Relationship with God needs to be less cryptic. It is common hear believers “Christianity is a relationship, not a religion.” But what does that mean for today? Do we have relationship with Jesus? We have relationship with the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit. This teaching will explain that.

1. Truly knowing God requires experiencing all three parts of Him: the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (Matthew 28:19).

• The roles of each member of the Triune Godhead are summarized in grace, love, and communion (2 Corinthians 13:14).

  • The Son’s role is to provide grace (to reconcile us to the Father).

  • The Father’s role is to provide love.

  • The Spirit’s role is to provide communion (communication) with God.

• God is all about relationship. Healthy relationships require people to forgive and show kindness (grace), choose acts of selflessness (love), and communicate well (communion). God provides us with all these things—grace through the Son, love through the Father, and communion through the Spirit.

  • Knowing the Triune God is knowing relationship/fellowship with God (1 John 1:3, 1 Corinthians 1:9)

2. Knowing the Father, specifically, is the goal of knowing the Son and the Spirit.

• Jesus reveals the Father, and He’s the way to the Father (John 14:6-10).

• The Spirit speaks what comes from the Father and the Son (John 16:13-15).

• In the end, the Father receives all glory (1 Corinthians 15:26-28).

3. Knowing the Father’s love is what it means to know the Father, because God is love(1 John 4:8). Love is the singular word that defines all of God.

4. The Father’s love is known through relationship with God (John 14:23)

5. True, full relationship with God begins with knowing the Word (John 8:31-32), is bolstered by prayer (Matthew 6:6), and matures through communicating with the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 13:14).

• Healthy relationships depend on mutual give-and-take communication (listening and speaking). Only through communication with the Spirit do we actually experience the kind of give-and-take-relationship with God that Jesus experienced (John 5:19-20, 8:26).

  • Scripture says that prayer builds your faith (Jude 1:20).

  • Prayer removes anxiety, focuses the mind, and brings peace (Philippians 4:6-7).

  • In the Old and New Testament, people pray, ask God questions, and they receive answers (Psalm 27:4, 2 Samuel 5:19, 2 Corinthians 12:8-9). Some, like Abraham, even reason with God like a friend (Genesis 18:17-33). Relationship with God through prayer and mutual communication is all over the Bible!

• Knowing the Word is essential; it renews the mind (Romans 12:2). But it’s not until we know how to hear from and communicate with the Spirit that we are truly walking with God like Jesus did (Luke 4:1, John 3:32-35, Acts 1:2, John 14:25-26). He’s our example to follow.

  • Prophets of the Old Testament, who truly heard from God, were scarce. But when Jesus came, He said that His Spirit would be given that we could hear from God!

  • And God even prophesied through Jeremiah, in the Old Testament: “No more will every man teach his neighbor, or his brother, saying, ‘know the Lord’, for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord” (Jeremiah 31:34).

6. More on the importance of the Word in Hearing the Spirit

• If you become greatly obedient to the Word, you will eventually want and be able to hear the Spirit greatly. But if you try hard to hear the Spirit before you’ve become knowledgeable of and obedient to the Word, it will distract from what the Word says, and the enemy will be able to manipulate you more easily. Be warned, and focus above all else on obeying the Word of God!

• Knowing the Word really well is what will allow you to distinguish between the voice of the Spirit and the voice of evil or the flesh.

• Magnify God’s Word above all His name (Psalm 138:2). Focus most on Scripture!

  • Without grounding in the Word, we can be led astray by wonders like prophecy (which involves spiritual hearing), but prophecy that comes through demonic influence. Only the written, changeless Word will keep your mind from being deceived.

*In summary: We start by coming to know the Son, who brings us to the loving Father. To know the Father we must have relationship; and full relationship comes through the Spirit.

7. The process of doing the Word and learning to hear from the Spirit, then, is all about enjoying the development your relationship with the Father.

• Don’t treat the practice of growing in your knowledge/hearing as another obligatory task in your daily Christian checklist. It’s all about relationship.

8. Hearing/knowing the Spirit reveals the Father’s love on a deeper level, and for these reasons:

• We experience love when we know what the Father is up to—we hear of His desires, His works, His care, His compassion (John 5:20).

  • When you hear what the Father, through the Spirit, asks you to pray or do for others, you realize what’s important to Him and the details in other’s lives that He cares out—how much He loves His children. And knowing this intensifies the love that you will have for others also.