HOW DO I KNOW GOD?

Recently we added a new member to our fellowship WhatsApp group and he asked: HOW DO I KNOW GOD?

Personally, I have been involved in many discussions whose aim is to formulate answers and responses to questions asked by people from all walks of life. This question, however, struck me deep. I realized how we get so obsessed with WHAT we know about God and in one way or another confuse it with WHO God really is, and most of all, HOW we get to know who God is.

HOW DO I KNOW GOD is deep. It is deeper than making an individual confess Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, and deeper than leading someone to the baptismal pool. It is a question that cannot be explained by the doctrines of our denominations.

When the brother asks HOW DO I KOW GOD? To a philosopher, that is a question about the epistemology of our knowledge of God. Epistemology in simple terms is a study of How we know what we know. The easiest example I could ever give here is: We all know we were born to our parents but none of us was an eyewitness to their birth process to surely confirm the belief.

However, the epistemology (how we know what we know) of our belief that we were born to our current/passed parent is that: they told us and some have shown us photos of our eyewitness while others have gone scientific and established a truth based on the sameness of the DNA.

Like this HOW of our biological parents, there are still various epistemologies surrounding the HOW we know God. Many people know God through the interpretation of the Bible by the doctrines of their religions. Others know God through the speeches and preaching of their religious leaders. They believe God is who my pastor says he is. Others know God to be who the expert theologians say that he is. To others, God is known through ancestry belief systems and symbols. To some, the epistemology of God is founded on the experiences they have gone through.

When someone asks: How do I know God?, he is not an atheist, he believes there is a God and he wants to know this God. Whoever asks:  how do I know God? Has already made a conclusion that there is a God and all he needs to know is how he can get to know this God. We may disagree on how to worship God but what we instinctively agree upon is that there is a god or at least a Higher POWER. Even atheist contend against what is at least believed or assumed to exist.

Our understanding of who God is tied to our fears, success stories, and histories. While all these are good for the process of knowing God, I must remind you that all these experiences and more do not define who he is, but instead, describe what he does. The philosophical distinction between a DEFINITION and DESCRIPTION is very important if one is to align his belief system and day to day life.

So when the Bible says: ‘In the Beginning God’, it is first hand giving a definition of WHO God is. And God is nothing but THE BEGINNING. The beginning is what we have named GOD and all other translations in all languages. So when someone asks ‘HOW DO I KNOW GOD?’ the basic answer is: You start by knowing the BEGINNING, and once you ascertain the Beginning, you are in the right hands.

God is not in the Universe or Heaven, or Earth, for if he is contained in any, then we would be asking where was God before he created all these. God is not like a man who builds a house to be contained in that house. But rather, God is the BEGINNING where all the Universe is.

God is not like a man who celebrates birth dates, for God has never begun but rather he is the beginning, not just of everything but he is also the beginning of TIME itself. God is not just the FIRST-CAUSE but the CAUSE of the FIRST-CAUSE. So the phrase ‘In the Beginning God’, is not a quantification phrase that tells us WHEN but rather a qualification phrase that tells us WHO.

God is the beginning where everything began and where all things are. The Bible puts it this way in Colossians 1:16-17:

for in him, all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities — all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him, all things hold together.

Now let’s get this straight, the creativity of industries and factories begins with some sort of RAW MATERIAL. God, however, is the RAW MATERIAL of the visible and invisible, material and immaterial. He is the God who created everything out of nothing. He spoke things into existence ex-nihilo. So when you ask: How do I Know God?, I advise that you base from a definition. God is not what he does, he is God whether he does whatever he does or not.

The second part of Genesis 1:1 says: ‘Created the Heavens and the Earth’ and this is the DESCRIPTIVE way of knowing God. After one has established WHO God is, it is good to also appreciate that very God in WHAT he does. God is the creator, and we must appreciate him as our creator for that helps get our origins right. But God is who he is before and after creation, his act of creation does not improve a thing on who he is.

