Joy Dawson passionately speaks on the vital importance of truly knowing God, emphasizing that our understanding of His character shapes our relationship with Him and our ability to evangelize. She warns against distorted views of God that can hinder our spiritual growth and calls for a deep, personal pursuit of His presence. Dawson encourages believers to seek God diligently, as true knowledge of Him leads to a fulfilling relationship and empowers us to make Him known to others. She highlights that knowing God is not merely about acquiring information but about experiencing His love and character intimately. Ultimately, she asserts that our effectiveness in ministry is directly proportional to our knowledge of God.

This is the message by Joy Dawson entitled, Knowing God. The all-important subject, the exciting subject, the obedience to this subject which will bring the fulfillment of why we were created. Knowing God, friendship with God through the knowledge of Himself. The very title excites my heart. Why? Because of who God is. He is the most exciting, fascinating, scintillating personality in the universe. I'm in love with Him deeply. He has absolutely, totally captivated my heart. I call Him lover number one. Lover number two is my precious husband that I've been married to for 33 years. Lover number one, God. What does that word mean to you? Someone who's the creator of the universe, a way out there. Perhaps someone benevolent, pats people on the back and gives them things, goodies, every now and again, much like an image of a Father Christmas. Or is He a hard person with a stick just to punish you, longing to punish you every time you do something wrong? These are some of the distorted views that the devil has sold the body of Christ and the world in general. Have you ever stopped to think what the main ministry of Satan is? We need to stop and think about it. We need to know what it is. It is to distort the character of God. And he's done a very, very good job of it. And we need to be the ones as instruments in the hand of God to be the greatest thwarter of Satan's main ministry by our knowledge of God as He is. Now, every distorted view that we have of God's character means that we aid Satan in his greatest ministry. You see, that's why the Muslim religion is the most subtle of all religions and is the greatest threat of all the ideologies and religions to Christianity. Because the devil has convinced through religious spirits, lying spirits, deceiving spirits, but mainly religious principalities, that there is a God, that Jesus Christ was a wonderful prophet that lived on this earth. And there are multiplied millions under the deception of the knowledge of God who bowed down to Him five times a day in prayer, dedicated. The subtlety is the distorted view of God and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the true plan of salvation. You and I will never ever be used of God to the full and deep dimension that is the will of God for every single one of us to make God known, which is evangelism, unless we take time to know Him. Who would you give the job of making your character known to, to people who didn't know you? If you had a strong, good character, who would you choose? Only those who had taken time to know you, the strength and the depth and the uprightness of your character. You wouldn't choose people who only knew about you to make you known. Neither does God. And I believe the greatest outpourings of the Holy Spirit upon this world in an ingathering of the harvest of lost souls is yet to come. I believe God wants to bring a worldwide revival, an outpouring of His Spirit in unprecedented ways, bringing into the kingdom of God unprecedented millions of lost souls. I believe that with all my heart because of how He's been burdening to pray over decades for it to happen. I believe also that as the last days that we're in get more lost, as the end times become more end, that God is going to open up doors of opportunity to make Him known to the millions who have never yet heard His name. Who will He give those greatest privileges and opportunities to? Only those who have been taking time to know Him as He is. Why should He give them to anybody else? If you have a heart burdened for lost souls, if God has quickened to you that He wants to use you in a mighty way in evangelism, if He has already shown you that He's called you to the nations or a nation, in relation to making Him known, my friend, the effectiveness of your ministry will be to the degree that on a diligent daily basis you are taking time to know Him as He is. The motto, the ultimate motto of every Christian, I believe, should be to know God in order to make Him known. Is that your goal? Is that your aim? People have said to me, JD, why don't you get a message on discipline? You obviously are disciplined and it's obviously that this is one of the keys to the ministry that God has given you. Come on, give us a message on discipline and help us how we can be disciplined. I've had the request many, many times. I have no intention whatsoever of giving a message on discipline. This is the answer I give personally, I give it publicly. When you have determined and decided that your life motto is to know God in order to make Him known, you will automatically be disciplined. You just need to get your act together on why God put you on this planet. You need to decide that you want with an intense passion to know God as He is in all His blazing glory and majestic splendor and awesome holiness and pristine purity and unfathomable love and terrible wrath against sin. He's all that and more. Oh, my mind-blowingly fabulous, fantabulous, exciting lover God. Praise the Lord there's another heart as fanatical as mine. Do you know Him? Do you know Him? To know Him is to understand Him. To know Him is to understand Him. Now listen to the word of God. When you make a study of knowing God from the word, you find that it is laced right through scripture from Genesis through to Revelation. God has much to say about our desperate need for the knowledge of God and we're going to look into some of those scriptures right now. 