We Worship the Ways of God and we Know God Inwardly by means of the Eternal Life

We need to learn to worship the ways of God and know God inwardly by means of the eternal life. God delights in His people seeking to know Him, and we as believers in Christ need to know God subjectively and intimately, first by knowing God and His ways and then by knowing Him by His eternal life in us.

We can know God Himself only by revelation, and we can know God’s ways only by submission; without God unveiling Himself to us, we cannot accept God’s ways.

God wants us to realize that He is God – He is on the throne, He arranges and plans all things, and many things happen in our life not because of our own choosing and planning but simply because of God’s ways of dealing with us.

We must have a revelation before we can accept His ways; we must have a revelation of who He is and what His ways are, and then we will submit to Him. God is not only our Father – He is also our God; as our Father, we enjoy the riches of His life and love by being His children in His house, and as our God, we submit to Him and worship Him for His ways.

It is one thing to know God as the Father, and it is a different thing to know Him as God (see Rom. 11:33-36). If we have seen God, we will know that He is God; a day will come when God will open our eyes to see Him as God and know Him as God.

We can never underestimate or overemphasize the fact that God is related to us in life – we are His children, members of His house, and part of the corporate Christ, but at the same time we need to realize that God is God, and we are His slaves.

If we have a revelation of God and meet Him as God, we will worship Him and accept His ways.

We may not want certain things to happen to us while at the same time we may want God to do other things to us; however, God does certain things concerning us and He arranges certain situations as He sees fit, and we can simply worship Him for this.

What should our response be when we see God as God? We cannot even say, Amen, or, thank You Lord, but we simply worship Him; we worship God as God, and we take our place as men on whom He works and whom He takes through a process according to His eternal purpose.

Our Entire Spiritual Future Hinges on our Ability to Worship the Ways of God

We learn to walk step by step. If we want to learn to walk before God, we will have no future unless we can learn to worship the ways of God—not just to worship God. Our entire spiritual future hinges on our ability to worship the ways of God. Thus, all who know God must be brought to the point of saying, “I worship the ways of God. I worship the things that God has ordained for me. I worship the things God has done to me. I worship God for what He is pleased to do in me. I worship God for the things He strips from me.” We must worship God, and we also must accept the ways in which He deals with us. (Watchman Nee, Worshipping the Ways of God)

Many saints have exhibited a pattern of not recognizing the ways of God and worshipping the ways of God, so their spiritual future doesn’t look promising, but they are in the peril of becoming opinionated.

If we don’t see God, know God, and know God’s ways, we may become so strong in our opinion that our practical God is the self, and we will be freely giving out our opinion about how others should live their lives and what decisions they should make. May we not resist God’s ways or defy them, but see God’s ways and worship Him for them, so that our spiritual future would be glorious and bright.

All true worship comes from knowing God and receiving a revelation from God (see John 9:35-38; Matt. 2:11; 8:2; 9:18; 28:9, 17-18). To accept the ways of God is to worship the ways of God.

In Gen. 24:23-27 we see the story of Isaac and Rebecca, and the main point of this story is not how these two are a type of Christ and the church but how all those involved in this story were living in a practical oneness with God for the fulfillment of His purpose.

Every one in this chapter lived in an atmosphere of being one with God in a practical way for God’s purpose. Abraham was one with God to send the servant to get a wife from a proper source fo Isaac; the old servant was one with God to go and pray, Rebecca was the answer to his prayers, and he just worshipped God.

The old servant went with Rebecca to her family and talked to Bethuel her father and Laban her brother, and they simply said, This matter comes from Jehovah; we cannot speak to you bad or good. Wow, what a living in oneness with God in a practical way for the fulfillment of His purpose!

Today when two are being put together by the Lord, may the Lord save us from opinions, questions, and feelings, and may we learn to be one with God in a practical way and recognize God’s ways.

When we recognize the ways of God, we have nothing to say except worship God and accept His ways; we recognize the matter is from God, and we honor it.

