Experiencing the I AM the Way, Truth and Life

The I AM was how God introduced himself to the Israelites in the Old Testament. God told Moses to tell Pharaoh that His name was, "I AM who I AM."  Jesus did the same thing in the Gospel. He revealed that "Before Abraham was, I AM," to the chagrin of his hearers, prodding them to stone him. But he got away. Photo above by JOHN TOWNER on Unsplash.

In the Gospel, he did several I AM declarations:

1. I am the Bread of Life
2. I am the Light of this world
3. I am the Resurrection and the Life
4. I am the Gate
5. I am the Door
6. I am the Good Shepherd
7. I am the True Vine
8. I am He
9. I am the Way, the Truth and the Life (you cannot separate these 3)

However, these revelations are mere head knowledge until they're EXPERIENCED. I'm sure we all know Jesus as the Way, Truth and Life, aside from his other claims. I'd even dare say that probably most people out there in the streets know this. But knowing without experiencing is nothing. It's not that experience is the best teacher--it's not. The Holy Spirit is the best Teacher. And he alone causes us to personally experience the claims of Jesus--experience who Jesus really is.

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So What If You Know The Truth?

Let me repeat: Mere head knowledge without really meeting Jesus "face-to-face" is nothing. Often, religious people freak out when I say "meeting Jesus face-to-face," saying that God is spirit and there's no way we can see him, as if some things are impossible with God. They think seeing and experiencing God firsthand are impossible.

Moses and the 70 elders of Israel actually saw GOD and lived. Isaiah did, too, and thought he'd die. But what I'm saying here is seeing Jesus in your spirit. It will not benefit you anything in this life or the hereafter if you never experience Jesus up-close, closer and more real than when Thomas saw the resurrected Jesus and exclaimed: "My Lord and my God!"

Even if you earn seminary titles and degrees and become a respected expert on theology matters. Even if you can explain bible teachings lucidly and intelligently. Unless you experience Jesus up-close and really meet him "in person," knowing these bible truths won't make any difference. 

Seeing is loving, and vice versa. Love enables you to really see a person, a person's true self, and accept him or her. I remember how I was willing to do anything just to see my girlfriend (GF), who's now my wife. I'd take any risk to have a date with her and really meet her in person. Just knowing in my head that she was my GF was never enough. Talking to her on the phone didn't suffice.

Loving God is seeing him, and being willing to take all risks, whatever happens. Listen to this. Even if "I speak in the tongues of men or of angels...If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing." And as I've said, real love insists on seeing the one you love. You must seek to see God.

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face ...[2 Chronicles 7]

See how this man desperately in love with God puts it:

O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. [Psalm 63]

There are two kinds of "knowing." One is head knowledge and the other is experiencing through supernatural revelation. A kind of up-close, intimate knowing brought about by the Spirit. The divine touch. This is what Jesus used in verse 7 of John 14:

"If you really know me, you will know my Father as well."

It should be read "If you had known me" according to the Greek bible, and the phrase is "ginosko" which is a transliteration of the original Greek word "egnōkeite." You see, GINOSKO is wonderful. I mean, the Strong Concordance says it means to know "through personal experience" or "first-hand acquaintance." Better yet, "experientially know." I like the last meaning.

Experientially know. Ponder on it.

The same word was used when Mary asked the angel of God "How can this be, since I do not know a man?" She was told she'd be pregnant. So, in a deeper sense, it has something to do with "sexual intimacy." In fact, the StudyLight.Com site mentions how the word is also used to connote "a Jewish idiom for sexual intercourse between a man and a woman." Now, why would Jesus use that word?

If I were to translate what Jesus answered Thomas, I'd put it this way: "If you really have a first-hand, radically, intimate experience of me, you will know the Father as well." Or, let's dive into deeper waters: "If you have become one flesh with me." Again, the Greek Word for "know" in "you will know the Father as well" [John 14.7] is "ēdeite" which means the following:

1. To perceive or discern
2. To turn the eyes, the mind, the attention to
3. To behold

The BibleHub.Com site simply puts it, "appreciate." So if anyone knew Jesus really intimately through a very close relationship--almost like that of spouses--he would also perceive, discern and appreciate who the Father is. I'd put it further this way:

Anyone who tastes Jesus tastes the Father as well. 

And this fits perfectly the passage, "Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him." Taking refuge in the Lord here pictures an intimate relationship with him. Refuge is a hiding place. It's where you go hide to be kept alone in secret. It's like the master bedroom where a married couple seeks safe and intimate privacy.

Why Taste?

Why did the psalmist use "taste" to see that the Lord is good? Why not touch or look or hear? Taste is through the tongue. And tongue is always intimate. I mean, you cannot taste food from a distance. You cannot even taste anything within a few inches away from your mouth. To taste, you have to put food on your tongue and let it touch the food. That's intimate. That's up-close.

And you don't use the tongue just for anything. You may use your fingers for touching things, your feet for touching the ground, your elbow for touching elevator buttons to avoid germ or viral contamination. But you never use the tongue for these purposes. 

It's for something else.

