How do I Know God?

“You can know the word of God but not Know God.” ~ Author Unknown


I have been following the advice of the experts: Pray, read the word, congregate with others and spread the word: this will unite us with the will of God. Why is it so hard to know God? Scientists today can prove that man is hard-wired  to be in connection with God.

Every human culture has an Adam and Eve story which shows that man fell away from God at the beginning of time. Is that the reason man is separated from God? Is that the reason we live in a sinful world? If God exists why does he allow human suffering? Why do we have to struggle? Why is there so much evil in the world? Why does God allow all these physical catastrophes to happen? What did I do wrong that my baby is getting cancer? I have been good all my life why do I get this disease? These are just a few questions many people have today, especially those who are pursuing a religious path.

I have been asking myself all these questions and more for many, many years. I started my quest in my early 20s and have not stopped because I am still looking for some answers.

Over the years I have been reading many books besides the scriptures. Some of them being very insightful, and enlightening.

Deepak Chopra’s book on  “How to Know God?” was very scientific and obviously written by a person not raised in the Christian tradition.  Dr. Chopra explores seven different personalities of God: Almighty, Creator, God of Miracles, God of Peace, Protector, Pure Being--I am, Redeemer.  How do I fit in with each and who am I in relationship to these personalities, is the question he asks again and again.

Michele Longo O’Donnell’s “The God We’ve created?”  was deeply moving and gave me a whole new understanding about how we create our own God according to our education, experience and beliefs. She has a clear picture of who God is to her, a loving, forgiving and merciful father who longs to be reunited with man.  Michele proves to us that man was not to live with disease or any other suffering.  Man has created certain images of God according to his own experience and belief.  With deeper understanding and spiritual growth, we can surpass that dis-eased stage which is basically ignorance and "sin" which she interprets as separation from God.  I have not heard anybody else explain sin as good as she has, since most people put sin equal to transgressions.  Transgressions are evil actions while sin is wrong thinking, ignorance and separation from God.

Just recently I picked up Neale Donald Walsch’s “Conversation With God”. I like his simple approach of just questioning God. Most people have done that putting all these questions up to God. And doesn’t it say in the bible you should ask, and get the answers, knock, and get the doors opened? What is really our motivation asks Neale Walsch? Are we willing to listen, really listen? He discovered that God communicates mostly through feelings, next through thoughts (images and pictures) and experiences, and finally through words. Feeling is the language of the soul. To communicate with God, to know God we need to feel him and experience him in our daily lives.

How do we listen to God? How do we know our conversation with God is a two-way communication? Just like any friend and other human, God wants to be appreciated. We show God our appreciation through gratitude. By being grateful for our lives, for all he provides for us (even in advance) is a good way for us to discover the true nature of God. He created the whole universe for us, abundance everywhere. Faith will help us grow to discover the true God, the father, the source of love, forgiveness, mercy and grace. With the same intensity we put out our prayers, with the deep sincerity we seek out God and the strong desire to know him deeply, he will reply our search.


None of the above literature gives as deep an insight into the nature of God as the Divine Principle, the teaching of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon. I am sighting here an excerpt from the fall of man because it gives such a clear understanding of why God cannot intervene in man’s action, now and in the past.

Again, I want to reiterate, that it is not just enough that man knows God’s word, and can recite every word of the bible or any other religious text. Man was given a human responsibility and the freedom of choice to either believe in God or not.

Divine Principle – The Fall of Man ~ Section 6

The Reason God Did Not Intervene in the Fall of the First Human Ancestors

God, being omniscient and omnipotent, must have known about the deviant acts of the first human ancestors which were leading to their Fall and was surely capable of preventing them from carrying them out. Why, then, did God not intervene to prevent the Fall? This is one of the most important unsolved mysteries of the ages. We can put forward the following three reasons why God did not interfere with the human Fall.

6.1 To Maintain the Absoluteness and Perfection of the Principle of Creation

In accordance with the Principle of Creation, God created human beings in His image, with the character and powers of the Creator, intending that they govern over all things as He governs over humankind. However, for human beings to inherit the creative nature of God, they must grow to perfection by fulfilling their portion of responsibility. As explained above, the period of their growth is the realm of God's indirect dominion or the realm of dominion based on accomplishments through the Principle. While people are still in this realm, God does not directly govern them because He wishes to allow them to fulfill their own portion of responsibility. God will govern them directly only after they have reached full maturity.

If God were to interfere with human actions during their growing period, it would be tantamount to ignoring the human portion of responsibility. In that case, God would be disregarding His own Principle of Creation, according to which He intends to give human beings His creative nature and raise them to become the lords of creation. If the Principle were ignored, then its absoluteness and perfection would be undermined. Because God is the absolute and perfect Creator, His Principle of Creation must also be absolute and perfect. In summary, in order to preserve the absoluteness and perfection of the Principle of Creation, God did not intervene in the acts that led the human beings to fall.

6.2 That God Alone Be the Creator

God only governs over a principled existence which He has created and only sways the course of principled acts. God does not regulate any unprincipled existence which He did not create, such as hell; nor does He interfere with any unprincipled act, such as criminal acts. If God were to affect the course of such beings or acts, then they would necessarily be given the value of God's creations and be recognized as principled.

Consequently, if God were to have intervened in the Fall of the first human ancestors, He would have been attributing to those acts the value of His creations and recognizing them as principled. If God were to do this, He would in effect be creating a new principle that recognizes these criminal acts as lawful. Since it would actually be Satan who manipulated the situation to bring about this outcome, it would in fact be Satan who created another, new principle, and Satan would stand as the creator of all the fruits of the Fall. Therefore, in order that God remain the sole Creator, He did not intervene in the human Fall.

6.3 To Make Human Beings the Lords of Creation

God created human beings and blessed them with dominion over everything in the creation. Human beings cannot rule other creatures if they stand on an equal footing with them. They must earn certain qualifications to gain their God-given mandate to govern.

God is qualified to govern human beings because He is their Creator. Likewise, for human beings to gain the qualifications to rule all things, they must also possess the character and powers of the Creator. In order to give them creatorship and make them worthy to govern all things, God has human beings perfect themselves by accomplishing their own portion of responsibility until the end of their growing period. Only by perfecting themselves in accordance with the Principle can they earn the qualifications to rule the universe. If God were to rule directly and control the lives of human beings who are still in the state of immaturity, this would in effect grant the authority of a ruler to those who are unqualified to rule. That is, it would have the effect of granting this authority to those who have not yet fulfilled their responsibility or earned God's creatorship. It would contradict God's Principle because He would be treating an immature person as if he were mature. God, the Author of the Principle, would be disregarding His own Principle of Creation, which He established in order to enable human beings to inherit the nature of the Creator and govern the creation. Consequently, it was in order to bless human beings as the lords of creation that God had to restrain Himself from intervening in the acts of immature human beings, as He watched with trepidation their tragic fall.

It is crucial for man to understand that it is not God’s responsibility that we are in a mess. Man has to come to grip that we cannot blame anybody else, especially God for our misery.

How do I know God – discover for yourself the unbelievable truth and beauty of knowing God. Pursue him, court him, love him, more than you would a lover, a friend, a parent or sibling. This is the time where God is closer than ever – this is the time to know God.