God wants us to know Him—but we could not know Him unless He chose to reveal Himself. He is beyond our imagination. The good news is, He has chosen to make Himself known to us.

To know God, we need to listen to His voice.

Listening to the Voice of God

Listening to God’s voice is a key theme in the Gospels. Consider what Jesus says in John 10:27:

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.

Those who belong to Jesus will listen to His voice and follow Him. How do you train yourself to hear His voice and know Him? You obey Him. The more you respond to Him, the more you will hear Him. Unfortunately, the inverse is true: the less you respond, the less you will hear Him.

Obedience is the pathway to divine disclosure. Take a risk and obey Him, even if He asks you to do something uncomfortable or unplanned. When you do so, you will come to know Him and trust Him more.

Listening to the voice of God has to do with personal involvement. We are in a relationship with Him, so listening to Him involves more than head knowledge. We study Him in His Word, it is true, but that knowledge needs to move from our head to our heart.

God’s Knowledge of Us

 Even though we cannot fully know God, He knows us—every bit of us. He is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent.

Psalm 139 reveals these three characteristics of God.

Verses 1–2 clearly reveal His omniscience:

Lord, You have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thought from afar.

Verse 7 shows His omnipresence:

Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?

And finally, verse 13 demonstrates His omnipotence:

For You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother’s womb.

God knows us intimately, and He knows how long we will live. Every one of our days is in His hand. There is no escaping it: He knows us perfectly.

The God who has power and authority is also near to us. He is in us, and we are in Him (1 John 4:13). Therefore, we need to trust the Father, abide in the Son, and walk in the Spirit.

This study is based on A. W. Tozer’s book The Knowledge of the Holy and J. I. Packer’s Knowing God.