That I May Know Him

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, (Reality) and the life..." (John 14:6). Jesus was saying of Himself, I am the totality of all things possessing actuality, existence, or essence. He is the personification of truth. Notice that I did not say Jesus is the personification of all truth. For there is only one truth, one reality, and Jesus is it! However, reality cannot always be seen, but it can be discovered. For believers, the most significant unseen reality that we must each discover, in order to live the lives that we were meant to, is the spiritual reality of our supernatural God. One of the magnificent things of God, is, He has left us evidence of Himself in the created world, the natural environment around us. Yet, when we contemplate the greatness of His creation, our finite minds still cannot begin to fathom who He truly is and His immense power.

Yes, we have His Word that reveals His will, nature, character, purpose and plan, but man has mostly tried to know God through intellectual means. We can know facts and information about God, but we cannot know Him personally through intellectual knowledge. Why? Intellectual knowledge also known as mental ascent or better yet, sense knowledge is limited because it uses the five senses; taste, smell, touch, see and hear to acquire and assimilate knowledge. Due to our overemphasizing intellectual knowledge, people are very aware of the natural realm but are generally uninformed and or misinformed about the supernatural realm. The natural realm being the dimension that is subject to the laws of time, space, and matter is temporal. Whereas, the supernatural realm or spiritual realm is the dimension that operates above natural laws. It is permanent, invisible, eternal and is located outside of time and space and furthermore, it also exercises dominion over the natural realm.

Intellectual knowledge has its rightful place in society, but it is a poor substitute for spiritual knowledge. The Apostle Paul tells us two things to consider, "We know that we all have knowledge.  (which here is defined as intellectual knowledge) puffs up..." (1 Corinthians 8:1) "But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corinthians 2:14) So, we can see why intellectual knowledge pales to true knowledge which is of the spiritual realm. This is why in the absence of progressive divine revelation, people tend to rely on formal, academic education, much of which attempts to discredit faith. Jesus said, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life." (John 6:63) This also shows us that truth is spiritual and therefore the reason why philosophers also fail to understand or come to know it. Things of the spiritual realm can only be discerned spiritually which is why Jesus said what He did to Nicodemus, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God...That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." (John 3:3, 6) So, in order to know God, one must be born again of the spirit. 

It was never God's intention to remain a mystery to people, especially those who are born again. In fact, He has always desired for us to know Him intimately and to experience Him in a personal way. However, we must understand that only God can reveal Himself.  No person has the ability to know Him apart from Him revealing Himself, that is, a revelation of Himself. He also must do the initiating to accomplish this. This was the case in the life and earth ministry of Jesus, "Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner." (John 5:19) "For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak." (John 12:49) Jesus was an obedient, willing and totally submitted vessel who revealed the will, nature, character, purpose and plan of the Father. However, we see it was the Father who initiated what Jesus spoke and did.

Since the only way to really know God is through revelation, let us investigate what revelation is. The Greek word for revelation means "an uncovering" or "disclosure." Revelation enables us to understand truths about the spiritual realm, truths that are hidden from the natural realm. In Jesus' conversation with a woman of Sychar near Jacobs well in Samaria, He reveals to her a very important key to knowing God, "God is Spirit." (John 4:24) This is a revelation of God. He is not of the natural, temporal realm, but of the spiritual eternal realm. The angel Gabriel tells the virgin Mary, "For with God nothing will be impossible." (Luke 1:37) This is another revelation showing us that God is all-powerful. Malachi reveals that God never changes, "For I am the Lord, I do not change." (Malachi 3:6) We also see that God is eternal, "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God." (Psalm 90:2) God dwells in the dimension of eternity, the spiritual realm. Even though He inhabits eternity, He manifests Himself and His works, at times, in visible form in the natural dimension of our physical world and universe.

God reveals Himself to us as the supernatural and all-powerful God through the Holy Spirit. There is no other means by which we can know Him. Again, we cannot know the "reality" of God without Him revealing Himself to us. Even a theologian may know that a superior being exists, but that does not mean that he knows God personally. Many theologians operate merely with information acquired through intellectual research, reasoning, mental processes, or through the experiences of others. But the Holy Spirit is the source of all revelation from God. Jesus said to His disciples,  “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you." (John 16:12-15)  

Now, some will say something to the effect, "the disciples needed revelation from the Holy Spirit, but we do not need it now because we have the Bible." This is only partially true. The Bible tells us, "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12) For instance, did you ever read a passage of scripture several times then all of a sudden it made complete sense or you see it in a different light that is life changing. This is God revealing Himself through a Word within the Word, revelation. Why does this happen? Because God's Word is living, not changing, not static, but alive, living. Remember, Jesus said His word is Spirit and Life. Revelation from God allows us to suddenly understand something without the aid of the natural senses.

Revelation includes knowing things you otherwise would not know, perceiving things without having a prior awareness of them, and seeing things that have yet to occur. It is God revealing His mind, His thoughts to man so that they can know Him personally and exercise their God-given roles and responsibilities on earth. Unfortunately, because we in the western world rely so much on intellectual knowledge, we are trained to reject anything that cannot be explained according to human understanding alone. This is why the Holy Spirit spoke to Paul to tells us, "For we walk by faith, not by sight." (2 Corinthians 5:7) The writer of Hebrews tells us, "By faith we understand..." (Hebrews 11:3) and "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." (Hebrews 11:6) True faith, the faith that comes from God, His Word (Romans 10:17, 12:3), gives us understanding of spiritual things as well as pleasing God. Although the Bible consists of words written on paper, it is not of the natural realm. It is spiritual! Therefore, without a revelation from and of God, faith will not grow. If faith is not growing, it is because faith will not exceed our revelation of God. This is why it is so important for believers to seek God through His Word for revelation each day. 

An analogy of this is found in the history of Israel in their life in the wilderness before entering the promised land. The Lord provided manna for them to eat each morning, “This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. This is the thing which the Lord has commanded: ‘Let every man gather it according to each one’s need, one omer for each person, according to the number of persons; let every man take for those who are in his tent...And Moses said, “Let no one leave any of it till morning. Notwithstanding they did not heed Moses. But some of them left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and stank..." (Exodus 16:15-16, 19-20) Notice that they were in need of fresh bread every morning. The bread from the previous day was old and not worth feeding on. Jesus said, "...“I am the bread of life..." (John 6:35) Jesus is the bread that we believers also need every day. We cannot try to live off of yesterday's bread, revelation, or we may find ourselves "old wines skins." We also cannot know God through intellectual knowledge, by doing so we will not come to truly know God in a personal, intimate way and Christianity will be nothing more than any other lifeless, powerless world religion.  "Where there is no vision [no redemptive revelation of God], the people perish..." (Proverbs 29:18 AMP)