God Knows Everything

Edge Talk 3.22.22

God Knows Everything

Today we are going to talk about the fact that God knows everything. When I say God knows everything I mean EVERYTHING - our past present and future sins, what makes us happy or sad as well as what our entire future will look like. I feel humbled and brought back down to earth because He knows every sin I have ever committed as well as the future ones and He loves me anyway! HUGE relief. I want you to feel HIS LOVE over shame when I say that He knows everything. I have confidence I can put my trust in Him because He knows my future a week from now to 20 years from now. Because God knows my future, I know that He will have a solution for any and every problem I encounter; I will only have to ask for His help. He will tell us what we need to know when we need to know it.

Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The Lord our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions.”

While God knows everything He doesn’t reveal everything to us because we won’t understand everything all at once. If we want to know something, we pray about it, read scripture, and let God decide when and if we need that piece of information.

So we know that God knows everything, but what is everything and how does God knowing everything relate to us? We already stated that God knowing everything should give us a sense of confidence but how do we get this fact into our heart? If we truly believe God knows everything then we can also believe everything the Bible has to say about God’s infinite knowledge - His limitless and unmeasurable knowledge - and our small knowledge because all scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching according to 2 Timothy 3:16 which says “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.”

To better understand this concept David gives us an overview of God’s knowledge in Psalm 139 1-6: O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand! Let’s look at this verse by verse on what God knows according to David.

• God knows everything about us. (139:1)

• God knows when we sit or stand - He knows our daily activities. (139:2)

• God knows our thoughts. (139:2)

• God knows where we are and everything we do.

  • Our actions are not a mystery to Him

  • We are not able to hide from Him.

- God goes before us and follows us. (139:5)

- God knows our past and future

- He will always be there to walk with us

We can find comfort in that He knows everything because for every scenario we face in our life God will already have a solution.

God’s knowledge is far too wonderful and great for us to comprehend.

God’s infinite (unending) knowledge is too vast for our comprehension.

God only reveals to us the knowledge we need when we need it. 2 Corinthians 13:9 says: “Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture!”

If God tried to give us all of His knowledge it would way too much for us to comprehend and we would most likely get overwhelmed. Imagine if your teacher tried to teach you division before addition. Math is difficult as it is and if your teacher didn’t give you the right information at the right time you would be way too confused and not know how to approach the problem in front of you. Imagine if God tried to give you information on how to handle a problem with your future but you’re struggling right now, it wouldn't be useful at this moment. If we knew everything God knew we would have to sort all that information then figure out when and how to apply it. I would much rather learn addition before division and let God reveal things to me at the right time.

While God knows everything we may think that Him knowing everything only applies to the really big things in life when God actually really cares and pays attention to detail. God knows the little things about us. He knows us personally on a friendship level. He cares about the little details that are us. Our favorite colors, our greatest fears and what makes us laugh. Jeremiah 1:5 says “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.” Galatians 4:9 goes on to say - "So now that you know God (or should I say, now that God knows you), why do you want to go back again and become slaves once more to the weak and useless spiritual principles of this world?” In this verse Paul is talking of a relationship between us and God. Knowing God means to build a relationship with Him - a friendship with the all knowing God, that’s a friendship we all need in our life. So, once we have that knowledge that God knows us and loves us, why would we want to go back to a life before truly knowing Him?

We may not know everything but because we are made in God’s image we have some knowledge and the knowledge we do have comes from God. Because God knows everything and we are all made in God’s image we are born with a desire to learn and grow our knowledge. More specifically for Christians we desire to have more knowledge of God which strengthens our faith and relationship with Him.

We gain our knowledge by reading the Bible, fellowshipping with God through prayer and worship, and by coming to church and fellowshipping with one another.

Our knowledge comes from the Holy Spirit who is God. Ephesians 1:17 - I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit[a] of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. The Holy Spirit is the source of knowledge and we have this source living within us when we accept Christ as our Savior. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of wisdom thus the knowledge we ask for in the name of Jesus according to God’s will can be revealed to us.