Tongue is for something intimate, exclusive, special. Or something for absorbing--for becoming part of you. Like kissing. Like tasting and eating food. You reserve its use for something internal. Thus, the Lord's goodness is only for one's tongue. For tasting. You can appreciate it only with your sense of taste.

That's why kissing is important between husband and wife. It's part of intimately knowing each other. You see why Judas' kissing Jesus was a serious sign of betrayal? Pretended intimacy while harboring betrayal in the heart hurts like nothing else. In God's Ginosko, you cannot kiss and betray. It means adultery. Judas kissed Jesus while loving money, or loving his ego more than he loved Jesus. It's even idolatry. 

Now you understand why it's vital to "taste" the Lord to see that he is good. Merely hearing about him or watching him from a distance is not enough. You cannot taste his real goodness by just getting blessed with things or with Sunday sermons or singing. We need to taste and eat the Word that comes out from the very mouth of God. This is why Jesus chose the word Ginosko. 

Figuratively, we have to know Jesus with our tongue. If you had ginosko me, you would have edeite the Father also. (You would have well appreciated what the Father is like). 

Experience Me

Thus, when Jesus told Thomas "I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life" to explain how to get to where he was going, Jesus was really saying experience me. Ginosko me. Taste and see where I am going. Be one flesh with me, the I AM. Be totally absorbed in me. The only way to the Father's house is by experiencing him intimately. No other way. Every believer ought to know this. We all have to ginosko this. 

I have to stress this. Singing in the choir or worship team is good. So is being active in church and all it's ministries. But these things won't give you the ginosko experience Jesus is urgently talking of here. The context later powerfully hints at getting the spoken Word of God as key to all this, not anything else. It's hearing and experiencing God's spoken WORD in the bible. It's touching with your tongue the Word that comes out from God's mouth.

Here is the actual story. When Jesus said he was going away to his Father's house and that they couldn't follow him at the moment--but later they would--he told them how they actually already knew the way to where it was. "You know the way to where I am going." And that Way is how we ginosko the I AM.

Yet here was the problem. The disciples were thinking of an actual road or location they can take. In short, they were thinking of what they can do to get there. So Thomas said, "We don't know where you are going. So how can we know the way?" They didn't know where that house was (though Jesus said they already knew--but they failed to see it) so they didn't know what road to take. And I could feel a certain frustration in Thomas' words. 

We often think it's through some formula we can do that gets it done. We think it's through some effort or achievement we can do. 

So then, the word of the Lord to them will become:
Do this, do that, [Isaiah 28.13]

God's Way is not a formula or a guideline.

I don't blame Thomas. I'd probably feel the same. What with the other frustrations they just had, like how the people had rejected them despite witnessing Jesus' miracles (12.37), how Jesus admitted he was "troubled" (John 12.27), how he announced about a traitor within their ranks, and now he was leaving them soon. Imagine having someone "troubled" and who was leaving you all soon as your leader. Wouldn't you panic? Honestly, I might. And moreover, there was a spy among you, a traitor who, Jesus said, was the devil among you. Worse was that, they couldn't follow Jesus to where he was going. They were going to be left behind! 

Just try to imagine all that happening to you.

I can imagine how the disciples looked like, the expression on their faces, the uncertainties, anxiety and disappointment. No wonder he pacified them earlier with, "Let not your hearts be troubled." Because they indeed were troubled, and probably about to lose faith in him even. I can understand why they abandoned Jesus later. 

And probably why he told them, "You believe in God. Believe also in me." Or, to put it further, if I were the Gospel writer: "You have believed in God all your lives. Now, believe also in me." It's as if he was saying, "You see what we're in now? We look like we've totally lost it. Like we're going nowhere. But, as you believe in God, believe also in me. Just trust me, okay?"

It's like Jesus saying: You staked your lives on God, stake your lives on me, too, even if all odds seem against us. Take risk on me. Why? It's actually the same thing. You dared invest on God all your assets. So you should do likewise on me--because I and God are one. No matter our situation now, God and I are still one. Nothing's changed. And even if I didn't come, these same things would still happen because you're serving the Father. Serving God always comes with persecutions, with things seeming to go all wrong. 

And I hope you readers (Small Seed is now talking) reading this article would see all this. This was what Jesus hinted at. This risk is part of experiencing Jesus. Without it, all you have is head knowledge.

Often, the more things look wrong (and the more they seem not to make any sense), the more you're on the right track. The cross is the confirmation.

Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. [Matthew 10.38]

The Risk 

So there you have it. Risk experiencing--I mean really experiencing--the I AM the Way, Truth and Life. Jesus will reveal what this really is in the proceeding passages. You have to experience for yourself the I AM. And in doing so, it takes lots of risks. Believe me. You'll suffer the cross, the sorrows, the rejections and troubles as Jesus did. Even believers close to you may abandon you.

You must experience the I AM's way, truth and life for yourself. It's a must. All three of them. You cannot choose just one or two. And you cannot separate them. Jesus' way is his truth (and vice versa), and his way and truth are his life (there's no other life that God wills for you). His life is also his way and truth, or truth and way. Got it? 