What a tragedy would be for us to not know when God is moving in our lives or in someone else’s life, so we add to the complexity of the problem by freely injecting our opinion, while the Lord is waiting for our silence and worship…

We must worship God and we must accept the ways in which He deals with us (see Job 42:5-6). Our heart must be brought to the point of bowing down before Him and telling Him,

Lord, we worship You for what You choose and for what You have ordained for us. Show us Your ways so that we may know You and worship your ways. Lord, we worship You for what You give us and for what You take from us. Grant us the grace and mercy that we would accept the ways in which You deal with us. May we learn to deny the self and reject our opinions, refusing to inject our feelings and opinions into others’ life or our situation, and may we just worship You and accept Your ways!

Knowing God Inwardly and Knowing God’s Nature by means of the Eternal Life

Once we get through the crucial matter of knowing God’s ways, we advance to the ultimate goal: knowing God inwardly. As believers in Christ we have received the divine life of God, the eternal life, at the time of our regeneration; “this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Him whom You have sent, Jesus Christ” (John 17:2-3).

Eternal life is divine life with a special function: to know God. Hallelujah, as believers in Christ we have God’s eternal life and thus we have the capacity to know God inwardly! God is not a thing: He is a living person, and to know Him as a Person we need to have His life; the life of God is able to cause us to know God.

Whenever we touch the Lord in our mingled spirit, we have the inward ability to know God and the things of God by means of the eternal life. Our knowledge of God increases as we grow in the divine life; the more we grow in life, the more we inwardly know God, and the more we know God, the mor we grow in life.

The more we know God inwardly, the more we experience Him as our life, enjoy Him, and allow Him to live out through us. We need to pray that the Lord would give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation so that we may really know Him (Eph. 1:17) and grow by the full knowledge of God (Col. 1:10).

For us to know God Himself is to know the nature of God, to know what God is; at the time of our regeneration we have received the life of God with the nature of God, and through the life of God within us, we can touch the nature of God.

This is an inward knowledge of God with His life and nature, something deeper than knowing God in His ways outwardly. Only those who have the life of God can know God inwardly; others may see and recognize God’s way outwardly, but only those who have eternal life can know God from within and know the nature of God.

God wants us to bring us to the full knowledge of God until no one will teach his fellow citizen and brother saying, Know the Lord, for all will know God from the little one to the great one (Heb. 8:11).

In this verse to know God is to know the nature of God; when we touch the nature of God, we touch God Himself and know God Himself.

By imparting His divine life into us, God puts the highest law, the law of life, into our spirit, whence it spreads into our inward parts (our mind, emotion, and will) and becomes several laws to regulate us from within and saturate us with God’s divine life. Hallelujah, as believers in Christ we have the ability to know God inwardly!

Thank You Lord for giving us the ability to know God inwardly and to know God’s nature by means of the eternal life! Hallelujah, in our mingled spirit we have the capacity and ability to know God not merely by His ways and acts but in His nature, according to what He is! Lord, we want to know You inwardly. Give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation so that we may really know You and grow by the full knowledge of God! May we grow in the knowledge of God so that we may also grow in the divine life.

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 The Knowledge of Life, ch. 11 (by Witness Lee), 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:
  # Teach me Thy way, O Lord, / Teach me Thy way; / Thy gracious aid afford, / Teach me Thy way. / Help me to walk aright; / More by faith, less by sight; / Lead me with heav’nly light, / Teach me Thy way. (Hymns #406)
  # In those regenerated by the Lord / There is an inner knowledge bountiful; / Thus we the outward teachings do not need, / But God we inwardly may know in full. / Eternal life, the highest and the best, / Possesses full divine capacity, / That by this life God’s knowledge we may have / More than by knowledge given outwardly. (Hymns #739)
  # It is the inner sense in us, / The inmost consciousness, / Discerning matters inwardly, / God’s will to thus express. / ’Tis by this sense that God we know, / The sense of inner life; / ’Tis pow’rful and spontaneous, / And not of any strife. (Hymns #738)