Title: Let God Know
Contents
Help me to know God (Ephesians 1:15~19)
<Example> An American missionary was caught by cannibals while on a mission in Africa. The cannibals are very happy that they have prepared food to eat, and a feast is being held.
The missionary was tied with a rope and dragged to the chief. The missionary, who was not afraid of death, was saying his final prayer, “I surrender everything to the Lord.” When he opened his eyes and saw the cannibal chief in front of the missionary, the missionary was startled.
Because the chief in front of the missionary was a college classmate who had come to America from Africa to study. So the missionary said to the cannibal chief:
"You've learned so much, hasn't anything changed?" he said. Then the cannibal chief says: "No, what are you talking about like that? I've changed a lot too. In the past, I ate and ate people without praying at all, but now I eat them after praying!"
The task of our Christian life is not about man, but about God. There are human problems because we do not know God rightly, and human suffering because we do not understand God rightly.
“The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, has given you a spirit of wisdom and revelation, that you may know God…” (Ephesians 1:17)
When we know God, we can realize the hope of the calling that calls us to be children of God.
When we know God, we can know what the glory and riches of God's inheritance are among us.
Only when we know God can we possess the power of God that He bestows among us. Therefore, what we most need is the knowledge of God and history.
So, how can we know God?
Job's friend Zophar said to Job: “Can you understand the deep will of God? Can you measure the infinity of the Almighty?”
As Sobal said, there is a serious problem that humans cannot know God right away.
We speak of God's eternity, omnipresence, God's omnipotence, love and judgment. However, this can only be said to be theoretical, intellectual, and ideological knowledge.
You cannot fear or fear God with these things, and even if you say a lot about God, you do not pray.
This cannot be said to be the history of knowing God rightly.
Paul is really praying for the knowledge of God. Paul's prayer is a prayer for the knowledge of experiencing God's presence. Ladies and gentlemen, do you experience the presence of God whenever you kneel in prayer?
Job said: “Ah, if only I could know where He is, if only I could reach His throne, I would present my case before Him, but I would plead with the mouth of justification. So, how will he answer me? How will you answer me?” (Job 23:3-5)
Job was asking for more than knowing about God's attributes and God's work. What he sought was a direct encounter with God. Job, who met God directly when God appeared, confessed this.
“Until now, I have only heard of who the Lord is. But now I see the Lord with my own eyes. Therefore, I withdraw my claims, and sit on the dust and ashes and repent.”
Hearing with your ears and knowing God through experience are two completely different things. In the general realm of hearing and knowing God by ear, Job was just a good at arguing with many words. However, after meeting God and finding himself standing before him, he repented in the ashes.
The Apostle Paul's prayer shows the way to know God in detail.
That is, in order to know God, God the Father must give us the “spirit of wisdom and revelation.” Therefore, he prayed, “I will give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, that you may know God.”
What is our human problem? It means you don't know God.
God created man in his own image.
Since the creation of man is an expression of God's love, man is a being loved by God, and a being who responds to and communicates with that love. But sin entered and separated God from man.
It made them far from God, and cut them off from God.
Man has lost God and has become a foreigner from God.
He also stopped trying to know God.
Paul said this about the behavior of humans who do not know God right away. “They did not glorify God or give thanks, but instead became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. ” (Romans 1:21-23)
The purpose of God's salvation is to lead to the knowledge of God, that is, to the love of God.
The teaching of the Bible says that only the Holy Spirit can enable us to seek the knowledge of that God.
Paul prayed and asked for it to be done because only the Holy Spirit could do it.
There are standards by which human abilities and abilities are evaluated.
It is, first of all, the I.Q. intelligence quotient. With a high IQ, humans can live competently.
Next is the E.Q. emotion quotient. This is an index that measures the degree of emotional development by putting human evaluation on emotion.
A person with a high emotional index has a wide and rich range of emotions, and also knows how to control emotions well. A person with a high emotional index can respond positively to surrounding objects and people and grow into a creative human being.