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 2. May grace and peace be multiplied to you. Is there anybody here in this building that doesn't want grace and peace multiplied to them? Every one of us, if we're in our right minds, desperately needs it and wants it. Grace and peace being multiplied. All right, here's the secret of how it happens. In the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 18. We are to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. What does grow mean? To progress. To not stay the same. I'm going to ask you some very pertinent, challenging questions tonight. God will hear your answers and know whether they're honest or not. Have you grown in the knowledge of God in the last three months of your life? Have you got a far greater revelation of who God is in His character and an understanding of His ways in the last three months of your life? Have you grown in the knowledge of who He is? In grace and in the knowledge of God. If there's any point in time that we can say no, I have not really grown in the knowledge of God, there's something wrong. We've backslidden. This is meant to be progressive, continuously. Hosea, I'm sorry, John chapter 17 verse 3. And this is eternal life, that they know thee. That means to understand Him, not know about Him. To know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. I pick up brochures quite often and more often hear ministers and spiritual leaders say, you need to know or our church makes Jesus Christ known as savior, as baptizer, as healer, and soon coming king, as though that was the whole package. Do you know what that is? The ground floor. And millions of Christians being led by spiritual leaders around the world, that's all they present my God as. It's the kindergarten. They're not growing in grace and in the knowledge of God. Those are wonderful, basic, elementary things that God is going to do that reflect His character. But it's so small with the view of what He really is and what He can really be to you. Hosea chapter 4 verse 1. Hear the word of the Lord, for the Lord has a controversy with the people of the land. There is no faithfulness or kindness and no knowledge of God in the land. Not no knowledge about God, no knowledge of God. That means no understanding of who He really is. Hosea chapter 6 verse 6. For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. It's not more service that God is requiring of you and me. It's more time taken on a daily, disciplined, diligent basis, alone with Him, pouring over His word, crying out, Oh God, reveal yourself to me so that out of that revelation of who you are, I may be used in the power and through the person of the Holy Spirit to make you known as you are. I believe that Hosea chapter 6 verse 3 has a strong word to us tonight that God wants us to heed. And it's the heart cry of God through the prophet Hosea. Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord. Do you notice the intensity with which the prophet is speaking? His going forth is sure as the dawn. He will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth. It's the cry for us to get out of the casual inquirers class into the diligent seekers class. And God is never going to pick you up by the scruff of your neck and put you there. He's given us free will. We choose to go there. Let us know, let us press on. Are you pressing on to know the Lord? I believe the knowledge of God, the understanding of His character, His personality and His ways is our greatest need. I believe that all our spiritual problems stem from the fact of our little knowledge of God. I'm going to run that by you again. I believe our greatest need is a far greater revelation of who God is. And I believe our spiritual problems stem from the lack of the knowledge of who He really is. Now let's stop and think for just one moment. Why is it that so few Christians, relatively speaking, really take time as a way of life, waiting on God, listening to His voice? And we have noticed that the Holy Spirit has sovereignly threaded that through as a strong emphasis through every speaker at this conference. Why? Have you stopped to think why, why when you hear messages on waiting on God and listening to His voice, why is there a reticence within so many hearts not to do it? I believe the answer is a deep one. It's not a surface one. Because if you heard Him speak, the accountability is so much greater for you to obey what He tells you to do. Right? Okay, let's go take that further. Let's think deeper. Why would we have a reserve? Why do millions of God's children at this very hour, much to His grief and to the insult of Him when you really know what He's like, why do millions of God's children have a reserve about doing what God says? Have you thought that through? Why do you constantly hear and read in books testimonies from Christians go something like this? You hear it continually. And God spoke to me, and I struggled with it, and I argued with God, or I wrestled with that thing, and it wasn't until a week later or a month later or a year later that I finally obeyed God. It's the story of Moses at the burning bush, arguing with God at His call to be a leader. What is the manifestation of any person who dares to have one word of argument with the King of the universe? The creator, the sustainer of life, the giver of life, who spoke and the universe was created. That ball of fire, the sun, was created by His spoken word. Millions of stars were created and flung into orbit and everyone named by His spoken word. Our little tiny planet earth brought into being by His spoken word. The whole universe upheld by the word of His power. Majesty, creator, king, supreme authority, ruling, reigning monarch of the universe, and He speaks to little ant-like creatures of the dust. He deigns to humble Himself to communicate with them. He says, do something, and they say, huh, you blew it this time. I'm not the one for that job. Exodus chapter 3, burning bush. You've blown it this time. I thought you had more knowledge. You obviously don't know me like I know me. Oh, you might be the creator, but there's no way you can know me like I know me. Preposterous pride. What else does it spell out? And not only don't you don't have enough knowledge of me, but you obviously don't have wisdom in the choices you make of leadership. I'm not the man for this job. Has it a familiar ring? Constantly I hear people say, personally to me, publicly. A woman said it recently. Got in the car, I got off an airplane, was being taken to speak at a retreat, and within a short space of time, a woman was telling me that God was impressed upon her heart that He wanted her to be a missionary in South America. And immediately she said to me, why me? You know what I said? Why not you? Why not you? He's given the great commission to everybody. Why be surprised when He gives you the location for it? Oh, what is the manifestation of all this? The arguing with God, the disobedience, the lack of wanting to hear His voice, the lack of wanting to run to instantly, joyfully, wholly obey Him. You don't know who He is. To know Him, to have had the Holy Ghost reveal Himself to you in all His magnificent splendor, in all His unfathomable love, in all the unsearchableness of His understanding of you, in all His limitless power, in His absolute justice, is to run to Him, to kiss His feet and say, beautiful lover of my soul, thank you for the privilege of speaking to me. Thank you for the privilege of giving me a job to do. Thank you for the privilege of bringing me into such a relationship with you that we can work together through the power and person of the Holy Ghost to make you known. When you see Him, when you know Him, there's not a moment of hesitation to instant, joyful, whole obedience. All else is insanity and insult. Do you know Him? I tell you friends, there's no instant crash courses to knowing God. No, sir. You pick up your Bible and you study in depth and in detail, meditating under the person and power of the Holy Spirit. And you study the men and women in the Word of