Knowing God — Joy Dawson

This is the message by Joy Dawson entitled, Knowing God.

Knowing God as Friendship With the Creator

The all important subject, the exciting subject, the obedience to this subject which will bring the fulfillment of why we were created. Knowing God, friendship with God through the knowledge of Himself.

The very title excites my heart. Why? Because of who is the most exciting, fascinating, scintillating personality in the universe. I'm in love with him deeply, absolutely, totally, captivated my heart.

I call him lover number one. Lover number two is my precious husband that I've been married to for 33 years. Lover number one, God, what does that word mean to you? Someone who's the creator of the universe, a way out there, perhaps someone benevolent, people on the back and gives them things, goodies every now and again, much like an image of a Father Christmas.

A hard person with a stick just to punish you, longing to punish you every time you do something wrong. These are some of the distorted views that the devil has sold the body of Christ and the world in general.

Distorted Views of God's Character

Have you ever stopped to think what the main ministry of Satan is? We need to stop and think about it. We need to know what it is. It is to distort the character of God, and he's done a very, very good job of it.

And we need to be the ones, as instruments in the hand of God, to be the greatest thwarter of Satan's main ministry by our knowledge of God as he is. Now, every distorted view that we have of God's character means that we aid Satan in his greatest ministry.

You see, that's why the Muslim religion is the most subtle of all religions and is the greatest threat of all the ideologies and religions to Christianity, because the devil has convinced through religious spirits, lying spirits, deceiving spirits, but mainly religious principalities, that there is a God, that Jesus Christ was a wonderful prophet that lived on this earth, and there are multiplied millions under the deception of the knowledge of God who bowed down to him five times a day in prayer, dedicated.

Subtlety is the distorted view of God and his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the true plan of salvation. You and I will never ever be used of God to the full and deep dimension that is the will of God for every single one of us to make God known, which is evangelism, unless we take time to know him.

Who would you give the job of making your character known to, to people who didn't know you, if you had a strong good character? Who would you choose? Only those who had taken time to know you, the strength and the depth and the uprightness of your character.

You wouldn't choose people who only knew about you to make you known. Neither does God. And I believe the greatest outpourings of the Holy Spirit upon this world in an ingathering of the harvest of lost souls is yet to come.

I believe God wants to bring a worldwide revival, an outpouring of his Spirit in unprecedented ways, bringing into the kingdom of God unprecedented millions of lost souls. I believe that with all my heart because of how he's been burdening to pray over decades for it to happen.

I believe also that as the last days that we're in get more lost, as the end times become more end, that God is going to open up doors of opportunity to make him known to the millions who have never yet heard his name.

Who will he give those greatest privileges and opportunities to? Only those who have been taking time to know him as he is. Why should he give them to anybody else? If you have a heart burdened for lost souls, if God has quickened to you that he wants to use you in a mighty way in evangelism, if he has already shown you that he's called you to the nations or a nation, in relation to making him known, my friend, the effectiveness of your ministry will be to the degree that on a diligent daily basis you are taking time to know him as he is.

The motto, the ultimate motto of every Christian I believe should be to know God in order to make him known. Is that your goal? Is that your aim? People have said to me, J .D., why don't you get a message on discipline?

Knowing God as the Basis of Discipline and Ministry

You obviously are disciplined and it's obviously that this is one of the keys to the ministry that God has given you. Come on, give us a message on discipline and help us how we can be disciplined. I've had the request many, many times.

I have no intention whatsoever of giving a message on discipline. This is the answer I give personally, I give it publicly. When you have determined and decided that your life motto is to know God in order to make him known, you will automatically be disciplined.

You just need to get your act together on why God put you on this planet. You need to decide that you want with an intense passion to know God, His blazing glory and majestic splendor and awesome holiness and pristine purity and unfathomable love and terrible wrath against sin.

He's all that and more. My mind-blowingly fabulous, fantabulous, exciting lover, God. Praise the Lord, there's another heart as fanatical as mine. To know him, to know him, to know him is to understand him.

To know him is to understand him. Now listen to the word of God. When you make a study of knowing God from the word, you find that it is laced right through scripture, from Genesis through to Revelation.

