In this interesting article we bring you some tips on the most effective way to how to know god, in order to be able to reach his grace and his mercies that are renewed every day, it will be a great blessing!
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How to genuinely know God
Some Christians today mistakenly think that knowing God is just knowing that He exists. Others think that the way to know God is in cognitive terms, for this they are only satisfied with seeking to memorize and repeat passages from the Bible.
However, in the biblical sense, knowing God is an issue that goes beyond the simple fact of knowing something or someone from the intellect. The Bible teaches us that this knowledge has a greater dimension by relating it to eternal life:
John 17:3 (ESV): And eternal life consists in being known to you, the only God true, and Jesus Christwhom you sent.
We invite you to delve into this life by entering the article: Verses of eternal life and salvation in Christ Jesus. In it we show you some verses that talk about eternal life, which is God's main promise of salvation through his Son Jesus Christ.
But, if eternal life sums up knowing God, then it is appropriate to ask ourselves:
- What does knowing God entail or entail?
- What is the true meaning of knowing God?
- How to know God genuinely?
Because the Bible says that God is not known through the mind, that would be religiosity, but rather it is a matter of establishing a bond of intimacy between God and us. Discovering and understanding in that intimacy the identity of who we are in God and how he cares for us.
In this sense it is convenient to enter the article, Intimacy with God: How to develop it?. Because if we seek to get closer to Him in intimacy, rest assured that God will get closer to us and we will be able to get to know him even better.
The difference between knowing about God and “Knowing God”
As was said before, at present part of the people of God has fallen into the error of wanting to know God from reason, from the human mind. Many of the Christians believe that to know God is to parrot his word in the Bible.
Although it is true that it is necessary to read the word for the knowledge of God, being only listeners and not obeying it can lead to the risk of only knowing about Him and not knowing Him.
James 1:23-24 (NKJV-2015): 23 Because when someone is a hearer of the word and not a doer of itThis is akin to a man looking at his natural face in a mirror. 24 he looks at himself and goes away, and at once forgets what it was like.
In this sense, it is relevant to understand the difference between knowing about God and knowing God. The verb to know tells us that we are aware that something or someone exists, it could also be said that we are aware of one or another information.
While the term knowing goes far beyond being aware of something or some information. Even more so if this knowledge involves God, because it means not only knowing about Him but knowing in depth who He is.
How does God want you to know him?
In the Gospel of John, Jesus in the words that he addresses to the Jews in chapter 5, teaches us that if we only obtain the knowledge of God through the scriptures, that is, the words without understanding, this amounts to only dead letter.
But if we understand that the scriptures have a living nature that is constantly renewed by the operation of the Holy Spirit in us by having believed in Christ, we will be able to know God in a genuine way.
John 5:25 (NIV): 25 one thing is certain: is now when those who live far from God will hear me, who am his Son. If you obey me, you will have eternal life.
And it is that seeking the knowledge of God from the intellect will not vivify us and even more, it will keep our hearts dead:
Isaiah 29:13 (NASB) Then the Lord said: How much this town approaches me with its words and honors me with his lips, but take your heart away from me, and his veneration towards me is just a tradition learned by heart,
Having said all this, the objective of this article is to talk about how to know God in a simple way, as He wants to be known. First, the wrong way to do it will be discussed, then about the true meaning of knowing him and finally what are the manifest results of someone who truly knows God.
God is not known from human reason
The first thing to know when seeking to know God is that this knowledge is not something intellectual, therefore God is not known from human reasoning.
Knowing God from reason is a limited knowledge, since only what the intellect of man can allow him to understand would be achieved. One of the limitations, for example, is the supernatural character of God, man will not be able to understand said nature with his own reasoning.
Even using reason alone, someone may know of the works performed by God, but still not know Him. Several examples of this can be found in the Old Testament of the Bible.
Especially in the book of Exodus, where God on countless occasions showed his people his power. And yet they did not stop complaining, forgetting what He had done for them, demonstrating with this attitude that they never got to know Him.
Another example is the Pharisees and Jewish scribes, all interpreters of the Law; they said to themselves by this that they knew God and what pleased Him. But Jesus came to show them and us what was the true fulfillment of God's law and what really pleased Him.
The Pharisees in the New Testament despite their great intellect and great knowledge of the scriptures, what they manifested was a great religiosity that was far from being a true knowledge of God, that is why we see Jesus answer the Pharisees:
Mark 7:7 (NLT): 7 Your worship is a farce because teach human ideas as if they were mandates of God.
What we can interpret from this is that Jesus with these words tells us that knowing about God is not enough to say that he is known.
The results of knowing God from human reason
A mistaken knowledge of God can give rise to the emergence in people of attitudes contrary to the virtues that please the Lord so much. Attitudes that are so harmful that they affect the spiritual life in Christ, thus leading to manifest conduct outside of God's design.
A proud attitude or conduct
In the secular, acquiring knowledge in many areas can make the person who acquires it develop an attitude of pride. The intellect can also make that person believe superior with respect to others.
This attitude can also be experienced in the Christian life, specifically in the relationship between the brothers of the church. Generally, this usually happens among the brothers who have been congregating in the church for more years, with respect to those who are starting their new life in Christ; About this attitude, the apostle Paul teaches us:
1 Corinthians 8:1b-2: (NIV): However, we must recognize that knowledge makes us proud, while love strengthens our Christian life. 2 Certainly he who thinks he knows a lot actually knows nothing.
