I discovered
something in my first months of being a Christian in the early 2000s that
becomes clearer and clearer with further experience of God, but which I had to
learn somewhat counterintuitively at the time. We discover God more by acting
than by thinking. When I became convinced that Christianity offers the right
and only path to the one true God, I still awaited revelation from the Holy
Spirit for around 9 months. The distinction, I believe, is one of thinking
truth and acting truth – and looking back, I believe I had to be ready to act
in order to know the full truth. Thinking truth means accepting propositions that
are true of reality; acting truth means taking those beliefs and living them
out. We discover God by thinking truth (that is, believing in Christ as Lord)
and by acting out truth (loving God and neighbour, and reflecting God’s love in
the world).
From my experience, a lot of non-Christians are preoccupied with the question of how to know God - or in the opposite case, why they think God doesn’t exist - because they are focused mainly on thinking truths about God. But because God is so far beyond us, and so high above our comprehension, we are limited in thinking truths about Him; the real revelations come by acting out those truths. I don’t, of course, mean acting to earn our salvation, or earning favour with God – we are already offered salvation by grace, as a gift from God. I mean that the deepening of our relationship with God comes by acting out truth and love, not by merely thinking them.
It’s entirely possible to believe true things without knowing God, and it’s equally possible to know God and believe false things. The empirical sciences give us facts about the world, but they show that thinking truths will not necessarily lead us to God. The Christian faith gives us a relationship with God, but it shows that knowing God will not necessarily lead us to facts about the world.
A profound discovery for the Christian is the extent to which they can deepen their knowledge of God and their relationship with Him by action. A profound discovery for those who want to know God is to try to discover by action not just thought. It is tempting to prioritise seeking truth by thinking truth; but deeper truths and revelations come from action, because the Christian journey is one in which our relationship with God deepens as we step out in love and action. Knowing God is thought and action.