God has much to say about our desperate need for the knowledge of God and we're going to look into some of those scriptures right now. 2 Peter 1, verse 2. May grace be multiplied to you. Is there anybody here in this building that doesn't want grace and peace multiplied to them?

Every one of us, if we're in our right minds, desperately needs it and wants it. Grace and peace being multiplied. All right, here's the secret of how it happens. In the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

2 Peter 3, verse 18. We are to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. What does grow mean? To progress. To not stay the same. I'm going to ask you some very pertinent, challenging questions tonight.

God will hear your answers and know whether they're honest or not. Have you grown in the knowledge of God in the last three months of your life? Have you got a far greater revelation of who God is in His character and an understanding of His ways in the last three months of your life?

Have you grown in the knowledge of who He is? In grace and in the knowledge of God. If there's any point in time that we can say, no, I have not really grown in the knowledge of God, there's something wrong.

We've backslidden. This is meant to be progressive, continuously. Hosea, I'm sorry, John chapter 17, verse 3. And this is eternal life, that they know Thee. That means to understand Him, not know about Him.

To know Thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. I pick up brochures quite often. And more often, here, ministers and spiritual leaders say, you need to know, or our church makes Jesus Christ known as Saviour, as Baptizer, as Healer, and soon coming King, as though that was the whole package.

Do you know what that is? The ground floor. Millions of Christians being led by spiritual leaders around the world, that's all they present my God as. It's the kindergarten. They're not growing in grace and in the knowledge of God.

Those are wonderful, basic, elementary things that God is going to do, that reflect His character. But it's so small with the view of what He really is and what He can really be to you. Hosea, chapter 4, verse 1.

Hear the word of the Lord, for the Lord has a controversy with the people of the land. There is no faithfulness or kindness and no knowledge of God in the land. Not no knowledge about God, no knowledge of God.

That means no understanding of who He really is. Hosea, chapter 6, verse 6. For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice. The knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. It's not more service that God is requiring of you and me.

It's more time taken on a daily, disciplined, diligent basis, alone with Him, pouring over His word, crying out, O God, reveal yourself to me. Who you are, I may be used in the power and through the person of the Holy Spirit to make you known as you are.

I believe that Hosea, chapter 6, verse 3, has a strong word to us tonight that God wants us to heed. And it's the heart cry of God through the prophet Hosea. Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord.

Do you notice the intensity with which the prophet is speaking? His going forth is sure as the dawn. He will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth. It's the cry for us to get out of the casual inquirer's class into the diligent seeker's class.

And God is never going to pick you up by the scruff of your neck and put you there. He's given us free will. We choose to go there. Let us know, let us press on. Are you pressing on to know the Lord? I believe the knowledge of God, the understanding of His character, His personality and His ways is our greatest need.

I believe that all our spiritual problems stem from the fact of our little knowledge of God. I'm going to run that by you again. I believe our greatest need is a far greater revelation of who God is. And I believe our spiritual problems stem from the lack of the knowledge of who He really is.

Hearing God and the Call to Obedience

Now let's stop and think for just one moment. Why is it that so few Christians, relatively speaking, really take time as a way of life, waiting on God, listening to His voice? And we have noticed that the Holy Spirit has sovereignly threaded that through as a strong emphasis through every speaker at this conference.

Why? Have you stopped to think why when you hear messages on waiting on God and listening to His voice? Why is there a reticence within so many hearts not to do it? I believe the answer is a deep one, it's not a surface one.

Because if you heard Him speak, the accountability is so much greater for you to obey what He tells you to do. Right? Okay, let's go take that further. Let's think deeper. Why would we have a reserve?

Why do millions of God's children at this very hour, much to His grief and to the insult of Him when you really know what He's like, why do millions of God's children have a reserve about doing what God says?

Have you thought that through? Constantly hear and read in books testimonies from Christians. Goes something like this. You hear it continually. And God spoke to me and I struggled with it. And I argued with God or I wrestled with that thing and it wasn't until a week later or a month later or a year later that I finally obeyed God.

It's the story of Moses at the burning bush. Arguing with God at His call to be a leader. What is the manifestation of any person who dares to have one word of argument with the King of the universe? The creator, the sustainer of life, and the universe was created.

