{{2014_03_10_t1.jpg}} {{2014_03_10_t2.jpg}} {{2014_03_10_t3.jpg}} [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/de/doku.php/jn_de_2014_03_10|Deutsche Version]] [[Start|| Wiki Start]] [[topics_collection_vi|| Topics Collection vi ]] ======How do you know? ...====== Monday, Mar 10, 2014. We had a discussion about the apostle Paul in our youth group yesterday. He claims to be an apostle, that is someone sent by Christ. How did Paul know? How do we know that what we believe is right? {{2014_03_10.jpg }} **Get to know God? ...** The apostle Paul had various experiences with Christ, the most prominent of them the event close to Damaskus, where he saw a flesh and then heard a voice: Saul (the name he used until then), “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Act 9, 3) Paul had been a very energetic guy, who tried to crush the young Christian church. He knew the Jewish scriptures, and he thought of the new sect to be wrong, to be misled and misleading! Then, the living Jesus met him - and his life changed! In the New Testament Jesus also talks about this knowledge about what is right or wrong. He says that when we listen to him, we will know. If we belong to him, we will recognize his voice. The whole passage is in the gospel of John: 22 At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. 24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. (John 10, 22-28) {{ 2014_03_10_2.jpg}} **How do you know? ...** > Have you already heard the voice of Christ in your life? Did you listen to him, and did you start to understand? Did you start to recognize his voice? It might take you a while - perhaps at the moment it is more a sound longing for him, a longing for more?! You might just ask God to come into your life and make it bright. You can ask him to help you to understand. You can ask him to show himself. It is important to ask. It is important to pray. Only his Holy Spirit can clarify who he is. We need him, and we need him to show himself to us! It does not necessarily be a flash which is blinding us, but it can just be his clarity coming to us when we read the bible or when we search for his presence in our life and our environment. My own certainty of faith is based on what I hear from Jesus. It is based on my love to how he is, what he says and how he acts. It is based on knowing him. Of course, I have my experiences as well and it would be strange if nothing would happen when you believe. But the experiences do not establish faith, they follow faith. Get to know Jesus yourself, and you will see yourself! (Roland Potthast) [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/en/doku.php/topics_collection_vi|... more texts]]