If I were to ask a group of people what’s the greatest thing in life, I
would probably get as many answers as there were people. Certainly many
things contribute to a full and happy life, but I hope all believers
would agree that knowing God is absolutely the greatest and most
important of all. Without that, everything else loses meaning.
<p>
The Apostle Paul put it this way in Philippians 3:8:
<br>
<b><i>Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the
loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.</i></b>
<p>
Think of this: Paul wasn’t a loser. He hadn’t hit rock bottom with
nowhere else to go. He wasn’t turning from a life of failure and
counting that as <b><i>dung.</i></b> He was one of the most educated and
accomplished men of his day. He was the elite of the religious class.
People knew him and they wanted to be like him.
<p>
Paul wasn’t writing just about the time before he was born again. He
had been a Christian for decades at the time he wrote this. He had
traveled the world and been used of God as few men ever had or ever
will be. Yet here he was still seeking to know God more (Phil. 3:10).
<p>
Paul was saying that the best life had to offer and the greatest
accomplishments and pursuits of any man, when compared to knowing God,
ranked in the same category as manure. He was admitting that he hadn’t
arrived but that he had left and was pressing toward that goal of
knowing God more (Phil. 3:12-14).
<p>
What does it say, when the man who wrote half of the New Testament was
still pursuing knowing God decades after his conversion? Certainly
there has to be a depth of knowing God that goes far beyond just
getting saved. Paul spoke of this in Ephesians when he prayed that the
Ephesian Christians would come to know the height, length, depth, and
breadth of God’s love (Eph. 3:18-19).
<p>
He said something very interesting in Ephesians 3:19:
<br>
<b><i>And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might
be filled with all the fulness of God.</i></b>
<p>
At first glance this seems confusing. How can we know something if it
passes knowledge? Paul is speaking about experiencing God’s love in a
way that is infinitely greater than mere intellectual knowledge. And
notice that when we experience God’s love in this way, we will be
filled with all the fullness of God. What a statement!
<p>
All we have to do is look at our lack of experiencing God’s fullness in
order to realize we don’t know God’s love the way Paul described it. If
we did, we would be filled with all His fullness. Therefore, there is a
dimension to knowing God that the average Christian hasn’t experienced.
How do we get there?
<p>
First of all, we have to realize that there is more to knowing God than
just becoming a Christian. Multitudes of people have received
salvation, and if they were to die, they would go straight into the
presence of the Lord. But they don’t know God.
<p>
They don’t know that He loves them because He is love and not because
they are lovely. They think they have to earn God’s favor, and they are
needlessly suffering condemnation and lack of fellowship with Him
because they feel unworthy. They don’t know Him as a loving heavenly
Father but see Him as a harsh taskmaster.
<p>
Many Christians think our Father is the source of all their troubles
and suffering. They think He uses those problems as tools to teach them
something or change their behavior, even though the Word clearly proves
the opposite (James 1:13). They don’t know their God as Healer or
Provider, or in any other of the ways He manifests Himself to them.
Truly, God’s people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge about Him
(Hos. 4:6).
<p>
Much of the blame for this falls on the church. The Bible says in
Romans 10:17,
<br>
<b><i>So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.</i></b>
<p>
The church, as a whole, has proclaimed that Jesus died for us to keep
us from going to hell. Now, that’s true and quite a benefit. If that’s
all there was to salvation, that’s more than we deserve. 
<p>
I would preach
that message if that was all there was, but that’s not what the
Scripture teaches.
<br>
<b><i>For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life</i></b> (John 3:16).
<p>
That verse specifically says the goal of salvation is <b><i>everlasting
life.</i></b> And everlasting life was defined by Jesus in John 17:3, which
says,
<br>
<b><i>And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.</i></b>
<p>
Knowing God the Father and Jesus Christ is eternal life. That doesn’t
start when we go to heaven. Knowing God (eternal life) is something we
can have right now (John 3:36). The word <b><i>know</i></b> is used in Scripture to
describe the relationship between a man and his wife that produces a
child (example: Gen. 4:1). It is speaking of intimacy. So <b><i>knowing God</i></b>
is speaking of intimacy with Him.
<p>
To receive salvation and then stumble through life without experiencing
intimacy with the Lord is to miss or ignore the most important part of
what Jesus provided. 
<p>
Let me put it this way: if you received
forgiveness through the sacrifice of Jesus and then continue on without
an intimate, personal, close relationship with God, then according to
John 3:16, you are missing the real purpose of salvation. This is where
the vast majority of Christians live.
<p>
People believe they need to get saved because that’s the message
they’ve heard. So they get saved and then they get stuck. They aren’t
hearing that knowing
<p>
God is the real goal or that it’s even attainable. They are waiting on
the sweet by and by, but struggling in the rough here and now.
<p>
Knowing God in the way I’m discussing isn’t even on the radar screen of
most Christians. They aren’t pursuing it and they aren’t experiencing
it. It begs the question, how do we get started in our pursuit of
intimacy with the Lord? We can begin by spending time getting to know
Him through His Word.
<p>
The Apostle Peter said in 2 Peter 1:3-4,
<br>
<b><i>According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that
pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath
called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding
great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the
divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world
through lust.</i></b>
<p>
It’s through the knowledge of God that we are able to receive all
things that pertain to life and godliness. He has already given them,
but it’s knowing Him that allows us to partake of His divine nature, to
receive all His great and precious promises, and to escape the
corruption of this world. What a deal! Knowing the Word is knowing God.
<p>
-- Andrew Wommack<br>
Capitalization of keywords by Randy Lucas