I recently learned that after a female zebra gives birth, she separates her foal from the rest of the herd so that they can spend time together for her baby to know her stripes, her scent, and her sound. This is important so that the zebra does not go to another zebra who is not the mom. Interestingly, the stripes of a zebra are as unique as a fingerprint and each zebra has a special pattern that may not be visible to our eyes, but after spending a few weeks with the mom, the foal knows the difference between mom and every other zebra. I believe that the Heavenly Father does the same thing with us. He separates us and puts us in a position where we are alone with Him so that we can learn His unique pattern, discern His moves, and know His voice so that we will not be distracted or destroyed by the many voices around us that are not His. I know that I am in this season of my life where God has separated me and put me alone to really know Him and not confuse Him with what may look godly, but it is not of God. We must never forget that Satan masquerades as an angel of light, but Jesus is the Light.
In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. John 1:4-5
We will not comprehend the darkness if we don’t spend time in the Light. I am starting this new Bible study series about knowing God with women who are missionaries. Not long ago I was transcribing the video so I could get it translated to Spanish and my heart was filled with excitement as Tony Evans explained about getting to know God. We can read the Bible, pray, and know church doctrine, but still do not know God. In order to know God, we have to be in His presence and be in continual pursuit of Him. I was thrilled because I realize now that God has isolated me to keep me from the distractions of the world to get to know Him more so that I will not confuse Him with any other Gods. My greatest desire now is to have a deeper relationship with God and to delight in Him. Now, I am grateful for this amazing opportunity that He has given me to get to know His ways and even His thoughts, and to understand Him better. He is always ready and waiting to reveal Himself more to us, but we must really want Him. Jesus came to give us eternal life which is not for us to have just a mere acquaintance, but it is to have an intimate knowledge of the One True God and Himself.
“O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” John 17:25-26
This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. John 17:3
To know the Father means that we will delight in Him and want to please Him because of His vastness. We will obey Him, and we will cherish the time we spend in His presence knowing Him more, and as we get into a deeper relationship with Him, His love abounds in us. Doing a lot of church activities can actually take us away from truly knowing God because we are so busy that we do not have time to spend in His presence to build a relationship with Him and then our love grows cold for Him and those around us. Getting to know anyone means that we spend quality time with them.
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’ Matthew 7:21-23
We can evangelize a lot and go on many mission’s trips; participate in many prayer meetings and Bible studies; lead many church ministries; give to the poor; and be regarded by many as strong Christians, but still Jesus does not know us. That is a scary thought. As a matter of fact, writing this article gives me fear as I sense the weightiness of it. I now realize that for so long God has been orchestrating circumstances to get me alone with Him so that I could know Him, but instead I often complained to Him about how He has me doing everything alone and then I would get angry with Him, while I sought solace in other people and things. I wonder if Satan fell into God’s trap when he stripped Job of everything. It was during this difficult time when Job felt isolated that he got to find out more about his heart and his God. He had outlined all the good things he had done and was righteous in his own eyes as he justified himself but seemed to miss the knowledge of God. However, God used this period of trial for Job to be a time of teaching about who He is.
“He has removed my brothers far from me, and my acquaintances are completely estranged from me. My relatives have failed, and my intimate friends have forgotten me. Job 19:13-14
Then these three men ceased answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. But the anger of Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram burned; against Job his anger burned because he justified himself before God. Job 32:1-2
Then the Lord said to Job, “Will the faultfinder contend with the Almighty? Let him who reproves God answer it.” Then Job answered the Lord and said, “Behold, I am insignificant; what can I reply to You? I lay my hand on my mouth. Job 40:2-4
How often have I been the Almighty’s faultfinder instead of getting to know Him more? Job’s challenges and His reaction to them enabled him to get a lesson from the One True God, who made Himself known to Job during his trials. No matter how many scarifies Job made to God, He never got to know Him in this way before. In addition, when we spend time with God, He reveals not only Himself to us, but also the truth about what is in our hearts and our thoughts. We get to know who we truly are when we get to know our Heavenly Father, who wants to be known by us.
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