How Can I Know God?

Levels of Intimacy
  • In every relationship we achieve more intimacy as we know a person better.
  • Because God wants all to know Him intimately He tells us how.
  • As with all relationships the key to intimacy is trust.
  • The more trustworthy two parties are, the more open they can be.
  • A just and loving God cannot favor intellect or any other gift from the Creator.
  • God restricts intimacy with Himself to those who know Him by faith alone.
  • Faith is precisely defined in the Bible.
  • Faith simply means that we trust God's words just because He wrote them

Without faith it is impossible to please Him. [God] (Heb 11:6)
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. (Rom 10:17).

1. Realistically

The first step in knowing God is to believe He exists. The vast, intricate cosmos and the existence of life is compelling evidence for any reasoning person that One, living, great First Cause is inescapable. But for some, that glaring evidence has been intellectually hijacked. If we ignore this first step we are sentenced to endlessly grope through the rubble of stones and bones.

...he who comes to God must believe that He is,
and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. (Heb 11:6)

2. Academically

We can study about God from His 3 revelations: His Creation, His Word and His Son. This head knowledge can consume a lifetime and pay a meager reward. Knowing how God operates may even tell us how to predict world affairs. Some do and are afraid, but "the fear of God is [only] the beginning of wisdom."

3. Intimately

Even experts in the knowledge about God may still not have a relationship with Him as He desires.
A close relationship with God requires something other than academic study —it requires childlike faith.
God has determined that this level of intimacy can only be reached through the narrow gate of believing in His Son, Jesus Christ.

"And there is salvation in no one else;
for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men,
by which we must be saved." (Ac 4:12).

To begin an intimate relationship with God
Explore The Way to God
in the left column.

4. Deeper and Deeper

During our life those who have begun to "walk in faith" as the previous step explained, will grow in intimacy with God. New insight comes every day. But each step we take must be a step of faith. Only what we believe and obey builds our relationship with Him. Intimacy with God requires that we trust His-story of our origin, our life and our destiny.

5. Face to Face

We cannot achieve the highest level of intimacy with God in this life. A clouded glass limits our view of Him. But someday a vastly more complete understanding of all of God's plans and purposes will be perfectly clear to believers.

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face;
now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known. (1Cor 13:12).