Increasing In The Knowledge of God

 

One of the many wonderful things that is on God’s heart for us is that He wants us to know Him deeply and to have a rich experience in our walk and relationship with Him. Colossians 1: 9-10, Paul says: “…We have not ceased praying for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”

While it is Paul writing this to his audience it is nevertheless God’s heart and desire that he is expressing. God is glorified and greatly pleased when we know Him. However, this is not just to know Him in some in some intellectual way, limited to our thinking and mental understanding. The word “knowledge” as it is used in this context, epignosis (in the Greek), speaks of a thorough knowledge, a complete understanding, and an experiential understanding of God. Jesus was sent to this earth to restore our relationship with the Father out of a deep love that the Father has for us.

We are called to be in a relationship with a God who beckons us to understand His ways, His character, and His heart. He genuinely wants to walk with us and help us in all that we are and do. He is not far off not distant and uncaring. The opposite is true – He craves deep connection with His children, which accurately reflects His heart as a perfect Father.

As we grow in our relationship with Him, we acquire a deep and very personal understanding of our God and desire to please Him based upon a relationship of love, not performance, or dry ritualistic observance. Love produces obedience because a healthy relationship enveloped in love seeks to please the other person in the relationship. This naturally, or better said supernaturally, produces a deeply valued relationship – better than any other and one that is highly valued by God and by us, which pleases the Lord and causes us to enter His favor.

All of this causes us to bear much fruit (Galatians 5:22-23), which is most important to Jesus because it means that we increasingly look like Him, think like Him, act like Him – loving what He loves. This is what it means to grow in the “knowledge of God”.

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