And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
—1 John 5:20
Jesus Christ has come to give us an understanding of the “true” God. We may know Him who is “true” and that we are in Him who is “true.” This understanding, which John writes of, is different from acquired knowledge. Revelation knowledge is distinctly different than knowledge acquired by learning. Every true believer has access to revelation knowledge that does not come through study.
Luke writes of Simeon in Luke 2:26: “And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” No man had taught Simeon this. It was made known to him by the Holy Spirit, who imparts the true God to us.
Jesus told the disciples, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (John 14:26).
Two of the greatest differences between Old Testament and New Testament believers in God is that those who know Jesus have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit and the quickened understanding the Holy Spirit gives. Four times in Jesus's words to the disciples the night before His crucifixion, He mentioned the Holy Spirit as being the source of God’s revelation (John 14:26; 15:26; 16:7-11, 13-15).
One of the Holy Spirit’s ministries is to bring back to our remembrance all that Jesus has spoken to us. This ministry of the Spirit is available to all believers who have received the Holy Spirit, but it does not operate in all Spirit-filled believers. It must be appropriated by faith. With a promise like this, there is no reason for believers to ever say they cannot remember the truths the Word of God teaches.
In 1 John 2:20, John tells believers, “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.”
This certainly isn’t true in our physical “natural” minds. We can prove that by the times we forget or misplace something. This is speaking about the mind of Christ that is in our born-again spirits. Our born-again spirit man knows all things because he has Christ’s mind. But revelation understanding of God that we have received in our spirits is not automatic. It is available to those who hunger and thirst for it (Matthew 5:6).
Without studying the Word of God with our natural minds, we will not acquire factual knowledge of God’s truth. Without meditating on the Word and seeking a revelation understanding of His Word, we will not know the “true” God who wants to reveal Himself to us.
Do you judge and rationalize with your natural mind what is revealed to you by the Holy Spirit? When you do, that is not faith.
Paul writes, “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For 'who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?’ But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:14-16).
As Christians, we cannot successfully live without God revealing Himself to us. To the natural mind, revelation understanding appears foolishness. With the mind of Christ that we exercise by faith, we can have a revelation knowledge of the “true” God. We can know Him who is “true,” and that we are in Him, “who is true.”
If you are determined to know Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2), you will hunger and thirst to know the “true” nature of God Himself.
This prayer for the Ephesians is the revealed Word God gave Paul for them. It is the revealed Word of God for us, but for it to be true in our lives, it must become the revealed Word of God in us.
“Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:15-20).
There was a time, before Jesus came to reveal the true nature of God, when it was written:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).
But in Jesus Christ, this is no longer true. Paul writes of these things in 1 Corinthians 2:10:
“But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.”
Christ is no longer “veiled” to you. He is not hidden from you. He is hidden from the world’s understanding but is revealed to you so that you may know Him and the power of His resurrection.
The Holy Spirit searches the deep things of God so you can know Him—the “true” God who unconditionally gave His life for you. You have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit’s revelation understanding that is appropriated by faith. If you will surrender your natural rationalizing mind to the spiritual mind that is yours in Christ, you will open yourself to receive a spiritual revelation of God’s wisdom and knowledge. You will receive the spiritual understanding you need to live a crucified life in Christ and to walk by faith and not by sight, filled with the resurrection power of God.
This is the true God, and this is eternal life.
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