Read the first chapter of Knowing and Experiencing God by Arthur Meintjes

Introduction

Some very important and foundational truths are consistently neglected in the spiritual lives of many Christians today. Without these proper foundations, believers cannot really go on to “stronger meat” and “deeper intimacy.” I have tested this observation wherever I go, and have seen it proven true again and again throughout the years, both in my traveling ministry and pastoral experience. Wherever I have ministered God’s Word, I have found that many believers are not really relating to God day by day based upon New Testament realities.

In addressing believers in Hebrews 5:12-13 Paul says:“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.” NKJV

The essence of what He said was, “I could not speak to you as grown men and women of God who are mature because your foundations were never solidly laid.” For many, many years of my Christian life and ministry that was who I was! I was spiritually stuck and could not go on with God because I had a faulty foundation and did not even know it. Believe me, lack of information was not the problem! My head swam with much Christian knowledge from attending Bible school and studying concordances, dictionaries, and commentaries.

However, this multitude of information that I had accumulated from the years spent in preparation for, and later being involved in, full- time ministry did not adequately address my real need. Finally, I came to a point in my life when I realized that I could not really go on with God because solid foundations had never been properly laid in my own heart. As I came to this pivotal place in my life and ministry, the Lord began to reveal to me that I am now living in the New Testament, and not the Old. God did not change, but the basis of my daily relationship to Him did. The fundamental difference lies in the fact that I am no longer trusting in my own performance, but rather in Christ’s performance, concerning every aspect of my life of faith. God Himself stepped out of the types and shadows of the Old Testament to fully reveal Himself in the New Testament through His Son.

I wrote this book because I want you also to be able to go on with God. My goal is to lay within your heart a sure foundation for knowing and experiencing Him. The revelation of the Father heart of God completely, powerfully, and permanently transformed my personal life and worldwide ministry. Today, this message of His goodness and love burns as a white-hot fire in my bones and remains centered in the heart of all I preach and teach.

Dear friend, get ready—Your Heavenly Father has some treasures He wants to bless you with through these revelation packed pages. You are about to encounter God in ways you have never experienced before! Please do not let some old sacred cows of religious thinking hold you back from a more intimate relationship with Him. I can assure you, He is not worth missing out on for anything. Go ahead, taste and see for yourself that the Lord is good!

Knowing and Experiencing God

One

Over the past two or three decades, the Body of Christ around the world has been blessed by an abundance of good and readily available Bible teaching. Much quality knowledge has been put out for believers to receive into their lives. For the most part, this has been a good thing. However, this vast amount of knowledge has also contributed to some problems. I Corinthians 8:1 tells us that knowledge puffs us up, but love builds us up. Many believers who have taken in all that spiritual knowledge over the years begin to give in to a subtle form of pride. When they are around other Christians who do not have the “right” answers, they judge them, saying in their hearts, “Until you have the doctrines down pat like I do, you will remain a lesser Christian than me!” They have forgotten that the believer’s life is not just about acquiring large amounts of “correct” information.

Standing Before Him

When you stand before God one day, He will not quiz you over the finer points of Bible trivia. The one question you must answer affirmatively is, “Do you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour?” You qualify if your answer is, “Yes!” He will not thoroughly cross-examine you to see if you had all of the current doctrines down pat. No, He will say, “Come on in!” It is all about knowing Him!

When you know Jesus Christ, you are assured of your salvation. You have confidence before God the Father. Personally, I did not have much confidence before Him for most of my Christian life. Many, many Christians suffer from this lack of confidence for the same reason I did: I never felt I performed to the level I thought would bring me the confidence I needed to stand before Him. Is that you today? Are you trying to gain your confidence before God through achieving an elusive level of performance in your Christian life? Were you once “saved by grace,” but today find yourself functionally trying to earn your “sanctification” and ability to approach God through all of your good “Christian” works? If so, I have good news for you!

The Holy Spirit inspired and guided a man named Paul to write two-thirds of the New Testament. God used this man mightily to record the revelation of the goodness, love and grace of God. Considering Paul’s life, he sure knew what he was talking about! God transformed this murderous religious fanatic into the man who was willing to gladly endure tremendous amounts of suffering for his proclamation of the Gospel. He lived to proclaim the awesome love of God that had been revealed to Him through Christ Jesus to as many people as he could in his lifetime. Today, we praise God that He used Paul to do some writing while Paul was in prison.

Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit Himself, Paul recorded his letters to various churches, including this one to the Ephesians that we are about to look at. In Paul’s letters, whenever you read the phrase, “I always pray this for you,” I recommend that you pay special attention to what the Holy Spirit had him write next. Every time I have run across this phrase, I have discovered an awesome foundational truth for my Christian life today. Paul knew that if these foundational truths were not established in the hearts of believers, they would not be able to go on with God. I am someone who wants to go on with God. I can tell that you are too because you are reading this book! You have begun this journey because you desire to live a more fulfilled Christian life than you ever have before. Be encouraged!
God is even more excited about this than you are!

