I want to talk about how one truly knows God. This teaching is something that I myself must be reminded of, I am far from perfect. Many people claim to know God simply because they go to church or have read so many books. Now both of those have their place in the Christian walk. But I want to ask you a question. Have you ever had an encounter with God? Now I am not talking about something that is completely birthed out of emotions and enthusiasm, while emotions and enthusiasm can be a result of encountering God, we must know that we do not live according to what we feel or see (2 Corinthians 5:7, Romans 8:12, Proverbs 28:26, and Proverbs 12:15).
In many of my teachings, I have talked about how the Christian must have an intimate relationship with the Father. We can spend all the time we want reading books from other people who knew God, but still never have a genuine encounter with God. You can spend all the time and money you want obtaining all the seminary degrees you want, and still never have an encounter with God. Now let me be clear I believe God has ordained people to write books for His Glory, and seminary has its place. However, there is a whole other aspect of the Christian walk that is tragically neglected and that is knowing God by having a genuine encounter with Him.Sadly, most people who profess to be Christian have had more of an encounter with religion than an encounter with God. Most people do not realize this but when you get born again and receive the new nature inside of you(2 Corinthians 5:17), the Kingdom of God is birthed inside of you. You see the Kingdom of God is not something that is far away from us, it is within us as new creations in Christ Jesus. Jesus answered the Pharisees in Luke 17:20-21 (ESV), “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.””.
This is why it is so vital we learn to be led by our new nature, rather than being led by the desires of the flesh. So many believers have never come to the knowledge of who they are through Jesus Christ. We need to get to the place where we get into the Presence of God daily and let Him teach us. When Jesus promised the Holy Spirit, He said the Holy Spirit would lead us into all truth (John 16:13). We should not have to rely on Study Bibles and Commentaries to teach us, we have everything we need to grow in godliness within our new nature. Study Bibles and Commentaries have their place, but we need to know God based on an intimate relationship with Him and leaning on His Spirit to teach us and reveal things to us from the Word of God. 2 Peter 2:18 (ESV) says, “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”.
So many people only want to give God fifteen or thirty minutes a day, just so they can put a checkmark on their Bible reading plan. Now there is nothing wrong with having a consistent devotion time. But I want to challenge all of us, myself included, let us get some alone time with the Father and wait on Him. I mean truly wait on Him, whether it be one hour or longer, wait on Him. We need to cry out to Him daily to know Him more. We need to saturate in the Presence of God daily. Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:6 (ESV), ““And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”. This will play a vital role in us putting away the things of the flesh. When you encounter God, the sin that is in your life will become so clearly known to you. Now, this is not meant to hurt you, this is meant to help you grow in godliness because we are to walk after the things of our new nature, and not the things that passed away from our spiritually dead old man. Additionally, when you are in the presence of God, you will have joy that is unspeakable, a type of joy that this world cannot simply give you. Psalm 16:11 (ESV) tells us, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”.
We need to be men and women of God who have the mark of God placed upon our lives. This is only something that can happen when one truly gets into the Presence of God and waits patiently on God day and night. James 4:8 (ESV) tells us, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”. Let this be the year that believers are not marked by their fleshly abilities but become people who have the mark of God upon their life and when you come in contact with unbelievers they will be able to smell the aroma of the Kingdom of God upon you and will want to know what it is you have that they so desperately need.