Understand God A failure to understand God alienates the individual from the Lord. This is the clear teaching of Scripture. "Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart" (Eph. 4:18). This is a remarkable statement! If an ignorance of God alienates people from Him, we are faced with a contemporary church that is largely estranged from the very One Whose name it bears. The tragedy of such a circumstance cannot be overstated!
One of the hallmarks of the new covenant is the knowledge of God: i.e., the intimate knowledge of or acquaintance with God. "And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest" (Heb. 8:11). In my judgment, the church has never capitalized on this aspect of the covenant. It has been content to remain unfamiliar with God Himself, depending upon self-proclaimed experts to handle that aspect of religion. This is not an acceptable situation!
The revealed way to know God is through His Word. He has "magnified" His Word "above all His name" (Psa. 138:2). Above every Divine attribute or quality, God's Word is predominant! The reason for this is obvious: if we cannot trust what God says, nothing else really matters! Further, an understanding of God must come through our rational processes, not soulish feelings. The Word addresses this part of us.