“Fear thou not, for I am with thee: be not dismayed, for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness.” Isaiah 4110
How does one come to know God, beyond the beginnning of being born of the Spirit? Moses, over eighty years old, prayed: “…show me now Thy way that I may KNOW Thee.” (Ex. 33:13) The Apostle Paul would write concerning the same theme and objective, “… that I may KNOW Him, and the power of His resurrection.” (Phil.3:10) Even the Lord Jesus preached and taught the dominant and most essential of what is termed, “Eternal Life.” He said, “And this is life eternal, that they might KNOW Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.” (John 17:3) Thus, throughout Scripture, there is put before mankind the possibility and means by which one can truly KNOW God the Father, the Lord Jesus, all by the Spirit, according to His eternal truth. As David sought the Lord, to be led by Him, and taught by Him, so Moses and the Apostle Paul were seekers of God, though they already knew Him. They were in pursuit of the eternal experience, and knowledge, of knowing the love of God. But practically, how did these men, and all believers mentioned in the Bible, and those who have walked this earth to this present moment, not only begen their race to know HIm, but learned His ways in order to grow in that knowledge?
The first thing we must look at is God’s provision of His word. God is only known by the truth as it is revealed in the Scriptures and in the person of Jesus Christ. Though the whole of creation speaks day after day of His attributes and power, and His holy nature, it is when Christ came that all meaning in the pursuit of God was brought to bear in one supreme place, that in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, God takes the truth, and by the Spirit, reveals Himself according to the truth to our hearts. That truth is comprised of primarily three elements, the first of which is the “facts” concerning Him and His ways. As God will not give His glory to another, for it belongs to Him alone, so the knowledge of God is never given by a lie, or something that is not true. The truth is the bedrock upon which all faith is based, and upon which the believer is called upon to stand. The second element is the commandment of God, or His commandments. These are the directives of God given to men, not only to be known intellectually, but to be conformed to, having been made one’s own by faith and obedience. It is as the believer obediently follows Christ, obeying His commandments, that he comes to know Christ. The third element of truth, expressed in the word of God, is the promise of God, or the entirety of His promises. These are those statements of hope whereby the believer can take his stand of faith, expecting believingly in God’s faithfulness to fulfill every commitment that He has made to men. “He cannot fail; He must prevail,” for He alone is faithful and true.
Beyond the truth revealed in Scripture, so that we can know God, we encounter the Spirit of God, that “Spirit of wisdom and revelatinon” in the knowledge of Him, Christ. Not only is the Spirit of God given to confirm to the believer that he or she is truly a Christian, but the Spirit of God is given to reveal the things of Christ to us, that which is impossible to be known unless God works by the Spirit.
Lastly, we come to the basic choice and commitment to seek God. God told Israel: “And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye search for me with all your heart.” (Jer. 29:13) God lays before His people, and every believer the unparalleled opportunity and certainty to know Him.
Dear Father, Teach us Thy way. In Jesus’ name, Amen.