That ball of fire, the sun, was created by His spoken word. Millions of stars were created and flung into orbit and everyone named by His spoken word. A little tiny planet Earth. Brought into being by His spoken word.

The whole universe upheld by the word of His majesty, creator, king, authority of the universe. And He speaks to little ant-like creatures of the dust. He deigns to humble Himself to communicate with them.

He says, do something. And they say, you blew it this time. I'm not the one for that job. Exodus chapter 3, burning bush. You've blown it this time. I thought you had more knowledge. You obviously don't know me like I know me.

Oh, you might be the creator, but there's no way you can know me like I know me. Preposterous pride. What else does it spell out? And not only don't you have enough knowledge of me, but you obviously don't have wisdom in the choices you make of leadership.

I'm not the man for this job. Has it a familiar ring? Instantly I hear people say, personally to me, publicly. A woman said it recently. Got in the car. I got off an airplane and was being taken to speak at a retreat.

And within a short space of time, a woman was telling me that God was impressing upon her heart that He wanted her to be a missionary in South America. And immediately she said to me, why me? You know what I said?

He's given the Great Commission to everybody. Why be surprised when He gives you the location for it? What is the manifestation of all this? The arguing with God? The disobedience? The lack of wanting to hear His voice?

The lack of wanting to run to instantly, joyfully, wholly obey Him? You don't know who He is. To know Him, to have had the Holy Ghost reveal Himself to you in all His magnificent splendor, in all His unfathomable love, in all the unsearchableness of His understanding of you, in all His limitless power, in His absolute justice, is to run to Him, to kiss His feet and say, beautiful lover of my soul, thank you for the privilege of speaking to me.

Thank you for the privilege of giving me a job to do. Thank you for the privilege of bringing me into such a relationship with you that we can work together through the power and person of the Holy Ghost to make you known.

When you see Him, when you know Him, there's not a moment of hesitation to instant, joyful, whole obedience. All else is insanity and insult. Do you know Him? I tell you, friends, there's no instant crash courses to knowing God.

No, sir. You pick up your Bible and you study in depth and in detail meditating under the person and power of the Holy Spirit. And you study the men and women in the Word of God, in you God. There's no instant, quick crash course.

The Cost and Reward of Seeking God

And we're going to hear the prayers that some of them prayed in the intensity and desperation of their hearts to know God. And then we're going to see, look at a little bit of the price they paid to know Him.

But what's price compared with reward? What was the reward? The revelation of Himself. What is the revelation of Him? What does the revelation of God do become the greatest incentive for you to seek Him more and obey Him more quickly?

What does He then do? Open the big doors to you to make Him known as He is. All privilege. Great responsibility. Tremendous fulfillment because intimacy of friendship with Him is part of that path. You see, when you've seen Him, oh, when you've seen Him, it's the greatest incentive to be in love with Him.

In the Psalms it says, look to Him and be radiant. My beloved, says the song of Solomon, is all radiant and ruddy. He's beautiful. He's the fairest of ten thousand to my soul. He's the rose of Sharon, exquisite in symmetry and beauty and the lily of the valley.

He's the bright and morning star. He's altogether lovely. And you and I have as much free will as Satan had. And Lucifer saw Him in all that dazzling beauty and magnificent splendor and chose to rebel.

So can you. So revelation of who He is does not automatically mean that we fall in love with Him and we bow at His feet because of free will. Oh, the awesome responsibility of free will. Why did God give man free will?

Because He wanted to give man the opportunity to love Him, to fall at His feet, to kiss His feet and say, Here I am. All of me for all of you. And that was worth it to God. Worth the risk of those who would rebel to have that undivided devotion.

Do you know what it is to be totally knit in your spirit, with the spirit of the living God? Do you know what it is to be completed, completely completed? I was in a little hotel room in Japan a number of years ago, 1973 it was, alone, worshipping my lover, number one.

Giving myself to him in total abandonment in a love relationship with him. Loving him. Pouring out my heart to him. And he came and totally eclipsed me with his spirit. I knew in that moment total completion.

