{"id":162,"date":"2007-12-22T08:37:29","date_gmt":"2007-12-22T08:37:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/conversationswithgod\/2007\/12\/can-we-really-know-god.html"},"modified":"2007-12-22T08:37:29","modified_gmt":"2007-12-22T08:37:29","slug":"can-we-really-know-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/conversationswithgod\/2007\/12\/can-we-really-know-god.html","title":{"rendered":"Can we really know God?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nNOTE: Saturday is Prose & Poetry Day here on the blog, a time to take a moment once a week to relax the mind, open the heart, and access the soul through the gift of prose from one of the many books of The New Spirituality, and through the poetry of m. Claire, author of the forthcoming volume, Openings.<\/em>
\nThis week’s prose…an excerpt from Friendship with God<\/em>. To help “set it up,” let me say here that throughout the ages Man’s eternal question has been, Can we really ever get to know God?<\/em> It is not an unimportant question, and today, on this Saturday before Christmas, 2007, the question is more relevant than ever. In my book Friendship with God <\/em>I asked God what it would take for me to understand Who and What God Is. Here is the dialogue that followed…
\n= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =<\/p>\n

You have to know Me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I thought I did know You.<\/p>\n

Only casually. You don\u2019t know Me intimately yet. We\u2019ve had a good conversation \u2014 at last \u2014 but it\u2019s going to take more than that. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fine. So how can I get to know You better?<\/p>\n

Willingness.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Willingness?<\/p>\n

You have to have a real willingness. You have to be willing to see Me where you find Me, not only where you expect to find Me.
\nYou have to see Me where you find Me \u2014 and find Me where you see Me.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don\u2019t understand what that means.<\/p>\n

A lot of people see Me, but don\u2019t find Me. It\u2019s like a cosmic game of Where\u2019s Waldo? They\u2019re looking right at Me, but they don\u2019t find Me.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How can we make sure we recognize You?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a great word you chose to use there. To \u201crecognize\u201d is to \u201cknow again.\u201d That is, to re-cognize.
\nYou have to come to know Me again.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How do we do that?<\/p>\n

First, you must believe that I exist. Belief precedes Willingness as a tool with which to know God. You must believe that there is a God to know.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Most people do believe in God. Surveys show that in recent years belief in God has actually increased on our planet.<\/p>\n

Yes, I\u2019m happy to say that the largest number of you do believe in Me. So it\u2019s not your belief in<\/em> Me that creates problems, it\u2019s your belief about<\/em> Me.
\nOne of the things you believe about Me is that I do not want you to know Me. Some of you even believe that you dare not so much as utter My name. Others feel that you should not write the word \u201cGod,\u201d but, out of respect, should write \u201cG-D.\u201d Still others of you say that it\u2019s all right to speak My name, but that it must be My correct name, and that if it\u2019s an incorrect name, you will have committed a blasphemy.
\nBut whether you call Me Jehovah, Yaweh, God, Allah, or Charlie, I am still Who I am, What I am, Where I am, and I will not stop loving you because you got my name wrong, for heaven sake.
\nSo you can stop quarreling over what to call Me.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s pitiful, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s your word, reflecting a judgment. I\u2019m merely observing what\u2019s so.
\nEven many of those religions which are not arguing about My name are teaching that for you to seek too much knowledge of God is unwise, and for you to say that God has actually talked to you is heresy.
\nSo, while a belief IN God is necessary, your belief ABOUT God is also important.
\nThat\u2019s where Willingness comes in. You must not only believe in God to know Me, you must also be willing to really know Me \u2014 not simply know what you think you know about Me.
\nIf your beliefs about Me make it impossible to know Me as I really am, then all the belief in the world won\u2019t work. You\u2019ll continue to know what you think you know, instead of what is really so.
\nYou must be willing to suspend what you imagine you already know about God in order to know God as you never imagined.
\nThat is the key here, because you have many imaginings about God which bear no resemblance to Reality.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How can I get to this place of willingness?<\/p>\n

You are already there, or you wouldn\u2019t be spending time reading this. Now, expand on this experience. Open yourself to new ideas, new possibilities about Me. If I was your best friend, and not your \u201cfather\u201d, think of what you could tell Me, what you could ask of Me!
\nIn order to know God, you have to be \u201cready, willing and able.\u201d Belief in God is the beginning.
\nYour belief in some sort of Higher Power, in some kind of Deity, makes you \u201cready.\u201d
\nNext, your openness to some new thoughts about God \u2014 thoughts you\u2019ve never had before, thoughts that may even shake you up a bit, like \u201dOur Friend, who art in heaven\u201d \u2014 signals that you are \u201cwilling.\u201d
\nFinally, you must be \u201cable.\u201d If you are simply unable to see God in any of the new ways to which you have opened yourself, you will have completely dis-abled the mechanism by which you would come to know God in truth.
\nYou must be able to embrace a God who loves and embraces you, without condition; be able to welcome into your life a God who welcomes you into the kingdom, no questions asked; be able to stop punishing yourself for acknowledging a God who will not be punishing you; and be able to talk with a God who has never stopped talking to you.
\nAll of these are radical ideas. The churches do indeed call these heresies. And so, in the irony of all ironies, you may have to abandon the church in order to know God. Without a doubt, you will have to at least abandon some of the church\u2019s teachings. For churches teach of a God Whom you are told you cannot know, and Whom you would not choose as a friend. For what friend would you have who would punish you for your every misdeed? And what kind of friend considers it a misdeed to simply be called by the wrong name?\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In my Conversations with God I was told many things which contradicted everything I thought I knew about You.<\/p>\n

I know that you believe in God, or you could never have had conversations with God to begin with. So you were \u201cready\u201d to have a friendship with Me, but were you \u201cwilling\u201d? I see that you were \u2014 because willingness takes great courage, and you\u2019ve demonstrated that courage, not only by exploring other, non-traditional, points of view, but by doing so publicly.
\nThus, your conversation not only allowed you to undertake these explorations, but millions of others along with you. They did so vicariously, through your three published books, which have been eagerly read worldwide \u2014 a huge signal that the general public is willing now, too.
\nAre you \u201cable\u201d now to know Me, and thus have more than just a conversation, but also a friendship, with God?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\nThis week’s gift of poetry<\/em>
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\nThere is a Home for You, always.
\nIt cannot be left, or lost sight of in that
\nDark Night
\nbecause more than any darkness
\nIt is Light.
\nIt is greater than any wing
\nof Angeled Grace You pray for,
\nand cannot even pretend
\nto protect, or shelter You
\nfrom Life\u2019s storms
\nbecause
\nIt is a Love
\nwithin
\nthat simply cannot
\nbe left, or leave
\nYou
\non any of Life\u2019s darkened doorsteps
\nfor long,
\nbefore
\nthat Light, a feather on Your cheek,
\ncarries You,
\nsleeping, Innocent Child,
\nand tucks You,
\nsafely
\nsafely
\nback, into Your bed.
\n(‘Innocent Child’ – m. claire – copyright 2007 – all rights reserved)
\nFor more of the work of this new poetic voice you are invited to visit www.mclairepoet.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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