Before we jump right in on the topic of Knowing God, consider these questions as you follow today's teaching.

What percentage of what you know about God is based on…

• what you've been told by others?
• experience, encounters, or what God has done for you?
• scripture?

We believe what we have learned. In order for us to know God, Kim explains how we must "return & learn" in order to believe.

Both Isaiah and John the Baptist both prophesied that God's people were to repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand. After John's arrest, Jesus went to Galilee proclaiming the gospel and saying the time is fulfilled, the Kingdom is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel.

Repent & Believe

The Bible reveals that repentance has something to do with believing something that the Jews didn't believe before… something new, something different. Believing is essential to returning to God, and that comes through repentance. To repent is to return to the cross, united with Christ, so that God can destroy an 'old system', learn the truth, form a new belief in order to see God clearly, fully surrender to Him, and live a new life. 

God is not focused on your sin right now. His focus is on your belief system. Jesus has already dealt with sin. There will come a time when God executes His sentence on sin for those who chose not to believe. Failing to believe is worse than sin. Those who don't believe are already condemned.

There is a place for repentance for sure. However, putting confession before believing is the same as putting the cart before the horse. Jesus came to introduce a Kingdom -- to create an opportunity to believe differently about Him, God, and ourselves. He did not come to condemn humanity. Those who believe in Him are spared eternal judgment.

Knowing God: Return & Learn to Believe

In order to know God, we must return and learn in order to believe something different than we already believe or do.

The Hebrew word belief means strong support in what is not seen. It is a conviction about something that informs, directs, and influences behavior. A belief involves your mind, will, and emotions. It will also involve your time and resources. Our real authority lies in what we believe and not in what we say. A good example is Abraham. He was reckoned as righteous not from works or circumcision, but because he believed God by faith.

The day that you accept Christ does not mean that everything you believed changed in that moment. Your spirit is recreated into the image of God. However, your soul (mind, will and emotions) still believed things contrary to the will of God. We learn about God, Jesus, and ourselves throughout our lives, and as we do our what we believe changes. When we change what we believe, we know God more deeply and are in greater alignment to God's will.

Beliefs act like laws. Laws are rules established by a governing authority to regulate individual behavior, maintain order, protect rights and freedoms. All of God's laws are based on love and truth. Satan's laws are based on fear and lies. Both run parallel in our lives today. Satan perverts God's laws to create disorder, distress, anxiety, chaos and keep us in bondage.

Any belief we have that is contrary to God's law (love & truth) will result in personal, relational, national and global suffering. Note: what we say does NOT always equate to what we believe.

The truth is the only thing that can overcome a belief that is contrary to God. That is why we are to return and learn to believe in order to know God. Until the belief system is changed, well-intended words of confession, declarations, and decrees are mental gymnastics at best and religious at worst.

There are several example in scripture that Kim references to support this teaching. Listen to the end… the biblical receipts are below.

Matt 3:2-3; 4:17; Mark 1:15; Acts 3:19-21; John 1:12; Rom 4:3-5; 4:9-11,13-15; 12:1-2; Matt 26:30-35, 69-75; 16:21-26; John 21:15-19; 2 Peter 1:6-7; Matt 3:8