August 12

“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know him better.”  —EPHESIANS 1:17 

A man called Zophar asked Job, “Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens - what can you do? They are deeper than the depths of the grave - what can you know?” (Job 11:7-8). This passage  raises a very significant question: to what extent can God be known?

When trying to understand something we cannot see, we usually think in terms of comparison or contrast, but God cannot be compared or contrasted to anything that exists as He transcends everything in His creation. Isaiah 40:17 asks, “To whom, then, will you compare God? What image will you compare Him to?” We cannot prove to the skeptical mind the existence of God by placing Him in some kind of category or equating Him with something else. Hence, there is a very real sense in which grasping knowledge of God is not only difficult, but impossible. However, Scripture encourages us to the reality that we can know God. 

It isn’t by human activity that we come to know God or Christ, but by divine revelation. 1 John 5:20 says, “We know also that the Son has come and has given us understanding that we may know him who is true.” God has revealed Himself by His Son, through creation and in Scripture, but it is only by divine revelation of the Holy Spirit that we come to personally know God. 

Human beings are the only form of life which has the unique privilege of being created in God’s moral image. He has given us the ability, through His Spirit, to aspire to His love, kindness, compassion, goodness, mercy and to some extent, His holiness. Jesus said, “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3). Jesus isn’t talking about ‘knowing’ as in meeting someone and knowing common facts about them, but knowing to the extent of intimate revelation by them and personal experience of them. 

Eternal life is actually knowing and experiencing the moral attributes of God, because our knowledge of God will be directly related to the measure in which the character of God is being reproduced in us. And that is the heart of the Gospel… to personally know and experience God in our lives.

PRAYER: I pray, Lord, that I will come to know and experience You more intimately, and ask that your Holy Spirit continue that work in me. Thank You, Lord. 

TO REFLECT UPON: What experiences of God have I had that have increased my knowledge of Him?