The Most Googled Questions About God — Episode 8: Can I Know God Personally?
We can know that God is. Even nature teaches us that. David said, “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1). But knowing God is different. It’s like the difference between knowing who someone is and knowing him on a personal level.
People all over the world sense that there is more to this life than what they see. And they yearn to know the One who created all this. But can they? And if so, how can we know God?
Loneliness is common today. Because of the internet, never before have people been connected to so many and at the same time felt so lonely. We are social creatures. That’s how God made us. We long for relationships with others and we need above all else the right relationship with God. This episode explores what knowing God means and how the Bible answers this commonly Googled question.
Read about this subject
- Scripture: Psalm 139; Psalm 8; I Timothy 2:5; John 17:1-3
- “Living for Jesus”
Listen to more on this subject
Transcript
Kerry Duke: Hi, I’m Kerry Duke, host of My God and My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee Bible College, where we see the Bible as not just another book, but the Book. Join us in a study of the inspired Word to strengthen your faith and to share what you’ve learned with others.
Can you know God personally? The answer is yes. That’s the simple part. How we do that takes a little more explaining.
This is different from knowing that God is. A person can know that God exists, but that’s not the same thing as knowing God. When somebody calls a name and says, “Do you know him?” you may say, “I know who he is, but I don’t know him. I don’t know him personally.”
What does it mean to know God in a personal way? There’s something underneath this we need to think about. When we talk about knowing God, what we may be asking is, “Does God know ME personally?” The universe is a big place. The world has a lot of people, and each one has a world of needs and a world of problems. God keeps the sun shining. He sends rain. He hears prayers and answers prayers. He sees what happens every day. But, does He notice ME? I believe that’s what we really want to know.
Listen to what David wrote. In Psalm 8 verses 3 and 4, he said, “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?” David was in awe. He was humbled. He said when he looked at how big and how great this universe is, he was amazed that God thinks about us. God notices us. He cares about us. He loves us.
Here’s another Psalm David wrote. It’s Psalm 139. He said, “ O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether. You have hedged me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it.” That’s Psalm 13 verses 1 through 6. Now just think about that and ponder this: God knows you the same way He knew David. He knows when you sit down and when you get up. He knows every thought that goes through your mind. In Revelation 2 verse 23 in the New King James Version Jesus said, “I am He who searches the minds and hearts.” The King James Version is more literal. It says Jesus searches the “reins” and the hearts. The word “reins” means kidneys. There’s nothing mysterious about that. It was just how people in Bible times talked. They used body parts deep inside the body to represent thoughts and feelings deep inside the soul. That’s why you see the word “bowels” in the King James Version in verses like First John 3 verse 17. It just means deep feelings of compassion. Hebrews 4 verse 12 says the Word of God pierces “the joints and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” So God knows everything inside you—every thought, every feeling, every plan, every idea, every motive and every wish. And notice that David says God hears every word you say: “there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.” Today, technology can be scary. Every word you text or post on the internet is being recorded. And, we’ve all been shocked in recent years to see something pop up on a screen we’re connected to, and it just happened to be something we were just talking about. You’re talking in your house about a vacation and all the sudden you get these ads for cruises on your phone. It’s hard to have privacy anywhere these days. Even people who are doing things and saying things they shouldn’t are having to be creative. I just read about young people trying to fly beneath the radar. “Phone-free parties” are becoming a fad. But whether it’s good or bad, it’s getting harder to keep anything private anymore. About the only sure place where no one can intrude is what goes on inside your soul. They don’t have a program that can read your mind, and quite frankly, they never will. But here’s the point David made: God knows. God knows every thought in your head.
But David’s not finished with how well God knows you. God is everywhere. No matter where you go, He sees you and knows your every move. Listen to what he says in verses 7 through 12 of Psalm 139. “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall fall on me,’ Even the night shall be light about me; Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, but the night shines as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to You.” God sees you and knows you whether you’re in the dark or in the light. The Bible says, “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews chapter 4 verse 13). And the incredible thing to us is that this awareness goes beyond this world. David said, “If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.”
God knows you. He knows you literally inside and out. David said He even knew everything about me before I was born, before anybody had ever seen me. In verses 13 through 16 he wrote, “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.” If there’s a passage in the Bible that talks about life in the womb, this is it. This is like an ultrasound in words before any human being could see an image of an unborn child. How anyone could think that they have a right to take that precious life is beyond the sensibilities of God-fearing people. And what is David’s point? He’s showing how thoroughly God knows him. God had always known him—even before he was born.
