Knowing God (Part 5)

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It seems many of my blog posts this year has been about getting to know God as Creator. I sense that the Holy One desires that humanity would get to know Him more intimately. In a previous post in this series I wrote that God’s character is revealed in His relationship with humanity. God revealed His character to His people through His interactions with them throughout history. As I began to write this morning the following post unfolded in my spirit as I was writing.

God longs to get to know you!

Many Christians are ignorant of God’s ways, and of what it means to have fellowship with Him is a cause for much of the weakness in the church today. It’s no wonder different polls are showing that people don’t believe in God with absolute certainty [1]. Some even have doubts about God’s existence – or they do not believe in God at all. That’s sad because the church has been given the authority to go and make disciples of all nation’s, baptizing then in the name of the Father and teaching them to obey the truth as commanded by Jesus in His Word.

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Matthew 28:18-20 NIV

Getting to know Him requires more than going to church on Sunday or reading through your Bible in one year. That’s all good, but getting to truly know Him requires more. To get to know someone requires having a relationship with them. It’s not enough to know about them. We may say that we “know” someone but simply mean we “know” of his or her existence, but in Hebrew thought, one can only “know” someone if they have a personal and intimate relationship with them.

Lamentably, Christian minds have been conformed to the spirit of the world instead of the Spirit of God so that we may understand what God has freely given us (1 Cor. 2:12). Countless people who profess Christianity are preoccupied with maintaining religious practices causing some to withdraw from the church in pursuit of God on their own. Furthermore, there is little talk if any of God’s sovereignty, eternity, righteousness, judgment, etc.

Early in my Christian walk I truly wanted to get to know Him personally. I studied the scriptures, prayed, read read resources from others who proclaimed the word of God (Hebrews 13:8). All of this led to the desire to spend time in His presence. Walking with Him in the “cool of the garden” getting to know Him. And I’m still learning. I haven’t arrived.

Not only that, I had to be obedient and become a doer of the Word. The Bible speaks of always learning, but never understanding God’s Truth (2 Tim. 3:7). Hearing the Truth encompasses more than just hearing. It also involves doing. God’s truth is about doing. You will know the truth, The truth will set you free. The truth sets you free when you become doers of the word, and not just hearers (Jas. 1:22).

God’s truth is about doing, not being. It is a mistake to think of God as a thing to be known and studied from a distance. No. Truth is up-close and personal, a way of living each and every day in the light of His glory.