“My servant whom I have chosen: that you may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He” (Isaiah 43:10). 

Notice that, according to this verse, God has a specific purpose in His choosing: so that the chosen may know, believe , and understand Him.

God draws His chosen ones into personal relationship with Himself. This is the initial stage of God’s grand work of the ages.

To know, believe and understand Him: this is our calling. This is the journey of our lives.

The religious are satisfied to learn about Him (or at least a caricature of Him); the chosen are given the heart to actually know Him. Paul wrote,

“That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death" (Philippians 3:10).

Religion blinds and binds men, sidetracking them in endless busywork – meetings, activities, projects and mass instruction, all resulting in a secondhand “knowledge” and “faith” concerning “God.” It happens to be that our particular culture’s religious masses are “Christian,” but if they lived in another culture they undoubtedly would have adapted the context of its religious persuasion (e.g. Islam, Buddhism, etc.).

God is now tutoring His chosen for service in the celestial realms – in the “heavenly places.” This has nothing to do with us, and everything to do with Him!

Clyde L. Pilkington, Jr.