Knowing God

Knowing God
by Joyce Meyer - posted December 10, 2013

And this is eternal life: [it means] to know (to perceive, recognize, become acquainted with, and understand) You, the only true and real God, and [likewise] to know Him, Jesus [as the] Christ (the Anointed One, the Messiah), Whom You have sent.
—John 17:3
Today’s scripture emphasizes the importance of knowing God. There is a big difference between knowing about God and really knowing God. Knowing God is a lifelong pursuit, something that happens progressively throughout our lives, not something that happens over the course of a few days or weeks. Attaining the true knowledge of God doesn’t come through reasoning or logic or through reading books for intellectual knowledge. It must be God-given, and it comes through revelation. It comes as we seek God and gain experience with Him through trusting His promises.
If we have a true knowledge of God, we are not disturbed by things like scientific theories that seek to disprove His existence. We have come to a perfect rest in the fact that God is, and knowing that, then we know that nothing else matters. We do not feel a need to explain things because we know something that cannot be explained with words. People often want to explain God, but if we truly know Him, then the first thing we give up is trying to understand or explain Him. God is deep enough that we will never know all there is to know.
Knowing God goes beyond what we think, see or feel. It is an inner knowledge of God that cannot be taken from us. When we have this inner knowledge, nothing outward can sway us from our belief in God. We no longer need evidence to protect our faith. We trust God just as much if He does not give us what we want as we do when He does.
I encourage you to pray daily for a spirit of wisdom and revelation (see Ephesians 1:17), that you may know God and Jesus, the Messiah, the Anointed One. Appreciate and celebrate the fact that you are an eternal being and that you are progressively coming to know Him better with every passing day.
Love God Today: To know God we must be hungry for the type of knowledge that can only come from God Himself through revelation.

The word used for know is the same word used to express intimacy, as in Adam knew Eve, etc. This is true both in the Greek and Hebrew, and since it is a part of the meaning, to know a person by definition, requires a degree of intimacy. Hopefully by now, all of us, especially those who are married, are aware that intimacy is not having sex, but spending time with one another, to the point that you know what the other is feeling or thinking without their having to say anything. That is true intimacy, or as a friend of ours likes to say "into me see." The only way that happens is by spending time with that person, be it your spouse, friend or God.