how to know god

The question “How to know God?” is one of the most courageous questions a person can ask. Throughout history seekers have asked this question because many people are comfortable believing in God while very few are invited to explore what it might mean to actually KNOW God. Beliefs about God are inherited, doctrines about God are learned, and ideas about God are constructed through religious traditions and teachings. Yet the question of KNOWING God moves beyond belief and invites something far more immediate and transformative. It asks whether the Reality that the word “God” points toward can be directly experienced rather than merely believed.

This is why the word KNOW is so important in this question. To know God is not simply to accept teachings about God or to hold correct ideas about God. The word KNOW points to direct experience and to the living encounter with the Presence that the word “God” attempts to describe. Throughout history there have been men and women who spoke from this direct knowing, and the scriptures recognise this quality when they describe Jesus as one who “taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” (Matthew 7:29, KJV). Authority in this sense does not come from learning about God but from KNOWING God. Only those who know can truly point toward knowing.

For this reason, if you are sincerely interested in KNOWING God, you can do no better than begin with one of the most profound invitations found in the Bible. The Psalmist declares: “Be still, and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10, KJV). This short sentence contains the whole doorway to knowing because it does not offer a belief to adopt but an instruction that can be lived. To know God is to embody this invitation and to allow a living Presence to unfold from within. When you look closely at this instruction you discover that it points toward three realities that must be explored if one is to understand how to know God: the nature of KNOWING, the nature of stillness, and the mystery of the I AM.

Why the Question “How to Know God” Requires More Than Belief

The first step in exploring how to know God is to understand what we normally mean by the word know. For most people the normal way of knowing anything is through the intellect. The human mind observes, compares, analyses, and reaches conclusions. In this way knowledge is gathered and organised, and there is nothing inherently wrong with this process because it is the ordinary way the mind functions in the world. Yet the intellect cannot lead you into the KNOWING of God. The reason lies in the way the human mind operates. The mind understands reality through opposites. It recognises light because it knows darkness, understands success through failure, and interprets the world through a constant movement of comparison and contrast. The mind divides in order to understand.

Yet that which is pointed to by the word “God” is not division but sacred unity. God is not one side of an opposition but the ground of Being itself, and therefore the mind cannot grasp God in the same way it grasps other forms of knowledge. This insight reveals the central challenge for anyone sincerely asking how to KNOW God, because if the mind cannot grasp God through its normal processes then the search must move beyond the mind’s habitual way of knowing.

For many people of whatever religious persuasion this discovery can feel unsettling. If the intellect cannot bring us into the knowing of God, then why the study of scripture, theology, prayer, and worship? These practices still have an important role because they help ground a person within a tradition and affirm the beliefs that shape a life of faith. They make us believers, and belief has value in orienting the heart toward the sacred. Yet belief and KNOWING are not the same thing. Belief points toward God, but it does not itself constitute the direct experience of God. Belief prepares the ground, helping the mind and heart turn toward the Divine, but it remains a signpost rather than the destination. To become one who KNOWS God something more is required. The seeker must move beyond belief into direct encounter.

You may find it helpful to explore this transition further in the article Belief vs Trust, which examines more deeply the difference between holding beliefs about God and living in direct trust of the Divine Presence.

The Biblical Invitation: “Be Still and Know That I AM God”

When the Psalmist declares “Be still, and know that I am God,” the instruction appears simple, yet the stillness being spoken of is far deeper than merely quieting the body or calming the mind. The stillness required is the stillness of the personal sense of the separate self, the identity we constantly refer to as “I, me, and mine.” It is this sense of separation that stands in the way of KNOWING God because the experience of God is the recognition of unity rather than separation.

This insight helps illuminate why the Master gave an instruction that at first sounds severe: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24, KJV). The denial spoken of here is not an invitation to reject your humanity or to treat yourself harshly. Instead it is an invitation to loosen your identification with the idea and the feeling that you are separate from God. For most people this sense of separation appears completely real and seems to define who they are, yet beneath that appearance lies a deeper and more foundational truth—your unity with the Divine. KNOWING gives direct experience of this sacred unity.

