Knowing God – Better!
- Sep 12, 2025
- 5 min read
We are about to go on a journey of knowing more of God. I trust we’ll allow ourselves to encounter Him in ways perhaps never realised before.
A. W. Tozer is noted to have said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”
If Tozer was right, then Martyn Lloyd-Jones was also right when he said, “Our supreme need is to know God.” He was clearly not referring to a mere nodding acquaintance but, in view of the intimacy inferred in the word ‘know,’ to know God well, to know Him deeply, to know Him truly, to know Him as He is revealed in His Word and, supremely, in and through our relationship with Jesus Christ.
"And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (John 17:3).
We can know God! Isn't this amazing!
The question therefore is, “how much?’’ How much do you KNOW Him?
Jesus couched our understanding of eternal life in the now, but also in an intimate, living, vibrant, personal relationship with God the Father. If you have eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ, you have come to know God. And yet there is another sense in which we need to know God far more deeply than we do.
Reading – Ephesians 1:17: “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.”
After 25 years as a believer, Paul said that he hadn’t got there, but he pressed on toward that goal (Phil 3:8-14). How much more is it true of us! Hosea wrote (6:3), “let us press on to know the Lord.”
This is Paul's life purpose; his life ambition was to know God better. He had known Him for a quarter of a century. Yet he wanted to know Him better.
There is no end to knowing about the greatness and wonder of God; to know God better, to love Him, and to want to please Him. It isn’t enough to know the Word of God. We must also know the God of the Word and grow in our fellowship with Him.
The Greek words used at the end of verse 17 have the idea of things being known that have never been known before, or things once out of view now being made visible to us!
What an aspiration! What anticipation!
Stop and consider this for a moment.
Pray
“Father, we confess the temptation of our hearts is to grow bored with the most spectacular of truths. We acknowledge that one of the supreme manifestations of our ongoing sin is how uninterested we can be in You and your son the Lord Jesus Christ — not just what we know, but in our paucity of desire to know him more…
Father, grant us a freshness of perspective… of the one who is not in a grave, but conquered death, rose to life, ascended to your right and wields all authority in heaven and on earth... The one who bids us know Him more, through His word and the ministry of his Spirit.” Amen (Cities Church)
John Ortberg said, “You have to ask yourself: When you finally get the ultimate possession, when you’ve made the ultimate purchase, when you buy the ultimate home, when you have stored up financial security and climbed the ladder of success to the highest rung you can possibly climb it, and the thrill wears off and it will wear off, then what?”
Then what?
To "know Him better" is a powerful prayer to make. The word ‘know’ is the Greek word ‘epignosis,’ which signifies a complete, correct, deeper, more intimate, and experiential knowledge of God.
Paul’s use of the word here in Ephesians must cover:-
A personal, experiential knowledge involving a deep, relational understanding of God that cannot but transform our character and way of living.
A Christian life, which must include spiritual growth and fruitfulness.
This is something which is not acquired through human intellect but is given by divine revelation, through God's grace and the Holy Spirit.
Actually, to ‘know Him better’ is not something you can do! Check verse 17 again. "Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better."
God chooses, by His Spirit, to make Himself known to YOU!
This is moving far beyond mere factual information to a deep heart relationship with God.
The word “revelation” means that something that’s been veiled or hidden for ages is then suddenly made clear to us! Wow!
Knowing God better should be the daily call and desire from our hearts, and yet at the same time a call that indicates an unending desire to know Him and deepen our relationship with Him.
By the way, as we come to know God better, we also come to know ourselves better.
Samuel Butler said, "To know God better is only to realise how impossible it is that we should ever know him at all. I know not which is more childish—to deny him, or define him.”
The church at Ephesus was being challenged in their knowledge! They were in danger of syncretism (the merging of different religious practices and ideologies). It's no different to where we are today in our Christian life. We, at times, place more emphasis on practicing our life, through religious activities than we do through our relationship with God and knowing His presence in our everyday experience!
We must be careful that we don’t sink into syncretism!!
W. Wiersbe describes it like this: “Evangelical churches are in danger of diluting the faith in their loving attempt to understand the beliefs of others.”
This was the repeated failure of Israel, “there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD” (Judges 2:10). The ultimate error was individual autonomy: “everyone did as he saw fit” (Judges 21:25). The fruit of a generation that forgets God!
In fact, God’s estimation of His chosen nation was, “My people are fools, they do not know Me” (Jer 4:22).
What would be His estimation of me or of you today? What would He say about your walk, your worship, your witness?
A W Tozer went on to say, “The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God.”
Jesus makes it clear that He alone is the way to heaven and to a personal knowledge of God: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me" (John 14:6).
This is key to truly knowing God and being in a relationship with Him.
In the end, what our souls long for, what God has made them to desire, is Himself. We were designed to know Him and enjoy Him and reflect Him.
Westminster Catechism states that the “Chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”
The question I want to ask you today is: do you enjoy God? To the point the gospel is part of your lived out life?
There’s a joy that is yours because of Him?
You’re getting to know Him better!
May God help and bless us as we embark on this new series of
Knowing God – Better!
Thank you, Harry, for this Blog! I feel that it was written for me personally! Not only were your quotes, comments and readings personal and thought-provoking but you included two of my most favourite songs! What a start to my day! Hallelujah! X