To know God is to Love God. If you’re struggling loving God…maybe try learning to know God. The more you know Him the more you love Him. This article addresses the importance of knowing God.
In one sentence I felt loved. The sentence was not even directed to me. I was in England with a group of friends as we ministered for three weeks.
At one point during the trip I went over to one of our fearless leaders, Danielle, and told her she was doing a fantastic job. She responded, “Chris, I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic.” That’s when Naomi jumped in the conversation.
“He’s telling the truth.” This is one of many examples where Naomi not only knew if I was being sarcastic but also knew how I was feeling. We only talk in passing conversation but when we do I always feel loved.
Why? Because whether it be an innate sense of discernment or just making an effort to show she cares. She knows me. When I feel known, I feel loved.
If I were to list all the names of people whom I feel the most love from the list could also be a list of people I feel know me the best. Try it. Write a list of all the people whom you feel the most love from. Are they the ones who know you most? Maybe to love you most is to know you most? Is the same true with God?
God Knows You
God knows you better than anyone and He also loves you more than anyone. Maybe there’s a connection there. God is absolutely in love with us and makes a way for us to be free. He’s communicating with us…constantly reminding us of His love.
If you’re receiving God’s love…It’s time. Time to return love to our Father. One way to love God is to know God. Not just know about God but to know God.
Those who really know me know what I like…and what I dislike. What does God like, what does He dislike? Does He have a sense of Humor? If so what is it like? There have been many times God has cracked me up with His sense of humor. He loves to play with words and circumstances.
God is humorous sometimes, that’s something I didn’t learn from a pastor. If all we know about God is what our pastors tell us then I’m afraid we may miss it. Miss what? Our chance to know God. The more we love God, the more love we’re able to receive from God.
Notice…I didn’t say the more God will love us because we can never earn a love that’s free. However, we can increase our capacity to receive a love that’s infinite. Why do the majority of people not really love God? Because they’re ignorant. They really just don’t know.
I can’t blame them. It’s not right for me to hold them to my revelation but I can at least show them the way. The way to knowing God. My fear is not they’ll go to hell but that they’ll miss Heaven here…on earth. Mike Bickle summed up my fear in a story he shared in his book, “After God’s Own Heart.”
The Greatest Tragedy
“Imagine this great tragedy: A woman walks with God for forty years, fully saved, redeemed, and following Christ. She comes before the throne in the resurrection, and for the first time she realizes what she’s missed. She feels wave upon wave of pleasure flowing from the Son of God, and she says to herself,
‘I could have drunk from this well of spiritual delight every day on earth. I just had to encounter Your heart and Your beauty. Life would have been so much better! Everything would have changed, and I would have accomplished so much more.’
Many like her spend their days on earth believing that Jesus is harsh instead of tender, mad instead of glad, and distant instead of affectionate. When they finally see Him as He truly is, they will be filled with regret at not spending their time on Earth radically pursuing His heart and reaping the amazing pleasures.”
It’s time to Know God
In order for us to view God rightly we must remove any Ungodly Beliefs (UGB’s) concerning our view of God. If people knowing me makes me feel loved…then people misunderstanding me makes me feel unloved, sometimes even despised.
When someone misunderstands me I feel as though they’re labeling me as someone I’m not. I do the same thing. Too many times I judge other people by their actions but judge myself according to my intentions. Though…I’m not supposed to be judging at all.
Yet I find myself mislabeling and judging God as well. Like I could do a better job at running the universe and showing unconditional love to seven billion people simultaneously…I couldn’t.
A UGB concerning your view of God not only keeps you from receiving love from your Father but it also hinders your ability to return God’s love. One of the UGB’s I had to work through was, “My dad will never understand me and will think of me as a failure. Failure makes me a disappointment to my parents and to God.”
When I believed my dad couldn’t understand me it caused me to begin believing God could not understand me. Therefore, I was afraid that both God and my father would think of me as a failure.
The truth is I’m both understood and loved, in both Heaven and on Earth. I cannot fail…therefore I’m not a failure…there’s nothing for me to fear.
Acting in Fear Equals Sin
When Nehemiah was rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem, many people tried to convince him to stop. One of the tactics used was to convince Nehemiah that people were coming to kill him and that he should run into the temple to hide, saving his life.
Nehemiah answered,
“‘Should such a man as I run away? And what man such as I could go into the temple and live? I will not go in.’ And I understood and saw that God had not sent him, but he had pronounced the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. For this purpose he was hired, that I should be afraid and act in this way and sin…” (Nehemiah 6: 11-13 ESV)
Nehemiah didn’t know God was not with them until he made the choice not to enter the temple. He was acting on what he knew of God’s character. He had a right understanding of God. Nehemiah also knew that fleeing into the temple would be a sin. If I act in worldly fear…the only possible outcome is sin.
Fear is the opposite of faith. When you view God correctly you’re able to move in faith. Why? Because God is love and perfect love cast out fear.
Faith and Fear
Faith and fear work like the wind. When hot air rises, cold air rushes in to take its place creating wind. When fear is cast out, faith rushes in to take its place. How do you cultivate faith? Continue to receive God’s love and read the Word.
