How can one Know God?

Philipose Vaidyar

Many people claim to know God personally but what does it mean to know God? We use the word know to express more than just awareness.

It was in 2008. Muneer lived in a town in Wayanad and he knew the train; he has seen the train passing by from far when he came to Calicut along with someone. He did his higher secondary course and could not continue college studies. After working on several odd jobs, he ended up working in an internet café managing it. He was very creative and knew Adobe Photoshop fairly well. At the internet café in Mananthody, Wayanad he gave printouts to college students, and he designed cover pages for their projects. I got to know this young man when I had to go to this café to check my mail while on travel. I had gone to the town in connection with field research for an MTV production. I was living in Chennai and was also planning a promotional video for an NGO by invitation. In my casual discussion with Muneer, I happened to share about a tribal people short documentary that I had done earlier. Muneer also showed me a short video he had edited for some students of a college there. 

I felt Muneer had the basic skills and can help me in my next project’s post-production. I completed my pre-production, production, and voice-over recording getting ready for the post-production. Muneer had agreed to come to Chennai for three days. But he had not traveled beyond Calicut the nearest railway station, 100 kilometers downhill. He had not gotten on a train or traveled by train. So Muneer took a school teacher friend along with him to travel to Chennai. Muneer edited my video in Adobe Premier Pro. I could finish the production in time. He later corrected the video through Team Viewer after he returned home. I never knew Team viewer before. Muneer had some awareness about the train but he had not experienced a train journey yet.  Getting into the train the right way, being seated, and allowing the train to take is an experience and more than merely knowing about the train.  Knowing is experiencing.

Many who claim to know God had not personally experienced God. They do not talk with God or walk with God. They would like to do things that they think will appease God or get favors from God. Since God is our creator we are the potential to know and experience God. Mere belief in God does not lead us to experience God. Knowing God has to have a beginning. Jesus came to this world to reveal God so that we can experience God. To do things together with God, one has to start a journey of faith and that has a beginning. 

God is Light and in Him, there is no darkness. God is living and in Him there is life. Though Jesus Christ we can have fellowship with God and walk with Him. Through Christ and his atoning sacrifice, we can get rid of our sins and experience the ultimate Truth. 

 “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us”. 1 John 1: 8-10. 

(To get enlightened more, please read the entire chapter) Click here or read below) 

 

1 John 1

The Incarnation of the Word of Life

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. ² The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. ³ We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. ⁴ We write this to make our^[a] joy complete.

Light and Darkness, Sin and Forgiveness

⁵ This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. ⁶ If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. ⁷ But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all^[b] sin.

⁸ If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.