At times, you may hear someone say, “I know the Lord,” or “You need to get to know God.” But like much of the Christian lingo, knowing God means different things to different people. Hence, what we mean and what others think we mean can be two totally different things.
God is so awesome, and we are mere mortals. In what way can we possibly know Him? We know what we mean when we say we know another individual. But knowing God is worlds apart from knowing another person.
Those of us who have been born again may think we understand what it means to know God–at least from a practical standpoint. That’s because once we accept Christ, He becomes more real to us.
Personally, I am truly amazed at my current relationship with Christ and how real He has become to me. Speaking from my own experience, I am convinced that we can’t be real WITH God until He has become real TO us.
How We Know That We Know God
The Bible is clear that knowing God is not based on a hunch. Nor is it a matter of subjectivity. In other words, a person does not know God just because he believes he does. “Hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments,” John writes (1 John 2:3, KJV).
Please note that this verse constitutes a self-test. It’s not to be used by others to judge us. On the contrary, this verse tells us how we can know if we know God.
Secondly, the aforementioned verse declares that a life-changing experience is an integral part of knowing God. It says, in effect, the proof that we know God is that we keep His commandments. None of us are born with a tendency to live this way. Every one of us was born with a corrupt nature resulting from the fall of man in Eden. God must radically change us before we can live a life of obedience to His commandments.
On the other hand, the aforementioned verse is not a call to literal perfection. It’s true that when a person knows God that he keeps His commandments. But it is not true that if a person at times disobeys the commandments of God that he does not know the Lord.
Proof that this is true can be found in 1 John 2:1. John writes, “I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (NASB). According to this verse, it is the will of God that we don’t sin. But because we will at times sin, we have an Advocate with the Father; namely Christ.
Countless theological views exist about virtually every major teaching in the Bible. Not all Christians even agree as to whether or not Satan is real, for instance. Nor do we all agree on when the rapture will occur, relative to the Great Tribulation. The concept of knowing God is no exception. But hear this:
“The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”
(Verse 4)
This is strong language. It clearly says that evidence that we know God is reflected in a life of obedience to His commandments. In this verse, no exceptions to the rule exist.
The Mysterious Process of Knowing Him
So far, I have only touched on how we know that we know God. But how does the mystery of knowing God occur? In the Old Testament, God speaks of a New Covenant He will make with His people:
“I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them…” (Jeremiah 31:33b-34a, KJV)!
Of course, we can only establish this New Covenant with God though Christ, the mediator of the same.
According to this quote from Jeremiah, when we become born again through faith, God writes His laws on our heart and not on a literal stone. Secondly, through that experience we will know the Lord—without anyone teaching us to know Him.
Finally, not only do those who know God keep His commandments but also they follow the voice of the Shepherd. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me,” Jesus says (John 10:27, KJV).
I can discuss this point at length, but my doing so would be beyond the scope of this post. Suffice it to say that God speaks to us through a number of ways: thoughts, dreams, visions, other servants, etc. But there are other voices out there trying to speak to us as well. Those who know the Shepherd can discern His voice from the voice of others.
Getting to Know God Better
We first come to know God through a born-again experience. Thereby, He writes His laws on our heart, and brings us into the knowledge of Him. After that we should cultivate our relationship with Him so we can know Him better. This is no different than the way we get to know an individual better after first meeting him or her.
We get to know God better by living in His world more. That is, by interacting with Him through prayer, fasting, Bible study, serving, etc. As we draw nearer to Him, He draws nearer to us. For example, over the years through preaching and having the Lord interact with my sermons during preaching, I have come to know how He speaks to me in the area of preaching and what to preach about.
Without a commitment to growing in our knowledge of God, our prayer life will not be very meaningful. It‘s good for us to pray to God for guidance or direction, etc. But it won’t mean much if we don’t know what He is saying back to us. That, my friend, is the essence of knowing God—the ability to discern His “voice” AND the propensity to obey the same.
Copyright © 2022 by Frank King. All rights reserved.