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Knowing God does not mean simply acknowledging Him, but rather discovering His design of creation-- learning how He works, how He does things, and why. Is there a test to show how much we know God? Here is one: The more we know God, the less we ask, 'Why?' and the more we say, 'Thanks!' Knowing God increases gratitude, and decreases grief and griping. Disappointment comes from deficiency of knowledge, from thinking that our plans for our lives are better than God's plan. (3:3) Love of God makes our hearts cheerful. Even when we feel bad, we feel good for feeling bad, for we know that the magic of His love always turns the rain into a rainbow. (3:4) It is absolutely essential to recognize that, in this world, God relates to us in two ways: by manifesting Himself and by remaining secret. Look back at your life and see how many times, at a critical point, somehow you managed, somehow 'you made it.' If you look at one piece or one point, you may say it was coincidence. But if you put all the points and pieces together, you realize that an unseen hand must have been at work-- secretly sending you subtle signals, just strong enough to keep you from stumbling, to get you over the hurdle. (3:5) God always whispers His signals and secrets with a precise pitch-- just loud enough and quiet enough-- so that we can either hear them or not hear them at all: (3:6) This is the Voice of God...the manifest and hidden Secret...12 Baha'u'llah (3:7) Only when we soften our hearts can we hear His Voice: (3:8) Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts... Psalms 95:7 (3:9) Incline thine ear unto the voice of thy Lord, the Lord of all mankind... 13 Baha'u'llah (3:10) