How Can I Know God Better?
Most every Christian I have met wants to know God better. They want to know Him closely and intimately. But sometimes they don’t have any specific steps to take to get there.
An important step in getting to know God better is to learn from His Word what He is like. Study Jesus in the Word to find out what God is like. Whatever you see Jesus doing is what God wants to do right now – FOR YOU!
Acts 10:38 - You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.
This is the nature of God now and forever – going about doing good and healing all. When you know God from His Word, you learn what He is like, what He would say and do.
Another step in getting to know God is to personally and regularly spend time with Him in prayer. I am not speaking of coming to Him with your list of prayer requests but coming to Him to spend time with Him for the sake of developing friendship and intimacy. This is the way you would develop a better relationship with any person.
Attitudes to come to God in:
Come expecting Him to be a rewarder. The Bible says He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). You can know when you seek Him, He will reward you – just because it is written in His Word.
Come with righteousness consciousness (a sense or awareness of your right standing with God).
He has made you righteous, and all you need to is to humbly accept your acceptance and draw near. Don’t come apologizing for yourself or degrading yourself in false humility. YOU ARE WELCOME IN HIS PRESENCE – Thank God, because of what He did not what you do. You humble yourself in His presence by accepting His thoughts about you not by telling Him how bad you are. You draw near to Him and expect Him to draw near to you because He said He would. (James 4:6-8)
Don’t concentrate on your faith or lack of it; concentrate instead on Him, on His love, His mercy, His present help and listening ear, His wonderful promises. You have His Word on all of these things and can count upon His Word. HIS WORD IS MORE TRUE THAN HOW YOU FEEL. When you put it first, your feeling will in time change and line up with the truth.
Come with expectancy.
- Matthew 6:6 – Pray to the Father who is unseen.
- Matthew 6:8 – He knows what you need before you ask.
- John 6:37 – He will not cast you out in any way.
- 1 Peter 3:12 – He delights in your prayers. He likes to spend time with you.
- Romans 10:12 – He is rich unto all who call upon Him, rich in mercy, rich in help, rich in caring and love.
- Hebrews 4:16 – Come with boldness and confidence.
- Hebrews 10:22 – Draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.
- Hebrews 12:28 – Draw near with reverence and awe.
What to do with your mind when you come:
Psalms 103:1 – Bless the Lord oh my soul… Make your soul bless the Lord. Make your mind focus on His goodness, His mercy, His love – not on yourself or anything concerning you or your situation at all.
The key is FOCUS. If it helps to play some anointed music with Scriptural words, play it.
Psalm 103 2 – …forget not His benefits… Bring your memory with you when you come. List His benefits out loud to yourself.
When you speak, you are forced to listen.
Bring your imagination when you come.
Study the Word for accuracy. Visualize things as the Word describes them. See God as He presents Himself, not after your experience or someone else’s.
Visualize yourself before His throne worshiping.
Visualize Him as described in His glory yet hearing you and delighting in you.
Put God’s Words back into His mouth. Speak God’s thoughts to yourself.
(Some passages describing the throne: Revelations 4:2-11; 1:13-17; 5:8-12; Isaiah 6:1-6; Ezekiel 1:22-28; Revelations 15:8; 21:2)
What to do with your body when you come:
Find a comfortable enough position so you are not distracted but not so comfortable that you fall asleep.
The Bible speaks of standing, kneeling, lying prostrate, lying on your bed, sitting, dancing, raising your hands, clapping, shouting, playing instruments.
Romans 12:1 – Present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. This is your reasonable worship. You have to give Him your mind by focusing on Him; you also have to give Him your body by presenting your body to Him and yielding to Him. If you present yourself first, it will be easier to focus.
What to say when you come to God:
While reading the Bible, keep a notebook of words and expressions that express what you would like to say to God and use them. This increases your praise and worship vocabulary.
Just speak from your heart to God and tell Him what He means to you. Just talk to Him as you would to a person. See Him there listening to you. Speaking out loud can be a cure for a wandering mind.
Take note of what worshipers in the Bible said as words of worship and use them.
You can also speak in tongues. (1 Corinthians 14:17; Acts 10:46; 2:10; Romans 8:26,27 – You give thanks well, praise God, declare His wonders, express your deepest longings and pray His perfect will).
Spending time with God is not hard. As you come to Him day by day and He becomes more and more real to you, He will become the delight of your life, and you’ll do anything to have the time for Him. And when you do, it will change your life forever!
life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God. The best invitation we ever received! We were also given absolutely terrific promises to pass on to you—your tickets to participation in the life of God after you turned your back on a world corrupted by lust.
