John 17:8 English Standard Version (ESV) For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.

Someone out there in the world may be curious about knowing God and seen this verse for the first time. We may encounter others face to face that want to come to know God. We must be clear on how that process works. We should speak the truth to them without taking shortcuts.

This is the first step. The Word given comes from God and is the Holy Scriptures, our Bible. His Word does not exist in any other form, writing, or teaching. The basis for knowing God is in accepting that all scriptures are inspired by God.

Matthew 21:42 English Standard Version (ESV) Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;^{[the head of the corner]} this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

Discovering what this scripture means can only be explained from the same source, His scriptures. The bible will explain itself. We cannot bounce back and forth from the bible to other sources. One standard has to be set forth as the only source of truth. We cannot use other faith based sources to discover God.

If the one seeking cannot accept using this one source we will fight an uphill battle that has shifting sand at its base. Do not allow them to use other sources to argue their points. This is not an argument.

Sincere seeking needs firm footing.

Matthew 7:26-27 English Standard Version

²⁶ And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. ²⁷ And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

What’s next?

Psalm 91:14 English Standard Version (ESV) “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name.

Being challenged to prove we know God is a difficult thing. It is faith that opens a knowing which goes beyond rational thought.

Know; Knowledge: no, nol’-ej (in Hebrew chiefly yadha?, noun da?ath; in Greek ginosko, oida’ “to know fully,” epiginosko, noun gnosis epignosis): Knowledge strictly is the apprehension by the mind of some fact or truth in accordance with its real nature; in a personal relation the intellectual act is necessarily conjoined with the element of affection and will (choice, love, favor, or, conversely, repugnance, dislike, etc.). Knowledge is distinguished from “opinion” by its greater certainty. The mind is constituted with the capacity for knowledge, and the desire to possess and increase it. The character of knowledge varies with its object. The senses give knowledge of outward appearances; the intellect connects and reasons about these appearances, and arrives at general laws or truths; moral truth is apprehended through the power inherently possessed by men of distinguishing right and wrong in the light of moral principles; spiritual qualities require for their apprehension spiritual sympathy (“They are spiritually judged,” 1 Cor. 2:14). The highest knowledge possible to man is the knowledge of God, and while there is that in God’s infinity which transcends man’s power of comprehension. (Source International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia)

1 Corinthians 2:14 English Standard Version (ESV) The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

Transcendent knowledge of God can only come from God Himself through the presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. Those who do not have the indwelling spirit cannot know and cannot be convinced.

John 17:8 English Standard Version (ESV) For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.