1.3 Knowing God
© 2018 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Just before He went to Gethsemane and then to the cross, Jesus prayed this prayer to His Father. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give age-unfolding life to as many as You have given Him. And this is age-unfolding life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent (John 17:1-3).
Our focus is on verse 3: And this is age-unfolding life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. Life, the life Jesus gives us, a life that unfolds in us forever, is to KNOW God and to Know Jesus living in our hearts.
Life. This lesson is on knowing God, but Jesus gives “knowing God” as the only definition in the Bible as to what the age-unfolding life we have received really is. First, in 1 John 5:11-12, John said this about that life. God has given us age-unfolding life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son [Jesus dwelling in your heart] has life.
The term “age-unfolding” is the Greek word aeonian, from aeon, a period of time. It carries the concept of the unfolding of our lives, step by step, out from Jesus living in our hearts. That unfolding of Jesus as our life will continue step by step, from glory to glory, forever.
But what is this life we now possess?
A Fountain of Water. Now, we said that we don’t hold mental images in our brains depicting God. Nonetheless, Jesus gives us a picture in John 4:14 that He wants us to have when we think about the life that is Father, knowing Father, inside of us. Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become inside of him a fountain of water springing up into age-unfolding life.
Picture a fountain of water always bubbling up inside of you, whether you feel anything or not; that fountain is LIFE, as defined by Jesus. But what is life, as Jesus defined it, the only definition of age-unfolding life in the Bible? Life is to know God.
The Covenant. But there is another side to this “knowing” of God, and to understand this other side we must continue with God’s Heart. What does God want? We know exactly what God wants in the Covenant He made with us, also called the New Testament.
Here is part of that Covenant, in Hebrews 8:11 – For all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. Let’s ask a very simple question. Look around you at the people you know in this world. Do all of them KNOW God? No they don’t; in fact we who desire to know Him hardly know God at all.
Our Goal. Here is what we must realize. God wants something with all of His Heart, something He does not now possess. God wants all to know Him.
Let’s put three statements we have looked at together. Jesus lives in my heart through faith – You cannot come to the Father except through Me – Life is to know God and to know Jesus Christ whom God has sent. Our goal is to know Jesus as He is, for in that way, as John said, we are just like Him.
It is evident, then, that Father God sent Jesus to live in our hearts so that we might know Father, yes, but also, so that others might know God through us.
To Know God. You must place this rule, then, here at the beginning of your seeking to know Jesus as He is. The fulfillment of all that God speaks is for us to know God, and everything is made complete with God made known. Jesus lives in our hearts so that we might know God and so that God might be known through us.
You see, in the words conformed with His image – image means, “God known through us.” In His prayer in John 17, Jesus addresses God as “Father” all the way through, and He tells us to call God, “Father.”
So what does it mean to KNOW our Father and how could you and I ever do such a thing?
The Capacity to Know God. John says something absolutely incredible at the end of his first epistle, 1 John 5:20. We will give a slightly enlarged version of the meaning of John’s words.
More than that, we know that the Son of God IS presently and actively come [– Jesus living in our hearts] and has given us an understanding, a through-mind [a spirit-mind capacity], so that we might know [Him who is] the true; and we are inside of [Him who is] the true, in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is [we are speaking of] the true God and age-unfolding life [that is, knowing God].
Jesus living in your heart gives you the capacity, the ability, the mechanism by which you are fully capable of knowing God in all that knowing God might mean forever.
The Best Thing Ever. And even more than that, Jesus living in your heart gives you the capacity, causes you to be “God made known” (image) in all that “God made known through you” might mean forever.
If you like excitement, knowing God is the most exciting thing any human could ever do. If you like adventure, knowing Father is filled with more adventure than any human has ever experienced. If you like peace and quietness, knowing God is filled with more peace and quietness than you knew could exist. If you like knowing Jesus, you will like knowing Father even more. Knowing God is just the best thing that is or ever could be.
The Path of Life. In fact, here is what David said about knowing God in one of his poems, Psalm 16:11. You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. The path of life is knowing Jesus as He is, Jesus alive and at home inside of your heart.
One more thing to understand here about knowing God. The word, “to know,” both in English and in Greek, is an unusual word in that it contains a sliding scale of meaning. To be aware of something is “to know.” To live inside of God and God inside of you is “to know.” And “to know” is complete at every point from one to the other.
We Know God by Heart. We know God in just the same way that we know Jesus Sent into us. We know God only by heart; we know Him as a fountain of water billowing up as life inside our hearts every moment. That is one of the few “pictures” we are to have of Father as He is.
We know God by heart.
And as you continue knowing Jesus as He is, dwelling in your own heart, you will find that statement, “knowing God by heart,” taking on dimensions of reality that will simply take your breath away with joy and goodness. You knew when you asked Jesus to live in your heart that something big had changed. There is no end to discovering what that means.
Connect Personally. We will never make the mistake of receiving what God says to us as ideas for our heads. Rather, always be sure to connect directly and personally with the Lord Jesus through faith by every Word that God speaks.
Speak these words out loud. “Lord Jesus, You tell me that You live inside of me, inside my heart, so that I might know God, not just as Your Father, but as my Father as well. You tell me that you give me the capacity, what You call a “through-mind” so that I can actually know God in all that knowing God might mean. I have no idea what that means, Lord Jesus, but I believe that You are telling me the truth and I receive all that You speak as life inside of me.”
The First Three Parts of Knowing Jesus. As you continue reading, now, through the chapters of this little book, keep in mind these three things as you seek to know Jesus as He is.
1. You know the Lord Jesus Christ as He is only as the One who dwells in all that He is in Person inside your heart. You know Jesus only by heart and only through faith.
2. God’s Heart, ruled by His determination, stands above and directs all that God speaks in the Bible. We are overwhelmed with God’s determination that we would be just like Jesus as Father made known.
3. Your knowing of God and God made known through you is the completion and fulfillment of all that God speaks and does. It is the age-unfolding life that Jesus gives us.