God knows you personally. Listen to what Jesus said. In the Sermon on the Mount the Lord told us how to pray to God the Father. He said not to use vain repetitions, and here’s why: “For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him” (Matthew 6 verse 8). God knows you so well He knows what you need. Can you say that about any person on earth? Even the closest person to you doesn’t know what you need in every case. In that same chapter He said not to worry about the things of this life because “your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things” (verse 32 of Matthew 6). Let’s keep going in the book of Matthew. Do you remember Jesus saying that “the very hairs of your head are all numbered”? Here’s what He said, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows” (Matthew 10 verses 28 through 31). If The Lord knows you that well, then yes, He’s in a position to have a very close, personal relationship with you. In fact, how could you be closer to anybody else?
The Lord knows your good side and your bad side. He knows your strengths and your weaknesses. He knows your good deeds and your bad ones. He knows the things you’re ashamed of and don’t want anybody to know about. And yet, he loves you. The more you get to know a person the harder it can be to like or love that person because you see things that disappoint you or hurt you. But you have to remember that that person sees your bad side too. I suppose there’s truth in the old saying that familiarity breeds contempt. But we must not take that proverb too far. God knows everything about us, but that doesn’t mean that He has contempt for us and doesn’t love us. God sees us as we really are. Like the Bible says in First Samuel 16 verse 7, “man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” If we could see into the hearts of other people, we probably wouldn’t have a friend in the world. We wouldn’t trust anybody. We’d be disgusted. And yet God looks at us—He looks at you—and He has love and mercy for us. How could you have a more personal relationship with anybody else?
Now let’s see how the Bible takes this to another level. God knows everything about every person, but not everybody is saved. God knows evil men. He knows everything about them. But He does not know them in another sense. Here’s what Jesus will say to many at the judgment: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’” (Matthew 7 verses 21 to 22). Now notice what Jesus will say to these people in the next verse: “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” Jesus cannot be saying He never knew who they were. He’s saying He never approved of them. He never accepted them.
On the other hand, the Bible says God knows the saved in a higher way. He doesn’t just know who they are or what they need or what they’re thinking. He knows them intimately and personally in a special way. Paul told the Christians in Galatia that, before they were converted, “But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God” (Galatians 4 verses 8 and 9). Christians are known by God in a way that God does not know others. Paul said, “The Lord knows those who are His” (Second Timothy 2 verse 19). That means more than just knowing they exist. It means God knows Christians individually, intimately, personally.
This helps us understand how we can know God in a personal way. It’s not all up to God. We must come to know Him. So let’s look at the question “Can I know God?” Are we able to know God on this level? Yes we are. The question is, “Will I know God?” Do I want to know God? There’s no question that we can if we really want to. But some have hangups that keep them from getting to know God. They may think they are so sinful God won’t have anything to do with them. And I believe we can understand that feeling. At least some can relate to it more than others. Do you remember what Peter said when he fully realized who Jesus was? “He fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord’” (Luke 5 verse 8). Peter didn’t feel worthy even to stand before Jesus. That’s true humility. And what about the centurion who had a sick servant he wanted Jesus to heal? He sent others to ask Jesus to heal that servant. Why? He sent word by his friends to tell Jesus, “Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof. Therefore I did not even think myself worthy to come to You. But say the word, and my servant will be healed” (Luke 7 verses 6 to 7). We need more of that kind of humility today, don’t we?
But that’s the beauty of the gospel. God is perfect, not like anything or anyone we’ve ever seen on earth. He is so holy and pure it is impossible for Him to even be tempted to do evil according to James 1 verse 13. And the thought of you and I approaching Him and having what we call a personal relationship with Him is and ought to be a very humbling thought. And yet, God invites us to come to Him. That’s why Jesus came to the earth—to bridge the gap between God and man by becoming man as well as God. I’m not saying that people in the Old Testament couldn’t have a personal relationship with God. The Bible calls Abraham the “friend of God.” If you ever doubt that a human being can have a close relationship with God, read the book of Psalms. But we have even more in this age because Jesus has come and paved the way for us to know God. That’s why the Bible calls Him our mediator. That’s different from the word intercessor. Christians intercede for others God. The Bible says we are to make intercession for those in the government so that we can have a peaceful life (First Timothy 2 verses 1 through 3). But a mediator not only represents man to God; He represents God to man. That’s why the Bible says there is only one Mediator and that’s Jesus Christ (First Timothy 2 verse 5).
When Jesus died on the cross, He paid the penalty for our sins. He died to reconcile us to God. Sin separates us from fellowship with God. That’s really what we’re talking about today—fellowship with God, communion with God. How is that possible? It’s not because we can do enough good deeds to erase the guilt of our sins. Only the death of the Soon of God could pay that price. And when Jesus paid that price on the cross, He made it possible for us to be united with God, to be reconciled with Him. Paul said that as Christians we are “reconciled to God through the death of His Son” in Romans 5 verse 10. We can actually become children of God. Do we realize what an honor that is—to actually be able to call on God as our Father? The Bible says, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3 verses 26 to 27). And here’s an answer to the question “Can I know God personally?” It’s in the book of Hebrews. That book says Jesus became a man so He could be our great high priest. He was human as well as divine. He can sympathize with us. He has been here. He lived and suffered and died just like the rest of us. God did this—for us. The Bible says in Hebrews 4 verses 15: “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Jesus can sympathize with us. He’s the link between man and God. He’s the mediator. Now notice the next verse. “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” He doesn’t say to approach God out of sheer terror. He says to come boldly to God. How can Christians do that? Because Jesus is our high priest. He intercedes for us and He is our mediator. And that’s what it means to be a child of God.
