How To Know God (Now)
God has Left for Us Everything We Need to Know About Him and How to Live - Seek His Face!
Some of us have struggled to “know” who God is or what He is about. It seems He is beyond knowing. Fortunately, there are many scriptures that we may read to get a clearer understanding of His attributes or character. Do not get hung up or stalled because God says this in Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” God is omniscient and He is sovereign over all Creation and is incomprehensible in His entirety; yet He does reveal himself via Scripture.
Longing to Find God
C. H. Spurgeon 09-14-1890
Job 23:3 “Oh that I might find Him.”
It will be a great mercy for you if you are so anxious to find God that you will not set any bounds as to where you shall find him. You would be glad to find him at your usual place of worship; but you would be just as glad to find him in the midst of quite another people. You would be thankful to find him in the midst of your business. You would rejoice to find him whether it was at the heat of noontide, or in the cool of midnight. Your cry is, “Only let me find him, and the time or place would be of no consequence to me.”
I Gave In to Get Here
I was not surprised to find God and to come to know Him. He had been after me for decades. Always there pulling me, getting under my skin. A veritable pest, why would he not leave me alone? Oh, I fought so hard. There were scratches and damage wherever I was when He got hold of me. Yes, I fought so hard.
Then one day it became clear that I was fighting my Savior. I yielded; it was just that quick. The Holy Spirit won! No near death experience, no drunken man to straighten out, just an arrogant fool who just wouldn’t give in but yielded finally. And I was not surprised to find God and Jesus only a few breaths away; the little air that I needed to say the words that had to be said was virtually nothing. I was ashamed for trying so hard to leave eternity on the table.
Now I am forgiven and headed to heaven one day. Like Spurgeon speaks about seeking God I am hard after Him. I want to know Him. I chase him now. And he meets me where I am and we talk.
Jerimiah 29:12-13 CSB “You will call to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.”
How I would love to see you; perhaps to talk over coffee and listen to you. I would tell you of my sweet Lord. The Savior of my filthy soul. The one who waited decades for me to yield to Him so that he could give to me the gift he has for all of us: Salvation. I would tell you how I am justified and being sanctified.
It only takes seconds to yield. And the only thing you lose is that chain of sin hanging around your neck. But since I cannot be with you, I offer what you see here. Words that tell of the promises of God. I tell you what I know, and I do not shade or hide the parts that are hard to understand. It would be criminal to give you part of the story. I cannot lie to you and tell that it gets suddenly easier because you let Christ into your life. In fact, He tells us straight up that if He was hated we would be too.
John 15:18-19 CSB “If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of this world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you.”
It is an honor to Christ that you take a moment to stop here and consider what I share in His name. I am an old man on a mission to recover lost years of being a wayward child and missing the opportunity to spread the Gospel like I should have been doing. We are all God’s children and He wants us to be in relationship with Him. Ask Him to reveal himself to you. You cannot lose.
Hebrews 11:6 CSB “Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”
11 Scriptures About Knowing God’s Character Intimately
Learning to know God leads all people to one place: a relationship with our Creator. Without this there is no Good News because everything becomes chaos, disorder. Knowing God, coming to a point of understanding just a little about Him will support whatever you may find in Scripture and will provide answers for what life is all about. Everything that we can see testifies of God. Yet, God in His kindness has left us Scripture, the Bible, in order for us to have the written word to read and study. All that we do to learn about the Great I Am is within the pages of Scripture, therefore we must start there.
[All scripture in this section is taken from the NKJV translation of the Bible]
2 Timothy 3:16 “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, and reproof, for correction, instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
Isaiah 42:5,8 “Thus saith God the Lord, he that created the Heavens and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which come out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people on it, and spirit to them that walk therein - I am the Lord; that is my name, and I will not give it to another neither my praise to graven images.” He is sovereign.
John 4:24 “God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth.” God is Spirit.
Deuteronomy 24:10 “And there arose not a prophet since, like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face …” God is personal.
Psalm 90:2 “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting though art God.” God is everlasting.
Job 21:22 “Shall anyone teach God knowledge, seeing he judgeth those that are on high” & 1 John 3:20 “For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things.” God is all-knowing.
Have you noticed that all of these are declarations with detailed descriptions?
Psalm 7:8,11 “The Lord shall judge all people, judge me O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to mine integrity that is in me. God judgeth the righteous and God is angry with the wicked all day.” God is just.
1 John 4:8 “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is Love.” God is loving.
1 Samuel 2:2 “There is none holy as the Lord; for there is none beside thee, neither is there any rock like our God.” God is Holy.
Psalm 7:11,13 “God is a just judge, and God is angry with the wicked every day. If he does not turn back, He will sharpen His sword; He bends his bow and makes it ready …” God is a judge.
“Psalm 130:3,4 “If you Lord should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you, that you may be feared.” God is forgiving.
These are just a few of the 25 attributes of God. The rest are within Scripture for you to search out and to embrace.
You must do the work.
Knowing God starts here. Reading and studying Scripture on a regular basis.
Seeking God’s Face
Matthew 6:33 “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
Deuteronomy 4:29 “But from there you will seek your Lord your God. You will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and soul.”
Psalm 14:2 “The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.”
Psalm 63:1 “O God, thou art my God, early will I seek thee; my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is.”
Psalm 78:32-34 “For all this they sinned still and believed not for His wonderous works. Therefore, their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble; when he slew them, then they sought him; and they returned and enquired early after God.”
Romans 3:10-11 “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God.”
It is easy to see that mankind is all over the spectrum of seeking God; seeking seriously or ignoring God.
Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who honestly seek Him.”
Psalm136:36 “Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever.”
Proverbs 8:17-19 “I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me. Riches and honor are with me, yea durable riches and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, yea fine gold; and my revenue than choice silver.”
Romans 1:20 “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.”
I have made few comments here. I do not need to. Certainly, there is enough covered here to spend thousands of words breaking this all down. You do not need that. You can see that these verses speak clearly. There is no hidden message here. Seek God and know him. That requires you must read scripture, study, pray and seek help for understanding via the Holy Spirit. Do not let corruptible men try to suggest that knowing God is impossible. He is there for you in a flower, the wind, rain and heat. He lives on the pages of scripture. Even if you ignore what you see here and claim to have never heard of God, you are without excuse. He is revealed in the workings of your thumb. Seek and therefore know God and receive riches … durable riches!