I knew what Colossians 2 .20 meant. I was complete in him. It came from my stirring myself up to love him aggressively. And in that hotel room I said, God, I want you to give me this experience in prose, in poetry, and then I want you to give me music to it.

He gave me both. This is what he gave me. My lover God, you're more to me than any other one could be. My lover God, your love for me surpasses any love I see. Complete fulfillment is union with you. My spirit with your spirit.

The fusion of two. My lover God, you're more to me than any other one could be. And he gave me the music in that little room. And I found in 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 17 the word of God backing the movement of God's spirit experientially.

He who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Oh, you can read that in your Bible, but do you know what the experience is? Do you know him as the lover of your soul? The most intimate relationship that you can have with him?

Far beyond the relationship of father and child. Far beyond the normal relationship of friendship with God. We were created to be in the most intimate lover relationship with him. God showed me that this message tonight was to be salt.

It was to make you drool with thirst to know him. Jeremiah 9, 23, 24. Thus says the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man glory in his might. Let not the rich man glory in his riches, but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands, get the weight of that word, and knows me, that I am the Lord which exercises loving kindness, justice and righteousness in the earth.

For in these things I delight, saith the Lord. The best commercial I can find in God's word for God himself. I love it. Because I love him. Isaiah 43, verse 10. You are my witnesses, says the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen.

Why? That you may know and believe me. And here comes that word again. Understand that I am he. Before me no God was formed, nor shall there be any after me. Who are your closest friends? I'm not asking your names, their names.

I'm asking you to make an assessment of the category that they come into. They are the people who you have spent the most time alone with, and they have spent the most time alone with you, and they know not just about you, they know not just your personality, they know your character.

And if someone doesn't know your character, don't use the word close friend. All they know is about you, they know hearsay, they may know your personality, they may know your ministry, but they don't know you!

Unless they have had an opportunity to hear your character. Now people literally all over the world come up to me and say, Oh, I know you, J .D. You don't know me, but I know you. I've had your tapes for years, and I know exactly what they mean.

Because I've bared my soul on my tapes. I've bared God's dealings with me, I've talked about my right choices, my wrong choices, my character is revealed. But then there are those who have taken time, much time, alone with me, and they have watched constantly, close up, my actions and reactions, particularly in difficult circumstances to God and men.

They really know me. What you and I really are is what we are under fire. Under the fire of the difficulty of the circumstances that God creates or allows to test us. And it's only our reaction to God and men in the difficult circumstances that tells us whether we have a strong or a weak character.

I'll tell you how you don't. It's not by heredity. Nobody ever inherited a strong character. You can inherit a strong personality. I did from my dad. I did not inherit his character. I had to make choices with my free will to have strong character.

I did not inherit his ministries. He had very similar ministry gifts to the ones God has given me. You get character the same way you get a ministry from God. Constant obedience to revealed truth. No other way.

Okay, so the few close friends that we have in life are those who have watched us up close and watched on a consistent basis our reactions to God and men in the difficult circumstances. They know us. All right.

They are our friends. And to the degree we have strength of character, we are glad that they know us. They are the ones that we want to always defend us and speak on our behalf and vindicate us because we know that they know us through and through.

And we need those kind of friends badly. And God gives them to us. And they are wonderful gifts from God. They know us. Okay, let's switch it to our relationship with God. Are you a close friend of God from God's point of view?

Of course God chats up in heaven. Of course. Heaven is the ultimate place of fellowship. And He is giving orders to His angelic hosts constantly on behalf of His children. We know that from the Word. So just picture God chatting to His angels.

We only know a few of the names. We know Gabriel. Who's the other character? Thank you. Thank you. We know Michael. I always knew I needed you, dear Tommy. Precious brother. Hang in there with me. I may need you again before we're through.

And He chats away to them and has fellowship with them and gives them assignments. Can He say to any one of His angel friends at any time, See my little servant down there and name your name or mine. Or am I ever putting them through the fires of testing or purging?

Whatever. And they really don't have any understanding right now of what's going on other than that it's hot and that it's hurting in the fire. Look at them. Constantly praising me. Giving me little love chats.

Loving me. No resentment. Seeking my face. Hurting like crazy. Oh! Another test. Another attack. Another deep dealing. Difficult circumstance piled on top of another one. And what are they doing? Looking up at me?

