First Question, “Do you really know God or do you only know about Him?”
I (Paul) consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. (Philippians 3:8)
Second Question, “Once you know God, are you truly seeking to behold His glory more and more as each day goes by or are you only just trying to figure Him out?”
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
We can know God and we can behold His glory more and more as each day goes by, but just like Moses, we will never be able to be fully subjected to the glory of God as long as we are in these human bodies.
But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.” And whenever the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone, then Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with Him. (Exodus 33:20-23 and 34:35)
Let’s get down to what knowing God really means. In order to do that, let’s first look at what it is not.
You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. (James 2:19)
We must not remain stuck in a head knowledge of God. We must move to a relationship that is centered in the core of our spirit and very being. We are beckoned by our LORD to commune intimately with Him in our heart of hearts.
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” (Revelation 3:20)
I want to explain what I mean when I mention ‘figuring out God’. I will use myself as an example. I caught myself going into deep Bible studies for the purpose of trying to figure out God rather than getting to know Him better. The way to distinguish the difference is to examine yourself. If you find yourself not becoming more Christlike, you are barking up the wrong tree.
Clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 13:14)
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)
We will never be able to ‘figure God out’, but we sure can get to know Him better and better as each day goes by, along with being able to behold His glory.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9)
Think about this. It must of been such a wonderful experience for Moses to behold God’s glory, but the Bible tells us that what we have access to is so much greater.
In fact, that first glory was not glorious at all compared with the overwhelming glory of the new way. So if the old way, which has been replaced, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new, which remains forever! Since this new way gives us such confidence, we can be very bold. We are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so the people of Israel would not see the glory, even though it was destined to fade away. (2 Corinthians 3:10-13)
If you call yourself a Christian, regardless of your education or background, it all boils down to this one final question, “Do people know you have been with Jesus as evident by your everyday life?”
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus. (Acts 4:13)
Annointing 