Here, however, we must be clear about what we mean when we speak or 'knowing God,' for many common uses of the word know are inadequate to convey the biblical understanding. There is a use of the word know by which we mean 'awareness'. In this sense we say that we know where somebody lives or that we know that certain events are transpiring somewhere in the world. It is a kind of knowledge, but it does not involve us personally. It has little bearing on our lives. This is not what the Bible means when it speaks of knowing God.

Another use of the word know means knowing about something or someone. It is knowledge by description. For instance, we may say that we know New York City or London or Moscow. By that we mean that we are aware of the geographic layout of the city, we know the names of the streets, where the major stores are and other facts. We may have gained our knowledge of the city by actually living there. But is is also possible that we may have gained our knowledge by reading books. In the religious realm this type of knowledge would apply to theology which, although important, is not the whole or even the heart of religion. The Bible tells us much about God that we should know. In fact, much of what follows in this book is directed to our need for such knowledge. But this is not enough. Even the greatest theologians can be confused and can find life meaningless.

True knowledge of God is also more than knowledge by experience. To go back to the earlier example, it would be possible for some one who has lived in a particular city to say, 'But my knowledge is not book knowledge. I have actually lived there. I have walked the streets, shopped in the stores, attended the theatres. I have experienced the city. I really know it.' To this we would have to reply that the knowledge involved is certainly a step beyond anything we have talked about thus far, but still it is not the full idea of knowledge in the Christian sense.

Suppose, for instance, that a person should go out into a starlit field in the cool of a summer evening and gaze u into the twinkling heavens and come away with the claim that in that field he has come to know God. What do we say to such a person? The Christian does not have to deny the validity of that experience, up to a point. It is certainly a richer knowledge than mere awareness of God. 'There is a God' or mere knowledge about him (God is powerful and is the Creator of all that we see and know). Still, the Christian insists, this is less than what the Bible means by true knowledge. For when the Bible speaks of knowing God it means being made alive by God in a new sense of being born again conversing with God so that he becomes more than some great 'Something' out there, so that he becomes a friend, and being -profoundly changed in the process.

All this leading us, step by step, to a better understanding of the word knowledge. But still another qualification is needed. According to the Bible, even when the highest possible meaning is given to the word know, knowing God is still not merely knowing God. For it never knowing God in isolation. It is always knowing God in his relationship to us. Consequently, according to the Bible, knowledge of God takes place only where there is also knowledge of ourselves in our deep spiritual need and where there is an accompanying acceptance of God's gracious provision for our need through the work of Christ and the application of that work to us by God's Spirit. Knowledge of God takes place in the context of Christian piety, worship and devotion. The Bible teaches that this knowledge of God takes place (where it does take place) not so much because we search after God - because we do not - but because God reveals himself to us in Christ and in the Scriptures.

J.I. Packer writes of this knowledge, 'Knowing God involves, first, listening to God's word and receiving it as the Holy Spirit interprets it, in application to oneself; second, noting God's nature and character, as His word and works reveal it; third, accepting His invitations, and doing what He commands; fourth, recognising, and rejoicing in, the love that He has shown in thus approaching one and drawing one into this divine fellowship.

First, knowledge of God is important, for only through the knowledge of God can an individual enter into what the Bible terms eternal life.

Second knowledge of God is important because, as pointed out earlier, it also involves knowledge of ourselves. But this alone is inadequate in the ultimate sense if it does not bring individuals into a knowledge of God against which their own worth and failures may be estimated. Knowledge of ourselves through the knowledge of God is humbling

Third, the knowledge of God also gives knowledge of this world: its good and its evil, its past and its future, its purpose and its impending judgment at the hand of God.

A fourth reason the knowledge of God is important is that it is the only way personal holiness. This is a goal that the natural man hardly desires. We do not want the good. At times we hate it, even when the good is to our benefit. The knowledge of God leads to holiness.

Finally, it is only through a knowledge of God that the church and those who compose it can become strong.

James Montgomery Boice - Foundations of the Christian Faith