Know God

Hello everyone,

“God is good! His praise will always be on my lips!” That’s what David passionately declared, while he was being ruthlessly pursued and hunted down by his enemies. It was also the heartfelt song of praise from the beaten and bruised lips of Paul and Silas, after being cruelly whipped and struck, then chained and thrown into a dark, cold and damp prison.  I find it so remarkable that each chose to proclaim the goodness of their God towards them, not based on their immediate circumstances, but on the nature of who they truly knew and believed Him to be.

It’s true that you can’t separate God from His acts of kindness and goodness, but when you truly get to know Him, you find being in His presence is really sufficient to know that He is good, and more than enough, even without His acts.  Paul knew this too, in 1 Corinthians 2:2, he says, “For I resolved to know nothing (to be acquainted with nothing, to make a display of the knowledge of nothing, and to be conscious of nothing) among you except Jesus Christ (the Messiah) and Him crucified.”  And in Philippians 3:10, he says, “[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognising and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection...”(AMPC).

Experiencing the goodness of God is far more than having Him meet our needs.  It’s knowing and experiencing Him, ...perceiving and recognising and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly... 

There is nothing more wonderful than knowing God for Who He is, and as His children, having His Spirit alive inside us, there is nothing preventing us from experiencing His presence. In John 14:21, Jesus says that He will manifest Himself to us.  “The person who has My commands and keeps them is the one who [really] loves Me; and whoever [really] loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I [too] will love him and will show (reveal, manifest) Myself to him. [I will let Myself be clearly seen by him and make Myself real to him.]” AMPC.  Our relationship with the Lord was never meant to be mechanical, nor is it religious.  He is a Living Spirit Who desires to have us know, feel and be satisfied by Him.  

I pray that you will hunger after knowing God this way. Jesus said that if we choose Him and His ways, above our own, we truly love Him.  And every heart that is dedicated to live that way will know just how it is to be loved by the Father.  In fact, the very same way Father God loves His Son Jesus, is how we can be loved. That inseparable bond of love is exactly what He offers us.  

If we choose to walk in that, we will find ourselves like David, Paul and Silas; praising Him for His goodness, not based on only what He has already done, and will still do for us, but on the nature of who we truly know and personally experience Him to be.

All my love,

Jenny