God’s Will – Intimate Knowledge of Him
God’s Will -Intimate Knowledge of Him.
God’s Will, Beyond our Understanding. “O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His decisions! And how mysterious are His ways, His methods, and His paths! For who has known the mind of the Lord, who has understood His thoughts, or who has ever been His counselor? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. For all things originate with Him and come from Him; all things live through Him, and all things center in and end in Him. To Him be glory forever! Amen. That’s the truth.” (Romans 11:33-36).
Hebrew Word for Will is “haspasti”, which means to will something because it brings great delight; to desire because it brings pleasure; to wish something to be done because it is the best for all concerned.
Greek Word for Will is “thelema,” which means the preferred choice, the intended will that has a deep purpose behind it; the desired preference for action.
“My will, my desire is that you show mercy and you grow in knowledge of Me” (Hosea 6:6).
Knowledge: The Hebraic-Christian understanding of “know” is not at all limited to an intellectual or mental knowledge. To know someone in the Biblical sense is to experience that person in a deeply intimate way. Know, whether with ‘yadah’ (Hebrew) or ‘ginosko’ (Greek), is a relationship word, and involves knowledge that comes from personal experience. To know involves a deeply personal union with someone. To know someone in the Biblical sense is to literally participate in a profound relationship with someone, to establish an ongoing union with a person, to be personally invested to an intimate degree with someone. Limiting our knowledge to religious principles, doctrinal statements or theological propositions doesn’t go deep enough. Too many of us love to talk about God theoretically, instead of talking to God heart to heart. Intellectual knowledge is a dead end if disconnected from a personal relationship with God.
“On that Day of Judgment, many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord! Didn’t we prophecy in Your name? Didn’t we expel demons in Your name? Didn’t we perform many miracles in Your name?’ And then I will tell them to their faces, ‘Get away from Me! I never knew (ginosko) you!” (Matthew 7:23-24).
I never knew you! In this closing scene of Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, He has just finished saying that whoever does what His Father in heaven wants, whoever does His will, will sure enough be able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. But then at the Judgment throne came many powerful miracle-workers to claim that they have indeed expelled many demons, spoken profound prophecies, and demonstrated other miracles, all in God’s name. They assumed that those powerful deeds were what Jesus meant by doing God’s will. But Jesus told them in no uncertain terms… But I was never a part of those miracles. We never had a relationship together. So I had nothing to do with any of those powerful works. Those works were counterfeit, because my power was not used in them. My awesome power comes out of a personal relationship. You knew about Me, but you didn’t know Me! You didn’t understand that the first order of business in doing my Father’s will is to establish union with me, that we join together intimately and engage in a personal, spiritual friendship with each other. That is my Father’s starting point in doing His will. It is impossible to do His will without personally knowing Me! We were not familiar with each other in the slightest, and in fact I don’t even recognize you at a meaningful level. So, go away from Me! I never actually knew you!
Truly knowing Jesus means going way beneath a surface level with Him. It is doing a deep-dive into Him through His Holy Spirit and personally experiencing His character. To know God is to read His mind by soaking in His Word. To know the Lord is significantly more than a passing acquaintanceship with Him, it is not half-hearted. To know God is not abstract head knowledge. To know God means one has a life-changing relationship with the Lord, a friendship that involves obedience, submission, trust, devotion, commitment. To know God is to experience Him, to participate in His life and allow Him to change your life direction and purpose.
Surface Knowledge. The Bible has a lot to say about the meaning of know, including the usual suspects: memory of a fact or event; possession of a technical skill; a perception of a piece of reality; an intuitive awareness; a mastery of a particular subject; an understanding of something; a personal familiarity with something. That’s all good. Nothing new there. But now the fun begins.
Intimacy. A spiritual relationship with God seems best understood in the context of “knowledge” in the biblical sense, a deep union involving spiritual relations between God and the believer. In the same way that Adam and Eve “knew” each other physically, God wants to “know” us spiritually, and for us to know Him at that same level. To walk with the Lord is to grow in our “knowledge” of Him, to experience spiritual relations with Him in an intimate way. The biblical view of knowing includes images of intimacy, of union with something, of personal commitment and intense focus, of a literal participation and involvement in something. In fact, to know means to have intercourse, sex, “carnal knowledge.” Check out Genesis 4:1, “Adam knew Eve,” and Matthew 1:25, Joseph did not know Mary until she gave birth to a son, Jesus.”
“My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge?” (Hosea 4:6).
If we accept that definition of knowledge, here’s a pop quiz question: What did Hosea mean when he quoted the Lord as saying that His people will not survive, simply because they don’t have adequate knowledge? Some answers could include memory; information; skill; data. Instead, the biblical meaning is closer to : a profound devotion to Me; intimate involvement with Me; a heartfelt focus on Me; a life-changing union with Me; a committed understanding of Me. True knowledge is a relationship word involving personal experience, not only with truth, but also with The Truth. “If you live and dwell in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32).
“All I want is to know Christ and to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings and become like him in his death.” (Philippians 3:10).