The cross that is taken up is the willingness to allow the separate identity to die. This dying is not a physical death but the surrender of the identity that claims to exist independently of God. It is understandable that many people prefer the safety of belief because belief allows the personal self to remain intact. Yet the Master expresses the paradox clearly when he says: “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” (Matthew 16:25, KJV). In this passage the word “life” refers not to the life of the body but to the identity that believes itself to be separate and self-contained. What appears at first to be loss reveals itself to be transformation, because this surrender opens the doorway to what the Master called the life more abundant (John 10:10). In this KNOWING you discover that your life is not merely the small and finite life of a separate self but participates in that which is Infinite.

From the Personal “I Am” to the Universal I AM

The degree to which you can KNOW God is the degree to which your identity shifts from the personal “I am” to the universal I AM. This movement lies at the heart of the teaching of the Master. In the Gospel of John he declares: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6, KJV). The I AM spoken here is not merely the personal identity of Jesus of Nazareth but the universal Presence that the word “God” attempts to name. In this statement it is not the historical personality speaking but the Christ speaking through him.

The Master himself pointed to this distinction when he said: “If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.” (John 5:31, KJV). The “myself” referred to here is the personal identity associated with the historical figure of Jesus. The Master did not primarily identify with that personal sense of self. Instead his identity rested in the deeper reality from which that life was expressed. The mystic writer Joseph Benner referred to this deeper ground of identity as the Impersonal Life, and the Master lived from this ground rather than from the separate sense of self.

This insight introduces one of the great paradoxes of the spiritual life: the less there is of the separate self, the more there is of the true Self. As identification with the personal “I am” softens and dissolves, the universal I AM becomes increasingly evident. Belief can be likened to someone carrying a cup filled with knowledge, while the one who seeks to KNOW God learns to live with a cup that remains empty. Eventually a profound discovery dawns: the emptiness itself is forever full. This recognition does not arise through intellectual understanding or through the accumulation of knowledge. It arises through the direct experience of KNOWING.

How to Begin the Journey of Knowing God

If this is so, how does one begin the quest to KNOW God? The answer lies in following a rather unusual instruction given by the Master when he said: “Take no thought.” (Matthew 6:25, KJV). Few teachings of Jesus are taken as seriously as they deserve, and yet this instruction goes directly to the heart of the spiritual path. Thought forms the very foundation of belief because through thought we construct doctrines, organise theology, and create systems of belief. Yet the Master says, “Take no thought.”

This instruction does not mean abandoning thought altogether. Thought remains a valuable tool for navigating the practical aspects of life. The deeper meaning is that thought must not be allowed to dominate your identity. Thought should be used when necessary but should not be allowed to use you. Thought can be compared to clouds moving across the sky. The clouds are real enough, yet they temporarily obscure the vastness that contains them. The sky itself remains open, spacious, and filled with light. In the same way the movement of thought obscures the deeper reality of Being, which is forever full of the Light of the Divine.

To take no thought begins with a simple shift in awareness. Instead of following thought into the stories that create the drama of the life called “me, my, and mine,” you begin to witness thought as it arises. In that witnessing a space begins to open, and within that space the stillness spoken of by the Psalmist becomes possible. It is within this stillness that the KNOWING of God begins to reveal itself. For those who wish to explore this teaching more deeply, you may also wish to explore the Take No Thought series where this invitation of the Master is examined in greater depth.

The Simple Answer to the Question: How to KNOW God

When all is said and done, the answer to the question how to know God is not found in accumulating more ideas about God or in perfecting a system of belief. Belief can guide the journey, but belief itself is not the destination. The invitation of the spiritual life is to move beyond belief into the living experience of KNOWING. This knowing begins with stillness. As the Psalmist declares, “Be still, and know that I am God,” the restless movement of thought begins to quiet and the identity built around “I, me, and mine” loosens its hold. What once appeared to be the centre of your life gradually reveals itself as only a temporary construction of the mind.

As this personal sense of self softens, another identity quietly reveals itself. The personal “I am” gives way to the universal I AM, the Presence that the word “God” attempts to name. This is the sacred unity that cannot be grasped by the intellect but can be directly recognised in the silence of Being. The paradox of the spiritual path is that the less tightly you hold to the identity you believe yourself to be, the more the deeper truth of your life becomes evident. What once appeared to be emptiness reveals itself as fullness, and what seemed like surrender becomes the doorway to the life more abundant.

In the end the way to KNOW God is not complicated, though it may require courage. It asks only that you follow the ancient instruction given by the Psalmist and affirmed by the Master: become still, release the grip of thought, and allow the sense of separation to fall away. In that stillness the KNOWING you seek is already present, waiting to be recognised.