KNOWING GOD

The bride was strikingly beautiful, her smile radiant and pure. The groom displayed joy and anticipation as he watched his fiancée slowly make her way down the center aisle of the church. His joy was matched by hers . . . finally they would become man and wife! Together they pledged their love to each other and only death could part them. The minister who led the couple through their marriage vows said to the groom, “You may kiss the bride,” and did he ever! Then the minister introduced the couple to their families and friends as husband and wife.

After the bridal party left the church, the immediate families and everyone attending the wedding were invited to join the newly married couple at a reception nearby.

The reception was a time of joyous celebration that lasted for several hours. Finally the newlyweds rushed out of the building and into a waiting limo. They were off to begin one of the greatest adventures of all of life as a married couple. In a few minutes the limo pulled up to the apartment building that had been the bride’s home for several years. The beautiful young woman got out of the car followed by her husband. They embraced, kissed and then each whispered to the other, “I love you so much!” The bride walked a few steps and turned to her husband, “Call me as soon as you can” He smiled, “You know I will!” And then he turned and got back into the limo to head to the airport.

Two days later, early in the morning, the phone in the wife’s apartment rang and her husband said, “I’m finally home. We were delayed in London because of mechanical problems so I didn’t arrive in Nairobi until just a couple of hours ago.” They talked for 20 minutes and then hung up, as she needed to get ready for work. The bride was a financial analyst in Chicago and the husband worked with refugees and orphans in war-torn East Africa.

With the wonderful technology available today, the couple was able to talk almost every day using Skype, Internet phone systems, e-mail and Facebook. Their marriage lasted 18 years until the husband fell ill from a bug he picked up in a remote village and died. During their years of marriage the couple talked thousands of times, exchanged gifts on birthdays, at Christmas and sometimes just because of the spontaneity of love, but they never did spend a moment together after their wedding. The wife resided in Chicago and then in Los Angeles. The husband spent his life in East Africa and never returned to the United States.

My question for you is: “Were they really married?” Legally, yes, they were married; they exchanged vows in front of a minister, pledged their undying love, she took his last name and they were never unfaithful to each other. But in reality it was impossible for the marriage to be fruitful because they never came together as “one flesh.”

While my story is farfetched, it is the way many Christians live out their entire spiritual lives. There is no possibility of real fruitfulness because they never get to know the Lord.

After the initial introduction into the family of God, which we call conversion or being “born again,” many who have taken the name “Christian” and pledged their love to Him converse with God in a measured way. They read about Him and His people in His Book and they get to know about Him but they never get to know Him because they keep their distance. There is a vast difference between knowing about God and knowing God!

“The people who know their God shall stand firm and take action” (Daniel 11:32, ESV).

 

What does the word know mean? One useful way to better understand Bible words is to look and see how the word is used in other portions of Scripture. Genesis 4:1: “Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived . . .” (Genesis 4:1, ESV). In the original language, know (yada) is the same in both verses.

“I know God,” a statement commonly used by Christians, is one of the most misunderstood statements in the church today. It is possible to become a Christian but never really know Him. Many people in and out of the church know about God and in that context, knowing is called theology. But the people being described in Daniel 11:32 don’t just know about Him, they really know Him. They have a relationship with Him and out of that relationship come power and fruitfulness. One of the meanings of the Hebrew word for know that is used in Daniel 11:32 and Genesis 4:1 (yada) means to “know intimately.”

I am going to go out on a limb here and oversimplify the whole process of getting to know God. Perhaps in future articles we’ll tackle this more profoundly.

How do you get to know another person? Do you just study a biographical sketch, read a few paragraphs about his background, his family and his life experience? Is that enough to really know a person or are you merely gathering information about them?

There really is only one way to get to know a person — and it’s not via Facebook or Twitter. It’s actually meeting him/her in person, spending quality time talking, listening, observing and learning. It’s a process that cannot be hurried; it takes time but eventually you truly get to know the other person.

And so it is with our relationship with God. He talks to us through His Word. All Scripture is God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16), meaning it is infused with the life and power of the Spirit of God. We talk to Him through our prayer, praise, worship and obedience and sometimes we are content just to be with Him. We are quiet in His Presence and the Holy Spirit gently speaks and ministers to us. Over time we go from being Christians who know about God to being followers who know Him.  “The people who know their God shall stand firm and take action.”

It is time for the church to drop the “Facebook facade” and get intimate with Him. Unless she gets to “know God,” hell is going to wreak havoc with the storms that are breaking over our world.