{"id":1548,"date":"2012-07-23T06:00:01","date_gmt":"2012-07-23T06:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/2012\/07\/you-can-know-god\/"},"modified":"2012-07-23T06:00:01","modified_gmt":"2012-07-23T06:00:01","slug":"you-can-know-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/2012\/07\/you-can-know-god\/","title":{"rendered":"You Can Know God"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Weekly Overview:<\/h2>\n<p>One of the greatest privileges as a child of God is that we can have the heart of our heavenly Father. We don\u2019t have to wonder how he feels about us. We don\u2019t have to wonder if he will guide us. We don\u2019t have to question whether he loves us or cares about us. Through the Holy Spirit we have continual, free access to the heart of God. May your relationship with God go deeper and become freer as we learn how to have God\u2019s heart this week.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Scripture:<\/h2>\n<p><em>\u201cBe still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.&#8221;<\/em> Psalm 46:10<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"worship\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Worship:<\/h2>\n<h3>Be Still by Steffany Frizzell Gretzinger &#038; Bethel Music<\/h3>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"display: block; margin: auto auto 30px auto; width: 100%; float:left;\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: block; margin: auto; float: left; border: 1px solid #000000; background-color: #484846; padding: 2px; -moz-border-radius: 3px; -khtml-border-radius: 3px; -webkit-border-radius: 3px; border-radius: 3px;\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TAPpunj-dMM?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<h2>Devotional:<\/h2>\n<p>God longs to be known by you. He longs for you to make time to simply seek his face and get to know his personality, the nature of his love, and the availability of his presence. You don\u2019t have to live without a real, revelatory knowledge of God\u2019s heart. You don\u2019t have to live with the uncertainty of whether you are cared for, provided for, and loved.<\/p>\n<p>In the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God proved his longing to be known by us. Jesus took on flesh not just so he could save and redeem us, but so he could usher in a better, truer revelation of who the Father is. In John 17:3 Jesus says, <em>\u201cNow this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.&#8221;<\/em> And later in verse 26 Jesus prays to the Father, <em>\u201cI have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.&#8221;<\/em> Jesus came that we might know the love of the Father. He came that we might have communion\u2014unhindered relationship with our Creator.<\/p>\n<p>Through Jesus you\u2019ve been granted eternal, real access to your heavenly Father. And in the Holy Spirit you can search the deep places of God\u2019s heart and grow in restored relationship with him. 1 Corinthians 2:10-12 says:<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person\u2019s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. <\/em><\/div>\n<p>God has made the way for you to know his heart. You can know him in infinitely deeper and more transformative ways than you can know even your best friend or spouse. The Holy Spirit, God himself, dwells within you and longs to reveal the <em>\u201cdeep things of God&#8221;<\/em> to you.<\/p>\n<p>All that\u2019s left for you to do is have faith in God\u2019s ability to reveal himself when you seek him and set aside time to know the heart of your heavenly Father. May you make time to do exactly that today as you enter into guided prayer.<\/p>\n<h2>Guided Prayer:<\/h2>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\n<p><strong>1. Meditate on what Scripture says about the knowability of God\u2019s heart.<\/strong> Let God\u2019s word fill you with faith to seek deeper relationship with your Father.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cFor the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person\u2019s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.&#8221;<\/em> 1 Corinthians 2:10-12<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cNow this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.&#8221;<\/em> John 17:3<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cI have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.&#8221;<\/em> John 17:26<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. Ask God to reveal an aspect of his heart that you need to know.<\/strong> Ask him how he feels about you in this moment. Ask him to reveal just how near and loving he is. Rest in his presence.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. Thank God for how available he is to you.<\/strong> Worship him because he\u2019s paid the ultimate price simply for you to know him. As you pour out thankfulness on him, watch as he pours his presence out over you.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>What a tragedy it is to not take full advantage of what Jesus paid so high a price to accomplish. What a waste to live this life as if God isn\u2019t fully with us, fully for us, and fully available to us. He couldn\u2019t make the way to his heart any clearer. The Holy Spirit dwells within you as close to your heart as he could possibly be. Knowing God is as simple as acknowledging how close and available he already is. May your life be changed in light of the knowability of your perfect, loving heavenly Father.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Extended Reading:<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=john+17&#038;version=NIV\" rel=\"alternate\">John 17<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Weekly Overview: One of the greatest privileges as a child of God is that we can have the heart of our heavenly Father. We don&#8217;t have to wonder how he feels about us. We don&#8217;t have to wonder if he will guide us. We don&#8217;t have to question whether he loves us or cares about&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":636,"featured_media":1551,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-first15"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>You Can Know God<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Weekly Overview: One of the greatest privileges as a child of God is that we can have the heart of our heavenly Father. We don&#8217;t have to wonder how he feels about us. We don&#8217;t have to wonder if he will guide us. We don&#8217;t have to question whether he loves us or cares about&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/2012\/07\/you-can-know-god\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"You Can Know God\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Weekly Overview: One of the greatest privileges as a child of God is that we can have the heart of our heavenly Father. We don&#8217;t have to wonder how he feels about us. We don&#8217;t have to wonder if he will guide us. 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