God who knew God. There's no instant, quick crash course. And we're going to hear the prayers that some of them prayed in the intensity and desperation of their hearts to know God. And then we're going to see, look at a little bit of the price they paid to know Him. But what's price compared with reward? What was the reward? The revelation of Himself. What is the revelation of Him? What does the revelation of God do become the greatest incentive for you to seek Him more and obey Him more quickly? What does He then do? Open the big doors to you to make Him known as He is. All privilege. Great responsibility. Tremendous fulfillment, because intimacy of friendship with Him is part of that package. You see, when you've seen Him, oh, when you've seen Him, it's the greatest incentive to be in love with Him. He's beautiful. He's beautiful. In the Psalms it says, look to Him and be radiant. My beloved, says the song of Solomon, is all radiant and ruddy. He's beautiful. He's the fairest of ten thousand to my soul. He's the rose of Sharon, exquisite in symmetry and beauty and perfection. He's the lily of the valley. He's the bright and morning star. He's altogether lovely. And you and I have as much free will as Satan had. And Lucifer saw Him in all that dazzling beauty and magnificent splendor and chose to rebel. So can you. So revelation of who He is does not automatically mean that we fall in love with Him and we bow at His feet because of free will. Oh, the awesome responsibility of free will. Why did God give man free will? Because He wanted to give man the opportunity to love Him, to fall at His feet, to kiss His feet and say, love of God, here I am, all of me for all of you. And that was worth it to God. Worth the risk of those who would rebel to have that undivided devotion. Do you know what it is to be totally knit in your spirit, with the spirit of the living God? Do you know what it is to be completed, completely completed? I was in a little hotel room in Japan a number of years ago, 1973 it was. Alone. Worshipping my lover, number one. Giving myself to Him in total abandonment in a love relationship with Him. Loving Him. Pouring out my heart to Him. And He came and totally eclipsed me with His spirit. I knew in that moment, total completion. I knew what Colossians 2.20 meant. I was complete in Him. It came from my stirring myself up to love Him aggressively. And in that hotel room, I said, God, I want you to give me this experience in prose, in poetry, and then I want you to give me music to it. He gave me both. This is what He gave me. My lover God, you're more to me than any other one could be. My lover God, your love for me surpasses any love I see. Complete fulfillment is union with you. My spirit with your spirit. The fusion of two. My lover God, you're more to me than any other one could be. And He gave me the music in that little room. And I found in 1 Corinthians 6.17, the word of God backing the movement of God's spirit experientially. He who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him. Oh, you can read that in your Bible, but do you know what the experience is? Do you know Him as the lover of your soul? The most intimate relationship that you can have with Him? Far beyond the relationship of father and child. Far beyond the normal relationship of friendship with God. We were created to be in the most intimate lover relationship with Him. God showed me that this message tonight was to be salt. It was to make you drool with thirst to know Him. Jeremiah 9, 23, 24. Thus says the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man glory in his might. Let not the rich man glory in his riches, but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands, get the weight of that word, and knows me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving kindness, justice and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, saith the Lord. The best commercial I can find in God's word for God Himself. I love it, because I love Him. Isaiah 43, verse 10. You are my witnesses, says the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen. Why? That you may know and believe me. And here comes that word again. Understand that I am He. Before me no God was formed, nor shall there be any after me. Who are your closest friends? I'm not asking your names, their names. I'm asking you to make an assessment of the category that they come into. They are the people who you have spent the most time alone with, and they have spent the most time alone with you, and they know not just about you, they know not just your personality, they know your character. And if someone doesn't know your character, don't use the word close friend. All they know is about you, they know hearsay, they may know your personality, they may know your ministry, but they don't know you, unless they have had an opportunity to hear your character. Now people literally all over the world come up to me and say, oh I know you JD, you don't know me, but I know you. I've had your tapes for years, and I know exactly what they mean, because I've bared my soul on my tapes. I've bared God's dealings with me, I've talked about my right choices, my wrong choices, my character is revealed. But then there are those who have taken time, much time, alone with me, and they have watched constantly, close up, my actions and reactions, particularly in difficult circumstances to God and men. They really know me. What you and I really are, is what we are under fire. Under the fire of the difficulty of the circumstances that God creates or allows to test us. And it's only our reaction to God and men in the difficult circumstances that tells us whether we have a strong or a weak character. How do you get a strong character? I'll tell you how you don't. It's not by heredity. Nobody ever inherited a strong character. You can inherit a strong personality. I did from my dad. I did not inherit his character. I had to make choices with my free will to have strong character. I did not inherit his ministries. He had very similar ministry gifts to the ones God has given me. You get character the same way you get a ministry from God. Constant obedience to revealed truth. No other way. Okay, so the few close friends that we have in life are those who have watched us up close and watched on a consistent basis our reactions to God and men in the difficult circumstances. They know us. All right, they are our friends. And to the degree we have strength of character, we are glad that they know us. They're the ones that we want to always defend us and speak on our behalf and vindicate us because we know that they know us through and through. And we need those kind of friends badly. And God gives them to us. And they're wonderful gifts from God. They know us. Okay, let's switch it to our relationship with God. Are you a close friend of God from God's point of view? Of course God chats up in heaven. Of course. Heaven is the ultimate place of fellowship. And he's giving orders to his angelic hosts constantly on behalf of his children. We know that from the word. So just picture God chatting to his