friend we have in Jesus, as the beloved hymn exclaims, truly, what a friend we have in Jesus! He desires that relationship with you, but in order for you to experience that kind of intimacy there is an action required on your end, and that is to pursue the Lord as well. God crafted and created you, He knows every single strand of hair, every quirk and tick you have, and every aspect of what makes you, you. The ginoko kind of knowing of you has existed since He dreamed you up, but what is astounding is we can know Him as well. Jeremiah 29:13 reminds us,

“And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”

We can know Him; we can experience the abundance of what John 10:10 is exclaiming when we seek Him with our whole hearts. For a life that is abundant, to the full, that is overflowing is only a life in which seeking God is done with every fiber of someone’s being. It is what we were created for, it is where we truly experience life. Life will inevitably bring trials and storms, but when we know the Lord, when we seek Him with our total being, it is there that trials can be rejoiced in for they are places where we can come to know Him more deeply. It is in such places that God can be known as Comforter, Confidant, Safe-Haven, Wisdom-Giver, Provider, Miracle-Maker, and so much more. It is in those hardships that we can come into the ginosko knowing of our Maker. Abundance can also be experienced through victory, triumph, and golden memories made as well. We see this as well in seeking Him for in those blessings and in those moments, we can be glad in and through and with our God. Our hearts will overflow with gratitude for we know He is the Giver of all good things, and He is the Redeemer of even the worst situations. We have a good Shephard Who not only walks through this life with us but has laid down His own life that we may truly be alive. This is evident in the next part of John 10:11-18,

““I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.  The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” John 10:11-18

When we read these verses, we know what Jesus is saying because we know what happens next in the timeline of Jesus’s time here on earth. When He spoke these things, He had not yet gone to the cross, yet He is prophesying what He was not just willing to do, but what He would do for His sheep. If Jesus would lay down His life for His sheep, to brutally be killed for your sake, then rise again to keep His promise, then consider how much He loves you. Consider how He desires to walk with you in your own life, in every high and in every low and all that rests in-between.

The Good Shephard wants not only the eido kind of knowing relationship with you, He wants the ginosko one. Seek the Lord with all your heart, mind, body, and soul and see that abundance in this fleeting life does not come from what the world says. The world will tell you riches, fame, big houses, grand vacations, and social likes are what yields abundance, but that is such a cheap counterfeit to what true abundance really is in life. True abundance is living a life full of triumphs, tragedies, miracles, and mundane all while walking in and through and by, fully immersed in the Spirit of God Himself. Knowing and being known by Him is true, fruitful, beautiful abundance that is everlasting from this side of Heaven to the next.