Knowing God, Knowing About God and Knowing God Intimately

Knowing God and Knowing about God

Jesus often spoke of the need to have a personal relationship with Him. He once said, “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). This verse does not say,” Come to the church or Come to a Bible study to obtain rest”. Certainly, going to church and Bible studies is important. But Jesus is the center of Christianity. We are to go to Him and in our relationship with Him, we will find spiritual rest for our souls. The biblical emphasis is on personally knowing God and Christ on an intimate level (Philippians 3:8; 1 John 1:3, Jeremiah 9:23 – 24). This is what Christianity is all about

Knowing Christ is much more than just knowing some things about Him. A person could have various theological notions in his head without ever tasting in his heart the reality to which they refer. Jesus once said to some Jews, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and that it is they that bear witness about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me that you have life (John 5:39 – 40). The Jews knew the shell of the Bible, but they neglected the kernel with – Jesus Christ. Such intellectual knowledge  did them no good at all.

Pearl of Wisdom: Knowing Christ in the biblical sense involves personal commitment to His desires, interests, concerns, and commands. It includes personally fellowship he with him on a daily basis (1 John1).

Knowing God Intimately

Our relationship with Jesus Christ begins the moment we trust in Him for salvation. (Acts 16:31).

Coming to know  Him, however, is not possible with just a single encounter.

Knowing Jesus – knowing God – requires not only commitment but also time ( Psalm 1:2; 63:6; 8:9; 145:2).

Certainly this is true in human relationships. The only way to get to know people is to spend quality time with them.

The more quality time we spend with Jesus Christ, the more intimately we come to know Him, and the more we come to  understand His likes and dislikes. We come to understand, for example, that living in sin greatly displeases Him (Acts 17:30; 2 Corinthians 7:10; 2 Peter 3:9), righteousness greatly pleases him ( Psalm 34:15; 1 Peter 3:12 – 18).

Relationships also involve communication. Can you imagine a newlywed husband never speak to another? The very idea is preposterous. Every intimate relationship requires communication.

Communicate with God in prayer (2 Chronicles 7:14;  Psalm 145:18; Matthew 7:7 – 8; John 14:13 – 14; 1 Timothy 2:8,  James 5:17 –18).

Through prayer we talk to God, interact with Him, make requests of Him, verbalize  our hurts and joys to Him, ask for His help (Philippians: 6). And He hears us. He answers us.

Pearl of wisdom: a personal relationship involves communion, communion necessarily involves communication.