angels. We only know a few of the names. We know Gabriel and who's the other character? Thank you. Thank you. We know Michael. I always knew I needed you, dear Tommy, precious brother. Hang in there with me. I may need you again before we're through. And he chats away to them and has fellowship with them and gives them assignments. Can he say to any one of his angel friends at any time, see my little servant down there and name your name or mine? Or am I ever putting them through the fires of testing or purging? Whatever. And they really don't have any understanding right now of what's going on other than that it's hot and that it's hurting in the fire. But look at them constantly praising me, giving me little love chats, loving me, no resentment, seeking my face, hurting like crazy. Another test, another attack, another deep dealing, difficult circumstance piled on top of another one. And what are they doing? Looking up at me? Can God say, look, look, see, watch them. Little face up turn saying, wow, I don't understand what's going on, lover God, but I sure understand you. I love you. I love you. You haven't changed. You're still as mind-bogglingly exciting and wonderful and fabulous. You're still my lover. You're just in all your ways, kind in all your doings. Don't understand the circumstances, but understand you. No complaints from planet Earth to headquarters heaven. God says, over, received it. And then what does he say? My friend, are we more excited about what God does or who God is? You announce a miracle service anywhere, and I'm all for miracle services. I'm all for everything in that book from cover to cover for today, up to date this very moment. That says it. You want to know my statement of purpose or my doctrinal statement? That's it right there. I've just said it. Don't ask me for anything else. That's all you'll get. Where were we before I gave you my doctrinal statement, which was believing? Oh, yes. Praise the Lord. Yes. You announce a miracle service and you'll always get to the degree people know that there's a validity behind the statement and there will be miracles. You'll always get crowds. You announce a seminar night after night or exactly the same night in the same place on, we're now going to study the character of God. We're going to have a seminar. We're going to take a different facet of his character. You know which is going to get the biggest crowd? The people who are far more excited about what God does than who God is. And I'm all for God's miracles. But that's only one manifestation of one part of God, or several. It can be his mercy. It can be his power. It can be his love, his faithfulness, or behind miracles. But oh, there are so many more facets of his character that he demonstrates in a dynamic way where there may not be an obvious miracle at all. Do you know what the far greater miracle always is? The grace. When the miracle doesn't take place, that's the big miracle. My grace is sufficient for thee, he said to Paul, for my strength is made perfect in your weakness. I had a very wonderful father. He's with the Lord Jesus in heaven. He was an outstanding Bible teacher and evangelist and personal soul winner. Precious man of God that by far the most fond memory that I have is that he was just my darling dad. That he was just a precious dad to me. And he believed in God's healing power as much as anybody I've ever met. He taught divine healing from the Word of God. He prayed for people who were healed. Many times I cut my teeth on God's power to heal. I knew nothing else. I've never had a reserve ever in my heart or mind against any of the things of the Spirit. Because I had a father who was just so totally and completely open. And I've never had God to have to remove a reserve in me in relation to any of the things of the Spirit. And he believed in this and taught this with all his heart. He got Parkinson's disease. And many, many years after having it, year in and year out. I've forgotten how long. Well he got it at about 45 and he died at 72. That's a long time. That's a long time. He was never healed. You name it, he did it. To be healed. Now here was my dad believing in it with all his heart, having seen it. He never believed in it any less because he wasn't healed. And do you know what the dynamic of what he imparted to me as a daughter was? It was far greater to me than the miracles which he and I have seen and believe in and rejoice in and praise God for. It was the miracle of the grace of God on my precious dad. Never, ever once in all those years when we'd say, how are you today dad? Never any other answer. Praise God I'm fine. No resentment and no understanding of why. But listen, deep understanding of who. Of who? Of who had allowed it? He understood God's justice. He used to say, though he slayed me, yet will I trust him. Beaming with advanced Parkinson's disease. He would say God is just in all his ways. God is kind in all he's doing. One day I'll know, he'd say smiling, completely free from all resentment. What a heritage. What a gift. What a miracle of God's grace. He and I. He in heaven and I on earth are all for miracles and God's healing power. We need to understand the ways of God. And even when we've studied them for a lifetime, there's that little pearl of a verse says they are past finding out. And anybody who comes with one verse to you in relation to divine healing and builds a doctrine around it, you will know how little they know about divine healing. I have a tape available on some of the ways of God in healing and sickness. I have found in the word of God after a literal lifetime study of this subject of divine healing from the word, five purposes from God for sickness. And two causes. There's no pat answers to this subject of divine healing. It's not difficult. There's just a lot to learn. And there's a difference. My little grandson, five years of age, David, has just started school properly. He was at preschool before. And little David is learning a lot of things. And he brings home his work and we see all the letters that he's learning. He's learning a lot, but it's not more than he's able to cope with. And he's diligently applying himself. So he's learning a lot. And this, when we dig into God's word with an open mind and an open heart and want to know the character of God and the ways of God, he will reveal both to us. You can't describe God in a word nor his ways. You need to dig into the word and see him in the magnificence, the symmetry, the perfection and the beauty of his many facets and his many ways. Listen to David's advice to Solomon, his son. First Chronicles 28 verse 9. Know the God of your father, said an outstanding leader to the young leader that had the greatest potential of any young man coming to leadership that I know. Know the God of your father and then secondarily serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind. For the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you. Listen to the top priority of the knowledge of God from God's word. Proverbs 4 verse 7. Whatever you get, get insight. Psalm 9 verse 10 tells us what that is. