So far in the Knowing God series, we have learned that to get to know God, we need to learn about Him and we need to experience Him. To do so, we need to learn to communicate with Him. We can only do this by spending regular, quality time with Him, by learning to listen as well as speak, and to learn to trust Him. Now let’s take a look at just how you can accomplish all of this!
Learning about God: How can we learn about God? You learn about God by getting into His Word, by hearing the testimony of others, and by witnessing God at work, first-hand! I cannot overemphasize the importance of reading God’s Word, my friends! By reading God’s Word, we become familiar with the different ways that God works. We learn how He made Himself known to others, and we learn to trust in Him through the experiences of others.
But though I do not wish to downplay the importance of knowing about God in any way, I have to admit that knowing about Him is not the same thing as knowing Him. So with a solid basis of knowing about Him, we can begin to get to know Him personally.
This is a very large topic, but I will simply highlight a few things that I, personally, have found very helpful.
First of all, we need to pray without ceasing. Now I’m not talking about the “give me” kind of prayer, or the “help me” kind of prayer. I’m not even talking about the “get down on your knees” kind of prayer. I’m talking about aligning your thoughts — all of them! — to Him. I’m talking about literally sharing every thought, feeling, and emotion with God, ALL the time! And when you pray, you must always stop and listen. When you ask God a question and open up your heart to Him, He will answer! You just have to listen. In a state of constant prayer, He speaks to us through His Holy Spirit into our thoughts. It doesn’t take long to learn to recognize His voice!
Secondly, we need to recognize that God is always at work in and around our lives. John 5:17-18: “Jesus said to them, ‘My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.'” If we recognize that He is always at work around us, we can begin to watch for His hand in our lives.
Thirdly, we need to praise God for EVERYTHING! All that we have is a gift of God. In fact, praise should make up a major portion of the “continual prayer” I spoke of above.
Fourthly, recognize that you CAN trust Him with everything, and with this realization, begin to give Him all of your problems. Then sit back and watch how He takes care of them!
Finally, get into the habit of submitting ALL of your choices to Him!
The more you commune with the Lord, the more you will recognize His voice. Why not start today, my friends? Why not make it your personal goal to really get to know God, today?
For anyone who is serious about getting to know God, I would recommend the workbook, “Experiencing God”, by Henry Blackaby and Claude King. This is full of excellent, practical suggestions and exercises to get you started down the path of getting to know God personally.
Love in Christ,
Lyn
Lyn Chaffart, Moderator, The Nugget, Scriptural Nuggets ( www.scripturalnuggets.org ), Answers2Prayer Ministries, www.Answers2Prayer.org
(To access the entire “Knowing God” mini-series, please click here.)