God’s knowledge being revealed to us comes in little nudges within our spirit. Those nudges where we feel angst about something or when we make a decision and we actually feel peace about it. To give you a personal example, while I was getting my bachelor’s degree I was first going to get a degree for teaching. While there is nothing wrong with being a teacher at a school, I felt that I was settling for this degree. It felt like the safe route versus what my heart and calling were truly directing me too. While I spent a year not at ease with that course I felt the tug on my heart to change my major. Change it to something that would equip me to run my very own ministry and lead it by God’s grace. Once I changed my degree to Christian Leadership and management something that would equip me in a leadership role where I can still teach God’s Word but at a different scale I felt complete peace within my heart. I didn’t feel troubled about my decision anymore. The nudge of the Holy Spirit revealed the knowledge of God that I needed to switch majors so I can step out into what God has really called me to - teaching His Word and leading a ministry. So far since then God has continued to open doors for me ensuring that I am on the path He has called me to. His knowledge is revealed to us in those little nudges.

Our greatest knowledge is knowing Jesus Christ as our Savior and through Him we know God as our Heavenly Father. John 8:19 says “Where is your father?” they asked. Jesus answered, “Since you don’t know who I am, you don’t know who my Father is. If you knew me, you would also know my Father.” Our knowledge of God is a gift bought by the blood of Christ.

Our knowledge is through Christ. Colossians 2:2-3 says “I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God’s mysterious plan, which is Christ himself. In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” We don’t get to know everything until we get to heaven or it is time for Jesus to come back for His people.

To summarize all this info, We can have confidence in God because He knows everything. We don’t have to act like we know what we’re doing all the time because we get to do life with God who is active within our lives through the Holy Spirit.Because God knows everything we should respect Him, have confidence in Him, and have a strong desire to grow in our knowledge of Him. We get to know the God who knows everything through Christ as our Savior who gives us the Holy Spirit.

The one thing I hope you take away from this today is God knows everything so we don’t have to. He even knows all our flaws and loves us anyway.

The above is what I shared with the middle schoolers at my church, but one thing that I didn’t mention due to time constraints but is important to the topic of God’s omniscience is the cohesion of scripture. The fall and redemption were known to God at the very beginning of creation.

Most of us know the story of Adam and Eve and the serpent who tempted them. God told Adam and Eve not to eat from that tree because He knew the outcome of that situation. God is much like a parent in this situation. Most caring parents have lived a little life and know more than their children thus they pass on their own knowledge to help their children. God does this with us. We can trust Him to lead us on the right path. He was right about warning Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of knowledge and that landed them in shame and they let sin into the world. He knew what was best then and He knows what is best now - He is still trustworthy because of His knowledge. Even though Adam and Eve sinned God knew it would happen and that’s why God had a plan all along since creation to restore the gap between God and humans created by sin - Jesus!

In Genesis God states that man was created in “their” image - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Genesis chapter 3 is when we see sin enter the world and not long after God says that there will be another who will crush the serpent’s head with their heel. Jesus was already there, part of the Holy Trinity ready to conquer sin because God knew us humans needed to be saved. From creation God knew what was going to happen in Genesis 3 and already had a plan - same goes for every other problem we face in our lives.

We see Jesus as the answer to the problem of sin and the fulfillment of OT prophecies in John 12:16 - His disciples didn’t understand at the time that this was a fulfillment of prophecy. But after Jesus entered into his glory, they remembered what had happened and realized that these things had been written about him.

The cohesion of scripture is a true testament to God’s omniscience because we see God’s redemption plan unfold from the beginning of creation. The Holy Trinity in its three parts and intertwined purposes prove that God the Father knew the Son would be needed as well as the Holy Spirit from the time God created mankind in their image.

I am such a Bible nerd when it comes to the cohesion of scripture and love how it emphasizes our God’s infinite knowledge. It also ensures that we can trust our all knowing God.

May you find peace in God who knows everything and find the strength to surrender your desire for control and release your “need” to know everything. God knows everything so you don’t have to.

Discussion Questions:

How can you find peace in the fact that God knows everything even when you're frustrated you don't have all the answers?

How can you actively invite the Holy Spirit to teach you things about your own life and what is within your heart? (Psalm 139:23-24)

Do you truly believe that God knows everything? How can we make this head knowledge heart knowledge?