With this attitude, in addition to demonstrating that you do not really know God, you can also run the risk of being a stumbling block for other believers and this is not pleasing in the eyes of God:
Matthew 18:6 (NIV): But if someone does what one of these little ones my followers stop trusting me, you deserve to have a huge stone tied around your neck and thrown to the bottom of the sea.
An attitude that demonstrates knowing God is recognizing that all the knowledge accumulated in our lives is because God allowed it.
It is recognizing that with our own strength we can achieve nothing, only love is what strengthens and builds our Christian life, that is why Paul continues saying, this time in the version of the Bible The Word (Spain):
1 Corinthians 8:2-3 (ESB) 2 If someone presumes to know somethingIs that still ignores how to know. 3 But if you love God, then you are the object of God's loving knowledge.
A hypocritical attitude or behavior
A hypocritical attitude is to reflect what in reality is not, therefore, it is a behavior opposed to the virtue of being genuine and true. Those of us who follow Christ have the responsibility to manifest with actions what we profess, in other words: Being to Do in Christ.
It is useless to pretend that God is known, if our facts show the contrary. In this way, God is only known superficially, and therefore a false Christian life is lived; the apostle James does not exhort in the following way:
God is not known from emotions or feelings
When one is in search of knowing God, the feelings and emotions that can be experienced in that process are not enough to get to know him. In this sense, it is good to be alert, because emotions are like foam, which is ephemeral or temporary.
If our knowledge of God is based only on sentiment or emotional experiences, it will not last, much less our Christian life. This does not mean that feelings and emotions should not be experienced, on the contrary, it is something very natural in the human being.
However, they will be healthy if we know how to handle them without allowing them to control us. Because both emotions and feelings can play tricks on us, leading us to do some things that we shouldn't do.
Both feelings and emotions can be deceptive and can confuse us, causing us to lose the way of knowing God. In this sense they can be dangerous and unhealthy, the Bible teaches us:
Proverbs 14:12 (NKJV-2015): There is a path that seems right to man, but at the end it's death road.
Jeremiah 17:9: Deceitful is the heart, more than all things, and without remedy. Who will meet him?
Proverbs 28:26: He who trusts his own heart is a fool, But he who walks in wisdom will be safe.
According to these teachings, we cannot trust our own feelings, because they can make us fall and divert us from the path of true knowledge of God.
Keep emotions at bay
As for the emotions, these must be kept at bay, put under the control and direction of the Holy Spirit of God. Only in this way will the voice of God prevail as the only source of knowledge of the truth and not what one wants or thinks to believe or do from emotional reason.
Jeremiah 10:23 (JBS): I know, O LORD, that man is not master of his own way, ni of the man who walks ordering your steps.
Emotions therefore do not reveal the knowledge of God, on the contrary they can lead us to do things not ordered by the Lord. The true revelation of the knowledge of God comes from a unique and personal relationship in communion and intimacy with the Lord.
How to know God, its true meaning
According to the VINE dictionary, the word to know in the Bible comes from the Greek Ginosko (G1097) with concordant meanings such as: To be in knowledge, to recognize, to understand, or to fully understand.
In the New Testament the word know (Ginosko) determines an intimate relationship of value, as well as importance between the one who knows and the one who is known. Such is the case of believers and their knowledge of God and his truth, examples of verses that contain this word and that also keep this meaning, are the following:
John 8:32 (ESV): They will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Galatians 4:9: But now that you have met God, or rather, now that God has known you,
1 John 2:3 (NIV): How do we know if we have come to know God? If we obey his commandments.
John 14:20 (NASB): On that day will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me and I in you.
1 John 4:6 (NIV): We belong to God, and everyone who knows God our listens; but he who is not of God does not listen to us. Thus we distinguish between the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.
4: 8: He who does not love does not know Godbecause God is love.
1 John 4: 16a (NKJV): And we have known and believed the love that God has for us.
Let us strive to know and grow in grace
As can be seen in previous verses, knowing God is closely related to the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in us by believing in Jesus Christ. But this knowledge can also mean reaching a goal or objective, for example:
2 Peter 3:18a (NKJV): Rather, grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Hosea 6:3 (PDT): Let us strive to know the LORD, until you are so sure of it as if the dawn will come.
In general and according to the meanings previously given to the word Ginosko, it can be discerned that the way to know God is through the establishment of a personal relationship and common union with the Lord and his word.
The results of how to know God effectively
When a person has followed the right path in his quest to know God, he begins to manifest some results in his conduct. Some of these results are:
- Understand that the entrance to the knowledge of God is only through his son Jesus Christ
- Recognize that knowing God is a personal matter: Once you have believed in Jesus Christ, God has a unique way of making himself known to each person. Therefore this process is something personal between God and the believer in Christ Jesus.
- Understand that a special time of common union must be dedicated to be alone and intimate with the Lord. Until this fellowship becomes a habit in the believer.
- Dedicate time for prayer, the one who knows God develops a need to pray and talk with God at all times.
- Make reading the word of God a constant habit.
- Develop a humility of thought.
- Demonstrate in any situation an unbreakable peace, as a result of the relationship with the Lord.
To finish this wonderful topic, we invite you to continue with the following article; Only God knows my heart in the most intimate.
