Do You Know Him?
Let me ask you a few questions. Not as a test, but as an invitation.
Do you know God?
Not know about Him. Know Him.
Are you in relationship with Him?
Do you know what He sounds like? Would you recognize His voice in the middle of all your own thoughts?
Have you noticed His sense of humor—the way He sometimes answers in a way that makes you unexpectedly laugh out loud?
Have you seen Him rise from His throne to defend you?
Have you ever taken something to the courts of heaven and witnessed His judgment in your favor?
And underneath all of those, one more question:
Do you believe He knows you and will defend you?
If something in you hesitated, you are not alone. Many people who love God and serve Him would have to answer some of those questions with, “I’m not sure.”
Here is the invitation.
Knowing About God Is Not the Same as Knowing God
You can know a great deal about someone without ever knowing them.
You can read their biography. You can quote their words. You can recognize them from across a room. And you can still have never once sat at their table.
Many of us were taught about God. We learned the stories, the verses, the doctrines. Those things matter. But Jesus described eternal life in the language of relationship:
“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”
— John 17:3, KJV
Know. That is not the vocabulary of information. It is the vocabulary of intimacy.
Jesus does not only call us His servants, He calls us His friends:
“Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.”
— John 15:15, KJV
Friends talk. Friends recognize each other’s voices. Friends know when the other one is teasing.
And Jesus says hearing Him is a possibility, an expectation:
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”
— John 10:27, KJV
Not might hear. Hear.
He laughs, too. When God gave Sarah a son in her old age—after she had laughed at the very idea—she named him Isaac, which means laughter, and said, “God hath made me to laugh” (Genesis 21:6, KJV). The same God who heard her laugh of disbelief turned it into a laugh of joy.
Anyone who has walked with Him for long has stories like that. Here is one of mine…
What I Saw in the Courts of Heaven
I had recently been struggling with feeling like I could not see in the spirit the way I normally do. I could see myself sequestered in a room with Jesus and He was building something for me. It was for me to use in prayer against the enemy. Something new.
While it was being built I was not able to move about in the spirit realm and I was feeling trapped and subdued and I prayed that God would lift me into His hand and hide me there.
I saw Him reach His hand down and pick me up, cupping me in His hand.
In the first glimpse, I was inside God’s hand. Hidden. Held. But, when I looked beyond His hand, I could see that we were in the heavenly court and it was in session. I could see Lilith and others behind her, Leviathan, Satan and more. No one in the court could see me.
I knew the enemy had been looking for me, but had not known where I was.
The Lord called Lilith forward. He was speaking to her.
Then He opened His hand.
One moment I was hidden inside it. The next, I was standing outside of it, in full view of the court.
She was surprised. The one who had been searching for me had no idea where I had been the whole time. I had been in the safest place in all creation.
As God revealed me, Satan muttered “that Bitch”.
The Lord looked up and roared at him. He would not allow Satan to speak of me that way.
Immediately an angel moved—as though the Lord had decreed something, and there had not even been an audible command given. The angel came to Satan and stitched his mouth shut in a wide, garish looking zigzag.
And the Lord said, Now you will be silent.
I was watching the whole thing wide-eyed. I felt protected and loved by God.
What the Lord Was Showing Me
I was hidden before I was revealed. Isaiah writes, “in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me” (Isaiah 49:2, KJV). Paul says, “your life is hid with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3, KJV). The enemy can search all he likes. He cannot find what God is holding.
God chose the moment of revealing. I was not discovered. I was shown. There is a difference between being exposed by the enemy and being revealed by the Father.
He would not tolerate a word against me. Satan is called “the accuser of our brethren… which accused them before our God day and night” (Revelation 12:10, KJV). His main work in that court is talking. And God shut his mouth.
“No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.”
— Isaiah 54:17, KJV
Isaiah 54:17 is also the anchor verse for our Sacred Ground Encounter. Sometimes what rises against us is not only spoken over a person. It settles into a place: a home that feels unsettled, a workplace marked by conflict, land that needs to be given back to God. If that is where you find yourself, I would be glad to walk that ground with you in prayer and dedicate it to the purposes and protection of God. Learn about the Sacred Ground Encounter.