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding or insight. What is God saying? Whatever you get, get the knowledge of God. Proverbs 2 verses 3 to 5 tells us how we're to get it. If you cry out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. Not exactly casual inquirers in that verse. All desperate, diligent seekers. Colossians 1, 9 and 10. We have not ceased, says Paul, to pray for you that you may be, now listen to the colossal things he's asking for and then see the key, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will with all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Wow, that's dynamite. Wouldn't we all want that? To lead a life worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him. Tremendous. Bearing fruit in every good work and then the secret is given at the end and increasing in the knowledge of God. When we increase in the understanding of the revelation of who God is in his character, personality and ways, then these other things will follow. Then shall we know when we follow on to know the Lord. Philippians 3, 8. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing, not about, knowing intimately, understanding Christ Jesus my Lord. Okay, that's the diagnosis of our need. When I go to the doctor I just don't want to know my need, I want to know the cure. All right, we know we desperately need the knowledge of God's character. How do we get it? Here's the cure. One, acknowledge to God how little we really do. We must always approach God with humility. Acknowledge to God how little we really do. Second, tell God that you want it to be the supreme desire of your life and ask him to give you this desire or increase it in intensity and believe that he will release faith that he will and then start seeking him as in Jeremiah 29, verse 12. And you shall call upon me and you shall go and pray to me and I will hearken unto you and you shall find me when you shall search for me with all your heart. Do you know what it is ever at any one time of your life to have come with intense desperate desire to God and said to him with my whole mind, soul, body, strength, spirit I come earnestly asking you with deep passionate desire oh God reveal yourself to me. Ever done it once? Should be a normal cry from our hearts and releasing faith that he will do that. You know what the Holy Spirit said to me just then? It's part of friendship. He said a very cute thing to me I'll tell you. While I was saying that he says because they don't joy that's why there's so many half-baked. Now there's no way that my mind could have said that because I was in the processes of speaking out there and the Holy Spirit spoke to me back here. Because that's why he says they don't do that. That's why there are so many half-baked. That's what God says. Half-baked Christians. You know what those are like? He uses the strongest language that he can use in the word in Revelation. He says he wants to throw up with half-baked people. He said I'd rather people were hot or cold. I can't stand these in-between characters. He said I would spew them out of my mouth. If you thought I was too colloquial I'm just quoting the word. God said it. Does God look down upon our lives because there's no intensity to know him in order to effectively make him know? No no diligent seeking of him? No desperate cry coming from our heart? And does he look at us and say I want to spew you out of my mouth? Look warm? You say boy I didn't count on this kind of stuff coming from this little lady tonight. It's his love. My heart is a reflection of his. There's not one single person in this building that I couldn't spontaneously not only wash but kiss your feet. I love you. That's why I'm giving it to you like it is. I love you. I care desperately that you know God in order to make him known. He's given me a spiritual ambition for you. He knows the truth of that because I've been crying out to him on your behalf that God would change you and make history in your lives tonight. And if you'd move from the casual inquirers to the diligent seekers you'd become desperate to know God in order to make him known. I've prayed for you. I love you. That's why I'm giving it to you just like this. There's no harshness in my heart. I care deeply. That's why I'm not watering it down. We don't need a challenge tonight. We need a change. Third step in how to know God. Pray the following prayers that have been prayed by the desperate and the diligent in God's word ahead of us. Often and believe he will answer them as he answered those who prayed them. David Psalm 42 verses 1 and 2. Listen to the thirst, the panting heart of David after the knowledge of God. As a heart longs for flowing streams, my soul longs my soul for thee, O God. Do you know what millions of Christians are longing for? Not God himself. They're longing for ministry. Long for God. He'll give you the ministry. So longs my soul for thee, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Psalm 63 verses 1 and 2. O God, thou art my God. I seek thee. My soul thirsts for thee. My flesh faints for thee. Do you get the intensity of these words? As in a dry and weary land where no water is, so I have looked upon thee in the sanctuary, beholding thy power and glory. Pray those prayers. I was praying them this afternoon out to the Lord. I prayed them more times than I can remember or count, and they were as fresh as a daisy with the dew on it to my soul this afternoon. Exodus 33 verse 13. Moses crying out with an intensity to know God. Show me now thy ways that I may know thee and find favour in thy sight. That was verse 13 of Exodus 33, but verse 18 he goes deeper. And he says, God, that's not enough. Show me thy glory. Do you know what the glory of God is? The sum total of all God's attributes. It's God turned on, full bore, as he is. Wow! Wow! What could be more devastatingly exciting? God, full bore. Do you know what that is? Heaven. That's heaven to me. You can have your streets of gold, I couldn't care less. Praise God if that's what they're going to be, but that's what's not interesting me. Heaven is that I'm going to have the veil taken off my eyes, and I'm going to see my king lover God, full bore, in all his dazzling beauty. And I can look at him throughout the ages of eternity. That's heaven. Anything else to me is incidental. Any jobs I'm going to do, or a new heaven or a new earth, I'm going to have my lovely lover that I can look at him from every angle. I've often said to him, I'd like one eon of time just looking at that one side of your face. Then another eon of time just looking at that. And another few more eons just looking right into your face. Just to see him as he is. Oh friends, there's going to be one moment in time when you and I first see him with the veil taken from off our eyes. Now what is the reaction going to be? It's going to be one of two. Black or white, no shades of grey. We're either going to say, oh God, I had no idea. I had no idea. Oh God, had I known you were like that, I'd have believed you more, I'd have trusted you, I'd have obeyed you. I'd have loved you. I'd have lived so