How to Know God more! Part 1

***  Just remember that the Lord God is always truth and love and does not need to ever be popular for people to understand or get right! Our job is to come into a relationship with Him!

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How to Truly Know God
Mark D. Roberts
Thursday, March 2, 2017

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Image: Jazmin Quaynor/Unsplash 

 

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
—Ephesians 1:17

Do you want to know God better? 

Before you answer with a quick affirmation, take a moment to think. Do you really want to know God better than you do today?

 Why?

 If you really do want to know God better, what should you do?

Our world suggests many different paths to knowing God better. Of course, there is a growing chorus these days that says knowing God is impossible or silly. But, the vast majority of people still believe we can and should know God. And many of these are happy to tell you how.

Some gurus would encourage us to look within ourselves because God is fully present there. Self-examination is the key to knowing God. Others would urge us to look far and wide at the world's religions, picking and choosing that which we want to believe about God. Still others would claim that the only way to know God is through intellectual inquiry. Philosophy is the best path to the knowledge of God. What all of these ways have in common is an assumption that you can know God on the basis of yourself: your experience, your effort, your wisdom, your reason. If you want to know God better, you can make it happen.

Ephesians 1:17 disagrees. 

Knowing God is not something you can do on your own. Rather, it depends on God. You can know God only if God chooses to make himself known to you. The good news is that God has already revealed himself in profound ways: in creation, in history, in his people, in Scripture, and most of all in Jesus Christ. Moreover, God has given us his Spirit so that we might know God truly and intimately.

Thus, if you want to know God better, there are things you can do. Don't start by looking into yourself or choosing from the buffet line of world religions or hiding away in the library to read philosophy. Rather, pay attention to how God has revealed himself. And then, join Paul in asking God to give you wisdom and revelation through the Spirit.

Wisdom is not accumulating lots of knowledge, but using knowledge well. Wisdom seeks that which is meaningful, relevant, and helpful. It looks for the best among the good. Wisdom allows you to sift through all that is said about God, identifying that which is true and worthy of God.

Revelation from the Spirit does not mean visions of the end of history, such as are found in Revelation. 

Rather, the word "revelation" (in Greek, apokalypsis) means "uncovering" or "unveiling." 

It refers to times when the Holy Spirit uncovers the truth about God for us, helping us see what we had not seen before.