Knowing God for Yourself
Either God really exists and God really did create life or millions of extremely fortunate accidents created all life on earth, including all thought, reason, honor, beauty and morality. The evolutionists are right about one thing - there is no other explanation.
But if there is a God, where is He? Is this God impotent and unable to make himself known? Or is there really no God at all?
Many people consider these things and conclude that since they are unable to perceive the presence of God, then God must not exist. Many conclude that "If anyone could find God, it would certainly be me. Since I have not, then God must not exist." Others, less arrogant, simply admit that they know only that God, if He does exist, is silent.
So how can one ever know?
The answer to these questions is that God is not silent and He does disclose himself. But He discloses himself only to those whom he chooses, and who choose Him.
But will God disclose Himself to you and why has He not done so already?
Many of us are keenly aware of a void inside, an absence of something that is profound yet indefinable. Some have described it as an void that cannot be filled. Pascal, the famous mathematician, referred to it as an abyss, an emptiness.
Many of us are aware that if there is a God, then one of his functions is to fill that void. They are correct. The void is the absence of God and until the void is filled, true peace and contentment is impossible because we are separated from our Creator. The void inside is a God-shaped void.
But does God really make Himself known to some people? Does this actually happen? Yes. Does this mean that God, if he does exist, will really disclose Himself and dispell all doubts about His existence? Yes. So, this is not a "believe hard enough" thing? No. God does it Himself. You don't. It has to be that way, because if you did it, you would never know if God exists of or not.
"So, are you saying that this God, who is supposed to have made the world from nothing will come to me, fill the void, give me inner peace and dispell all doubts about His existence - kind of like my own personal miracle?? I don't buy it. That is nice but in reality it is pie in the sky - or worse."
Don't believe it? You are not expected to believe it. No one would believe it without experiencing it. But the question is not whether you believe it. The question is whether you will try it.
It is like a door to a room that you have never entered. You must enter in through the door to see what is in the room. Christ is the door.
"I am the door; if anyone enters through me, he shall be saved." John 10:9.
What separates us from our Creator and how will He disclose Himself?
It is our own sin that separates us from God. God is completely moral and sin of any kind is immoral and antithetical to Him. He separates Himself from sin and when we sin, He separates Himself from us.
There is only one solution for our separation from God and that is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Jewish Messiah, the Son of God who was killed on a cross in 33 AD. He was later buried and then was resurrected from the dead. The death of Christ was a sacrifice that paid for the sins of the world and thereby provided the means by which man may be completely forgiven and experience the presence of God.
Forgiveness and experiencing God's presence and peace is initiated by trusting in Christ's sacrifice for the forgiveness of all sins.
Christ said, "I am the way, the Truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me"
Trusting Christ is all that is necessary because it is the work of Christ that makes it work, not us. The amount of initial faith required to accomplish this is no more than the amount of faith needed to simply trust in Him.
After this is done, the true knowledge of God and the profound internal peace of God follows with obedience and surrender to his will.
God is not looking for how much you can talk yourself into believing. He is looking for honest trust in Christ.
The actual knowledge of God follows the act of trusting in Christ. And the extent of one's experience with the presence of God is proportional to the extent of one's surrender to God's will. It is proportional to the extent that one intends - and later does - obey Him:
"He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me, and he who loves me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will disclose myself to him." John 14:21
"And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." John 17:3
"I am the way, the Truth and the life and no one comes to the Father but through Me." John 14:6.
This is biblical Christianity and it is not a religion; it is a relationship. It is an experiential encounter with God, the Creator, and that experiential encounter never ends.
If you try it - and if you mean it - you will discover a new world, almost as if you were born a second time.
Not many people come to this page. But you did. I believe that you came here for a reason. God has chosen you. Now you must choose Him.