Knowing God

Some time ago I was laying before the Lord in meditation and preparation for an area meeting we were going to hold later that evening in South Plainfield, NJ. During this time a couple of portions of Scripture from the book of Isaiah seemed to jump out of my Bible at me! I spent the next hour or so just meditating on them and some thoughts began to develop. That night at the area meeting, I gave about a thirty-minute exhortation off the cuff based on what I had been meditating on earlier that afternoon. I want to share some of those thoughts with you.

“’You are My witnesses,’ declares the Lord, ‘And My servant whom I have chosen, In order that you may KNOW and BELIEVE Me, And UNDERSTAND that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, And there will be none after Me. I, even I, am the Lord; And there is no savior besides Me. It is I who have declared and saved and proclaimed, And there was no strange god among you; So you are My witnesses,’ declares the Lord, ‘And I am God. Even from eternity I am He; And there is none who can deliver out of My hand; I act and who can reverse it?’” Isaiah 43:10-13 NASB (emphasis mine)

The first thought that I had while meditating on this Scripture was how awesome God is! We serve a truly sovereign God. I think if there is one truth that we don’t hear enough teaching on today in our churches it would have to be the sovereignty of God. Look at what God said: “I, even I, am the Lord; And there is no savior besides Me.” I really like what He said in verse 13: “I act and who can reverse it?” What an awesome God we serve! Isaiah 46 also bears out this same thought of the sovereignty and awesomeness of our God. “’…For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’…’Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it.’” Isaiah 46:9-11 NASB No wonder we sing the song today in many of our churches, “Who Is Like The Lord?”

We could spend the rest of this blog talking about our awesome God, but I really want to focus on the three words in our first text that are printed totally in large case and bold:

KNOW, BELIEVE & UNDERSTAND. It stood out to me that according to our text, God has chosen us to be His servants and witnesses, and what will make us the witness is the fact that we know, believe and understand Him. It should not surprise us that He called us His witnesses for Jesus did the same in Acts 1:8, speaking of our life after the empowerment of The Holy Spirit. I began to see things all being intertwined together in these verses and being dependent one upon the other and in progressive order.

It all begins with our knowing God. I believe many in the church, even though they are legitimately saved, really don’t know God. God has chosen us to know Him. When we know Him, it will be a witness. If we don’t know Him, we will have a hard time believing Him, and for sure we won’t understand Him. Yet these verses say: know, believe & understand. The first thing we need to know is that our God is sovereign. Again as I have already stated, there is a great shortage of revelation in the Body of Christ today regarding this elementary but important doctrine.

I can hear many of you thinking, how can he make a statement like being legitimately saved and not knowing God. Let me explain. If you were to get introduced to the President of the United States, would you really know him? The honest truth would be that you were introduced to him, you met him, but you really don’t know him. So it is with God, when you got saved, you were introduced to Him, you met Him, but you really don’t know Him. The only way you can get to know anybody is by spending time with him or her. God is no different. We spend time with God by reading His Word and spending time in prayer, or as my Dad used to say: “Keep your nose in the ‘book’ and your knees on the floor.”

Without spending time with God we will not know God. Some believe that going to church makes them know God. Watching the news on TV or reading the newspaper about the President makes you know about him, but you still don’t really know him. By going to church and listening we learn about God, but unless we personally enter into worship and communion with Him, we still don’t know Him.

Because many of us really don’t know God, many of us have a hard time believing God. God was declaring through the Prophet Isaiah Who He is, what His character is, so that we would know what He is like, and know Him. God knows that when we get a revelation of how awesome He is we will not have a problem taking Him at His word and believing that He will do what He said He will do. But until we know Him, we find ourselves wondering, will God really do what His word says He will do. I know none of us wants to admit that we have operated in unbelief. We all want everyone to think that we are the most super-spiritual, all faith possessing Christians that have ever walked the face of the earth. However, just take inventory and be honest and I am sure that you will admit like I had to, I need improvement at taking God at His word. It starts with knowing Him.

Now we are hit with a really big challenge. God said in the same book of Isaiah: “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:9 NASB If that is true, and it is, how can God say in our text that we should understand Him? First realize that God never says we can do something if we can’t. Remember I said that everything in these verses was intertwined and in progressive order, hinged on the fact that we should know God. If we don’t know Him, we will never believe Him, and if we don't believe Him we will never understand Him, because His ways are higher than ours.

Paul said: “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 1 Corinthians 2:14 NKJV Too many of us try to discern the things of God naturally instead of spiritually and cannot discern them. If we knew God not just about Him, or were just introduced to Him, we would see things His way. We would see with spiritual eyes, not natural eyes, and we would understand Him. How often have you heard Christians ask: ”How could God do that?” or “How could that be?” Perhaps you have asked those or similar questions yourself. When you truly know Him, those types of questions diminish because you gain understanding of Him.

