“Wondering”. . .Fascinated By God, and By His Truth

(Friends: during this series, the messages may frequently be longer than usual due to the subject matter.  Thanks for your patience, and I think you will find the considerations interesting, and hopefully, helpful in our walk with the Lord.  Glen) 

Part 6 – “The Personal and the Doctrinal”

     “Who is God?”  The question, Biblically answered, calls us to the knowledge of our Lord in two primary revelations of Truth.

    “The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him” (John 4:24).

     The personal knowledge of God involves both relationship with God - “in spirit” -  and intellectual understanding of Him -“in truth.”  We must know God, as made possible by the Holy Spirit’s indwelling our hearts when we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.  We must also know about God, again, as made possible by the Holy Spirit’s illumination of our minds through the reading of Scripture.

     The Lord Jesus spoke of this dual experience of God in His final discourse to the disciples who followed Him during His earthly ministry.

     “If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7).

     We must live close, as it were, to both God and to His words.  Seeking relationship with Him apart from Scriptural light and authority inevitably leads to a false worship that bears no resemblance to “the faith which was once delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3).  Moreover, mere knowledge of the Bible, apart from the Holy Spirit’s ongoing gift of leading and enabling personal communication with our Heavenly Father, also results in a religious experience far removed from spiritual reality.  Spirit and truth require and complement each other in believers who recognize the necessity of true worship involving both the personal and the doctrinal.

     God constituted human beings with the capacity for knowledge that involves both intellectual understanding and intuitive relationship.  The question, “Who is God?,” beckons us to devote ourselves to both blessed aspects of discovering the wonder of a Lord who has drawn nearer to us than our next breath, while remaining forever transcendent of us in the greatness of His glory.  Our hearts and minds were made for this adventure of both the living Word and the written Word increasingly filling our being with the light of God’s Person, and His truth.  Who is God?  The answer will forever bless us both personally and intellectually.

“Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened.”

(Ephesians 1:15-18)

Tomorrow: the personal nature of God, or “the Who of God.”