I want to begin this New Year by laying a spiritual foundation for knowing God. God’s purpose is that you truly know Him and know that you have life – life eternal!
One man’s testimony of how he truly came to know God goes like this. “The moment I got into my old truck, I knew something was different. As I sat there reflecting, I automatically lit up a joint. Somehow, it just didn’t seem the same. So, I put it out and drove home. I went into the house where my wife was cooking supper. She took one look at me and asked, ‘What is it?’ “I don’t know,” I answered. Then I told her about a man named Lewis that I met while I was fishing.
Earlier that day I had been standing in a very secluded spot on a riverbank. I kept asking myself, “Why can’t I seem to make it? Where are my real friends? Unless I have drugs, no one comes around me. I thought – If this is all there is, then I have nothing left to live for. I was so depressed that I wanted to die. My life had no meaning. Nothing could satisfy me. I lived in fear – smiling on the outside and feeling as though I was absolutely dying on the inside.
Just then, I heard a voice behind me say, “Could I speak to you for a moment?’ He didn’t know I had a gun in my pocket. I was so depressed that I thought, ‘If he hassles me, I’ll shoot him.” Go ahead, I said, but it better be good!
As he spoke my heart was touched! I listened for three hours, which seemed more like three minutes. He told me about Jesus Christ. He explained that Christ would forgive me, restore me, and live in me – if I would only ask Him. He never said I had to go to church, cut my hair, quit drugs or anything else. He said that if I would just repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, then I could be saved. He told me to ask Jesus into my life and He would come in to be my friend. All I needed to do was to simply trust Him with my life and He would enable me to live. I believed what he said about Christ and I invited Him into my life. And now, I told my wife, things seem so different!”
Do you really know God? Many people think they do, when actually they only know about Him. There is far more to knowing God than merely having an intellectual knowledge of Him. So, what is the first step in truly knowing God? The first step is:
I. Admit Your Need
Do you realize your faults, failures, bad habits and human conflicts are all indications that your need is critical. Of course, God calls all such shortcomings in your life sin. In fact, Paul writes in Romans 3:23 that, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”
Those sins are proof that you are a sinner. In fact, you were born that way. You were born a sinner, spiritually dead and separated from God. A sinner is a person with an evil nature, one who is mentally hostile to God, spiritually alienated from God, who is without God and without hope in this world. Therefore, you need God! So the first step to truly knowing God is to admit your need. The second step is:
II. Acknowledge God’s Solution
You must acknowledge that God does have a solution to your need for Him. God loves you very much, and He proved it by what He did for you. He provided a solution to your problem of sin and has a wonderful plan and purpose for your life.
His solution was to send His one of a kind Son, Jesus Christ to live the perfect life, and then die the perfect death on the cross for your sins. As Paul says again in Romans 5:8, “God commended His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
God’s plan is for you to know Him and experience His superior quality of life. Jesus explained this when He said in John’s gospel chapter 10 verse 10, “I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.” So to truly know God, you must first admit your need, then you must acknowledge God’s solution. The third step is to:
III. Accept God’s Provision
You must by faith accept God’s provision for your need. God has made ample provision for all of your needs through Jesus Christ. Philippians 4:19 promises that, “my God shall supply all of your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” As a sinner, you don’t deserve that and there’s nothing you can do to earn it. However, Jesus Christ paid the price for you to possess it through His death on the cross. Therefore, God offers this great salvation to you as a free gift.
“By grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” says, Ephesians 2:8. Your part is to accept by faith what He has done for you and receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. As the Bible says in John 1:12, “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.” That word power actually means right or authority, to become a child of God. You receive that right by accepting God’s provision of Jesus death, burial and resurrection by faith to meet all your needs. The final step to truly knowing God is to:
IV. Act On The Truth
Paul writes in Romans 10:9, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” The question is, have you ever done this? If you’ve never done this, it’s now time for you to come to know God through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. A simple faith transaction is all that’s necessary. All you have to do is direct your conversation to the one and only, invisible yet ever present God. He’s eagerly waiting for you.
You may tell Him something like this: “Dear God, I admit that I’m a needy person. Most of all, I need You. All my faults and failures are proof that I’m a sinner. I accept the death of Jesus Christ on the cross as full payment for my sins. I now ask You to come into my heart, Lord Jesus Christ, and take complete control of my life. I thank You for my forgiveness and I praise You for living in me. You are now my Lord, my life and my all. I can do all things through Christ who is my strength. Thank You, God for the privilege of knowing You. Amen”
