So You Think You Know God Part 1

So You Think You Know God?

You've heard about God's Love in your salvation but there is another quality of God JUST AS IMPORTANT when it comes to your salvation. Do you know what it is? I hope so, your salvation depends on it.
Have you ever thought you knew a person, only to find out you didn’t know them that well at all, or you just flat had a wrong impression or inaccurate information about them? Or maybe someone told you something about them that only later, when you got to know them yourself, you found it to be completely untrue.  I remember once when I was a college instructor a student came to me at the end of the course and said she avoided taking my class for over a year because she was afraid of me.  After taking my class and getting to know me she couldn’t believe how different I was from her initial impression.  What you know of a person, or lack thereof, determines what you think of them and how you relate to them.  That is true of any relationship, including your relationship to God.  The bedrock foundation of any relationship is grounded on two factors: Having accurate information and thorough information about them. Anything less and you don’t know them the way you think you do.

When it comes to your eternal destiny, having an accurate and thorough understanding of who God is essential. But it’s not only important for after you take your last breath, what you know of God determines how you relate to Him every day of your life in the here and now.  

The purpose of this article is to give an accurate and concise description of who God is based on His own words, the Holy Bible.  That makes sense, right?  If you want to know a person go to the source, them!  Thank God He hasn’t left us getting to know Him by chance.  But before we begin exploring who God is I want to briefly discuss how we can know who God is and what He is like to begin with.  The Bible shows us at least four ways He reveals Himself to us: creation, our conscience, the Bible and the Holy Spirit.  Let’s briefly explore each one.

HOW CAN WE KNOW GOD?

1.     God Speaks Through Creation

Psalms 19:1-4  “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.  2  Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night reveals knowledge.  3  There is no speech, nor are there words; Their voice is not heard.  4  Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their utterances to the end of the world.”

I like how the Amplified version says it in verse 3-4

Psalms 19:3-4  “There is no speech nor spoken word [from the stars]; their voice is not heard.  4  Yet their voice [in evidence] goes out through all the earth, their sayings to the end of the world.”

King David, who penned these words, is expressing how when he observed his world around him he couldn’t help but be in awe of its greatness and majesty and not think how great the God would have to be who created it all.  He didn’t have the technology of high powered telescopes or electron microscopes that we have today to see the even greater wonder and complexity beyond the naked eye, and the more science and technology explores and uncovers the unknown dimensions of the universe the more it continues to  confirm and declare there is a Creator behind it all.  Secular science ignorantly boasts science will one day answer all the mysterious of the universe and remove the notion of God, but the opposite is happening and will continue, the deeper we are able to probe and explore the far reaches of the universe the more we will hear the message “the heavens are telling of the glory of God”.  

The Apostle Paul in his letter to the church in Rome tells us God’s creation speaks so clearly of His existence that those who ignore it willfully suppress the truth.  Romans 1:20  “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”

That means on the Day of Judgement when every man will give an account to God for their deeds, he or she will be lying if they say they never knew of God and will have to answer to Him for their refusal to listen.  

           So remember the next time on a clear dark quiet night when you look up into the heavens and behold the infinite expanse beyond your reach, don’t just look, pause and listen, it’s not as quiet as it seems, God’s choir of stars are singing of His Glory.

2.  God Speaks Through our Conscience

           Romans 2:14-16  “For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves,  15  in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them,  16  on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.”

           Your conscience is that part of you that is sensitive to God and what is right.  Everyone has one, even the unbeliever or sinner.  It’s part of what makes us all made in the image of God.  The Bible says if we repeatedly ignore our conscience it dulls our heart and makes us less sensitive to knowing and doing what is right.  

           God was referring to the willful stubbornness and repeated disobedience of the Israelites when he said this to the Prophet Isaiah:

Isaiah 6:10  "Render the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes dim, Otherwise they might see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed."

3.  God Speaks Through the Bible

           The clearest and most authoritative way God speaks to us is through His written Word, the Holy Bible.  The Bible says God inspired his prophets to write His words.

2 Timothy 3:16  “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;”

           The Bible is the ultimate standard by which we measure and evaluate anything we think we have heard to be from God.  The main character and the clearest revelation of God revealed through both the Old Testament and New Testament is Jesus Christ.  

4.  God Speaks Through the Holy Spirit

           While on earth, Jesus in physical form could only be in one place at a time, but after he ascended to heaven he sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within us and be the voice of Jesus.

John 14:16-17  "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;  17  that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”

           The presence and power of the Holy Spirit within the believe is so important that Jesus repeatedly told his disciples that the Father promised He would do it. One of the last things Jesus said before ascending into heaven was go to Jerusalem right now and don’t do anything until you receive the promise of the Holy Spirit.

Luke 24:49  "And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high."

           Luke, who wrote the Gospel of Luke and also Acts, continues where Luke chapter 24 left off and in Acts chapters 2 describes the amazing experience of the Father sending the Holy Spirit upon the 120 in the upper room.

           Alright, you’ve learned four ways God speaks to us and reveals His character, will and ways,  now we can begin to explore what God says about Himself.  We will use His own words, the Bible, as the basis of our study in the next part.