Knowing God

“If you seek her [Wisdom] as silver
And search for her as for hidden treasures;
Then you will discern the fear of the Lord
And discover the knowledge of God. 

For the Lord gives wisdom;

From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.”
Proverbs 2:4-6

We have the mind of Christ!  (1 Corinthians 2:16).  Christ is the personification of wisdom.  Wisdom is not just the knowing, but the understanding to the point of applying it to your life.  The pastor spoke about the word “know” yesterday.  The key verse was John 17:3 – “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”  There are four Greek words for “know”.

The first means to know about.  Do you know who the vice-president of the United States is?  It is just an awareness of a fact.

The second is knowing the deeper, detailed facts about something to the point that you could ask informed questions.  The journalists that cover the White House know the Vice-president in this way.

The third definition for “know” is experiential knowledge.  It is an emotional reaction to the person.  When I stood at the Lincoln Memorial and read his inaugural addresses, I wept.  This was an experiential knowledge of Abraham Lincoln.

The fourth definition of knowledge takes us even deeper.  It is the Biblical use of “to know” as in Abraham knew his wife Sarah and they conceived a son.  It is the physical intimacy between a man and his wife.  It is an intimate encounter.  Exodus 3:1-8 describes Moses before the burning bush.  He “knew” God in this intimate way there because he acknowledged that God is holy, omniscient, and sovereign. 

Many people “know” God at the first three levels.  But salvation requires us to know God at the fourth level.  When we recognize His holiness, we experience the fear of the Lord.  And the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom.  We become undone and humble ourselves to His cleansing.  When we recognize His omniscience, we realize that we can’t fool God, and we know that we can trust Him.  He knows all about us and loves us anyway!  When we recognize God’s sovereignty, we bow to Him and obey Him.  Ps. 115:3 says – “Our God is in heaven, He does what He pleases.”  Now, we know that what He pleases is for our good and not for evil, so we can trust Him.

I pray that your prayer for today would be that you desire to know God in this more intimate way.  Start by voicing your belief in His holiness, His omniscience, and His sovereignty.  Seek God and know wisdom in your daily life.