We shall now see the eleventh main point concerning life, which is the inward knowledge, or the knowing of God by the inward law of life and the teaching of the anointing. The degree to which we know God from within determines how much we have of God and how much we experience Him as our life. Thus, the inward knowledge and the growth of life are fully related. If we want to know life so that life may grow, we must examine in detail the inward knowledge.
God delights in man knowing Him; therefore, He wants man to “follow on to know” Him (Hosea 6:6, 3). All that He does in the New Testament is in order that we may know Him (Heb. 8:10-11). When we are regenerated, His Spirit, containing His life, enters into us that we may have the capability of knowing Him from within. This knowing of Him, on the one hand, gradually increases with our inward growth of life, and, on the other hand, it also causes the life within us to grow. Because God has given us His life, we can know Him. The more His life grows within us, the more we know Him. The more we know Him, the more we will experience Him as our life, enjoy Him, and allow Him to live out through us. Thus, we may say that all the growth of our spiritual life depends on our knowledge of God. Let us pray that God may give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation so that we may really know Him (Eph. 1:17) and be “growing by the full knowledge of God” (Col. 1:10).
Psalm 103:7 says: “He made known his ways unto Moses, his doings unto the children of Israel.” This tells us that the children of Israel knew God’s doings, but that Moses knew His ways. Hebrews 8:10-11 says also: “I will put my laws into their mind...all shall know me, from the least to the greatest of them.” By this verse we see that all who receive the inward law under the New Testament can know God Himself. These two passages in the Bible show us that man’s knowledge of God is obtained in three steps: firstly, knowing the doings of God; secondly, knowing the ways of God; and thirdly, knowing God Himself.
Man knows the doings of God by what He does and performs. For example, the children of Israel in Egypt saw the ten plagues that God sent to smite the Egyptians. By the Red Sea, they saw that God divided the water so they could pass through. In the wilderness, they saw that God commanded the rock to flow out with water to satisfy their thirst. And daily God sent manna from heaven to feed them. When they witnessed such miracles of God, they knew the doings of God. Again, for example, when the multitudes saw the miracles the Lord Jesus performed, such as feeding five thousand people with five loaves and two fishes, calming the storm and the sea, healing the diseased, casting out demons, and raising the dead, they knew His doings. Or, for example, when we are sick and are healed by God, when we meet danger and are preserved by God, when we have needs and are supplied by God, we are made to know the doings of God. When we thus know the doings of God, this is our first step in knowing God. Such knowledge is shallow and outward, for it is not until we see the doings of God that we know what God has done.
To know God’s ways refers to knowing the principles by which He does things. When Abraham pleaded for Sodom, he recognized that God is righteous, and that He will never act contrary to His righteousness. Therefore, Abraham spoke to God according to the righteousness of God (Gen. 18:23-32). This means that he knew the ways by which God does things. When the children of Israel continued to murmur after Korah and his band rebelled and were consumed, Moses, having seen the appearing of the glory of Jehovah, said unto Aaron: “Take thy censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and lay incense thereon, and carry it quickly unto the congregation, and make atonement for them: for there is wrath gone out from Jehovah; the plague is begun” (Num. 16:46). This shows that Moses knew the ways of God. He knew that when man acts in a certain way, God will react accordingly.
Samuel told Saul: “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams” (1 Sam. 15:22). And David said, “Neither will I offer burnt-offerings unto Jehovah my God which cost me nothing” (2 Sam. 24:24). This shows that they knew the ways of God.
When we release the word of the Lord, we deeply believe that it shall not be void, but shall accomplish that which the Lord pleases (Isa. 55:10-11). Also, if we sow unto the Spirit, we know that we shall of the Spirit reap eternal life (Gal. 6:8). This is also because we know the ways of God.
When we know the ways by which God does things, we have the second step of knowing God. Such knowledge is one step further than knowing the doings of God. Before the doings of God are carried out, we know what He will do and how He will do it. Such knowledge can increase our faith in prayer, and can also enable us to negotiate with God. However, though such knowledge is good, it is still not sufficiently deep and inward.