Know Thyself

God wants us to know Him. God has placed a desire in our hearts to know

him. We are uniquely made to give the Holy Spirit sanction to search our

heart. Knowing God is a profound privilege. And the only way we can know

ourselves is to know God’s Son. God wants us to be secure in His love and

in ourselves. And it is by the Holy Spirit that we have a deep sense of self

before the Father. The Holy Spirit uses the scriptures to be our spiritual

telescope with which we can look deeply into ourselves. The scripture is a

series of narratives disclosing the relationships between God and His

people. It is for us to discern what the implications are for us, and then to

listen to what is for us and how we should respond. The scriptures were not

only written to us, but they were also certainly written for us. We are to know

what the Father has given us to do, as did Jesus. We are individuals, uniquely

important to God and His purposes for the world. Consider God’s creative

work in us up to the present. We are to know who we are, in our true self. And

we are to know the living God. God has made us as whole people in His

image. That image includes physical, spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and

social dimensions. We are to become holy in character, become like Christ.

Everything is valuable for the purpose it serves. Nothing is valuable by itself,

except the one content of everything which we call the Omnipresence of the

Lord. And we cost God everything. That is the only thing that is important by

itself. All the other things are valuable for the purpose they serve, and any

purpose is valuable only when it serves the purpose of God-awakening in

us. The value to God of his people knowing themselves is that it allows for a

deeper relationship with Him, as understanding one's own strengths,

weaknesses, and motivations enables a more authentic approach to faith,

leading to greater humility, repentance, and personal growth - ultimately

reflecting a closer connection to God's love and grace; essentially, "knowing

yourself" is seen as a key step towards "knowing God”. Herein is the

reasoning to recognizing the potential for self-deception as it highlights the

need to seek God's wisdom in understanding ourselves. It is how we are to

examine ourselves, to know whether we be in the faith; able to prove our

own selves as not just us how that Jesus Christ is in us. We say self must

die. Self-dying is not a final act. It is coming to self-knowledge.

Spiritual Telescope

Understanding our own awareness, thoughts, beliefs, assessments, our

merits, and behaviors as they are to reveal Christ working in us. It's about

discovering ourselves in God. Our identity should never be based on a hope

or a guess. God gave us His Word, the bible, so we can know Him and know

who He is making us to be in Him. God’s word should fulfill our consciences

so as to associate self-discovery, self-expression, and self-actualization.

There is purpose to God wanting His people to know who they are. Having

self-awareness gives us the power to influence outcomes by our choices;

helps us become better decision-makers and gives us more self-confidence.

We can communicate with clarity and intention, which allows us to

understand things from multiple perspectives. It frees us from assumptions

and biases and makes truth the only thing spoken in love, helping us make

spiritual sense of our experiences. We earnestly study to understand

ourselves within a larger context of just being. This involves practices like

meditation, mindfulness, connecting with nature, and examining our

significance to discern our deeper purpose and connection to something

beyond ourself, allowing us to live more faithfully and with greater meaning

as we give full attention to every present moment without judgment...

Connecting with Nature