Can God say, look, look. See? Watch them. Little face up turn saying, Wow! I don't understand what's going on, lover God, but I sure understand you. I love you. I love you. You haven't changed. You're still as mind-bogglingly exciting and wonderful and fabulous.

You're still my lover. You're just in all your ways. Kind in all your doings. Don't understand the circumstances, but understand you. No complaints. From planet Earth to headquarters heaven. God says, over.

Received it. And then what does He say? My friend. Excited about what God does or who God is. Miracle service anywhere. And I'm all for miracle services. I'm all for everything in that book. From cover to cover.

For today. Up to date this very moment. It says it. You want to know my statement of purposes or my doctrinal statement? That's it right there. I've just said it. Don't ask me for anything else. That's all you'll get.

Where were we before I gave you my doctrinal statement? Which was believing. Oh yes. Praise the Lord. Yes. You announce a miracle service and you'll always get, to the degree people know that there's a validity behind the statement and there will be miracles, you'll always get crowds.

You announce a seminar night after night or exactly the same night in the same place on we're now going to study the character of God. We're going to have a seminar. We're going to take a different facet of His character.

You know which is going to get the biggest crowd. The people who are far more excited about what God does than who God is. And I'm all for God's miracles. But that's only one manifestation of one part of God.

Or several. It can be His mercy. It can be His power. It can be His love. His faithfulness. Or behind miracles. But oh, there are so many more facets of His character that He demonstrates in a dynamic way where there may not be an obvious miracle at all.

Do you know what the far greater miracle always is? The grace. When the miracle doesn't take place. That's the big miracle. My grace is sufficient for thee. He said to Paul. For my strength is made perfect in your weakness.

God's Grace in Sickness and Unanswered Prayer

I had a very wonderful father. He's with the Lord Jesus in heaven. He was an outstanding Bible teacher and evangelist and personal soul winner. Precious man of God. But by far the most fond memory that I have is that he was just my darling dad.

That he was just a precious dad to me. And he believed in God's healing power as much as anybody I've ever met. He taught divine healing from the Word of God. He prayed for people who were healed. Many times I cut my teeth on God's power to heal.

I knew nothing else. I've never had a reserve ever in my heart or mind against any of the things of the Spirit. Because I had a father who was just so totally and completely open. And I've never had God to have to remove a reserve in me in relation to any of the things of the Spirit.

And he believed in this and taught this with all his heart. He got Parkinson's disease. And many, many years after having it, year in and year out, I've forgotten how long. Well, he got it at about 45 and he died at 72.

That's a long time. That's a long time. He was never healed. You name it, he did it to be healed. Now here was my dad believing in it with all his heart, having seen it, he never believed in it any less because he wasn't healed.

And do you know what the dynamic of what he imparted to me as a daughter was? It was far greater to me than the miracles which he and I have seen and believe in and rejoice in and praise God for. It was the miracle of the grace of God on my precious dad.

Never ever once in all those years when we'd say, How are you today, dad? Never any other answer. Praise God, I'm fine. No resentment and no understanding. Of why? But listen, deep understanding of who?

Of who stood to God's justice? He used to say, though he slayed me, yet will I trust him, beaming with advanced Parkinson's disease. He would say, God is just in all his ways. God is kind in all his doing.

One day I'll know, he'd say, smiling, completely free from all resentment. What a heritage. What a gift. What a miracle of God's grace. He and I, He in heaven and I on earth are all for miracles and God's healing power.

We need to understand the ways of God. And even when we've studied them for a lifetime, there's that little pearl of a verse that says they are past finding out. And anybody who comes with one verse to you in relation to divine healing and builds a doctrine around it, you will know how little they know about divine healing.

I have a tape available on some of the ways of God in healing in sickness. I have found in the word of God after a literal lifetime study of this subject of divine healing from the word, five purposes from God for sickness.

And two causes. There's no pat answers to this subject of divine healing. It's not difficult, there's just a lot to learn. And there's a difference. My little grandson, five years of age, David, has just started school properly.

He was at preschool before. And little David is learning a lot of things. And he brings home his work and we see all the letters that he's learning. He's learning a lot. But it's not more than he's able to cope with.