Therefore, these days, parents play good music to raise their children's emotional quotient, provide a good environment, and make travel opportunities for various sights and experiences.
Next is the M.Q. morality quotient. A high level of morality that benefits the community. The moral index refers to growing morally by seeing, hearing, and learning how to live with others and how to behave in this world.
But the problem is that these days, the people who cause problems by making corruption in society are people with high IQ, emotional index, and moral index.
Therefore, what should be added to humans in these things is the S.Q. spirit quotient. This spiritual index is an evaluation index for the relationship between God and me. It is the power of the inner witness of the Holy Spirit.
Beloved, we humans do not know God just because we have a high IQ. It is not about knowing God by feeling. Moreover, it is not about knowing God by moral power.
It is to know God by the spirit. Therefore, you must become a person of the Holy Spirit. The higher your spirituality index, the deeper you will come to know God.
We have something to be clear about. Even if we squeeze people's wisdom, mobilize people's understanding, and mobilize people's natural resources, we need to make it clear that people's understanding of God is not the right understanding.
That's why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:21, "As for the wisdom of God, since the world did not know God by its own wisdom, God was pleased with the foolishness of evangelism to save those who believed."
And Paul said:
“The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, which to them are foolishness, and they do not understand them, for these things are discerned only spiritually” (1 Corinthians 2:14).
We must realize that it is impossible to have the knowledge of God without the Holy Spirit.
We believe that the knowledge of God apart from the Holy Spirit is abstract, a theory, and an imagination. Only the Holy Spirit gives us the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that we may come to know God, who makes us people of life.
Therefore, in order to know God rightly, we must pray like the Apostle Paul, humbly acknowledging the powerlessness of humans.
“God of our Lord Jesus Christ, Father of glory, grant us a spirit of wisdom and revelation, that we may know You.”
So, how does the Holy Spirit come to know God?
By making you understand Jesus Christ, you come to know God.
John testified of Jesus, saying, “No one has ever seen God, but the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, has made him known” (John 1:18).
Paul testified that “the God who said, “Out of darkness shall shine light,” has shone in our hearts the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). .... No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3).
Beloved, the Holy Spirit makes us come to know God by making us understand the mystery of God, Jesus Christ.
By making you understand the word of God, you come to know God.
Jesus made this promise.
“The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14:26).
The Holy Spirit is present among us today and enables us to know God by making us understand the Word of God as the Spirit.
He makes us come to know God by making us realize the events of life.
The Holy Spirit makes us aware of many events that occur in our lives. He makes us come to know God by making us realize the deep providence and will of God who is leading the event.
Beloved, many events are happening to us. Be a person of the Holy Spirit who sees the providence and will of God in that event. So, live the blessed life of knowing God.
An airplane pilot and three passengers were flying in an airplane. One of the passengers was a boy scout, one was a priest, and the other was a scientist on nuclear power.
During the flight, the engine suddenly failed. The pilot hurried to the passenger seat and shouted, ‘The plane is going down.
Unfortunately, there were four people, but only three parachutes.
The pilot said, ‘I have a family waiting for me at home. As soon as he finished saying, ‘I must live,’ he grabbed a parachute and jumped out of the plane.
The scientist jumped and said, 'I'm the smartest person in the world. If I die, it will be a great tragedy in the world.'
With a surprised expression, the priest said to the boy. ‘Son, I have no family. I am ready to meet the Lord. You are still a boy with a bright future. Now, don't hesitate to take the last remaining parachute.'
Just then, the boy interrupted the priest and said, ‘Father, look. We're both fine. The smartest scientist in the world, he didn't have a parachute, he jumped with my backpack.'
Dear saints, Many people in the world are jumping with their backpacks, the thin intellect of human beings, in crises and difficulties.
We need a living knowledge of God. I believe that we must hang the parachute of the Holy Spirit that leads us to the path of truth and life.
Dear all! Be filled with the Holy Spirit through prayer, so that you may know God more deeply in the spirit of wisdom and revelation.
I hope that you will overcome your life as a person of God who is more with God by praying, ‘Let God come to know you’. Amen.