“If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him” (Revelation 3:20)

What’s your desire this evening? Do you want to experience the eternal love of God? Do you want the love of Christ more than anything? “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:11). If this is your desire, you must pursue Him as you would a future spouse, for that’s what He’ll be, if you become One spirit with Him (1 Corinthians 6: 7). Knowing Christ intimately is a grace given to those who are willing to submit unconditionally to Him. The purpose of your life will be to love Him with all your heart, soul, strength and mind (Luke 10:27). 

 The value of knowing Christ is seen in Scripture by the willingness to give up everything in exchange for the Pearl of Great Price (Matthew 13:46). “Whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:33). If and when Christ joins himself to you spiritually, you can begin the greatest exploration permitted to mortal man. The exchanged life is based on Christ being made “sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). You will voluntarily submit to “being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:18). You will voluntarily, “not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:1). 

 The exchanged life* is a miracle of grace. It’s only possible if God regenerates your heart and fills you with the Holy Spirit. Once He’s saved you, you can open the door of your heart as wide as you desire, and Christ will reveal Himself to you. There are depths of love, joy and peace for those who are single-minded. “You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You” (Isaiah 26:2). 

 The Apostle Paul prayed for you to be “strengthened with might through His Spirit in the Inner Man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height - to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:16-19).