Knowing God’s Ways by Knowing the Principles by Which He Does things and Deals with us

Moses’ prayer in Exo. 33:13 should also be our prayer, “Please let me know Your ways”, so that we may be those knowing God’s ways and thus know God Himself.

Moses was respectfully asking God to let him know God’s ways so that he may be pleasing to Him; he was not begging nor religious, but in a serious and respectful way he requested that he would know God’s ways.

All the people of Israel witnessed God’s acts – they saw the opening of the Red Sea, the water engulfing Pharaoh’s army, the manna, the water from the cleft rock, etc yet they were still in their unbelief. But God made known to Moses His ways (Psa. 103:7).

The Lord knows that, in ourselves, we cannot know God’s ways, and He knows that we can’t make up our mind or try to do this; we simply need God’s mercy and grace that can enable us to know Him in His ways. It is good to open to the Lord and ask Him,

Lord, please make known to me Your ways. I ask You, Lord, in Your grace, cause me to understand Your ways with me. Please enable me to recognize when You are applying Your ways to me. Lord, enable me to accept Your ways without controversy, with no resisting, no murmuring, no self-pity, but a deep accepting of Your ways and submitting to Your ways. Amen, Lord, make Your ways known to me!

Knowing God’s Ways by Knowing the Principles by Which He Does things and Deals with us

What does it mean to know God’s ways? God does a lot of things, but to know God’s ways refers to knowing the principles by which He does things (see Gen. 18:23-32; Num. 16:46; 1 Sam. 15:22; 2 Sam. 24:24; Isa. 55:10-11).

With God not only what He DOES or what He WILLS to do is important but His WAY of doing it is crucial. God has His ways for each one of us personally. It is vain to complain to Him, asking Him why are we in this situation and why does He deal with me in this way while with others it is much better…His view toward us is very personal, and His knowledge of us is immeasurably personal.

God knows what He is doing – He is really good at being God, and we are not. God’s ways are the ways in which He deals with us, and His ways are higher than our ways (Isa. 55:9). His ways are not limited to dealings, but they are a major portion of it.

God may deal with one brother’s finances, with another’s health, He may touch someone’s heart concerning how he deals with his children, and He may give someone an apparently sweet married life while another one has decades of suffering upon suffering.

It is useless and absurd to complain to God based upon comparing our situation with others’; we need to be gradually brought to the point where we recognize and accept God’s ways with us. As the heavens are high above the earth, so are God’s ways higher than our ways.

Because of His ways with us, many things we have never conceived happened to us. We may imagine that the Lord may supply us in this way but He does it in a different way; He gives us the spouse that He desires us to have, and His ways are beyond anything we could ever conceive.

When we know God and accept God’s ways, our life becomes very simple: we simply say Amen to God’s will, and we accept what He brings to us with no opinion or advice to give the sovereign God.

Our thoughts, our attempt to make sense of what’s going on, are then calmed down, for only God knows what is happening, and He is silent – He is waiting not for prayers of enquiry but of worship to Him.

The ways of God are what He wants to do concerning us; His ways are the choices that He makes concerning us (see Eph. 1:5, 9, 11; 1 Cor. 1:1; Rom. 15:32). If we are honest with the Lord, we really want Him to do certain things to us and for us, and we do NOT want Him to do other things; this is typical and normal – it is human.

Will we let God do what He wants concerning us? Will we take our hands off and allow God to do what He wants to do in our life, in our family life, and in our children’s life?

Yes, we do have a will to choose God and His will, but our will has no unbounded freedom; only God as God can make choices and He does make choices concerning us. We didn’t choose when and where we would be born; God made a choice that we would marry someone at a certain moment in time, and He decides many major events in our life.

We can only worship God and honor His ways, the choices He makes concerning us.

Oh God, we worship You for Your ways and the choices You make concerning us. Cause us to know You and know Your ways so that we may be pleasing to You. Your ways are much higher than our ways, and Your thoughts are beyond our thoughts. Lord, our life is in Your hands: whatever Your will is, whatever Your decisions concerning our life is, we say Amen! We want to remain where You place us, and go when You want us to go. We have no preference; we have no opinion; we have no advice to give our sovereign God!

