What does it mean to have a personal relationship with God?

Satan did not say to Adam and Eve, ‘Defy the Creator!’ but he induced disobedience and man sinned, and sin brought distance between man and God. Now the gospel has brought us to God, and we are brought to God in a new relationship. We are made children of God. We are endowed with a new spirit because we have the Holy Spirit of God indwelling us; we have before us fresh prospects. When life ends or when the Lord comes again and we pass into that glorified condition, we shall be there as those that are in relationship with God and who know God. We must cultivate the knowledge of God while we are here. How can we do it? An unconverted person may call out in an agony of mind, ‘O God...’, but they do not know God whereas we Christians do. Let us cultivate the habit of intercourse with God. There are many things pressing upon us, shutting up those moments of quietness where we can speak humbly in the presence of God, or read the Bible in which God speaks to us, in which, instructed by the Spirit of God, we may find God’s mind concerning us. If we want to see some blessing in our land let us see to it that we maintain spiritual contact with God Himself, made known to us in Christ.

Scripture speaks of external knowledge which a person may acquire by hearsay or sight, and also of conscious knowledge — that personal acquaintance by which we can know a person's mind. It is of this latter knowledge Paul speaks, when he says, "That I may know Him," and it is this knowledge we so often lack. We know and rejoice in the glorious things He has done, but do we know the heart of the One who has done so much for us, in such fashion that we can say, "I know how He feels about me"?

But if we have not seen Him we long to, and if He has won our hearts by His love we want to know Him. Knowing about Him is not enough, nor will a mere acquaintance with Him satisfy us, the word is too cold to describe that for which the heart longs; nothing short of an intimacy of love without distance or reserve is the goal of love's desire. But this must be with Him where He is, not a looking back to where and what He was — though without the knowledge of the past we could not know Him as He is — nor a looking forward to where and what He will be though without that our knowledge of Him would be faulty — but a present and continuous intercourse with Himself, and that as to His present position, activities and love. It is well expressed in the well-known lines —

No, acquaintance with our Saviour where He is is not achieved by mental effort, nor necessarily by reading of His life in the Gospels, though we cannot neglect this if we are to know Him. But acquaintance with Him is much more than knowing something about Him; it is knowing Himself, and this must be where He is and as He is, for it is a present and personal knowledge. We arrive at it by a spiritual journey, which may be long or short according to our purpose of heart and appreciation of Himself and His love.

We must come in by our need, as the prodigal did. Man cannot by searching find out God. There cannot be any knowledge of God in grace by man's competency to know Him. There would be no need of grace if he could know God without it. If I can claim this grace, I do not need grace at all. The way a sinner must come in must be by his need. Thus must one begin to learn grace and love. But when I have got to God, it is another thing. Then He would form our minds and hearts by what He is Himself. I come as a sinner, because I need it - just as a hungry man needs food; but when brought I have fellowship with the God who has brought me to Himself. The measure is given in this epistle - "growing up into Christ, in all things." It is a wonderful thing that God has called us into fellowship with Himself - to have the same thoughts, the same feelings as God, and to have them together! All flows down from Him, and we are brought into it by grace, and we enjoy it just so far as we are emptied of self.

We must come in by our need, as the prodigal did. Man cannot by searching find out God. There cannot be any knowledge of God in grace by man's competency to know Him. There would be no need of grace if he could know God without it. If I can claim this grace, I do not need grace at all. The way a sinner must come in must be by his need; in that way he learns grace, learns love. But when I have got to God, it is another thing. Then He would form our minds and hearts by what He is Himself. I come as a sinner, because I need it - just as a hungry man needs food; but when brought, I have fellowship with the God who has brought me to Himself. The measure is given in this epistle - "growing up into Christ, in all things." It is a wonderful thing that God has called us into fellowship with Himself - to have the same thoughts, the same feelings as God, and to have them together. All flows down from Him and we are brought into it by grace, and we enjoy it just so far as we are emptied of self.

It raises this question, How far do we know God? We are to grow by the true knowledge of God. What solemnly concerns us, is not abstract truth, nor a range of speculative dogma, but the thoughts of God. He shows Himself to us, not only that we may know, but, what is more than this, that we may do, and above all that we may be. No part of truth has quite accomplished God's end when we have understood it only. Every divine impression is meant to form us like Himself that we may live in conscious conformity to His will. He has given us of His Spirit that we might know; that everything that could cause unrest might be removed; that every moral question might be settled; and that we might be in holy intimacy with Himself. This links the wealth, wisdom and knowledge of God with His love; and as responsive to that love, we are made conscious that every blessed feature of His character and attributes comes under the sway of that love which is the nature of God; and like the thimble in the ocean, we dwell in God because we dwell in love.

But it is not so with one who knows God in Christ. Such a one has life and an object. He has God Himself for his priceless portion. This is divine. It lies at the very foundation of personal Christianity and true religion. It is above and beyond everything. It is not, we repeat, mere theology, divinity, or religiousness; it is God Himself, known, trusted, and enjoyed. It is a grand, unmistakable reality. It is the soul of theology, the groundwork of divinity, the life of true religion. There is nothing in all this world like it. It is something which must be felt in order to be known. It is acquaintance with God, confidence in Him, and enjoyment of Him.

The relationship is one thing; the knowledge of the Father whose child I am is another. Suppose the case of natural relationship, and the difference will at once be perceived: the relationship remains the same whatever the character of the parent, but for the children how much depends on it — he may be loving and considerate, or very much the reverse: the difference to them is incalculable. Is it enough, then, for us to know that by infinite grace we are the children of God, or shall we not seek to know our Father? Ought we not to earnestly desire to become familiar with the thoughts and feelings of His heart, the love of His nature, His character (if I may use the word in the deepest reverence), when He makes this knowledge of Himself the privilege of the youngest child of His? But it may be asked, how am I to know Him? It can only be as He reveals Himself. Let us then humbly seek the way Scripture presents this blessed revelation to us.

The man of the world regards his food as the product of a machine, or institution, which he calls Nature; but the Christian goes behind this, and recognises the Creator of the entire system of nature. Further, he not only believes that there is such a Creator, but he knows Him; is actually in communion with Him "by the word of God and prayer" (1 Tim. 4:5). Mr. Darby's translation of this phrase is, "by God's word and freely addressing [Him]," and his note on this rendering is illuminative of the whole subject. He says, "This I believe to be the sense here: enteuxis means intercourse with a person, then petitions and intercession; one person speaking personally to another. … I believe the creature, fallen through Adam, belongs to the faithful, and those who know the truth, by God's speaking to us, and our freely speaking to Him. This has set all on a new footing, because we have met God again, the word of God having put us into communication by grace. And the faithful and those who know the truth, have availed themselves of it, and come and enter into intercourse. It is no longer by nature, but by the word of God."