But we don’t see Jesus like people in the New Testament did. We don’t hear His voice like they did. And, the Bible says no man has seen God (John 1 verse 18). So here’s what many people struggle with. They say, “Okay, I understand what you’re saying, but knowing someone means you have to talk with each other. So, does God speak to us?” That’s what a lot of people have in mind when they ask, “Can I know God personally?” They’re thinking, “If I could just hear His voice, then I’d know for sure. I’d really believe then. I’d really be motivated if I knew He was talking to me.”
God did talk to some people directly in Bible times. He spoke to Adam and Eve. So think about it. Would you say that Adam and Eve had a personal relationship with God? Of course they did. God talked to them and they talked with God. God made them and told them to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and have dominion over it. That’s the first recorded conversation of God speaking to man. The next time we read of God talking to man, He told him NOT to do something. God told Adam in Genesis 2 verse 16 and 17, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Now that’s about as personal as you can get. God didn’t write something and leave it for Adam and Eve to read. He didn’t whisper to them in a dream. He spoke with them directly in an audible voice. Isn’t that what a lot of people today want? They think if God just spoke to them, then they’d do whatever He said with no questions asked. They’d believe God and love Him because they’d really know Him—not just that He existed, but that He cared for them and loved them. And if anybody knew that, it was Adam and Eve. But what happened? They did exactly what God told them not to do! Hearing the voice of God with their own ears didn’t keep them from doing what He told them not to do.
Moses talked with God. The Lord appeared to Moses in the burning bush in Exodus chapter 3. He told Moses that he was to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt. Do you remember what Moses said? It’s that famous story where Moses made excuses. He said who am I to do something like that? He said what if the people won’t believe me? He said I’m not a good speaker. And every time Moses made an excuse, God gave him an answer. Then Moses suggested to God that somebody else do it. That’s when the Bible says the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses. Now that’s what we would call a personal, private conversation. And again, just because he heard the voice of God didn’t guarantee that he would like what God said to him. There’s another time where God spoke about His special relationship to Moses. It’s in Numbers chapter 12. Moses’ brother and sister, Aaron and Miriam, criticized Moses, because of the Ethiopian woman he married. They said, “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us also?” (verse 2). And God told them that He did speak with Moses more directly. He said in verse 8: “I speak to him face to face,” that is in a more direct way than He did to other prophets. He often spoke to prophets in dreams and visions. But Moses was different. But the fact that God spoke to Moses like this didn’t mean that Moses would automatically do what God said every time. He was a faithful man of God, but he was human. He made a big mistake when he didn’t give God the glory for bringing water out of the rock the second time in the eyes of the Israelite people. And it was because of this that God told Moses he couldn’t enter the promised land. He went to glory when he died, but he missed this earthly reward.
And what about Jonah the runaway prophet of God? He surely had direct communication with God. God told Jonah to go to Nineveh to preach to the people and Jonah deliberately disobeyed God. When God taught him a lesson by putting him in the belly of the great fish for three days, Jonah preached to the people and they repented. That should have made Jonah happy. But it didn’t. He was upset because he didn’t want God to spare these people. The Assyrians had made life hard for these Israelites and Jonah wanted God to punish them, not spare them. So Jonah was mad. He was very upset with God. That’s when God had a conversation with Jonah about his attitude. So Jonah heard the voice of God. In that sense, he had a personal relationship with God. And yet, he was no different from people today.
But let’s get back to Jesus. He was the Son of God. He was God manifested in the flesh. That means people stood before God and talked with Him and heard His voice as closely as human beings can. And they could have a relationship with Him. They could know Him personally. Some did. But others did not. You see, just seeing or hearing God in human form didn’t mean that everybody knew Him as God. Some believed in Jesus and some did not. Some loved Jesus and others hated Him. But whether they had a close, personal relationship with Jesus didn’t depend on Jesus having a body of flesh and blood like we do. That made it more real for them, at least at times. But sometimes they didn’t have the faith they should have. All of the apostles wavered in their faith just after He rose from the dead. Jesus rebuked them for this. You remember Thomas who said he wouldn’t believe Jesus was alive unless he saw the print of the nails in His hands and felt the place where the soldier pierced Jesus’ side with a sword, he wouldn’t believe. When Jesus appeared where they were hiding behind closed doors, He told Thomas to feel His hands and His side and Thomas said, “My Lord and my God” (John 20 verse 28). Then Jesus said something that ought to make us think. Here is what anyone who’s having questions about knowing God personally needs to think about. Jesus said, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20 verse 29).
