Do I “know” him?
May 12
John 5: 36“I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the very work that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent me. 37And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, 38nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. 39You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, 40yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
This passage in John chapter 5 is very fascinating to me. Jesus says in verse 37 that the word of God clearly does not do well in them (being the people he is busy speaking to). But if you read in verse 39, these people diligently study the Scriptures. It just goes to show that you can diligently study the Scriptures, (that means to study the Scriptures often and thoroughly), and yet still not know God. You see knowing God comes from the revelation of the Holy Spirit. It does not simply come from reading verses in the Bible. When we read verses in the Bible we learn about God, but we do not learn who God is. If you want to know God, and especially if you want to know him personally, then it requires more than diligent study of the word of God. It requires taking the time to really get to know him through prayer and through relationship.
I have known in my life, that when I pray very little that I am not very close to God. When I start to pray a lot, it really brings me much closer to God. Jesus is saying to these people that whilst they believe they have eternal life, through studying the Scriptures, they in fact do not. We know that we also read elsewhere in the Scriptures that in that day of judgement, many people come to the Lord saying “Lord, Lord” and he will say to them “get away from me for I never knew you”. That is a very scary thought that some people can be so deceived that they think they really know God but they do not know him at all.
So what is the best thing to know whether or not you do know God or whether you just have head knowledge about God? I believe the first part of the answer to this question is that you have a “revelation relationship” with God. In other words when you read the Bible and through quiet time with God, he speaks to you and draws close to you. When you read the Bible, you can sense that God is speaking to you personally. Some verses will have greater meaning than others and this is when God is trying to indicate that he needs you to change in some way.
The next way to test that you really know God is through prayer. When you pray you will have a sense that you are close to God and that hears you and he is taking an interest in what you have to say. Also prayer is not just about what you have to say, but it is also you listening to God. When we pray it is a conversation with God. It is not a one-way conversation but it is a two-way dialogue. In order to hear what God has to say we have to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. You cannot be sensitive to the Holy Spirit when you have not spent some time in drawing away quietly and confessing your son first