Knowing God

 Knowing God

Zac Poonen |  11 September 2022

 The greatest thing in the world is to know God. Because when we know God, we will know what to do in every situation that we face. We will also be bold to face life, even if the whole world is against us, because we know that we stand on firm ground. It takes time to know God, so it is good to start when you are young. In order to know God, you must be willing to consider everything in this world as rubbish, relatively. That means that the things that worldly people consider great must not only have no attraction for you, but seen as garbage! That is how it was for Paul (See Philippians 3:8). 

If we pursue after money or pleasure or honour or greatness in this world, we will discover one day, in the clearer light of eternity, that our hands are filled with rubbish. We will discover then that we spent our earthly lives clinging on to rubbish, when God was all the time calling us to possess His riches. So be wise - and only use the things of earth (because we need them to live here) but never be taken up with any of them, lest you sell your birthright for a bowl of porridge.

“Praise God for His love, that shows us our true condition, so that we can rectify whatever is necessary, now itself."

If God sees that you are serious about your Christian life, He will shake all that can be shaken in your life, so that you are not deceived about your relationship with Him. He is jealous for your spirit. He wants you to know Him personally and not in a book (the Bible) or through another person.

Praise God for His love, that shows us our true condition, so that we can rectify whatever is necessary, now itself. It is not enough that we hate sin and keep ourselves pure. No. We must come into a deep personal relationship with the Lord Jesus. Otherwise all of our cleansing ourselves can become merely a 'Moral Self-Improvement Program'. To build a close relationship with the Lord, first of all, you must be very careful to keep your conscience clear, by mourning for, and confessing any known sin, as soon as you are aware of it. Then you must cultivate the habit of talking to the Lord often during the day. Thus alone will you be able to stand, when everything around you crumbles and falls one day.

This is my greatest longing - to know the Lord, for this alone is eternal life (John.17:3). It is this knowledge of the Lord alone that has helped me to stand undisturbed, and at rest, and above all, in love, when opposed and maligned by Christian groups and pastors, both in India and abroad. I long that you will know the Lord in the same way - and in an even better way than I have known Him.