We often talk about “knowing God” as if it’s a simple idea, a mere mental assent or a fleeting feeling. But true, biblical knowledge of God is far more profound. It’s an all-encompassing transformation that reshapes your very being, engaging your mind, heart, and will in an unbreakable chain leading to divine transformation.
Knowing God involves our Mind, Heart, and Will
The Mind: Exposure and Reception
Knowing God doesn’t begin with emotion (this is where millions go astray), it begins with exposure and reception of your mind to scriptures.
- Exposure: Your mind should be exposed to the objective truths of God in scripture. This happens by actively reading, listening, and studying God’s Word.
- Reception: Moving beyond surface-level understanding into a prayerful, meditative absorption of these truths of scriptures through meditation – As Jesus prayed, “For I have given them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them…” (John 17:8). This isn’t just about information; it’s about internalizing objective truths of Bible.
The Heart: Two inevitable responses
As you consistently and prayerfully immerse yourself in God’s Word, a miraculous shift occurs. The Holy Spirit breaks through, granting you a spiritual revelation—a penetrating insight into divine realities that transcends mere intellect. Paul prays for this spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God in Eph 1:17. When this divine wisdom dawns, your heart cannot help but respond in 2 specific ways.
- Faith: Not just a belief about God, but a vibrant, active faith in God, expressing itself in tangible, courageous actions (Heb 11). If living faith can move mountains, it can definitely move you to express itself in few actions!
- Love: As you are given revelation of glory, beauty, and desirableness of God, a spontaneous overflow of love for God and His people follows. 1 John 4:7 highlights it impossible to know God like this and not love God and his people as a consequences. This is the reason Eph 1:15 highlights faith and love as undeniable marks of every Christian who knows God.
The Will: The Outflow of Obedient Life
With a mind illuminated by truth and a heart overflowing with faith and love, your will inevitably aligns. True knowledge of God doesn’t stop at intellectual understanding or emotional warmth; it produces obedience to His commands. As 1 John 2:3 declares, “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.”
This holistic knowledge of God isn’t just about renewing your mind or stirring your emotions. It fundamentally reshapes your will, leading to Ethical, practical, and moral transformation that permeates every facet of your existence. You can see a husband as result of knowing God loving his wife as Christ loved the church. A wife knowing God submitting to her husband in reverence for Christ. Children obeying parents, not grudgingly, but joyfully. Colleagues and employees seeing Christ-likeness lived out in the workplace.
The Unmistakable Mark of True Knowing
When this profound, transformative knowledge takes root, the world sees it. They will look at such a person and declare, with an undeniable certainty: “That man knows God. That woman knows God.”
Any other “knowing”—whether it stops at intellectual theory, superficial head knowledge, or fleeting emotional highs, without leading to practical and ethical transformation—is a counterfeit. The Bible is unequivocal: “He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:4).
True knowledge of God isn’t just something you have; it’s something you become.
May we all Know God like this!
Pastor Murali
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 