You don’t have to see Jesus to know Jesus. You’ll never get to hear Jesus preach, but you have His words written in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And you can have a personal relationship with Him even though He’s not standing in front of you where you can see Him. Not every Christian in the first century saw Jesus. Many of the Gentiles never saw Jesus. They never saw Him work miracles. They never heard Him preach and teach. Yet listen to what Peter said to the Christians he wrote to. He was talking about Jesus, then he said, “Whom having not seen, you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing…” (First Peter 1 verse 8). We have a saying, “Out of sight, out of mind.” That’s true sometimes, but not in every case. We’ve never seen God but that doesn’t mean we don’t think about Him. And look at what Peter said: “Whom having not seen, you love.” How can you love someone you’ve never met? By faith. Because you know who Jesus is. You know that He loves you and died for you.
And how does that faith come? Romans 10 verse 17 says, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” So if you need faith, listen to the Word of God. It’s right there in your Bible. That is how God speaks to us—through the written, inspired Word of God, the Bible. Here’s what Paul said about the Scriptures: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (Second Timothy 3 verse 16 and 17). The Bible is inspired of God. That means God, through the Holy Spirit, inspired the men who wrote it. Peter wrote, “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (Second Peter 1 verses 19 to 20).
So when you read the words of the Bible, you are hearing the voice of God. What you read in the Bible is just as true as God speaking directly from heaven. It’s just as true as if God called your name and spoke to you directly, personally. It’s funny that many people agree with this—that is, they agree that God speaks through the Bible—but they look for God to speak to them some other way: in a dream, in a vision, by an angel, through a whisper or a voice in their mind. But even if God did that, would those words be any more true than the Bible? Of course not. Would those words tell you anything you need to know to be saved that the Bible doesn’t tell you? No. But people are always looking for something else. Maybe they think that would make more of an impression on them. Maybe they would really “feel” religious then. But we’ve already seen that wasn’t even true in Bible times. God spoke from heaven, parted the Red Sea, and sent His only begotten Son and people still didn’t listen. Why don’t they just read the Bible?
When the rich young ruler came to Jesus and wanted to know how to have eternal life, Jesus told him, “You know the commandments” and quoted the Scriptures to that young man (Mark 10 verse 19). He didn’t tell him to go home and listen for a mysterious voice. He didn’t say, “You’ll know when you feel it in your heart.” Jesus pointed this man to the written Word of God. When the lawyer asked Him the same question (how to have eternal life), Jesus did the same thing: He pointed this man to the Scriptures he already had. I’m not saying all you have to do is read your Bible and you’re automatically saved, you instantly know God. You have to believe that word and you have to obey it. But it’s the written word of God that tells you how to be saved. The creation tells you that God exists. But it doesn’t tell you how to be saved. The Bible answers that question.
When Jesus rose from the dead, he was with his apostles 40 days. Then he ascended back to heaven. 10 days later, he sent the Holy Spirit on the apostles on the day of Pentecost. When Peter preached that day, he told the Jews they were guilty of killing the Son of God. And he used the Old Testament Scriptures to show that God had foretold this hundreds of years before it happened. He quoted from the profit Joel. He quoted from David in the book of Psalms. And he plainly told these people they had crucified the Christ. The Bible says they were pierced in their heart and asked what they had to do to be saved. Peter told them to repent and be baptized for the remission of sins (Acts chapter 2 verse 38). He didn’t tell them just to believe and accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. He didn’t tell them to pray the sinner’s prayer. He told them to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. The Holy Spirit inspired him to preach that message, and the same Holy Spirit inspired Luke to write the book of Acts and record this sermon for us. 3000 people were baptized that day, and the chapter ends with these words: “and the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2 verse 47).
The same Holy Spirit inspired Paul and others to write the epistles. Those letters to congregations and to individual Christians taught Christians then how to know God better. They teach us the same thing if we just listen to them and believe them and put them into practice.
Can we know God personally? Jesus prayed that we would. John 17 says the night before He was crucified, “Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17 verses 1 through 3). Jesus prayed that we might know the Father. That’s not just knowing that He is. It’s knowing Him personally, intimately. It’s believing and loving and obeying Him. And if Jesus prayed that we would do this, then we can know Him.
Thank you for listening to My God and My Neighbor. Stay connected with our podcast on our website and on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever fine podcasts are distributed. Tennessee Bible College, providing Christian education since 1975 in Cookeville, Tennessee, offers undergraduate and graduate programs. Study at your level. Aim higher and get in touch with us today.