Do You Know God?

 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for her; in order that he might sanctify her by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word; in order that he might present to himself the church glorious, not having a spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she may be holy and blameless.

Ephesians 5:25–27 (LEB)

I shared an article on our Facebook page recently about an Assembly of God pastor who found the truth about the Sabbath and the Feasts of God. This pastor felt that the Father was telling him that He wanted the pastor to really know Him. Imagine the Creator of the Universe speaking to a man who had six years of Bible school, and is an ordained pastor in the Assembly of God denomination, telling him that He wanted this man to know Him. I encourage everyone to watch this video and see the interview in this following link.

I am not a pastor or a teacher, but I am compelled to speak about these things. It helps me to see that the Father is reaching out to other people with the same message and people are responding. In this pastor’s case, his association allowed him to change his Sunday services to the Sabbath and start teaching the feasts. This is amazing because typically the churches are not on board with breaking tradition to follow scripture.

When Peter and the other Apostles were brought before the Sanhedrin for teaching what Yeshua had shown them, one of the members of the council came to their defense.

Acts 5:38–39 (LEB): ³⁸ And now I tell you, keep away from these men, and leave them alone, because if this plan or this matter is from people, it will be overthrown. ³⁹ But if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them, lest you even be found fighting against God.” So they were persuaded by him.

I must therefore ask the question to everyone who reads my blog posts: Do you know God? I am not speaking about knowing what the churches teach about God, our opinions about God and theology, or what traditions one might be following. I mean do you know God and what His heart and mind are about?

Matthew 7:21–23 (LEB): ²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many miracles in your name?’ ²³ And then I will say to them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness!’

The Assembly of God pastor in this video had something about him that made the Creator want to call him out. I thought I knew God, but I didn’t. I knew a God that had been fabricated by religion and my own thoughts. I don’t know why some people are impressed by God with these things, but I am thankful that I also had a similar experience as this pastor and now must tell people. It is happening more, and people react in different ways. Some people are angered and lash out. I understand why this happens because it is hard to hear that we have inherited many lies in the church. We have been duped and bamboozled by the enemy to accept lies as doctrine. It’s not all wrong, but as Paul states, a little leaven affects the whole lump. However, the best reaction is to turn anger into determination, and turn to the scriptures to see “if these things are so”. This is where God will show Himself.

Acts 17:10–12 (LEB): ¹⁰ Now the brothers sent away both Paul and Silas at once, during the night, to Berea. They went into the synagogue of the Jews when they arrived. ¹¹ Now these were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica. They accepted the message with all eagerness, examining the scriptures every day to see if these things were so. ¹² Therefore many of them believed, and not a few of the prominent Greek women and men.

The unfortunate reaction is to block one’s ears. Many choose this path without daily checking the scriptures or praying. “I believe what I believe” they declare, without knowing God.

Isaiah 24:1–6 (LEB): 24 Look! Yahweh is about to lay the earth waste and is about to devastate it, and he will twist her surface, and he will scatter her inhabitants. ² And it shall be as with the people, so with the priest; as with the slave, so with his master; as with the female slave, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the one to whom he lends. ³ The earth shall be utterly laid waste, and it shall be utterly plundered, for Yahweh has spoken this word. ⁴ The earth dries up, it withers; the world languishes, it withers. The elevated of the people of the earth languish, ⁵ and the earth is defiled beneath its inhabitants. For they have transgressed laws; they have passed by statutes; they have broken the everlasting covenant. ⁶ Therefore a curse devours the earth, and the inhabitants in it suffer for their guilt. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth burn, and few men are left.

What happens when we have a “yeah whatever” attitude towards God? It returns on our own head. If we refuse to seek and listen to God, He will refuse to listen to us. This is how the kingdom of God works.

Leviticus 26:40–45 (LEB): ⁴⁰ “ ‘But when they confess their guilt and the guilt of their ancestors in their infidelity that they displayed against me, and moreover that they went against me in hostility— ⁴¹ I myself also went against them in hostility, and I brought them into the land of their enemies—or if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and then they pay for their guilt, ⁴² I will remember my covenant with Jacob; and I will remember also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. ⁴³ And the land shall be deserted by them, and it shall enjoy its Sabbaths in its being desolate from them, and they themselves must pay for their guilt, simply because they rejected my regulations, and their inner self abhorred my statutes. ⁴⁴ And in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies I will not reject them, and I will not abhor them to destroy them, to break my covenant with them, because I am Yahweh their God. ⁴⁵ And I will remember the first covenant for them—whom I brought out from the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am Yahweh.’ ”

The main theme of the Bible is repentance. God’s people continually get it wrong, God gets angry, the people repent and they are restored. We have almost two thousand years of heading down the wrong path. It is time to make a serious correction. This was tried during the Protestant reformation, but they held on to tradition. Anytime the Creator God makes a move, the enemy comes and tries to mimic and derail it. It is clear this has happened again looking back over the last 500 years.

The church, known for its inquisitions, crusades and indulgences, has become spotted and wrinkled. Imagine how people that understand what the crusades were about feel when a Christian “crusade” comes to their city today. The Billy Graham crusades picked a very poor name for their services. Reading about the atrocities that the church conducted from 500 to 1500 CE sheds light on the reformation movement and its importance. Unfortunately, the same spirit that murdered thousands of people in the name of “God” throughout the reign of the church in Rome also took hold of the reformation movement at one point. They also murdered people and the movement turned to deception and antinomianism, robbing them in the spirit too. Paul is used to draw people away from the instructions of God. However, Paul explained the spiritual aspect of the law versus the carnal man’s flesh that is always working against the law if we do not live in the Spirit.

Romans 7:21–25 (LEB): ²¹ Consequently, I find the principle with me, the one who wants to do good, that evil is present with me. ²² For I joyfully agree with the law of God in my inner person, ²³ but I observe another law in my members, at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that exists in my members. ²⁴ Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself with my mind am enslaved to the law of God, but with my flesh I am enslaved to the law of sin.

Yeshua frees us from this battle where our flesh wages against the ways of the Creator. We can then do “good”. The only definition of “good” comes from doing what the Father told us to do, most importantly, justice, mercy and love. However, do not neglect the smaller instructions. Faithfulness in the small things of God yields better results in the larger areas.

Matthew 23:23–24 (LEB): ²³ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees—hypocrites!—because you pay a tenth of mint and dill and cumin, and neglect the more important matters of the law—justice and mercy and faithfulness! It was necessary to do these things while not neglecting those. ²⁴ Blind guides who filter out a gnat and swallow a camel!

Luke 11:42–44 (LEB): ⁴² “But woe to you, Pharisees, because you pay a tenth of mint and rue and every garden herb, and neglect justice and love for God! But it was necessary to do these things without neglecting those things also. ⁴³ Woe to you, Pharisees, because you love the best seat in the synagogues and the greetings in the marketplaces! ⁴⁴ Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, and the people who walk over them do not know it!

Love for God is doing what He said to do. Knowing what He said to do is how we know God’s character. It corrects the misconstrued personality of God that we are told about. Once a person understands the hatred the Creator has towards false gods and their symbols, it is easy to have the same passion against these things. It is also easier to identify them. The commandment says literally, “no have you other gods in front of my face”, in Exodus 20:3, spoken in an audible voice to all twelve tribes at Mount Horeb. There are many “other gods” that are flaunted in front of God’s face today in Christianity, but most do not recognize them. This is one of the reasons God reached out to this Assembly of God pastor and said, “I want you to know me”.

Featured photo was provided by Emma Vail Photography.

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