Knowing God

Have you ever noticed that when relationships are right, great things can happen? I’ve even heard it said more than once that who you know is more important than what you know. The all-important relationship; it can either make you or break you, because it is often true that if you have the right connections, certain people can facilitate your way on the upward path of success. People can open doors of opportunity or remove obstacles blocking your way.Our relationship with God works in much the same way. The Bible tells us that life in this world and the world to come is all about having a growing relationship with almighty God. We are not talking here about a relationship of convenience or superficiality; God wants an intimate relationship with us! Jesus Christ came into the world to give us that relationship with God, and our decision to accept salvation through Christ has major implications for not only eternity, but for the time we have remaining in this world.

Being a Converterlator is all about having a right relationship with Jesus Christ and having his Word and life personally operating in your life. When we have a growing relationship with God, we experience his favor and blessing. And if we have the favor and blessing of God, what else could we ever need? To have his presence and the truth of his Word operating in our lives through Christ living his life in us truly makes us a different people.

Moses modeled this principle for us. The living presence of God in his life was paramount. In fact he did not want to proceed with the tasks God had for him without having God’s very presence in his life. “And he said to him, ‘If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here’” (Exodus 33:15, ESV).

This kind of dependence on God is not possible without knowing God and understanding how he thinks. This means we must not only begin a relationship with him, but go on to develop an intimate relationship with him in order to truly experience his presence in our lives. Moses realized that if he ever hoped to find favor in God’s sight, he needed to know God in a deeper way when he said, “Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight” (Exodus 33:13, ESV).

What we are talking about here is developing an intimacy with God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Relationship is not about external rules or a list of what to do and not to do. Relationship is about being with someone.When we like to be around a person, we make time to be with them. We like to experience their presence for increasing time periods. Each one of us needs to be spending time with God!

Moses had this same type of relationship with God. Moses made it very clear he wanted to know God and his ways, and God showed Moses who he really was: “He revealed his character to Moses and his deeds to the people of Israel” (Psalm 103:7, NLT).

People get to know our character when we spend time with them. Actions become somewhat predictable when we know the character of someone. We learn whether or not we can place our trust in them.

As our relationship develops with God, we find we want to spend more and more time with him. He becomes more and more real in our life. We realize his Word literally gives life to our mortal bodies, and he reveals more and more of himself to us. We begin to see his working in the circumstances in our life. We find more and more that we really do need him. Yes, this is the relationship of relationships! Everything boils down to our relationship with God. If we want the power of God working in our life, then God must be the God of all things in our life. Every breath and every heartbeat is sourced in God. He is the one who lifts one up and puts another down. He is the one who opens the doors of opportunity.

These are the people God is looking for in this world; people who make him the number one priority in their lives. They realize knowing God is central to living successfully in this world. They want to have God’s favor on their life. In order for this to happen they need to know his ways so they can follow him.

There are many things that can keep us from having an intimate relationship with God: other people, confused priorities, “stuff,” busyness, you name it! The Converterlator is willing to swim upstream against the world system. We have a different worldview. We live differently, act differently, and are motivated by factors unknown to most of the world.

God led Moses and the people through the wilderness of their day. That wilderness was bewildering at times, complex at others, downright confusing, and often threatening! And yet, Moses and the Israelites saw the finger of God at work in their circumstances in numerous ways. When we look to God for direction, we find him to be faithful.

This is not to say that life will be easy. There willbe hard times, but God will be there with us. The wise person of today will acquaint himself with God, and become a Converterlator, living to convert the perishable into the imperishable, holding on to values that will echo into eternity. In this case, it really is who you know that counts.

Honestly, is your relationship with God your number one priority or is it just a relationship of convenience? What in your life do you need to submit to God so that He is the most important thing in your life?