Dear friends, our spiritual journey here on earth must lead us to know God so that we come to believe that we belong to Him, that He loves us, and that we are His children. God alone can give us such knowledge, and any other knowledge is only what we can term as 'limited knowledge'.
Most Christians, and even many in the renewal, have a limited knowledge of God. Just because a person is reading the Bible daily or listening to the preaching of anointed priests and lay preachers and taking down notes, it does not mean that he knows God. We are told that the people at the time of Jesus would be left amazed after listening to His teachings. But despite all this, they did not know Him as the Son of God. Only Peter was given the understanding when he declared in Matthew 16:16… "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." Therefore, we can say that the crowds did get some knowledge from the teachings they heard. But it was limited knowledge.
Limited knowledge is given even to the demons. We are told in Luke 4:41 …Demons also went out from many people, screaming, "You are the Son of God!" Jesus gave the demons an order and would not let them speak, because they knew He was the Messiah. From this we can say that they had more knowledge than the crowds who came to listen to Jesus’ teachings. These demons knew that Jesus was the Son of God. They knew He was the Messiah. But again, that was limited knowledge because it had no effect on them. They felt they belonged only to Satan. They never understood God's love. That is why when Jesus came to the territory of Gadara where He met some demons, all they could think of was punishment. We are told that they screamed, "What do you want with us, you Son of God? Have you come to punish us before the right time?" (Matthew 8:28-29). They looked at God as someone who hated them. They did not understand the compassion that Jesus showed them which was seen in Him granting their request to be sent on the herd of pigs. Therefore, the knowledge they had about God was limited. It did them no good. They remained as demons.
Unless we receive the knowledge that can make us feel we belong to God, our whole life here on earth will be meaningless. Even all our devotions and the work that we do in God’s name will have no meaning. We will only fool ourselves into thinking that we are religious people. That is not the purpose of God. God has created us, and we belong to Him. And we must reach the stage where we feel we belong to Him.
Even Jesus when He came here on earth in human form, He developed this sense of belonging to the Father. At the age of 12, He told Mary His mother that He had to be in His Father’s house. This sense of belonging that He had within Him was later confirmed by the Father at the time of His baptism. After all the people had been baptized, Jesus also was baptized. While He was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit came down upon Him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my own dear Son. I am pleased with you." (Luke 3:21-22).
Feeling that we belong to God and in turn, hearing God say, "You are my own dear son/own dear daughter, is an experience that God wants all of us to have. That is why Jesus would make it a point to tell His disciples as much as He could about the Father. Eventually, their minds were opened and like Jesus, they too felt belonged. St. John speaks about it in his letter… We know that we belong to God… (1 John 5:19). Please note, that when he was writing this, he was doing so with a deep conviction in his heart. How did he develop this conviction? For that, we must read the following line. We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we know the true God. We live in union with the true God—in union with His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and this is eternal life. (1 John 5:20). Therefore, it is only Jesus who can lead us to know God as Our Father. He Himself said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one goes to the Father except by me. (John 14:6).
To be continued...