God is not who he is because of creation but instead, creation is what it is because of who God is.

So when we say that GOD IS THE CREATOR, it is not the creation that qualifies him but instead, it is God who is the qualifier of the act of creation. I consider myself a Theologian and the reason for that consideration of myself is because I studied Theology, so Theology qualifies my being a Theologian. God is not like that, and this point is very important in HOW WE KNOW WHO GOD IS.

Many religions and belief systems will paint an image of who God is based on what he does, what they wish he could do in their lives and what actually is happening around them as opposed to who he really is.

I live in Kampala (Capital City to Uganda-East Africa), and in this city, people are identified by what they sell. If someone trades in produce, they are called: ‘Produce’. In this city, people live with each other for over 5yrs not knowing each other’s name but addressing them by their businesses. This same thing happens to many people when they approach the question: HOW DO I KNOW GOD?

Do I know him by what he does (Description) or do I know him for WHO he is (Definition)! Most of us the most significant people in our lives are those who have at our point of death stood with us. They are people who have helped us and done wonders in our lives.

Friends, God is God. He is who he is not what he does or doesn’t. Moses was concerned with this when God commissioned him to go and deliver the Israelite slaves but God addressed his concern by these words in Exodus 3:13-14:

Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, `The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, `What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, `I AM has sent me to you.'”

God was not even interested in being known firsthand by these slaves as their redeemer but as I AM. The book of Psalms is a compilation of praises and worship statements that do not talk about who God is substantially but what he does.

I have to mention that there is nothing wrong knowing God for what he does but this shouldn’t be our how of knowing God. We cannot afford a faith in what God does but ignorant of who God is. If we base our answer of HOW DO WE KNOW GOD in what he does, and things ever happen differently in our lives, we will deny or doubt him. The story of Job demonstrates this properly.

The Bible says that eternal life is about knowing God not just what he does.

And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. (John 17:3).

The question of HOW DO I KNOW GOD? Begins with a relationship with WHO God IS but not with WHAT God DOES or has to give. This is a very difficult belief concept for people like us in pain, but again, we must understand that knowing God from the aspect of his providence is deceptive in a sense that when things don’t turn up like we anticipated we hate and denounce God.

I always tell a story of a woman who had 12 children and they started dying one by one. The day came and the last of her twelve kids died, but on this last one, she did not cry but kept looking to heaven as she held her dying kid. Finally, the kid died, and this woman, staring in Heaven, said: GOD, LORD, KUMANYOKO (a Swahili obscene word) and then she jeered at God.

Like this woman, many doubt and denounce God because of their losses and pain in this life. Others, on the other hand, have their faith in God because of the wonders happening in their lives. But all this is a problem of knowing God descriptively (what he does and has to offer) but not for not knowing him definitely (who he is).

To know God and appreciate him through what he does; providence, breakthroughs and miracles is building one’s faith-house on sinking sand. And when the thorns and storms of this sinful world rise, they will demolish it. But to know God for who he is regardless of what is happening in your life, good or bad, is building your faith on the rock and the fluctuating seasons of this sinful world will never shake it to the core.

The three Hebrew Boys in a fiery furnace declared thus:

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image which you have set up. (Daniel 3:16-18).

God’s Word, the Bible, is paramount to knowing God better. Romans 10:17 says, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ.” God can truly be known by listening to the word of Christ. Not the word of the theory of the scientist, the works of scholars, the good preaching of your pastor etc. but the word of Christ.

Here is the reason: “In Christ, all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (Colossians 2:9). Jesus is indeed the Word of God made flesh (John 1:14). Jesus revealed God through His words and works. He even said that no one comes to the Father but by Him (John 14:6). If you want to know who God is, look at Jesus.

God bless you, I invoke TRUTH, REASON and FAITH

Am Pr. I.T.WHITE

The Gospel HAWKER