The knowledge of God, who He is and what pleases Him, is the longing of every true believer. Throughout the Word of God, it is the person who truly knows God that captivates us and inspires us to new levels of truth.
The obedience of Moses, the boldness of Elijah, the heartbeat of David, and the faith of Abraham came as a result of their intimate relationship and knowledge of God.
Without question we must purpose in our hearts to know God, not with a “puppy-love” mentality that looks merely for the benefits, but with the knowledge of God that brings Him into the supreme and rightful place of Lord over our lives. Both God and mankind long for an intimate relationship together. God reaches out, and we must reach up.
Discovering the majesty of God becomes the inspiration that motivates us to seek to know Him more intimately. Even after many years of walking with God, the Apostle Paul never lost the longing to know the Lord more intimately. He wrote in Philippians 3:10:
“For my determined purpose is that I may know Him, that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly, and that I may in that same way come to know the power out flowing from His resurrection which it exerts over believers, and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed in spirit into His likeness…” (AMP).
Not all of God’s people reflect the same desire as Paul. The prophet Hosea spoke out to Israel and said, “Hear the word of the LORD, you children of Israel, for the LORD brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land: ‘There is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land'” (Hosea 4:1).
The Lord clearly exposes the cause for the indifference of His covenant people. They had allowed the important issues of life to go by the wayside, yet God wanted them restored. He was reaching out to them in the same way He reaches out to us. His objective is to create a sense of confidence and joyful stability in our relationship.
We need to be aware of what brings growth to our lives. One of the most damaging wedges between two people is a sense of insecurity because of a lack of commitment toward each other. God wants us to be aware of His continued commitment to our lives.
He longs for the commitment of our hearts to know Him with an ever increasing depth. Three areas promote growth: truth, mercy, and the knowledge of God. Where these are lacking, there exists a cold or lukewarm religious form.
Notice what happens when God’s people lack the knowledge of God: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…” (v.6). The same point is emphasized again in Isaiah 5:13: “Therefore my people have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge….”
We are destroyed and taken captive because of a failure to deeply know the Lord and what He responds to. The people of Israel had turned away from their knowledge of God and they were reaping calamity — a harvest of their disobedience. Many Christians today have failed to understand that their own problems are largely the consequences of the same cause — lack of a true knowledge of God.
Make the commitment to begin seeking a more intimate relationship with the Lord today. Give Him the supreme and rightful place over your life. Then you will become like the men and women in the Bible who captivated and inspired others to new levels of truth through their knowledge of God.
