Do you want to know how we can grow in the knowledge of God? It should be the desire of every believer to grow in knowledge and understanding of God. This quest to know God will require a few steps. It doesn’t happen by osmosis or just by talking about it; you’ll have to put some action behind it. For this reason, we want to share with you some ways to increase your knowledge and understanding of God.
What does it mean to have knowledge of God?
To have knowledge is to have facts, information or awareness of something or someone. When we know God, we understand his nature, his character, and who he is. This process of increasing your knowledge and understanding of God will require you to engage with God on several different levels.
Here you can learn about:
1. Intellectual
- “Rather, grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” ( 2 Peter 3:18).
Whether you realize it or not, growing in understanding of God begins as an intellectual quest. We must engage our minds because that is where we process the information that helps us begin to understand who God is.
Sometimes connecting our minds doesn’t seem very spiritual, but it is, and most importantly, it starts the process. Jesus even commanded us when loving God to love him with all our hearts, souls, and minds ( Matthew 22:37 ).
However, for you to really know God, it must become more than just a mental or intellectual search. If you never get beyond that, you’ll end up with an academic understanding of who God is and not move into a relationship with him. This is why the Pharisees were able to quote the scriptures and knew the law, but they did not know who Jesus was. His knowledge was intellectual and never went beyond that.
2. Experiential
The second level on which we relate to God is experiential. Part of growing in understanding of God is not just learning facts and information; you must experience who he is. When you experience who God is, he takes the facts you’ve learned and brings them to life. They go from being just words to becoming life for you.
3. Spiritual
The third level at which we engage with God is spiritual, and this is where true fellowship and communion with God occurs. While it involves our mind as part of the experience, we communicate with God in relationship when our spirit connects with his spirit.
- “However, a time is coming, and it has come now, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and the worshipers of him must worship in the Spirit and in truth ”(John 4:23-24).
We want to emphasize that it is the combination of these things together that sets the stage for you to understand more of who God is.
For example: you cannot grow in knowledge of God and leave your mind out of the process. You also can’t really be in awe of who God is until you experience his presence. These three things work together and form the foundation for you to grow in the knowledge of who God is.
5 ways to increase our knowledge of God
How do we move this from a theoretical exercise to practical action steps? As long as we have been saved and despite all the different ideas and suggestions out there, we keep coming back to these steps as the only way you can really grow and know God more.
1. You must spend time in the Word
It is impossible to grow in your knowledge of God if you neglect his word. God carefully crafted his word for 1,500 years and within it reveals who he is. If you want to know more about who he is, you will need to spend time reading the Bible.
I know that this first form is not very revolutionary and may even seem basic, but it is essential to understand who God is. Knowing God and reading his word are inseparable, and the former cannot happen without the latter.
2. You must dedicate time to worship
As we mentioned earlier, knowing God can begin as an intellectual quest, but it cannot stop there. One of the wonders of reading the Bible is that it positions you to gain revelation of who God is.
Revelation is that point where what you know intellectually comes alive as the truth of who God is leaps off the pages. When this happens, this leads to worship.
Worship is when you begin the process of connecting your spirit with the spirit of God. It is in this place of worship that your sense of wonder and wonder at who God is grows.
Worship is the catalyst that allows you to step into God’s presence, and when you experience his presence, you experience all that comes with it. His joy, his peace, and how majestic he really is.
3. You must spend time in prayer
One of the byproducts of worship is that you can increase your faith because as God gets bigger in your eyes, so does your faith. That is why I always recommend that people start your prayer time with adoration because it will help your prayer life.
Prayer is the place where your communion happens. It is where your spirit connects with the spirit of God, and that is where that communion and intimacy happens. Prayer is also where you can experience something of God’s character.
This is where you are filled with his joy, where you are embraced by his love, where you are overwhelmed by peace, when you are in awe of his presence. All this happens in prayer. That is why prayer is one of the fundamental ways to grow in our knowledge and understanding of God.
4. You must spend time learning from others
One of the beautiful things about our journey of faith is that we do not walk this journey alone. There are many testimonies from those who walk with us and from those who have walked before us that can help us learn more about who God is.
One of the best ways to learn about God’s faithfulness is to hear it in the lives of others. In the old days we called this a testimonial service, and these testimonials were living lessons that helped us learn more about who God is.
Whenever you can find time to talk with those who have been walking with God, whether for a short time or for many years, when you listen to their life stories, you will likely discover a treasure trove of perspective on who God is and how he works in life. of people.
5. You must depend on the Holy Spirit
As good as all these steps are, the Holy Spirit is the glue that makes it all work. Without it, these are just great suggestions. There is no desire to read the word without the Holy Spirit. There is no understanding of who God is and no revelation without the Holy Spirit.
There is no real depth in prayer without the Holy Spirit. He is critical and it is the most important of all the ways that you grow in the knowledge or understanding of who God is.
Jesus said that the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth and that there is no understanding of the truth about God without him. Learn to lean on him and let him teach you everything you need to know about who God is.
5 powerful reasons why you need to study the Bible to have knowledge of God
As cruel as this may sound, the fact is that one of the biggest threats to a strong and healthy walk with the Lord is false teaching. False teaching has come into the church on the basis of truth by twisting and even denying the Word of God. From the very beginning, we read the first words that Satan spoke to Eve through the serpent:
- “And the serpent was more cunning than any of the beasts of the field which the LORD God had made. He said to the woman: ‘Did God really say: ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” ( Genesis 3:1).
With this statement, Satan introduces both doubt and unbelief into Eve’s life. But it was what he said next that would bring him false teaching, questioning and misinterpreting God’s purposes:
- “’Thou shalt certainly not die,’ said the serpent to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil’ ” ( Genesis 3:4-5).
This blatant denial of the spoken word of God has continued through the years in one form or another. But how does it happen? We are given a hint in the book of Jude:
- “Because certain people whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly infiltrated among you. They are impious people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ, our only Sovereign and Lord” ( ).
Because the church was not equipped, those with harmful intent were able to find a place among God’s people and introduce doctrines of demons. Every child of God needs to protect themselves against the threat of false teaching by executing a battle plan that includes constant and diligent study of God’s Word.
You don’t need to compile a variety of degrees or certificates for this to happen, although there’s certainly no harm in it. All the Lord wants is for us to devote ourselves to the careful reading, study, and application of His Word.
The value of Bible study should not be minimized. Here’s the rule: We must become so familiar with the truth that a lie doesn’t stand a chance in its presence, and Bible study will help to accomplish this. Not dedicating yourself to it is not only a sign of spiritual apathy, but it will prove detrimental to your walk.
Here are five solid reasons why you need a Bible study to gain knowledge of God:
1. It protects youyes of false teachings
As mentioned before, false teaching is very dangerous and should never be underestimated. We should regard false teaching as a disease; it is a deadly virus that seeks to infect and contaminate individuals and even entire congregations.
Likewise, we must see the truth that is the Word of God as the vaccine or cure that will stop its spread and eradicate the damage it causes spiritually to your life. This is because the truth of God is the only power that can effectively counteract and destroy the doctrines of demons. And while all false doctrine may not be classified as doctrines of demons, all false doctrine has, in fact, “deviated from the truth.” Read:
- “Avoid impious chatter, for those who indulge in it will become more and more impious. Her teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have strayed from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some” ( 2 Timothy 2:16-18).
This particular false teaching was able to undermine the faith of certain people who heard it. It will have the same effect on those who have not sufficiently protected themselves through careful and faithful study of God’s Word. The study of the Bible unites us with the…