This is really not a question of if, but how do I really know God. I believe that our society and even more so for the church we have failed to know God!
This will be a a two-folded question. My standpoint is that we have made it a very superficial knowing of Christ in Sundays, let alone during the week. WE have relied on sundays to be our holy day, and we are good to go for the rest of the week. This kind of format for anyone walking down a crowded street and bumping into someone and talking to them for a few minutes and then calling them a friend is just a joke. That person is an acquaintance at best.
This has been the paradigm that has been going on for around 1700 yrs with the change of the law of Constantinople that Christianity was to be the official religion, thus changing the Christ like way of walking,talking,living as Christ. (Most christians are unaware of their religious background of 1700 yrs,let alone of their parents religious background) I recommend one source of reading in this reading to get you started. Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola.
We have to realize that our goal to befriend someone is only up to us, and us only. Someone else cannot be my friend to someone else for me. My job then is to watch,understand and see what this friend is all about. This is where I have realized that God has given us that in-built characteristics of God to us. My wife will tell you that I am always laid back when I meet people or in a crowd, my instincts are to ascertain who people are first. I believe that we can be truly understood by our actions and our deeds of our lives, to be understood.
Christ is the perfect example of this, His character, His demeanor, His love, His ways, His actions, His responses, His Eternal Purpose. Until I take the time and understand Him, I will never be able to understand the previous statements. I truly believe that God has that Eternal Purpose thru-out the whole bible, Just as I have a purpose in building a Chicken Coop! It is not to just to have a Chicken Coop, but to have food on my table. This is the concept that God is saying to us in the Bible.
Now our means to inter-mingling with God is always a subject of confusion, but I really believe that it has to start with yourself and God alone. This has to be the most intense thing you do to have a friend or be with God. God wants to be with you so close that He wants to be in you! How bad do you want to be with God? Do you want to be in Him,too? I also would recommend of having question and answers with 1 or 2 friends that are equal to you understanding of God. Not to have someone exactly tell you the answers, but to maybe shed more light on the questions. Always challenge someone’s answers to anything of the Bible. This strengthens you and also alleviates the false teachers.
My journey with Christ has led me in very many paths some great men from many years ago to some present God fearing men. I recommend that you search out some of these men from years gone by and ones now. One thing that I would like to point out here. God is the same yesterday,today and tomorrow, this being said, I believe that we have walking around us prophets of the Lord. I truly believe that there are many God ordained men out there that we should believe that they are speaking for the Lord. But this comes with a warning! Jesus also told the apostles that we are to test everyone to see if they were of God, or of the deceiver(satan).
To conclude we(I) have to have our spirit want to be in God’s spirit to really know Him. He already know us, by the fact that He created us. But He wants to have a more intimate relationship of being with our spirit! Thus, comes the statement- I am filled with the Holy Spirit! That is a very,very close friend!!!!!! Amen and Amen.
The Eternal Purpose 