And he's diligently applying himself. So he's learning a lot. And when we dig into God's word with an open mind and an open heart and want to know the character of God and the ways of God, He will reveal both to us.

You can't describe God in a word nor His ways. You need to dig into the word and see Him in the magnificence, the symmetry, the perfection and the beauty of His many facets and His many ways. Listen to David's advice to Solomon, his son.

1 Chronicles 28 verse 9. Know the God of your father, said an outstanding leader to the young leader that had the greatest potential of any young man coming to leadership that I know. Know the God of your father and then, secondarily, serve Him with a whole heart and with a willing mind.

For the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek Him, He will be found by you. Listen to the top priority of the knowledge of God from God's word. Proverbs 4 verse 7.

Whatever you get, get insight. Psalm 9 verse 10 tells us what that is. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding or insight. What is God saying?

Whatever you get, get the knowledge of God. Proverbs 2 verses 3 to 5 tells us how we are to get it. If you cry out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

Not exactly casual inquirers in that verse. All desperate, diligent seekers. Colossians 1, 9 and 10. We have not ceased, says Paul, to pray for you that you may be... Now listen to the colossal things he is asking for and then see the key.

That you may be filled with the knowledge of His will with all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Wow, that's dynamite. Wouldn't we all want that? To lead a life worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him.

Tremendous. Bearing fruit in every good work. And then the secret is given at the end. And increasing in the knowledge of God. When we increase in the understanding of the revelation of who God is in His character, personality and ways, then these other things will follow.

Then shall we know when we follow on to know the Lord. Philippians 3, 8. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing, not about, knowing intimately, understanding Christ Jesus my Lord.

Seeking God With the Whole Heart

Okay, that's the diagnosis of our need. When I go to the doctor I just don't want to know my need, I want to know the cure. Alright? We know we desperately need the knowledge of God's character. How do we get it?

Here's the cure. One, acknowledge to God how little we really do. We must always approach God with humility. Acknowledge to God how little we really do. Second, tell God that you want it to be the supreme desire of your life.

And ask Him to give you this desire or increase it in intensity. And believe that He will release, faith that He will. And then start seeking Him as in Jeremiah 29, verse 12. And you shall call upon me and you shall go and pray to me and I will hearken unto you and you shall find me when you shall search for me with all your heart.

Do you know what it is ever at any one time of your life to have come with intense desperate desire to God and said to Him with my whole mind, soul, body, strength, spirit, I come earnestly asking you with deep passionate desire Oh God, reveal yourself to me.

Ever done it once? Should be a normal cry from our hearts and releasing faith that He will do that. Do you know what the Holy Spirit said to me just then? It's part of friendship. He said a very cute thing to me.

I'll tell you. While I was saying that, He says because they don't joy, that's why there's so many half-baked. Now there's no way that my mind could have said that because I was in the processes of speaking out there and the Holy Spirit spoke to me back here.

Because that's why He says they don't do that, that's why there's so many half-baked. That's what God says. Half-baked Christians. Do you know what those are like? He uses the strongest language that He can use in the word in Revelation.

He says He wants to throw up with half-baked people. He said, I'd rather people were either hot or cold. I can't stand these in-between characters. He said, I would spew them out of my mouth. If you thought I was too colloquial, I'm just quoting the word.

God said it. Does God look down upon our lives because there's no intensity to know Him in order to effectively make Him know? No diligent seeking of Him? No desperate cry coming from our heart? Does He look at us and say, I want to spew you out of my mouth?

Look warm? You say, Boy, I didn't count on this kind of stuff coming from this little lady tonight. It's His love. My heart is a reflection of His. There's not one single person in this building that I couldn't spontaneously not only wash, but kiss your feet.

I love you. That's why I'm giving it to you like it is. I love you. I care desperately that you know God in order to make Him known. He's given me a spiritual ambition for you. He knows the truth of that because I've been crying out to Him on your behalf that God would change you and make history in your lives tonight.

And if you'd move from the casual inquirers to the diligent seekers, you'd become desperate to know God in order to make Him known. I've prayed for you. I love you. That's why I'm giving it to you just like this.