The way you interact with opportunities to improve is the way you interact with God. God knocks on your door by showing you the possibility, necessity, and value of improvement across every aspect of your life and character.3 You knock on God’s door by searching for how you can improve yourself, others, or the world.4 Those who do not perceive or correctly respond to God’s invitations to improve cannot abide with him.5
“Knowing the Lord” and “being known by the Lord” are phrases that depict the removal of the barrier between you and God. They measure the frequency and content of corrective interactions between you and him, not just the amount of knowledge that has been transmitted through that barrier. Knowing and being known by the Lord are a question of how valiantly you search out and respond to him.
The word “know” does not convey a specific sense of intimacy as used in modern speech. When a person is said to know another in the colloquial sense, a wide range of intimacy levels is possible. You could say that you know your spouse, children, parents, and in-laws—all of whom share different levels of intimacy in spite of being family. You can say that you know your work colleague and neighbor, even if you know them far less well than your family. You could even accurately claim that you know a person you sat next to in school decades ago but have not spoken with since. The scriptural sense of the word “know” is vastly different. To know someone in the scriptural sense of the word requires much more than simply having knowledge about them.
Knowing of God is not the same as knowing him or being known by him. To be known by the Lord is not a question of what God knows about you. God knows all about you, but that doesn’t mean he knows you. If the Lord says he never knew you, he doesn’t mean he doesn’t know who or how you are. He knows everything,6 including everything about you.7
A knowing relationship is uniquely intimate,8 beyond what is found with friends, occasional acquaintances, or the general public. It is not coincidental that the Lord employs the same language for our interactions with him as he does for the relationship between a husband and wife. The interactions between husband and wife are meant to join them together in the most complete way possible given their individual and separate physical bodies.
Though the fulfillment operates differently given the differences in particulars, the spirit of the intended unity we have with God is meant to be at least as broad, deep, and enduring as the ideal relationship between a husband and a wife.9 The unity intended between a husband and a wife is meant to span mental, emotional, and spiritual domains, with physical connections being an important yet fairly limited means to that end.
To be known of God is a question of the frequency of contact and depth of familiarity that you have with him. It is not a binary measure, but one of degrees. A person’s relationship with God can vary immensely compared to others in terms of what is exchanged, and with what level of familiarity. With obvious connections to marital relations,10 to know the Lord is to receive11 his influence within you, becoming alive and bearing fruit because of it. To know the Lord requires you to receive new instruction from him often, and to live differently than you otherwise would because of it. To receive his influence once changes you forever, and to receive it continually changes you continually. Scripturally knowing someone requires an ongoing relationship with them—growing, not static, and certainly not receding. Through knowing him,12 he is in you (through your receipt of what he gives you), and you are in him (through his love for you).13
To know the Lord and be known by him requires that you intentionally pursue his purpose. It isn’t enough to merely search out and do his will as far as you can discover it,14 nor is it enough to only do what he preemptively asks you to do.15 Just as a good wife knows and is known by her husband as she does her best to pursue his purpose as she sees it and responds to his specific corrections and requests, to know God and be known of him requires that you search out and follow his purpose and also that you respond when he sends you specific opportunities or invitations to improve.16
The Lord asks for the dedication of our heart, might, mind, and strength in service to his purpose.17 Those who limit their relationship with him to some subset of all they have to give will experience far less with him than what is possible and what he intends. It is not enough to mindlessly reduce your service to the Lord to a routine or checklist of tasks.18 Maximizing your religious activity is not the same as maximally advancing the purpose of God.19 Knowing the Lord requires a relationship that exceeds what can occur only at or through a church or within strictly religious bounds. No amount of overindulgence in a limited domain of interaction with God will compensate for neglect in another.20 A busy servant is not the same as a good servant.21 Service to God is always about what he thinks is good, not what you think is good.22 You can be fully occupied in what you suppose is service to God and yet have a heart,961 mind, or even actions962 very far from what he is actually asking of you.963
Being known of God yields similarity to him, because the process of coming to know God consists of yielding to correction from him that shows you how to be more like him. As you are known of God, you will gain a greater understanding of what is best in yourself,964 in others, and in the world.
Walking with God requires making changes as you are shown ways in which you can improve. To abide with God requires you to be open to being corrected, and to implement corrections as they are made known to you.965 The slower you are to implement the changes suggested by what he teaches you, the slower he will be to provide subsequent increments of further information about himself.
Footnotes
- 1. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thessalonians 5:21) And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. (Romans 12:2) ↩
- 2. The author’s book Joy on Purpose presents an effective framework for systematically implementing intentional improvement without overwhelm. ↩
- 3. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me (Revelation 3:20) ↩
- 4. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. (Revelation 3:19) ↩
- 5. And it shall come to pass that when the second trump shall sound then shall they that never knew me come forth and shall stand before me. And then shall they know that I am the Lord their God, that I am their Redeemer; but they would not be redeemed. And then I will confess unto them that I never knew them; and they shall depart into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Therefore I say unto you, that he that will not hear my voice, the same shall ye not receive into my church, for him I will not receive at the last day. (Mosiah 26:25-28) ↩
- 6. O how great the holiness of our God! For he knoweth all things, and there is not anything save he knows it (2 Nephi 9:20) ↩
- 7. For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings. (Proverbs 5:21) ↩
- 8. For the devious are an abomination to the Lord; But He is intimate with the upright. (Proverbs 3:32, NASB) ↩
- 9. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:29-30) Yoke here is to bind together with Jesus, as two married people are bound together. The same word is translated as joined elsewhere: What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. (Mark 10:9) Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. (Matthew 19:6) ↩
- 10. And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived.... (Genesis 4:1) ↩
- 11. For strait is the gate, and narrow the way that leadeth unto the exaltation and continuation of the lives, and few there be that find it, because ye receive me not in the world neither do ye know me. (D&C 132:22) ↩
- 12. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: (John 10:27) I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. (John 10:14) ....These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.... (Revelation 14:4) ↩
- 13. Some might be surprised that we are not in the Lord through our response to him. Though few realize it, we tend to grossly overestimate the benefit we provide to God. Everything of value comes from him, and there is nothing we can ever do to reciprocate. What he asks us to do instead is to love others as he has loved us. ↩
- 14. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7:21-23) ↩
- 15. For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward (D&C 58:26) ↩
- 16. O that cunning plan of the evil one! O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish. (2 Nephi 9:28) ↩
- 17. And we know also, that sanctification through the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is just and true, to all those who love and serve God with all their mights, minds, and strength.... (D&C 20:31-32) ↩
- 18. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7:21-23) ↩
- 19. Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. (Luke 13:24-27) ↩
- 20. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. (Matthew 23:23) ↩
- 21. Note how the priest in the parable of the Good Samaritan refused to interrupt his priestly duties to help the injured man encountered in his path. So, likewise, will mindless busyness blind a person to the unexpected but more important opportunities to serve Jesus along the way. ↩
- 22. And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you. But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink? Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do. (Luke 17:6-10) ↩