God Himself can be Known by Revelation and His Ways can be Known by Submission

As believers in Christ we must learn to know the ways of God, the methods by which He deals with us. If we learn to acknowledge the Lord in all our paths, we will acknowledge His ways (Prov. 3:5-6).

“A great trouble today among God’s children is that we want everything to revolve around us and everything to serve our interests. But God will not allow this. He wants to bring us to the point of simply submitting to Him. When this matter is settled, all other problems vanish.

The greatest need among Christians today is to learn the lesson of knowing God’s ways and embracing them. It does not matter how it affects me or what I want….Brothers and sisters, we must not only learn to do God’s will and accept His work; we also need to love God’s ways and His decisions. We must like what God likes.

God’s holy Word shows us that we must know God and we must know His ways. God Himself can only be known by revelation, and God’s ways can only be known through submission. We know God Himself through His revelation, and we know the ways of God by being willing to be dealt with and by submitting to Him.” Watchman Nee, Worshipping the Ways of God

Paul said in Phil. 2:21 that all seek their own things, not the things of Christ Jesus; only Timothy sought the things of Christ Jesus, being like-minded with Paul.

What about us: can we testify before God that we seek only God and do not seek our own things? We need the Lord’s light to shine on us until we break through with God. We need to have a real inversion in our being so that Christ has the first place, the preeminence, and He would be our center as we seek first the kingdom of God.

A great need among us today is to learn the lesson of knowing God’s ways and embracing them (Exo. 34:8). First we know God’s ways, then we may not like them or agree with them, but eventually as God works in us, we embrace God’s ways and our heart is at peace.

God Himself can be known only by revelation, and His ways can be known only by submission (Eph. 1:17; 4:20-21; Matt. 11:25-29). Without God unveiling Himself to us, we cannot accept God’s ways (see Job 42:5-6).

God understands this; He knows that we can’t yet understand His ways, yet He doesn’t give up on us but He’s long-suffering, forbearing, and full of compassion, while at the same time working out His purpose.

We need to question not God and His ways but ourselves, God, do I really know You? Please reveal Yourself to me as God that I may know You as God!

Before we can accept God’s ways, we first need to have a revelation; when the revelation comes, the Lord will also bring in a crisis, and we will accept God’s ways, having our being full of life, light, and peace.

In order to know God and accept His ways, we need to know that God is not only our Father but also our God (John 20:17; Eph. 1:3, 17). It is one thing to know God as our Father and we as His children, and it is a different thing to know HIm as God (Rom. 11:33-36).

Those who have seen God know that He is God; a day will come when God opens our eyes to see Him as God and know Him as God. We need to see that God is God and we are not only our Father’s children but also His slaves (see 1 John 3:1; James 1:1; Rev. 1:1; 22:3). If we have a revelation of God and meet Him as God, we will worship God and accept His ways.

Lord, please open our eyes to see You and know You as God. Grant us revelation to see You as God and bring us in submission to You so that we may know Your ways. By Your mercy and grace, in Your timing and Your way, bring us to know You as God and accept Your ways with us. Save us from focusing on ourselves. We seek first the kingdom of God and focus on God’s interest on earth. Oh God, grant us a revelation of Yourself so that we may worship You and accept Your ways!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from Worshipping the Ways of God (by Watchman Nee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (part 4, 2016 Summer Training), week 2 / msg. 2, Knowing God and His Ways.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # God is righteous in His doings, / He is perfect in His ways; / Just is He in all His actions, / And He well deserves our praise. (Hymns #1203)
  # Turn my view to see You, / How I need to see Jesus! / Though I don’t understand / The ways that You take; / Lord, make me / A babe and suckling always praising. / Enjoying Your worth day by day. / Let each experience constitute me / So Your life I’ll display / In every way. (Song on Knowing God and His ways)
  # Praise to the Holiest in the height, / And in the depth be praise: / In all His words most wonderful; / Most sure in all His ways. (Hymns #63)