The Value of Knowing God

“Amy, you don’t know God,” my professor gently emphasized.

He was right; I didn’t.

I can’t remember a day in my life that church wasn’t part of the equation. My parents were faithful to keep me engaged. Sunday school, prayer meetings, and youth group activities filled my week. I have an old Bible from when I was a pre-teen scribbled with notes in the back. My sloppy handwriting revealed a hunger for Jesus. I desperately wanted to know God’s will for my life. I feared missing it. I feared everything.

Fear ruled my heart. It was a cruel master that kept me wanting. Wanting love. Wanting acceptance. Wanting worth. Wanting security. Always wanting, never finding. I’d tell others, “Jesus loves you,” and I meant it. However, every time I told people this truth, a little voice in my head would say, “But he doesn’t love you.” Words that worked its ugly way into my heart and almost killed me.

I believed this lie so deeply that in my early twenties, as a young wife and mother, I was ready to end my life. I was tired. Fear had beaten me down and thrown me to the curb too many times. I had lost all hope to live.

That’s when Dr. Fine entered my story and discerned I didn’t know God. After I stopped trying to convince him he was wrong and finally accepted his words as truth…everything changed for me, and the journey began for me to know God…a journey I’m still on. 😊

YWAM is committed to know God, His nature, His character and His ways as revealed in the Bible, the inspired and authoritative Word of God. We seek to reflect who He is in every aspect of our lives and ministry. The automatic overflow of knowing and enjoying fellowship with God is a desire to share Him with others. (YWAM Foundational Value #1)

God created us to know Him! An infinite, personal God desires for each of His children to abide in relationship with Him! We aren’t to just know of Him….we are to KNOW Him. Know is an intimate word too.

"And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." (John 17:3 ESV)

In John 17:3, the Greek word for know is ginosko  (ghin-oce’-ko) which means to know absolutely. That’s the beauty of this relationship I get to have with my Creator. This IS eternal life! Heaven isn’t eternal life; relationship with Jesus is! I don’t just have hope for the eternity I get to spend with Jesus someday…I have hope in Jesus RIGHT NOW because I walk with Him, talk with Him, move and have my being in Him every minute of every day. Wow. That’s such a beautiful truth.

"His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him--though he is not far from any one of us. For in Him we live and move and exist!" (Acts 17:27-28)

I’m glad I serve with a ministry that understands the importance of Knowing God! It’s YWAM’s number one core value. It’s a life long journey we are on, and I’m thankful for this journey. Just last week I heard a message that rocked my world. I’ve read this story of Jesus asleep on the boat in the storm hundreds of times. I’ve heard countless of messages on it too. But last week God gave me revelation that I can’t shake.

"Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. The disciples woke him up, shouting, 'Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?'” (Mark 4:38)

In that moment it wasn’t the storm they feared. It was the haunting tug at their hearts questioning if Jesus really cared about them. That word grabbed hold of my own heart. Had the speaker been reading my journal or hearing my prayer time early in the morning? “Don’t you care, Lord?”

Don’t you care that this relationship is difficult? Don’t you care that I’m stretched thin in ministry? Don’t you care that the debts are mounting? Don’t you care that I’m sick? Jesus, don’t you care! How many times is this really the underlying question in the storm?!

That night God took me deeper in knowing Him. I gained new revelation of the tremendous care God has for me and everything I face. He knows how to silence the storm. He KNOWS me and in His mercy He is helping me to KNOW Him, deeply, intimately…absolutely!

🎶 I want to know You
I want to hear Your voice
I want to know You more
More and more, Lord
I want to touch You
I want to see Your face
I want to know You more🎶

Everyday I get the awesome privilege to work with teenagers at Christian Heritage School. At this school, which is a ministry of YWAM Tyler, we unashamedly disciple through education. In my classes as we read great literature together, we also get to dig into the words of the greatest piece of literature we have: the Bible! We filter the human experience through those holy pages. I’m often moved by what my students see.

In three classes, I teach a total of 37 Gen Z’ers whom God loves deeply and has invited me to love as well, a task that’s not hard. 😊 My prayer is that these students will KNOW God in a deeper way this year. I’m also praying that as I’m learning with them that I too will KNOW Him more. MORE AND MORE, LORD ❤️

“The end of all learning is to know God, and out of that knowledge to love and imitate Him.”― John Milton

Youth With A Mission is grounded on 18 foundational values which has guided our mission community for over 50 years. Over the next several weeks we invite you on a journey through these values and how they relate to our work as missionaries here in East Texas.

We couldn’t be missionaries without the love and support of friends and family. We are grateful for the small network of believers who rally around us in prayer and financial support. May God increase our love for one another — until all have heard.