“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17 NKJV)
We receive our Father’s love which cast out all fear thus filling us with faith. Then as we read the Word we begin to understand God’s character. Faith is best used when acting on God’s character. When we exercise our faith we become stronger. Remember, we’re flexing our salvation muscles.
When we view God correctly we’re no longer afraid. We become confident in our assignment and in our Father. Nehemiah was confident in his assignment. Bill Johnson stated,
“If you are confident in what God has called you to do; you will have the courage not to be distracted by people intimidating you. If you are not confident in your assignment then intimidations will look like warning signs from God.”
I’m becoming more confident in my assignment. Realizing the truth that I am both known and loved by God and my father is having an impact on my life. The love removes my fear. In faith I move on to what God has called for me. Though I may not know what lies down the road…I do know one thing…I cannot fail.
You Cannot Fail
I may mess up and that’s fine. As long as I learn from my mistakes…I will not fail. You know what? The same is true for you. If you learn for your mistakes…you cannot fail.
When questioned about the numerous failures in creating the light bulb, Thomas Edison stated, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Edison goes on to create the light bulb thus changing the world.
Later Edison remarked, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” Failure is giving up. I cannot fail because I simply choose not to give up.
The Greatest Story
God is such a loving dad and I trust His ways are better than mine; therefore, I find it an honor to be woven into His story. We’re all woven into our Father’s story. We’re cast in a great story called the Gospel. Sometimes we just don’t seem to agree with the director. It’ll be fine. Our director continues to show us mercy and love every time we call, “Line.” Trust me, our story is better than Twilight.
In the Gospel if you were to have a bad break up, you would understand that you are fully known and unconditionally loved by the Father. You are a noble person with a noble cause. You would not attempt to commit suicide hoping to gain the attention of your vampire boyfriend. Who is more like a cross breed between Dracula and Tinker Bell. Just saying.
Destroying the Gospel
The Gospel is God’s story. It the story of God showering His love and majesty upon His people…us. According to A.W. Tozer, when we have a low view of God we destroy the Gospel. I agree.
“The man who comes to a right belief about God is relieved of ten thousand temporal problems, for he sees at once that these have to do with matters which at the most cannot concern him for very long; but even if the multiple burdens of time may be lifted from him, the one mighty single burden of eternity begins to press down upon him with a weight more crushing than all the woes of the world piled one upon another.
That mighty burden is his obligation to God. It includes an instant and lifelong duty to love God with every power of mind and soul, to obey Him perfectly, and to worship Him acceptably. And when the man’s laboring conscience tells him that he has done none of these things, but has from childhood been guilty of foul revolt against the Majesty in the heavens, the inner pressure of self-accusation may become too heavy to bear.”
Tozer continues,
“The gospel can lift this destroying burden from the mind, give beauty for ashes, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. But unless the weight of the burden is felt the gospel can mean nothing to the man; and until he sees a vision of God high and lifted up, there will be no woe and no burden. Low views of God destroy the gospel for all who hold them.”
When I believe a misconception about God it’s the same as if I were worshiping a god I created. When we create a god that’s called idolatry. That’s bad.
Understanding Idolatry
Tozer writes about Idolatry as well and I find it so compelling, so true, that I’m going to put it here for you to read as well.
“Among the sins to which the human heart is prone, hardly any other is more hateful to God than idolatry, for idolatry is at bottom a libel on His character. The idolatrous heart assumes that God is other than He is … and substitutes for the true God one made after its own likeness.
Always this God will conform to the image of the one who created it and will be base or pure, cruel or kind, according to the moral state of the mind from which it emerges. A god begotten in the shadows of a fallen heart will quite naturally be no true likeness of the true God…
Let us beware lest we in our pride accept the erroneous notion that idolatry consists only in kneeling before visible objects of adoration, and that civilized peoples are therefore free from it. The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him. It begins in the mind and may be present where no overt act of worship has taken place.”
If we insist upon trying to imagine Him, we end with an idol, made not with hands but with thoughts; and an idol of the mind is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand.…The idolater simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true.”
Idolatry is no longer just about golden calves but is a battle that must be won in the mind. We must view God as He is…and beloved…He is good.
Conclusion
If you struggle learning to love God…maybe shift your focus to learning to know God. To know God is to love God. God fully knows you and fully loves you. I would love to spend my life doing trying to do the same…fully knowing God and fully loving God.
Be careful not to commit idolatry. Idolatry is not just about worshipping golden calfs. An idolater is simply a person with a UGB concerning the nature and character of God. In order for us to remove the UGB we must first discover the Godly Belief that replaces it.
To learn more about UGBs…Check out my article…What do you Believe? As you read through the article I pray Holy Spirit will reveal to you the nature and truth of God. We want to view God as He is and not as we merely as we may think He is. Read the article Here.
Quiet Time Challenge
One of the best ways to know God voice is through spending time with Him. If you long for a consistent and life-giving quiet time…join me for a free 5-Day Quiet Time Challenge.
In addition to receiving my free quiet time guide, detailing the five things I do when having a quiet time, you’ll also receive one email a day during the challenge to help kick start your quiet time. Join the challenge and get my free guide.
Take the Quiet Time Challenge
Question: How’s God different than you thought? Let me know in the comments.