Daniel saw the workings of the heavenly courtroom:
“Thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.”
— Daniel 7:10, KJV
You have an Advocate in the heavenly courtroom:
“And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
— 1 John 2:1, KJV
The accuser spoke. The Judge ruled. The Lord took away Joshua’s filthy garments and clothed him in clean ones. And the one accused walked away dressed in righteousness he did not earn.
“And the LORD said unto Satan, The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan.”
— Zechariah 3:2, KJV
He “ever liveth to make intercession” for you (Hebrews 7:25, KJV).
And He stands.
But as Stephen was being stoned for his faith, he looked up and said:
“Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.”
— Acts 7:56, KJV
Standing. For the one who belonged to Him, in the moment it mattered most.
Jesus also told a parable about a widow who kept coming to an unjust judge until he gave her justice. Then He said:
“And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.”
— Luke 18:7–8, KJV
If an unjust judge will finally rule for a persistent widow, how much more will a just Judge who is also your Father?
Is This Kind of Relationship Really Available to Us?
Yes.
Is it available to all? To each one of us?
Yes. Because of the cross.
When Jesus died, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51). The curtain that kept people out of God’s presence was torn by God Himself, from heaven’s side.
“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus… Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.”
— Hebrews 10:19, 22, KJV
“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
— Hebrews 4:16, KJV
The throne you were invited to approach is the same throne I watched Him rise from.
God’s Word is full of His promises to be found:
“And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”
— Jeremiah 29:13, KJV
“Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.”
— James 4:8, KJV
“Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”
— Jeremiah 33:3, KJV
He does not speak to everyone in the same way. Some people see pictures. Some hear a quiet word. Some simply know. How you experience God is different for each person.
But every one of His children can know Him, hear Him, and experience being defended by Him.
How Do We Get This Kind of Relationship?
Relationship with God is a practice. You have to spend time with Him.
- Learn His voice through His Word. The more Scripture you know, the more easily you recognize Him. His voice will never contradict His Word, the way a friend’s handwriting never suddenly changes.
- Search His Scriptures. “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20, KJV). Claim the Scriptures that apply to your current needs.
- Give Him unhurried time. Relationships grow in meaningful time spent together. Sit with Him. Tell Him what is on your heart. Jesus loves to spend time with you. He wants to hear your thoughts and to share Himself with you. He knows you and is waiting for you to know Him.
- Talk, then listen. After you talk or pray, be still. Write down what you sense. Then test it: Does it agree with Scripture? Does it sound like Jesus? Does it carry the wisdom that is “first pure, then peaceable, gentle” (James 3:17, KJV)?
- Obey the small things. Jesus said, “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me… and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him” (John 14:21, KJV). Obedience opens the door to deeper levels of Him.
- Notice Him. At the end of the day, ask, “Lord, where were You today?” You will begin to see His fingerprints—His kindness, His timing, and yes, His humor.
- Walk with others. Share what you sense with mature believers you trust. Scripture says, “Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge” (1 Corinthians 14:29, KJV). Hearing God was never meant to be a solo experience.
- Wait and watch. Like the widow, keep coming, and expect Him to answer.
Do You Believe He Will Defend You?
So I come back to this question.
Do you believe He will defend you?
“If God be for us, who can be against us?”
— Romans 8:31, KJV
“The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.”
— Exodus 14:14, KJV
Notice who was silenced in that courtroom. The accuser.
I did not have to answer him. I did not have to defend myself. The Lord did that. All I had to do was be in His hand.
That is where He wants you, too.
A Prayer to Begin
If you want to begin today, start here. “Prayer to Know Jesus,” in the Closer to the Heart of Jesus section of our prayer library, is a prayer for drawing near to His heart with honesty, longing, and love. You can pray it along with me on video or download it to keep beside your Bible.
Blessings,