To Know and Love God

David Wilkerson (1931-2011)

I am going to make a very shocking statement, and I mean every word of it; I really do not know God in the way that I should.

How do I know this? The Holy Spirit told me. He whispered to me, lovingly, “David, you really don’t know God in the way he wants you to. You really don’t allow him to be God to you.”

We trust God in most areas of our lives, but our faith always falls short in some area. This happens because we have not set ourselves to study God’s acts and commands; we are not sure that he loves us or what he has promised to do for us. We don’t really know God yet.

In the Old Testament, God took a people unto himself, a people no richer or smarter than the rest, only so that he could be God to them. “I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians” (Exodus 6:7, NKJV). In other words, God was saying, “I’m going to teach you to be my people so that I can be God to you.”

Indeed, God revealed and manifested himself to his people over and over again. He sent angels. He spoke to them audibly. He fulfilled every promise with great deliverances.

After all that, he said, “For forty years I was grieved with that generation, and said, ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts, and they do not know my ways.’” (Psalm 95:10). After forty years of miracles, signs and wonders, God’s estimation of his people was “In all of this you never really let me be God! In forty years of my trying to teach you, you still never knew me. You still didn’t know how I work!”

Scripture clearly tells us, “Without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).

God is still looking for a people who will let him be God to them to the point that they truly know him and learn his ways!