Wisdom and Revelation

Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. (Ephesians 1:15-21) NKJV
“(I) do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers” (Ephesians 1:16).

Paul wrote to these believers saying that he talked about them in his prayers. I learned this lesson many years ago. It is wise not to talk about other people unless you are genuinely in prayer for them. Avoid the temptation to turn a time of prayer into a gossip session! “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory...” (Ephesians 1:17). God is the Father of glory! “Glory” means “fullness.” One of the understandings we get from the definition of the word “glory” in the Bible speaks of “the view and opinion of God which is reality.” God’s view and opinion is the only true reality there is. Did you know that God has an opinion about you? Yes, He sure does! If you will find out what His view and opinion about you is, everybody else’s view and opinion, including your own, will not matter so much to you any more.

I (Paul) pray that He “...may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him” (Ephesians 1:17). Paul constantly prayed this for all of the believers he carried on his heart. He interceded that they may have insight into the mysteries and secrets of the deep intimate knowledge of Him (God). He prayed this for an important reason: Paul wanted them to receive a revelation of who God is. “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened” (18). He wanted the very eyes of their hearts to be flooded with divine light or truth!

I have noticed that much of the “knowledge” floating around in many Christian circles today does not seem to fill believers with light, life and truth. What is wrong with such “revelation”? Well, we need to discern whether the “knowledge” being presented to us is religion, or a true revelation of God’s nature and character.

What does it produce in our lives? What is the fruit of it? Is it fear or is it love?

An Angry God?

Religion has always presented God as an angry God who needs to be appeased. Have you ever been exposed to such preaching and teaching? Perhaps you have not heard it expressed in those exact words, but the messages and attitudes have painted the same mental picture. Many Christians view God as an angry God who will not be friendly or gracious toward them until they can do what it takes to appease Him. Have you ever felt the need to “do what it takes?” As a mere religious system, Christianity has given the world this awful picture of an “angry God.”

I know, because I believed this way for most of my Christian life! It was not until recent years that I have been able to find the words to explain the way I felt. It seemed to me that God just tolerated me because He had to. Even though I had received the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior, I did not feel accepted by God. From my perspective, God was forced to accept me because of the shed blood of Jesus, but He sure did not like me! I believed He felt obligated to receive me just because I had received His Son.

Why did I feel this way? In my heart, I knew that I could not really live up to the way the church and other Christians told me I should live. The standards of morality and spirituality that were portrayed to me as “normal and required daily living” were way out of my reach. Since I could not attain to them, I assumed that God just tolerated me because He had to. God did not really like me. Have you ever felt this way? Can you relate to what I am saying? You can never really get to the place where your heart can be filled with the light Ephesians 1:17-18 talks about until you begin to see the true Father heart of God. “Light” and “life” in the Bible are often synonymous. When your heart is full of His light, you will also be full of His life.

His Child

To finish the rest of verse 18, “...that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints” If you do not know God for who He really is, you will not be able to understand the hope to which He has called you. If you do not have an intimate revelation of who He really is, you will be unable to grasp this hope, the hope of being a child of God.

1 John 3:1-2 declares, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” “Behold” means “look!” It is an old English word that was used to grab your attention. What does verse 1 tell you to look at? The love of the Father. Whose love? The Father’s Love! Firstly, you must put your full attention on your Father’s awesome love for you!

“Beloved, now are we the sons of God.” When? Now! You are a child of God. Let that sink in a little bit...a child of God. “...and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” I used to preach this section of scripture solely from the perspective of the Second Coming of Christ. I would tell people that we would be transformed into His likeness when He appears in the sky. Although this interpretation could be true, it is not complete. The Lord has since shown me another important insight from this passage.

The Family Likeness

I want you to read the second half of verse 2 again. “...but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” The powerful insight He revealed to me from this scripture is this: As God reveals Himself to us out of the Word, our view of Him is affected and in effect changed. Then, when we start to see God for who He really is, we will find out that we are already just like Him.

Can you see it? Go ahead and reread that last statement again, slowly. Let each word’s meaning sink in to your understanding until you can see it. As God reveals Himself to us out of the Word, our view of Him is affected. Then, when we start to see God for who He really is, we will find out that we are just like Him. Why do so many believers lead such weak Christian lives? Why do they fail so often and so badly? I believe the major reason is that they are not looking with the eyes of their heart at the true appearance of God our Father. The Bible is very clear in communicating the fact that Jesus Christ came and gave us the full expression of who God is. He held nothing back from us. In Jesus, we see the fullness of our Father!

