To know Him

Many moons ago there was a Group called the Teddy Bears and they had a hit song called ‘To know him, is to love him’. I said many moons ago – it was 1958! I sometimes think of the lyrics in the context of knowing God:

“To know, know, know him is to love, love, love him; Just to see him smile, makes my life worthwhile; To know know know him is to love love love him – and I do, and I do…..” I can sing that as a song of worship. I sometimes do.

[Interestingly the writer of the song, Phil Spector, was inspired by the words on his father’s gravestone – “To know Him is to love Him”]

The thing is, we can know a lot about somebody, but not really know them. So here’s an interesting thing. Have you ever visited a Stately Home that is open to the public and yet is still owned by a Family who still live in part of the Stately Home? (For non U.K. readers, this is a British ‘thing’). As you go from one elaborately furnished room to another you will notice two things in each room. Firstly there will be framed family photographs of the family that own the Stately home. There will also be a Guide in each room to answer questions about what the various items in the room are. These Guides can be quite knowledgeable, but here’s the thing: some of them will start to tell you about ‘The Family’ and they will talk as if they knew them personally.

…… “you see that photograph there? That’s the two sons of the current Duke – Roger and William. Roger works in the City, but William is in the States at the moment on a lecture tour. He’ll be back at Christmas of course and then the whole family will go skiing at the end of January. They have a little place in the French Alps…..There is a daughter as well, you know…….”

And so it goes on….. as if the guide was a part of this Family. They know a lot about The Family, practically their every move. But they don’t know them. They may feel affection for The Family, they may even feel a kind of love for them, but they don’t really know them.

Often in Church circles, we major on knowing about God, rather than knowing Him. Of course, when your whole system is geared to a 1 – 2 hour Sunday meeting, then that is the logical outcome. And of course it is very important for people to know as much about God as possible. What is harder to do though, is to help people to get to know Him.

Of course, in a Sunday meeting, you can experience God in the sense that you can feel His Presence, hear Him speak, even observe Him do miraculous things. But coming to know Him is borne out of walking through life with Him (as opposed to walking through life, and then meeting up with Him from time to time). I think one of God’s emphases for the Church just now is for us to know Him more and not settle for simply knowing more about Him. And I think He has a purpose in that.

It is possible to know someone at different levels. You can know them by observation, you can know them by meeting them from time to time; you can know them by how they interact with you, but the deepest level is where you do life together. This is the place where your relationship is not just functional. It is deep and it brings life.

Our relationship/friendship with God is not just a means to an end, something that makes it possible to ‘get the job done’ (in Christian terms, healing, deliverance, bringing people to Jesus). That would be to make the tasks the reason for the relationship. Actually, the relationship is the reason for the relationship. Everything else is secondary. Everything else flows out of the relationship but does not define the relationship.

If our relationship with Him is properly centred, ie it exists for its own sake, then we will avoid distractions that would like to pull us off course. For instance:-

• Thinking in terms of what we can do for God, rather than what we can do with Him
• Focussing too much on what we want Him to do for us
• Taking the lead, rather than letting Him take the lead
• Letting our will become the arbiter – Derek Prince famously said “The Cross is where our will and His will cross”.

We have free will, but one of the glories of the Christian life is to be able to make our will subject to His will.

The more we encounter Him and do life with Him, follow Him where He leads, the more our relationship with Him keeps its proper perspective and the more He is glorified because He is so obviously central. In Isaiah 42 v 8 God says, “I am the Lord. That is my name. I will not give my glory to another.”

I said earlier that I felt that God wanted to lay special emphasis on us knowing Him more, and that He had a purpose in mind. That purpose is to be jealous (fiercely protective) of the Glory of His Name. As we move towards what many believe will be a major move of God across the earth, He is determined that there will be no confusion about WHO is behind it all. Whilst He is offering us the opportunity to work with Him in the greatest adventure any of us have ever known, He intends that it be abundantly clear that it is He who is at work.

To go back to the song at the beginning, “To know know know Him is to love love love Him….” The more we know Him, the more we know for ourselves His love for us, His beauty, His passion, His tenderness, His mercy, His perfection, His majesty, His power, His holiness, His strength, His love for the lost, His desire to vindicate and exalt His Son; His determination to keep all His promises , to finish what He started and to not be diverted…. the more we love Him, the less we want to take for ourselves any of the glory that belongs to Him.