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You can only know God by letting Him know you!
Most people think they can know God by learning something, by knowing something, by having knowledge at their disposal. By knowing the Bible, for instance. Or the Koran. Or the Bhagavad Gita. They think that by thinking, by thinking and logic, by facts, and knowing, and thinking; by arguing and figuring and… they can know God.
But that thinking is erroneous. You can’t know God that way! You can’t know God by all the knowledge that you force into your brain! By all the knowing, the logic; by all the logical knowing and arguing, and figuring, and… you can’t know God that way! You can’t know God by having in your head all the knowledge of all the other arguers and disputers of God of this world.
John 10:14,15a I am the good shepherd, and know (gnosko) those that are mine, and am known (gnosko) of those that are mine. As the Father knows (gnosko) me, even so know (gnosko) I the Father;
God is spirit (John 4:24), and in order for us to experience Him, we must first allow Him to experience us! Jesus says here in John 10 that He knows and is known of those that are his; also, that he knows the Father in the same manner and to the same degree that the Father knows him! There is also a progressive, time element to this word “as.” like in “As the sun rises, the day warms.”
So lets take a look at that word “know.” It doesn’t mean to know about something. It means to know something by experience, and is sometimes translated “understand.” E.W. Bullinger, in his A Critical Lexicon and Concordance to the English and Greek New Testament, has this to say about the two different kinds of knowing (the third word is related to the second).
Oida – to perceive, or see; hence, to have knowledge of the existence of the thing. It also denotes mediate knowledge, as from hearsay.
Gnosko – to have insight into, denoting a personal and true relationship between the person knowing and the object known; to the end of being influenced by one’s knowing.
Epignosko – to have thorough and/or intimate insight into, denoting a more thorough and true relationship between the person knowing and the object known.
Most languages distinguish between these two types of knowing. In Norwegian, these two Greek words are represented by vite and kjenne. In French, these two Greek words are represented by savoir and comprendre. (All 4 of these words are translated “know” in English). In English, we don’t have two different words, and so I find it helpful, when reading the Bible, to make the distinction myself. I translate “gnosko” as “to know by experience.”
In the New Testament, oida is used about 3X more often than gnosko. You may find this fairly representative of life. That we know so many more things than we actually know by experience. However, if you want to know God, then the only way to know God is by experience. Which is why it is written:
I Corinthians 1:21 For because of this, that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew (gnosko) not God, it pleased God by (what the world calls) the foolishness of preaching, to save those who believe.
The wisdom of the world is gained by oida knowing, and all the logic that flows from it. The knowing of God is gained only by gnosko knowing. As we know God only by experiencing Him, so He knows us by experiencing us. Everything that God knows, He knows by experience, for He is the Creator of everything.
Luke 16:15 …. but God knows (gnosko) your hearts …..
I Corinthians 3:20 … the Lord knows (gnosko) the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.
You could look at it this way. God travels, or is willing to travel, with you wherever you go. If a path you take will not bear fruit, will not produce good results, (it is thus vain), then God will not travel that path with you, for all His ways are fruitful. Simply by realizing whether or not God is with you could thus alert you to the reality of the fruitfulness or vanity of a specific path of endeavor.
Galatians 4:9 But now, after that you have known (gnosko) God, or rather (even greater) are known (gnosko) by God, how do you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, unto which you again desire to be in bondage?
Not a single person in the Old Testament was a part of the kingdom where the Spirit of God rules. Not one person in the Old Testament could even see, much less understand or know by experience, the loving power of the eternal Father. Why would a person, then, upon knowing God by experience, return to a state of thinking that behavior modification (bondage of the flesh) was in any way God’s will for their lives? Why return, in thought and deed, to the understanding and practice of the Old Testament, which was no understanding of God at all! The work of Jesus Christ has freed us from that bondage!
II Timothy 2:19a Nevertheless the foundation of God stands sure, having this seal; The Lord knows (gnosko) those who are His….
Like Jesus, we know the Father only to the degree that the Father knows us. This is why true spiritual growth is a transformation by the spirit within.
I John 4:10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His son to be the propitiation (restitution in full) for our sins.
I Corinthians 8:2 But if any man love God, the same is known (gnosko) by Him.
Our relationship with God did not originate with us. It originated with Him. God began it, passing it on to His son Jesus Christ, who then has faithfully passed it on (and is faithfully passing it on) to us.
John 17:25, 26 O righteous Father, the world has not known (gnosko) You; but I have known (gnosko) You, and these have known (gnosko) that You have sent me. And I have declared (to lead out into the open) unto them Your name, and will declare it; that the love with which You have loved me may be in them, and I in them.
Ever since Jesus Christ has been glorified, it is possible for us to know God by experience, because it is possible for God to know us by experience!
John 14:7 If you had known (gnosko) me, you would have known (gnosko) my Father also; and from now on you know (gnosko) Him, and have seen Him.
It was the job of Jesus Christ to eradicate that which stood between us and God (the devil and all his workings, per I John 3:8), and to restore to us the ability (dunamis – power, ability) to once again be known by God, and thus to know Him.
John 14:16, 17 And I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees him not, neither knows (gnosko) him; but you know (gnosko) him; for he dwells with you (he was in Jesus), and shall be in you (after Jesus is glorified….per John 7:39).
Let us seek to be known by God. Let us be willing to lose our old, physical psyche so that we may receive the life of Christ into our being, allowing ourselves to be influenced by His presence in our lives. Instead of seeking to carry God in our pocket, to have Him ready if and whenever we need Him, let us seek to walk in His spiritual ways of knowing us, which will always result in abundance of life and fruitfulness, to the praise of God’s full expression of Himself in our lives.
I Corinthians 13:12 For now we see through a glass, obscurely; but then face to face; now I know (gnosko) in part; but then shall I know (epignosko) even as also I am known (epignosko).
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Studies referred to, and related to this topic are:
Power and Authority
How Do We Get Faith? ….. God GIVES It To Us
The Glorified Christ
Fruitfulness in Christ – Colossians 1:1-15
Dark Christian Doctrines