This scripture says that when He appears to us, we shall be like Him. Why? When you and I accurately see Him, in whose nature and image we have been made new through rebirth, we will be like Him from that moment on. That moment can be as soon as you see Him. It does not have to be the split second you cross over into eternity one day in the future. It can be now, while you are living out your life here on earth! The bottom line is seeing Him the way He is. Then, you will be like Him. It is a basic principle of life as a human being. You and I become like the “God” we look to, love, and serve. This is just how we are designed! Just like a coin, this truth has a tails side as well. If you do not see God for who He really is, you will still be transformed into the image of the “God” you see. Allow me to illustrate this for you. Have you ever met a Christian that is mean, angry and hard to please? I certainly have. I used to be one of them. In fact, I was probably one of the meanest of them all! Do you know why many Christians are so mean? Simply put, it is this very principle in action. The “God” they know and serve is a mean “God,” so they reflect the likeness of the “God” they see and serve. 1 John 3:2 very clearly says, that if you can see Him as He is, then you can be transformed into His likeness.

True Transformation

I want to be changed into His likeness, not the likeness of some distorted view of who I think He is, or who religion says He is. I desire change for the things in my life that need to change. Do you? I always knew that I needed to change, but could never figure out how to actually do it. I wanted to change, but had no hope of truly being transformed. Believe me, I tried! I was stuck until the Lord revealed this truth of seeing Him accurately. I recognized that I needed to see Him for who He really is and not the distortion of who I thought He was that I had previously been seeing.

2 Corinthians 3:17-18 also illuminates this powerful truth. “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

Understanding the word “glory” is the key to comprehending this passage. As we have already seen, the word “glory” is talking about God’s fullness, splendor and goodness. It is also talking about “God’s view and opinion, which is reality.” Notice that this verse says that you and I are seeing God’s glory with an unveiled face. You are a New Covenant believer beholding as in a mirror (God’s Word) the glory of God. (James 1:22-25). The Old Covenant veil guarding and shrouding the entrance to the Holy of Holies has been torn away and laid aside since the cross. As you behold (look at) His glory, you are changed into the same image from glory to glory. As you see His view and opinion, which is reality, His splendor and His goodness, you are transformed, or changed into His likeness. How does true and lasting change come into your life? Does this permanent kind of change occur through putting forth effort?

Each New Year, many people make resolutions in an attempt to bring the needed change into their lives. They are sick and tired of their lives. New Year’s Day comes along and they decide to do something about it. They even go so far as to listen to motivational speakers who give them strategies for setting and pursuing their goals. All they have to do is put some action to them, right? All you have to do is become a man or woman who can commit and follow through. Have you ever done this? These things do work to a certain extent. You can change your behavior, but it does not mean that your heart has been changed. These efforts may be working externally, but this does not mean that you are truly changing internally. Most of the time you are just imposing an outward form upon yourself that works for as long as you have the willpower to maintain it. Then, when the willpower gives out, your old self comes back out again because your heart was not changed. This is when you normally become disappointed and get depressed. Some people find themselves so far down that they have to go to the doctor to get antidepressants.

True effortless transformation and change occurs from the inside out! The scripture says that we are transformed by beholding. Everything has to do with who or what it is that you are continually looking at. Let me ask you this question. As a Christian, have you ever bought an idol made of wood, metal, or clay and brought it home to worship? No! Well I hope not! Why not? Christians do not worship idols! We do not purchase them. We do not bring them into our homes. Certainly, we are not going to light candles and sacrifice foods to them like those who worship idols do. We follow Jesus, not idols! Did you know that the Bible word for “idol” literally just means “an image”. An image is an idol. As a Christian, when you have a wrong image of who God is, you may as well just worship an idol! I can see you cringing in your seat. None of us want that. We all want to be able to see God for who He really is!

My Prayer

Most Christians have no trouble recognizing the fact that God is all-powerful, all present, and all knowing. I start to lose people when I begin to discuss with them the Father heart of God. Many believers have little or no concept of knowing God as their Father. They may call Him by the title “Father” because Jesus taught them to do so in the Bible, but they actually relate to Him as “God Almighty” an angry God who needs constant appeasing. They pray the prayer Jesus taught them saying, “Our Father...” but in their hearts and lives they have never truly known Him in such a loving and intimate way. Personally, I used to be one of those Christians. I could mouth the words, “Father” at times, but I really related to Him from my heart as “God Almighty” an angry God who needs constant appeasing I usually felt like He was angry with me. I was driven to do my best to keep Him happy. As long as my good works outweighed my bad works—so I thought—God would be happy with me. As Paul prayed for the believers, I am praying for you. I am asking Him to give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of who He really is. May the eyes of your heart be enlightened with understanding so that you can experience more and more of His goodness and love!

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