Four Phases of Knowing God
In the Gospel of John, Jesus reveals and teaches that there are four phases of knowing God.
We know Him through Jesus Christ.
He also reveals there are three phases of a walk with Him in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)
He reveals the phases in Chapters 3, 4, and 7.
The four phases:
1. Born Again (John 3:3)
2. Born of Water and the Spirit (John 3:5-8), also called being filled with the Spirit.
3. Drink Living Water, It Becomes a Fountain Springing Up Into Everlasting Life (John 4:13-14), also called the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
4. Come to Jesus, Drink the Living Water, Believe in Him, Rivers of Living Water Will Flow Out of Your Innermost Being (John 7:37-38), the anointing.
Born Again and Born of Water and the Spirit
Notice the phases include two “births.”
When someone meets the Holy Spirit, their real, true walk with God begins.
It is fascinating Jesus used the term “born.” We know that when a human is born on the earth, they are not a functioning human yet. They rely on others for numerous years.
The same applies spiritually. When someone is born again, they are alive but not really an “independent” follower of Jesus, yet. There is a divine mystery surrounding our entire most holy faith.
When they meet the Holy Spirit, they are born another time. They are going deeper with God.
Initial Phase
Born Again
First Phase
Born of Water and the Spirit, One Can Enter the Kingdom of God (1)
Second Phase
Drink Living Water, It Becomes a Fountain Springing Up Into Everlasting Life (2)
Third Phase
Come to Jesus, Drink the Living Water, Believe in Him, Rivers of Living Water Will Flow Out of Your Innermost Being (3)
Scripture for the Three Phases and the Initial Phase
Born Again
“Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God’ (John 3:3).
First Phase
Born of Water and the Spirit, One Can Enter the Kingdom of God (1)
“Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit’” (John 3:5-8)
Second Phase
Drink Living Water, It Becomes a Fountain Springing Up Into Everlasting Life (2)
“Jesus answered and said to her, ‘If you knew the gift of
God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.’
The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”
Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life’” (John 4:10-14)
Third Phase
Come to Jesus, Drink the Living Water, Believe in Him, Rivers of Living Water Will Flow Out of Your Innermost Being (3)
“On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:37-39).
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