differently. I'd have sought you. I'd have made you known more. I didn't know you. Oh, the regret. As we look into his disappointed eyes. And those eyes will say, I know, but you could have. You had my word. I sent my Holy Spirit. I did everything for you to have the knowledge of me. I gave my life that you may know me. I sent my Holy Spirit. I preserved my word. What more did you need? I gave you free will. You could have sought me diligently. You could have known me. You know the other reaction? It's going to be like this. I've rehearsed it hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times. Lived through it hundreds of times. Be that moment when I see him, face to face as he is, and I'll say, wow! Oh, beautiful God, I knew you were like that. I knew, I knew, I knew, I knew you were. I knew. But you're just infinitely more so. But don't ask me to be too surprised. You showed me your limitless power, your unparalleled greatness, your unswerving faithfulness, your unending mercy, your absolute justice, your terrible wrath against sin, your unfathomable love. You showed me yourself, your dazzling beauty, your supreme authority. I've seen you. You're just more so. What did Moses have to do to get his answer, to show me thy glory and teach me thy ways? Oh, this is where the rubber meets the road. He said goodbye to the children of Israel. He said goodbye to the elders. He said goodbye to the prophets. He said goodbye to the prophets. He said goodbye to the elders. He said goodbye to the prophets. He said goodbye to the elders. He said goodbye to the elders. He said goodbye to the elders. He said goodbye to the elders. He said goodbye to the elders. He said goodbye to the elders. He said goodbye to the elders. He said goodbye to the elders. He said goodbye to the elders. He said goodbye to the elders. He said goodbye to the elders. He said goodbye to the elders. He said goodbye to the elders. He said goodbye to the elders. He said goodbye to the elders. He said goodbye to the elders. He said goodbye to the elders. He said goodbye to the elders. He said goodbye to Joshua, there was the last one he said goodbye to. And he climbed the rugged, lonely pathway to be alone with God. Listen, friends. There were no supermarkets on the way up, and there were no 7-11 stores at the top. There was nobody there but God. There was nothing for the flesh but God. But God! But God! But God! And the more he thought of what it was to be alone with the creator of the universe, this One who he desperately wanted to be a friend of and to be intimate with, the One who he said, God, I'm just sick of seeing the way you operate, your acts. I want to know what makes you tick. I want to know you. God says, come on, buddy, climb a little higher. And the muscles in his legs would ache. And he may look down and think it's a long way there from home, my tent back there. But then he'd think, but God, but God, how much do you want to know him? It'll be a rugged, lonely, misunderstood road. Yes, sir, I've climbed it. What do people say? Just exactly what they said of Moses. After a while, what's that character doing? He hasn't come down there, thought he was leading us. What's he doing up that mountain? Who does he think he is? You'll be called unsociable. You are not at the beck and call of every human being who demands your attention and time, because you're giving priority time to God. You'll be judged. You'll be criticized. You'll get letters like this. You didn't speak to me. You didn't give me the time I wanted when I asked for it. I resented you. I have now forgiven you. God has given me grace to forgive you. You'll get many letters like that. You'll be misunderstood, not courteous, rude, because you chose to make priority time with God, not men. Listen, leader. Listen, spiritual leader friend tonight. You were not called by God to be primarily available to men. You were called by God and commissioned by God to be primarily available to God, and only available to men when prompted by the Holy Ghost. That received and acted on would bring a revolution in the body of Christ worldwide by spiritual leaders. And we would have men of God who came out from the presence of God with authority as Moses did. Can you think of anything more preposterous than somebody going up to Moses' tent when he had chosen to be alone with God as he did on a daily disciplined basis when he'd come down from the mountain? Can you, can you imagine anybody? They couldn't knock on his flap because there'd be no response. So they would have to say, ooh-hoo, Moses, in some way. Can you imagine somebody, people under his leadership, elders or wife or anybody else, constantly ooh-hooing at Moses' flap, tent, and saying, I need you to pray with me. I've got a problem. I need you to give me the word of the Lord. I need you to encourage me. I don't believe there was such a thing took place. Those people knew because Moses, the leader, made it known that priority time in every day was alone with God. And listen, when he was through with God, he came out of the tent. What do you do when God has called you to the place of prayer? You know he's called you to the place of prayer. What do you do when you're in the Word, pouring over the Word of God, getting to know the character of God? What do you do when the telephone rings and you're, you're in, deep in intercession, bearing the burdens of God for others? What do you do? Do you know what the average Christian does? Doesn't even give God the politeness of saying, excuse me. Immediately goes to the demands of men. God can wait. You don't know him. You don't know him. God can wait while you talk to men. Men should wait while you and God talk. I've sat in many a spiritual leader's study over many years, where deep purposes from God were going on in that study. The leader knew it. I knew it. God knew it. God was the author of it. Life-changing things were taking place. And the telephone rings. And I sit quietly and wait to see whether the man of God has learned yet to put God's priorities first. Do you interrupt when God is moving deeply because there's a knock on a door or a telephone bell and just rush to the demands of men? I put notices outside the door of places where I am, where I, when I have to live communally at times, outside fire or death, don't disturb. Or tell them, outside fire or death, don't disturb. Then put the disturbed notice up. Why? I'm alone with God. There's one minister and one minister only of all the hundreds of ministers that I know in this country and love deeply, who when I call the office of this minister, it's not uncommon for the secretary to say, oh joy, Pastor so-and-so would be delighted to receive your, to return your call and I'm sure he'll want to speak to you. You never phone unless it's important and I know that he knows that too. He'll be delighted to get back to you, but he has given me strict instructions. He's in the place of prayer and not taking any calls. And do you know what I do? Shop through the phone. