by Jeremy Paschall
When my son was a small boy playing with his buddies in the back yard, I overheard them talking one day — and the conversation was, amusingly, one of those “My dad can whip your dad” routines.
I heard one boy proudly say, “My dad knows the mayor of our town!” Then I heard another say, “That's nothing — my dad knows the governor of our state!” Wondering what was coming next in the “program of bragging,” I presently heard a wonderfully familiar voice (that of my own little son) saying, “That's nothing — my dad knows God!”
I swiftly slipped away from my place of eavesdropping with tears running down my cheeks. I dropped on my knees in my room and prayed earnestly and gratefully, “Oh, God, I pray that my boy will always be able to say, ‘My dad knows God.’ ”
by Hilding Halverson
People do tend to take pride in who they know, don't they? “I went to school with Michael Jordan.” “I grew up in the same neighborhood as Faith Hill.” “I once shook hands with Mel Gibson.” “My aunt’s cousin’s friend’s neighbor’s brother-in-law’s co-worker is married to the President’s aunt’s half-brother.” There is a sense in which we take on some of the prestige and the importance of those whom we know (or at least we like to think so).
Of all the people you know or would like to know, I certainly hope that God is first among them. But the question is, “How do we come to know God?” A lot of people are searching for a relationship with Him, but are they looking in the right place?
There is only one way to know God, and that is by coming to know His Son, Jesus Christ. When we know the Son, we will also know the Father.
Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not know that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me… (John 14:8-11)
But if we must know the Son to know God the Father, then how do we come to know the Son?
By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him; the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked. (1 John 2:3)
Coming to know God is not some mystical, better-felt-than-told, metaphysical, psychic, or emotional experience (as many “spiritual” teachers would have you believe). It is the product of knowing Jesus through obedience to His will. May we all resolve to study His will and apply it fully so that we all come to know Him intimately.