The simple truth is when you know Him you have no trouble believing Him, and when you believe Him you can then move on to understanding Him.

My purpose for writing this blog is to stir you up to know God better than you do; To spend more time with Him, in prayer, worship, communion, meditation and in His Word. As a result you will be a witness because you will KNOW BELIEVE & UNDERSTAND Him!

You Are My Witnesses

Two of my favorite texts in the entire Bible are Acts 1:8 and Isaiah 43:10.

 

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” Acts 1:8 NASB (emphasis mine)

 

“’You are My witnesses,’ declares the Lord, And My servant whom I have chosen, So that you may know and believe Me And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, And there will be none after Me.’” Isaiah 43:10 NASB (emphasis mine)

 

There is no doubt that God wants His people to be His witnesses. We see it here in the Old Covenant and in the New Covenant so it is a consistent Biblical truth. Webster’s Dictionary defines a witness as: attestation of a fact or event, one that gives evidence; specifically: one who testifies in a cause or before a judicial tribunal, one who has personal knowledge of something.

 

A good witness in a trial or court case is one that is credible, and has first-hand intimate knowledge. There are some witnesses in court cases that are referred to as false witnesses, which would be those that are not credible and have no first-hand knowledge, but can only testify to hearsay. In these two verses we see four things that will help us be credible witnesses…beside the obvious of only giving witness to what we have first-hand knowledge of. (This means you can’t be a witness of Grandma’s or Mamma’s faith…only your own)

 

Number 1, in Acts 1:8, the first thing that enables us to be a witness is the power of the Holy Spirit. Notice Jesus did not say, ‘you will go witnessing’, He said, ‘you shall be My witnesses.’ There is a difference between going witnessing and being a witness that I really don’t have time to get into here, but we are told that we would receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon us, and because of that power, we would be witnesses.

 

You really can’t be an effective witness for Him apart from receiving the power of the Holy Spirit in your life first. To try and do so in your own power or ability is ludicrous. In fact Scripture clearly states: “Then he said to me, ‘This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel’ saying, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.’” Zechariah 4:6 NASB

 

Number 2, in Isaiah 43:10, we are told that we should KNOW HIM. Until you know God…you can’t be a witness for God. Now I am not talking about getting Born Again when I speak of knowing God. Being Born Again is just getting introduced to God, all that means is that you met Him; it does not mean that you know Him. You could be introduced to the President of the United States, but that would not mean that you know him, it would merely mean that you met him.

 

The only way you get to really KNOW somebody is to spend time with them, and God is no different. We spend time with Him in His Word, in Prayer and in Praise & Worship. As we do these things we get to KNOW Him. We learn what He likes and what He dislikes. We learn how He thinks and we learn what moves His heart. I have a great relationship with my earthly Father. We have invested all 51 years of my life developing it. But because we have spent so much time together…I Know him…that is the way it needs to be with our Heavenly Father. This enables us to be a witness.

 

Number 3, in Isaiah 43:10, we are told that we should BELIEVE HIM. Let me submit to you that these things in Isaiah 43:10 are progressive. You have a hard time Believing God when you don’t Know God. But when you KNOW God, you have NO ISSUE BELIEVING GOD! Once you have the spent the time with Him so that you know what He thinks, what He likes and what He feels, it makes it very easy for you to Believe what He says.

 

Let me go back to my relationship with my earthly Father. Because I know him, if he tells me Mike next Tuesday I am going to give you $500.00 for your birthday…I might just as well take it to the bank. Why? Because I know him and I know his word is good. Well when we get to the same place with God that we know Him so well that we know His Word, we will believe Him. This enables us to be a witness.

 

Number 4, in Isaiah 43:10, we are told that we should UNDERSTAND HIM. Notice the progression…Know Him…Believe Him…Understand Him. Until you know Him you can’t believe Him, and until you believe Him you can’t understand Him But when you know Him you can believe Him, and when you believe Him you can understand Him.

I go back again to my relationship with my earthly Father. Because I know him so well, I understand why he does what he does, why he thinks the way he thinks and why he acts the way he acts. I know what makes him tick…I get it when it comes to him. So it is with our heavenly Father, because we know Him and believe Him, it makes it easy for us to understand Him. We should understand why God thinks the way He thinks…what makes Him tick. This enables us to be a witness.

 

If we want to be His effective Witnesses…we must realize these simple truths. God wants us to be His witnesses. He has provided the Power of the Holy Spirit to enable us to be His witnesses. He has made it available to us that through spending time with him through His Word, Prayer and Praise & Worship we could Know Him, Believe Him and Understand Him, enabling us to be His witness.