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! There's a Moses behind his tent with the flap down. I love it. I love it. I don't feel the slightest irritation that I have to wait for that call. I think it's wonderful to have found a man of God with God's priorities. You've got to learn to say no to people to be able to consistently say yes to God. So Moses is still climbing. We flip back to that picture on the screen of Moses going up the mountain. And he gets up there. God's called him, told him he's going to converse with him. He believes it. And one whole day goes by and not a peek out of God. One whole night goes by. Nothing from headquarters heaven. Two days, three days, four days, five days, six days. What would you and I do? Moses would be saying, boy, it's worth it. It's God I'm going to hear. It's God I'm going to see. It's God. And he would be saying just to hear his voice, never mind what he says, have you come to that place yet? It's so relatively, listen to me, for those of you who are still awake. It's relatively unimportant what God says at any time to you and me. Radical? Yes. Truth. The big importance is who he is and that he happens to be communicating to little you and me. That's the excitement. Now when you're excited about the who and the importance is on who's doing the talking, it doesn't really matter what he says. And of course you will instantly, joyfully, wholly obey because of who he is. And you will not therefore build or make a denomination about what he tells you to do. You won't write a book on the method God gave you in the way he spoke to you. I heard of that just the other day. A whole book that was written just on the method of what he says is relatively incidental. He is the big incident. It's God. God. God. Great big, enormous, fabulous, fabulous, wonderful, exciting, huge, Mr. Big, he talked. I say yes sir. Yes sir. Eyes shining. Ready to instantly, joyfully, wholly obey. This is not primarily a book about God or about, this is not primarily a book about men. Nor primarily a book about what God did other than it relates to who God is. Who God is. Do you understand that's why you've got this book? That you may know him after God spoke after seven days to Moses and after he had forty days and forty nights up there conversing with God. Do you know what happened to Moses? He was ruined for the ordinary. Totally. And he said to himself, my word, some interesting things have taken place within me. I thought I needed grace to come up the mountain. I need far more grace to go down. I've got to leave the most fascinating, scintillating person in the universe and I've got to receive his grace to go down there and lead those rebels. What grace? There's even grace enough to come out from the tent to be involved with the people. Don't think the big, you may think, oh the discipline, oh the discipline, the loney. Think of the reward. It's God you're going to be alone with. And he's going to reveal himself to the diligent seeker. Then we can pray Paul's prayer in Ephesians 1.17, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. Do we pray that tremendous prayer constantly and receive it by faith? Powerful. Philippians 3.10, oh that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings becoming conformed unto his death. 1 Peter 4.13 in relation to suffering, but rejoice in so far as you share Christ's sufferings that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. 2 Corinthians 1.5, for as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. Romans 5.3, more than that, we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance. Have you made a study of suffering in the word of God? If you have, you will find that suffering, grace, and glory are all linked together in the word. I've made a study of the three, and they go together. When God calls us to suffer, there's always sufficient grace, and his glory is always revealed to us as we receive the grace. If you've got the suffering and you haven't received the grace, that's your fault. There's plenty of it to receive. And if you haven't seen the glory yet, it's because you're not believing for it, or haven't yet received the grace, because the glory of God, God will reward you with a revelation of himself as you receive his grace in suffering. Suffering, grace, and glory are all in the one package. It's a whole subject. I can't possibly give you that. That's another whole message. You're receiving grace to be sitting there at this length as it is. The next prayer, before reading the Bible, every time, every time, ask God to reveal himself to you as you read the book, and thank him that he will. That's why you have the book. Now, some of you are saying, oh, how absolutely radical, fanatical, and extreme. You mean every time you read the Bible, you ask God to reveal himself to you? Yes, because I believe it's why I have a Bible. Now, what happens when you get this radical? God starts revealing himself to you as never before. And what happens? Who is he? Listen, he is truth. He is truth. So what happens? He will pour revelation of himself upon you, who is truth, and your problem, if you are a teacher of the word of God, your problem will be finding the time to get the revelation into teaching form to give out to the people. And never once will you ever, ever, ever, without exception, ever have to ask God to give you a message from the word to give to the people. By that I mean, don't misunderstand me, take those words and I'll run them through again and show you what I mean. You will never, ever have to read the Bible and say, well, God, now, here I am, a preacher, a pastor, a teacher, or whatever, and I need messages because this is my ministry. Oh, God, give me messages from your word. Never will you have to ask. Never. What will happen is you say, oh, God, I'm scrapping that lower level of asking and seeking you from the word. I realize you are truth, and I'm going to search these scriptures to know your character and your ways, to know you, and have a ten-dimensional view of you. I want to know you. Reveal yourself to me. That's all I ask. Thank you that you will. He will, and such truth will pour into you, because he is truth. And you'll make lists constantly, messages that need to be developed from this truth. Messages that need to be developed from this truth. Because he's pouring himself who is truth, the knowledge of himself to you. Preachers, heed it. And for goodness sake, burn the book. A hundred sermons for busy preachers. I've seen it on ministers' shelves. It horrifies me. My precious husband, who is a little more conservative than I am, he wouldn't need to be too conservative to be that, said to me, honey, if you keep saying that publicly, the man who wrote that book is going to be in one of your audiences. I said, I hope he is! A hundred sermons for busy preachers. Anybody, anyone with a preaching or teaching ministry, of any sort, if you're a Sunday school teacher or whatever, at whatever level you are, if you're too busy to fulfill the conditions of Jeremiah 23, which is to stand in the counsel of the Lord, to hear the word of the Lord to give the people, quit preaching until you're less busy. Oh, that my prophets had stood in the counsel