So, Jesus told Thomas: "If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” Now it gets more exciting! Knowing and seeing Jesus meant knowing and seeing the Father! This is Jesus' way, truth and life. The Father's way is Jesus' way. Jesus couldn't do anything else except the Father's way of doing things. He once said he couldn't do anything except what he saw the Father doing [John 5.19].

GOD is in Me

Being deeply steeped in the Father's way (or "marinated" if you will), Jesus became the Way. Whatever you focus on, or spend time on, becomes your food. "He who tends a fig tree will eat its fruit," [Proverbs 27.18]. And you become what you eat and absorb. This became Jesus' Truth and Life, the Truth he lived out all his Life. Because Jesus "ate" the Father. And Jesus wants us to eat his flesh and drink his blood, too. "My flesh is real food," he said in John 6.55. So that the "I AM the Way" lives in us (Life) and manifests in our daily lives (Truth).

See the close connection of the three--Way, Truth and Life? Hence, when Philip suggested that just showing them the Father would be enough, Jesus said, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father." This was a leveled up disclosure of his first revelation when he said, "If you really know me (the I AM), you will know my Father as well (the I AM in the Old Testament).

From "knowing" to "seeing." 

It's not simply having a head knowledge of John 14.6 and memorizing it or being able to preach about it. It has nothing to do with church programs and activities. It's all about "knowing" and "seeing" in Ginosko proportions. It's this or nothing in these final days before Jesus meets his true believers in the clouds.

Then Jesus took it deeper. He told them a mystery: 

"Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me?" 

It was a new thing. I could imagine their faces brightening up with this new revelation. It was a fresh, rhema Word. The Father was inside the body of Jesus, a hundred percent. This was why...

"The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work."

This was a revolutionary Kingdom principle first introduced to the church. It was the Father actually doing everything in Jesus' body, life and ministry. This is Jesus' way, and it should also be our way, if we believe there's no other way but Jesus, who is the Way. It's the Truth we should manifest daily in Life. Remember, no one comes to the Father except through Jesus. It should be GOD fully in us doing HIS work, not us.

Bombshell

Now here's the bombshell. The I AM full experience is not exclusive to Jesus. It is the way, truth and life of anyone who wants to be identified with him. It's the I AM or nothing. It's the I AM in you doing everything. It's letting the I AM in you live your life daily. And this does not just mean having the character of Jesus. This means specifically having all that Jesus is. CHRIST is all, and is in all. 

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

This is the main gist of experiencing the I AM the way, truth and life. It's not just a head knowledge that Jesus is the sole way to the Father (which demons also believe). It's experiencing his person, character, power and ministry, doing exactly what he did, and more. It is having Jesus and the Father do their will inside your body. Jesus explains: "I will do anything you ask in My Name." 

In a sense, you're a modern-day Jesus. (Let's see how the religious react to that).

Asking for something in His Name means praying while in the very nature (name) of Jesus. "Name" is nature. God's nature in the Old Testament (Provider, Peace, Almighty, Holy, etc.) was His Name. Thus, for instance, Jehovah Jireh is God's nature of providing for our needs, and it's also his name. Having Jesus' nature in you means you and Jesus and the Father are one. Here's how Jesus put it:

On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.

This revelation is explosive! When I got this in my spirit, something detonated and all the spiritual blockages and stumbling blocks were blown off into pieces. Coming to this realization and experience in life means you have really tongue-tasted Jesus as the I AM the Way, Truth and Life. You see how Jesus and the Father are really in you and you in them. You taste being one flesh with God in Christ.

Now you no longer just say Jesus is the way, truth and life like the religious do. You live and manifest it with heaven's powerful backing. Now you demo it without meaning to, with supernatural signs and wonders, exactly as Jesus did. And the thing has become natural to you. It's become an SOP. Jesus walks on earth once more in you, and "those living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned." The Word is made flesh in you.

True Discipleship 

Once that day comes when the Holy Spirit finally opens your eyes to see this Truth and make it your Way of Life, you can claim that anyone who looks at you sees Jesus as well. To the point that when a long-time disciple of yours asks who the Father is, you'd say something like, "Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?"

Weird but true, if you seriously come to think about it. This is why Paul said, "I have died with Christ, I no longer live but it's Christ who lives in me."

True discipleship is showing our disciples who Jesus is by manifesting him in our lives. When they look at us they see Jesus, nothing more, not our religion or church denomination. They see the Gaerlan CS version of Jesus Christ, in my case. It's not anymore a bible study or seminar where we teach our disciples lessons. We teach by manifesting the I AM in us, demonstrating his supernatural power and helping them "touch" the Jesus in us to taste and see that the Lord is good. 

We attract them with the Jesus life, nothing more. A lot of churches today use activities, programs and cute ministries to make sure their members stick with them, make them busy, and make them staunch denominational members familiar with the denomination's ways and policies. This is man's religion.

No wonder very few today have genuinely experienced Jesus as the I AM the way, truth and life. All they have is head knowledge, limited to what demons know about Jesus.

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