Know God like an avocado
Many Christians believe in God like they believe that 2+2 = 4 or that the sun rises in the East. A fact, among other facts.
Perhaps THE fact, but a fact nonetheless.
When they read John 8, where Jesus said “you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”, they take some satisfaction in knowing the proper facts about God, and having their mental furniture properly arranged, so as to avoid going to hell after they die.
They defend these facts, argue them, and know them with certitude, and this satisfaction soothes an angst in their soul. It feels good to belong to the ‘right’ group. The ones who got it ‘correct’.
All too frequently these same Christian’s fail to embody in their life the kind of power and glory that Jesus and Paul taught us we would have when we are walking in union with God.
Why is that?
I think in part it’s a product of the time we are in. From our Western viewpoint, when we hear the word “know” and “believe”, we immediately think of facts and data that we can categorize in our mind. We can judge the facts as “good” or “bad”, “true” or “false”. We are “right” and they are “wrong”. We are going to heaven, they are going to hell.
Anything other than this level of analysis is held up as an example of moral relativism and weak thinking.
“I don’t need to believe… I know”
Famous psychoanalyst Carl Jung wrestled with God and with science for his whole career. Two years before his death, when asked “do you believe in God?” he answered “difficult to answer” and paused …. “I know”. He paused again before adding with an impish smile “I don’t need to believe… I know”.
In John 8:32, Jesus said those who are his disciples (not those who believe the correct facts, but those who embody his teachings) will “know the truth” and that this knowing the truth would liberate them.
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Ginōskō
The Greek word for “know” here is “ginōskō”, which fundamentally means "to know," but it’s more than just intellectual awareness. It implies experiential, personal, or relational knowledge—knowing something or someone through direct encounter, through a process, or involvement.
There is another Greek word that is translated into the English world “know”: oida. This is a static apprehension of the facts. You oida that roses are red and the sky is blue.
If you have two avocados, then you buy two more at the store and I ask you how many avocados you have, you “oida” (know) that you have four avocados.
When you eat one of those avocados, you “ginōskō” (know) what an avocado tastes like and you “oida” (know) that you now have three avocados remaining.
In John 8:55 Jesus rebukes the unbelieving Jews, saying “though you do not “ginōskō” him (God the Father), I “oida” him”. He used both forms of the word “know” here to sharpen his rebuke.
Jesus’ knowledge (oida) of the Father is paired with active obedience to His logos (word), mirroring the call in 8:31 to "abide in my word." Knowing and doing are intertwined here, as they are throughout the New Testament.
Credit to Ted
I have to pause here and give my friend Ted Dekker, the best-selling Christian novelist credit for the avocado reference.
Soon after my awakening, I was having lunch with my friend Paul, who had invited me along to lunch with Ted. Ted was animatedly describing this “knowledge of God”, jumping all around the restaurant animatedly describing knowing (ginōskō) God.
“Patrick! Tell me! What does an avocado taste like?” he asked fervently.
“Uhhhm… well… it’s, uh, like … an avocado” I stumbled.
“Have you never tasted an avocado?” Ted asked.
“Sure, I’ve eaten avocado” I replied.
“So you KNOW what it’s like to eat an avocado. You KNOW avocado”. He said.
“Yes… I know what it’s like, but I am having trouble describing it to you”, I allowed.
“EXACTLY” he all but shouted in the crowded restaurant.
“That’s how it is to KNOW God!”
By this point he was waving his hands and literally leaping around the restaurant, much to the amazement and amusement of our fellow diners.
He was saying “it’s not enough to know (oida) the fact of God.. you have to experience walking with God, you have to embody this reality, in order to know (ginōskō) him”.
Again, going back to John 8:32, Jesus said that if we embody his teachings we will know (ginōskō) the truth in a way that liberates us.
Furthermore, the “truth” here is not a set of facts or data, but it’s the Greek word “alētheian” which means “unhiddenness” or “the reality that becomes revealed”.
So to summarize, embodying the teachings and spirit of Jesus in your life will cause you to experience the revelation of ultimate reality in a way that liberates you from your sin.
God as the Ground of Being
It seems that many Christians actually seem to fear the revelation of reality, (I suspect they fear learning some new information that will be at odds with their beliefs, which could deceive them and damn them to hell.)
On its face, this makes no sense for several reasons.
God says “I AM”.
The ground of being itself.
God is “Ultimate Reality”.
If we open ourselves to experiencing that which is most real through prayer, contemplation, and meditation, and being discipled to Love, we will encounter, experience more of what is “being unhidden, being revealed”.
The true nature of reality reveals itself in Jesus Christ.
The reason that Jesus could do miracles wasn’t something akin to “magic”.
Jesus was “tapped in” to ultimate reality - to the nature of “how things are” such that he could produce wine from water, and bring life to the dead. He had a profound embodied knowledge of God, of ultimate reality, of HOW THINGS ARE.
In the same way (but to a larger extent) that we understand physics well enough to produce nuclear power, Jesus understood the patterns of reality to such a degree that he could manipulate it at will. We understand gravity and aerodynamics well enough to fly, and Jesus understood how to heal someone’s body.
He knew the Source of reality itself and knew how to interact with the wind, the waves, the bread, the fish, the wine and the water in such a way that he was accessing something that is much more deeply true about the universe than what we have any idea.
The wild thing is that Jesus said that his followers would do greater things than he did.
I genuinely think that he believed that as his followers mapped their lives onto the reality of God that the true nature of reality would unveil itself to them in such a way that would allow them to manipulate time, space, and matter in the same way - or even greater ways - than what he did.
The fact that we don’t see this at scale - only in very limited ways - tells me that we are not following Jesus at scale. I think we are busy with our religion and our business and busy “being right” about the right things, but know nothing of the true source of being that liberates us from sin, shame, lack, and even death.
The Embarrassment of Cessastionism
Look at the embarrassing fact of “cessastionism”.
Cessastionism is the theological view that certain spiritual gifts, such as speaking in tongues, prophecy, and healing, ceased with the death of the apostles or the completion of the New Testament canon, and are no longer practiced or given by God today.
Clearly the nature of Reality is not revealed to many of us today like it was to Jesus and his disciples, but we are still so certain that we are correct about our beliefs that we make up a word “cessationism” to justify our blindness and our lack of understanding. Rather than repent and sit in the dark for 30 days weeping and praying, we glibly chalk it up to ‘cessationism’.
The amount of pride, certitude and self-assuredness to make a claim like this rather than repent until we begin to see the Truth is stunning and bald-faced, and is only one example of the ways in which vast swaths of “Christianity” make an exercise out of missing the point.
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I know that I am only scratching the surface here, and there are many true saints who have gone before whose lives have reflected the glory of God’s divinity in ways that I can hardly grasp.
The beautiful truth about the life in God is that it answers our deepest longings.
The thin gruel served up by the modern church is dull and powerless, and it’s no wonder that many men are seeing themselves to the door.
God has invited you into the adventure of your life.
To find out what it might be like if you became fully alive in him.
To live as if it were true that Love is the ultimate reality and see what happens when you test that theory with your life.
It’s anything but lame.
Anything but boring.
Anything but shallow.
It’s by definition the deepest life you could attain to.
You will enjoy a rich internal life with God that spills out from you in abundance and heals the sick.
In closing, I will testify to this: I can recount to you multiple instances of physical, spiritual, and emotional healing through prayer, and multiple physical signs of the abundance of God that are just as miraculous as the feeding of the 5,000.
The miracles are not over - Jesus invites us to know him and to do greater things than he did. He went before us as the older brother, to demonstrate to us what the good life in God truly looks like.
Let’s get busy living it.
What do you say?
