Can I Really Know God?

The short answer is God can indeed be known by us! Yes, it is true that we cannot know everything about God, but it is equally true that we can know Him, obey Him, and fulfill His great plan for our lives.

Actually, the Great God of the Bible Desires to Be Known by Us!

This truth is mentioned in several places in the Bible with striking clarity and significance. Consider what God said through his prophet Jeremiah in 24:7, “And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the Lord: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.” When God saves us, he gives us a heart to know Him! Such knowledge is to lead to a deepening relationship with him and a more complete devotion to him.

Consider God’s call of Moses and how He revealed himself to the nation of Israel while they were in captivity in Egypt. In Exodus 3:4, we see the great Communicator in action, “And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.” Obviously God is taking the initiative to reveal Himself to Moses through this extraordinary miracle! Then a little later in Exodus 3:13-14, God reveals one of His names to Moses for the benefit of Israel, “And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? [14] And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” God takes up the cause to disclose truths about Himself to Moses and Moses is to communicate that to others.

 God reveals himself as the only true God. The Egyptians had many gods by many different names. Moses wanted to know God’s name so the Hebrew people would know exactly who had sent him to them. God called himself “I Am”, a name describing his eternal power and unchangeable character.

In a world where values, morals, and laws change constantly, we can find stability and security in our unchanging God. The God who appeared to Moses is the same God who can live in believers today. Hebrews 13:8, says God is the same “yesterday, today, and forever.” Because God’s nature is stable He is trustworthy; we are free to follow and enjoy him rather than spend our time trying to figure him out.

The great desire in the heart of our Lord Jesus Christ for all his disciples is that we might KNOW GOD! In fact, this is the very definition of eternal life—knowing God through faith in Jesus Christ. John records the prayer of the Lord Jesus in John 17:3, stating “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” This same truth was echoed by the Apostle John later in 1 John 5:20, “And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.” Eternal life is a faith-relationship through Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is through Christ that we enter a relationship with God (Jn. 14), and Christ is the revelation of God. It is the Lord Jesus who has “given us and understanding” enabling us to know God. How about you? Do you know God through Christ?

The Source of The Knowledge of God Must be the Scriptures.

Since Christ Jesus is the Way, Truth, and Life, think on what he says about the ability and role of the Word of God to reveal God. Consider John 5:39, where our Lord challenged religious people to “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” The Scriptures proclaim Jesus Christ! Any honest research of the Bible will bring us to the conclusion that the Bible is a “Jesus Book.” Accordingly, a person can be a “Bible scholar” and still miss the real message and primary Person of the Scriptures—Jesus Christ! Many people today use the Bible, quote the Scriptures, and point to proof texts to support their belief system. The problem in too many instances is they have gross misconceptions about God because they miss the centrality of Jesus in the Bible’s message. While they have embraced certain truths and concepts, they remain blind to the knowledge of God because they have not yet perceived the significance of Christ Jesus to understanding God! Honest Scripture research will bring us face to face with the testimony of the Lord Jesus. Beloved, the Bible is the source of the true knowledge of God.

Then in Hebrews 1:1-2, we find this important affirmation, “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, [2] Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds”. God has communicated to humanity in many different ways throughout Bible history. He even spoke through a donkey to a thick-head prophet! Today; however, he is communicating through the Son of God. The Lord Jesus is God’s final world to humanity and that essential message is recorded, explained, and revealed in the body of the New Testament. God is still reaching out to humanity through Christ Jesus as recorded in the Scriptures.

God is Communicating Through Scripture Today!

His desire to communicate to us in diverse ways is an activity of God that should lead us to appreciate Him more. This is amplified since due to our sinful condition He is not obligated to tell us anything at all. Today he is speaking through the Word of God!  

God Clearly Condemns Divination —the attempt to discern God’s message through such things as the pattern of tea leaves or the position of the stars. God does not speak to us through astrology or fortune-tellers. The Bible calls these practices abominations to God.

God Does Not Speak to His People Through Occult Practices. His Word speaks strongly against conjuring spirits—such as séances—and any form of magic that might attempt to give us direction for our lives. Soothsayers and seers were among the people that God clearly told his children to avoid.

We are to stay far away from such things as tarot cards, Ouija boards, crystals, magic charms, and other such paraphernalia associated with the occult. They are not methods that God has used in the past, is using today, or will ever use.  We need to know the Scriptures, for without them we are headed for error. Consider the warning of the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 22:29, “Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.”

Let each of us take Christ’s sober warning to heart. We are prone to err and destined to make huge mistakes in beliefs and judgment if we are ignorant of the Bible. My soul trembles every time I hear someone assert, “I believe what I believe, and that is all that matters.” While they claim to know what they believe, they do not know why they believe it! They may claim the Bible says it, but does the Bible actually teach their ideas? Honestly, they do not know what they do not know! They are trapped and imprisoned by their misconceptions and false ideas. It is painful for me to witness this; yet I am confronted with it too often. When I attempt to show them what the Scriptures actually say and teach, they refuse it clinging to their fables, myths, half-truths, traditions, and misconceptions. They have been fooled by the devil and poisoned by untrue ideas. Beloved, this is an incredibly dangerous predicament in which to live. I definitely would not want to die believing these errors! Biblical ignorance is deadly, and could be eternally damning!

So, to answer the question, “Can I really know God?” the answer is yes! Wonderfully and absolutely YES! The greatest Communicator of all time and eternity has spoken to reveal Himself in the Bible. To know him, read, study, meditate on, and research the most reliable source of spiritual information in the entire universe, the Bible.  To discover the greatest reality of all time and eternity, start reading in the Gospel of John in the New Testament. Read through this single book several times back-to-back. You will find there the historical record of God living among people as a man for the purpose of revealing God to them. You will also find that those who trusted Jesus Christ as Savior entered into an eternal relationship with True God. Yes, the True and Living God is revealed in the Bible and through his Son Jesus Christ. I encourage you to journey on in the knowledge of Him. I challenge you to venture on believing the Word of God in order to grow in your knowledge and experience of Him. You can know God profoundly and deeply!