I have been a believer since early 1971. B.C. (before Christ) I thought I was a pretty smart guy. I was not a brain surgeon or astrophysicist. But, hey Boo Boo, smarter than your average dorky teenager, if you know what I mean. Yeah, I made decent grades, was college bound, driving a 59 corvette, dating a lovely girl of my dreams, and was gonna hit it big on stage as an actor after a bit more education and experience at college. Then, my world and perspective was literally turned upside down when I discovered that the God of the universe knew me, and better than I knew myself, and He loved me anyway. And, beyond that, I discovered that He could be known.
Since about age 10, after my folks divorced, and I thought God had failed me and them in not keeping their marriage together, I had become a very good and excellent agnostic. Believing there was a God, a Force, a Something/Someone, but that He/It was unknowable. And, He/It certainly did not get involved or intervene in the affairs of man. I was not an atheist because I was far too smart and logical to believe or think: all that is, just fell in place by happenstance. (I’ve found over the year there are few true atheist, there are many agnostics)
Searching the scriptures, and reading A.W. Tozer, C.S. Lewis, and some others, I became persuaded that God, as incomprehensible as He may seem to our finite minds, can be known, personally and intimately. And, if that is so, what greater pursuit is there than to know Him.
[John 17:3 NASB95] 3 “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
[Philippians 3:8-11 NASB95] 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from [the] Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which [comes] from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
[Ephesians 1:15-18 NASB95] 15 For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which [exists] among you and your love for all the saints, 16 do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention [of you] in my prayers; 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. 18 [I pray that] the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
[John 14:7-9 NASB95] 7 “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.” 8 Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and [yet] you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how [can] you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Each of these scriptures makes it crystal clear that we may KNOW God, the eternal Father. In fact, it is paramount, and imperative, that we do. Pie in the sky when we die is not eternal life, nor the reason Jesus came. He came to reveal the Father, and to make it possible for us to know Him and have personal fellowship with Him, as we are in Jesus.
Yes, He seems to be sometimes hidden in mystery, and an enigma. Yes, indeed He is incomprehensible, but only because we have never known anything or anyone like, or even near to being like Him, until He reveals Himself in the fullness of Jesus. His attributes are not common to man: Perfect, Just, Omniscient, Omnipresent, All Mighty, Immutable, Eternal, Sovereign and others. So, we really cannot relate to, or even imagine, anyone exactly like Him. But, although He is incomprehensible in some of these attributes, it is possible to know Him! He is constantly, and lovingly, revealing Himself continually and drawing us to know Him. And, He gave us full revelation in one like us in Jesus. The other reason most don’t know Him well, is that we get duped into duty filling religion, works, and trying to please Him from our own merit, and make that our pursuit, rather than pursuing knowing Him.
Look again at John 17:3. Eternal life is not gained through self effort in works to please. It exists, it is bound up, in knowing Him.
In Philippians 3, Paul was giving up all rights to the righteousness gained by perfection in law keeping and being a Hebrew calling that rubbish when compared to the surpassing value of knowing Him.
In Ephesians 1 the apostle’s greatest desire and most fervent prayer is that God would grant you/us a spirit of wisdom and revelation to know Him.
In John 14 Jesus is astounded at Phillip’s request to “Show us the Father, that will be enough.” Pointing out His full revelation of the Father saying “Have I been so long with you and you don’t know me.” This shows us that God is revealing Himself to us daily, and we find it easy to look right past Him. Generally, because we aren’t listening, or are so focused on our preconceived notions of who and what He is, and will do, that we miss Him time and time again.
This happens because we choose to stay in the place I was at my conversion thinking we are smart enough, smarter than the average person, and other believers. We’ve got it all figured out. We are comfortable in the little we know. Or, we truly think the pursuit of knowing Him ends with our fire escape salvation “finding Him” as my personal savior. Or, giving ourselves to works we dream up to please and enhance our righteous standing before Him.,
However, we must sooner or later come to a place of understanding that knowing Him comes by the Spirit and by His hand of revelation.
Let’s consider, for a moment, an early part of Paul’s letter to Corinth.
[1Corinthians 2:1 NASB95] 1 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony (a few manuscripts say “mystery” here) of God.
The apostle says that the message he was proclaiming was not coming from superior elocution and speech making, or his intellect, but from a testimony/a spoken word revealed about God. A mystery unveiled.
He continues along this line:
[1 Corinthians 2:3-5 NASB95] 3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, 4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
He and his message were dependent, not upon his abilities, but the Spirit and power of God. The only faith produced had to come by revelation produced by the power of God through His own Spirit. Isn’t it amazing that God chooses to reveal Himself through men by the Spirit. And, No! It doesn’t happen only through so called apostles. We have set Paul on too high of a pedestal. Yes, he had revelation, some of it very unique to him. But so do you get revelation. What he had was the Spirit. So do you! God uses vessels who are “in weakness… in fear,… in trembling... not persuasive in their own words of wisdom or the so-called wisdom of men” Those not having “superiority of speech or of wisdom”. No! He uses and desires those that are reliant on the Spirit and His power and revelation. He is not looking for gifted men, He is looking for faithful men.
[1 Corinthians 2:9-11 NASB95] 9 but just as it is written, “THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND [which] HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.” 10 For to us God revealed [them] through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. 11 For who among men knows the [thoughts] of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the [thoughts] of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.
Revelation? It has to be this way, because only God knows His mind/purpose. And, the Spirit of God reveals the depths of God to the likes of Paul. That also means He can and will reveal them to the likes of you and me. So others may know Him through what we share about Him. Imagine the depths of God revealed to us by the Spirit and then shared through us by the same Spirit. Powerful.
[1 Corinthians 2:12-13 NASB95] 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, 13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual [thoughts] with spiritual [words.]
The Spirit of revelation is from God. He desires us to know Him. He freely give us things about HIm to share. Not things that are from human intellect taught by rote and lecture. But things actually…. (think on this please) taught by the Spirit, tying together God’s mind and purpose with spoken words we can and may share with others. I am convinced when we share what God has revealed to us through life experiences, the scriptures, and the creation, we often may not even realize that He is revealing Himself to others through that. Let us listen for those things taught by the Spirit and share and speak as He prompts us to and reveals Himself to us, and through us to others.
[1Corinthians 2:14-16 NASB95] 14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. 15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. 16 For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.
The things of the Spirit cannot be understood by the natural mind/intellect/wisdom. It takes the Spirit of God to reveal them, and cause you to examine and understand the otherwise incomprehensible God and the things that are of Him and His purpose. (The word appraised here in the NASB is better understood as examined.) Thank God we can know Him!… because He has placed His Spirit in us and given us the mind of Christ.
Note for consideration
The prophets foretold that He would:
[Ezekiel 36:26-27 NASB95] 26 “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances..
[Jeremiah 31:33-34 NASB95] 33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 “They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”