Knowing Him

The greatest pursuit in life is to know God. Having a knowledge of Him will result in us fulfilling His will. It is impossible to please Him if we do not know Him. The scripture says that Paul cried out, That I may know Him! With all of the great pursuits in Paul's life, the greatest was the knowledge of Him. One philospher has phrased this term, Knowledge is Power. In the spiritual realm, knowledge of God releases His power in your life. So, how do I know Him? Well, as I was reading the scriptures the other day something stood out to me very strongly. In 1 John 2:4 the Bible says, He that saith, I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. According to this scripture there is a correlation in the knowledge of Him and our obedience to His commandments. Also, when you read 1 John 4:7 the scripture says, Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. So, we also find that when we love, we know God. So, to know God requires several things, keeping His commandements as well as loving, for God is love. The two of these concepts were tied together by John in 1 John 5:2-3 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. So, we are commanded to love, but the first action of love is to keep his commandments. Therefore, the pursuit of knowledge begins with simple obedience motivated by Love. That is what Christ exampled for us on the cross. Obedience unto death, motivated properly by Love! To find the deep dimensions of God we must be motivated properly by Love and our pursuit begins with simple obedience to His Word! We can not go against the Word and find the depths of God! May our soul cry out as Paul's did, That I may Know Him!