KNOWING GOD AS A PERSON

We need never shout across the spaces to an absent God. He is nearer than our own soul, closer than our most secret thoughts
A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

Knowing or believing there is a God isn't the same as agreeing there is a God. Many have agreed in their minds that there is a God but in their hearts they know him not neither do they really believe.

You might be reading this and unconsciously agreed there is a God without knowing or believing in Him. In the fragments of your mind there is a supreme being, who made all things and you also might say 'the majority accept that so it has to be true'.

WHAT IF?
You woke up today to find your family yelling at you that they have found there is no God afterall. And that it was all made up. Would you still agree?

But it doesn't end there. You go to school and thats the trending news on campus; everybody is talking about the new discovery with every proof that there is no God. You go to social media and it's there. It's on the news, internet, everywhere, men are saying there is no God. Would you still agree?

Then you run to Church. You thought you might find your Pastor saying otherwise, but you go and find out that even you Pastor-who has beeen shouting every Sunday about this 'God' has given in. He is preaching there is no God and that the Bible is a fake and all was made up. Would you still agree? If the whole world comes out to prove that there is no God. Would you be thinking twice about your beliefs or you would remain be unmovable?

Most of us have just accepted a doctrine; an ideal of God but have nothing to do with Him as person. You can easily find anyone to tell you 'I know there is a God' and go ahead to even list verses and use all the "intellectualism" in theology to explain who God is and then applaud himself. But if you are to enquire of this person again who God is: his personality, you might receive questions instead of an answer.

Is it not true? My dear if I were to ask you to talk about God the way you talk about you best friend, you would scratch your head and wonder in your mind "what should I say?". Describe Him like you describe your father and it might sound strange to you. You might go find a book to read to find something to say and sound correct.

Do you realise that you wouldn't do that if I asked you of your best friend or your father? Again do you realise that the commonest names men call God are "Father" and "Friend", yet our maths models are most often more real than He is to us?
Do you indeed "know" God as a person? Do you "believe" in Him?

Believing there is God transcends the intellect. It is an inward concrete conviction. Its not imaginary nor is it a mere "tingling" on the inside that we assert to. It is an assurance of that which is hoped for; it has an evidence to show though it is not seen. By it the men of old obtained a good report!

Demons believe the is one God and they are terrified. They know of a truth, they do not guess. They are sure of the truth they have received and they are terrified because of it.

When demons saw Jesus, they cried out in terror. They would run and bow. They recognised the God of Heaven and Earth before them though the pharisees couldn't. They never took stones to stone Jesus Christ for saying "I am" because they knew that indeed He is God!

The Pharisees though had read the Bible and could recite the law and prophets like poems, yet they couldn't identify God before them. To this Jesus said :

Ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also._ - John 8:19

I would like you to ask yourself, Do I know God? Do you know Him as you know your father? You call him father and friend but are you saying it because others are saying it or you have come to know his personality as a father just as you came to know earthly father?

God is a person: he is not vague being. He has a will, emotions, intellect. He can be touched and felt. He expresses himself. He loves, he laughs, he cries, he gets sad. Man actually is made in God's image: so man is--apart from our sins-- the expression of God.

Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. - Acts 17:29

[WE ARE writing] about the Word of Life [in] Him Who existed from the beginning, Whom we have heard, Whom we have seen with our [own] eyes, Whom we have gazed upon [for ourselves] and have touched with our [own] hands. And the Life [an aspect of His being] was revealed (made manifest, demonstrated), and we saw [as eyewitnesses] and are testifying to and declare to you the Life, the eternal Life [in Him] Who already existed with the Father and Who [actually] was made visible (was revealed) to us [His followers]. What we have seen and [ourselves] heard, we are also telling you, so that you too may realize and enjoy fellowship as partners and partakers with us. And [this] fellowship that we have [which is a distinguishing mark of Christians] is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ (the Messiah). - 1 John 1:1-3 AMP

In these series of writings, I desire to bring to light God as a person and how we can experience this great being. For It is God's very own desire that we come to know Him as a person.

So that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after Him and find Him, although He is not far from each one of us. For in Him we live and move and have our being; as even some of your [own] poets have said, For we are also His offspring.- Acts 17:27-28