of the Lord to hear the word of the Lord and then given it to my people. It's the heart cry of God to the prophet Jeremiah. Did you know that you can spend a lifetime hearing good messages of truth and never once hear the word of the Lord? That can happen. The next thing we do is to turn to portions of the word that describe the Lord Jesus. As the prophets saw him in vision form and look at him long, long looks at him, meditate on the word that describe him. As they saw him and worship him. These are portions of God's word in particular. As the prophets saw him. As the apostle John saw him. Revelation 1 verses 12 to 16. Vivid description of the glorified son of God. Revelation 1, 12 to 16. Revelation 4, the chapter. Revelation 19, the chapter. As the prophet Ezekiel saw him. Ezekiel 1 verses 26 to 28. As the prophet Isaiah saw him. They all saw him in a vision. Isaiah 6, 1 to 5. And as the prophet Daniel saw him. Daniel 10 verses 5 and 6. All ten dimensional, dramatic, up front views of him in his beauty and glory. And as we take these portions of scripture. I have found it to be very, very therapeutic spiritually to lie on my face on the floor. Just lift my face up off the floor enough to read my open Bible at these portions of scripture. Prostrate before God asking him to reveal himself to me. As they saw him. And saying to God, I'm not about to lift my body off this floor till I have a fresh revelation of who you are. In your holiness and your greatness and in your love and in your power. God will reveal himself to the diligent seeker. The fifth method of knowing God is to meditate. You can see this is a way of life, of course. No instant crash course here. Meditate and obey 2 Peter 1, 3. And 2 Peter 1, 8. Specific portions of scripture for meditation and obedience. His divine power. 2 Peter 1, 3. 2 Peter 1, 8. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. I read it too quickly for you to get the impact. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. How? Through the knowledge of him. That's heavy. It's dynamic. It's exciting. It's wonderful. 2 Peter 1, 8. For if these things, context meaning faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, love of the brethren and love, are yours and abound, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's why I said we had to meditate and obey. Note Paul's emphasis of these truths in verse 12. I noticed it last week and it excited me. Therefore I intend always, says Paul, having written those things I've just read to you, to remind you of these things though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. So in case any of you have thought, oh big deal, I know those verses, I've memorized them, know them well. Why is she bringing all that obvious stuff out? Because Paul says he was going to remind the Ephesians even though he told them many times before. He knew they needed the reminder of the wonders that would come through the pursuit of the knowledge of God. Six, make a definite study of the character of God facet by facet from his word. He's a big God. Get a big notebook or many notebooks and write down each facet of his character and study it. Did you hear of anybody studying anything in this world who didn't write? I haven't. When people really study a subject, they write. They write down related to that subject. If you've studied a language, you've got something written about that language you're studying. I can't imagine anybody, for the life of me I can't, studying the character of God without writing out the scriptures that describe him. And then in your notebook under F for faithfulness, if you've got one big notebook like I have, I call it my personal concordance. It is nothing but scripture. It goes everywhere in the world with me. It's heavy, it's big, but so is God. And under the different headings of the different facets of God's character over many, many years, I've been writing out in longhand the verses that describe him. And then I can take my personal concordance at any time and I can have a whole page or two pages just on his mercy. And I can meditate at length, reading those verses over and over, asking the Holy Ghost to give me illumination on his mercy. They're all there. And out of the meditation comes the revelation of who he is. And then we need to study the ways of God from his word. A young man from a Bible college phoned me one Saturday afternoon and he needed counsel. And I said to him, what you need is to learn to wait on God. He said, what did you say? And I thought, well it wasn't a bad phone connection and I think I have a clear speaking voice. I wonder why he didn't hear me. I said, what you need is to learn to wait on God. And then I said, because there was sort of a pregnant silence, you know, as though, what's that? And I said, aren't they teaching you that at your Bible college? He said, no. I said, oh, I would have thought that that would have been one of the top priority things. It's one of the first things in the ways of God. I said, aren't the ways of God on your curriculum? He said, no. I started to get a burden for the Bible colleges of the world. That they would have teachers who would live by and then teach the ways of God. How in the world are you going to understand God if you don't know the ways in which he operates? The principles that he operates by. You'll never understand him. Outside understanding his ways and his ways are a reflection of his character. So we need to study both. Point seven in getting to know God, we need to study the life of the Lord Jesus Christ from the Gospels in depth and detail. As he is the total personification and the image of God. He came to show us he had the imprint of the nature of God upon him. And we will not know God outside studying his son. Seven ways as a lifetime to know God. Results to Corinthians 3.18 And we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the spirit. Jeremiah 24.7 And I will give them a heart to know me that I am the Lord and they shall be my people and I will be their God. For they shall return unto me with their whole heart. Daniel 11.32 But the people who know their God shall be strong and do exploits. Don't you love that? Second Corinthians 2.14 You will when you're less tired. Other lives are inevitably touched and come to know him in the depth that we've taken time to know him. Leader are you longing for your people under your leadership to know God? Parents are you longing for your children to know God? You can only lead them into the knowledge of God as deeply as you have gone yourself. Second Corinthians 2.14 But thanks be to God who in Christ always leads us in triumph and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. What is that? World evangelism. Knowing God to make him known. That verse is the scripture to back that slogan for our lives. Do you know what we're going to do right now? That ends the message on knowing God but it does not end the moves of God's spirit in this building. We are going to take just one, two of these points right here and apply them right now in this building. This concludes this message by Joy Dawson.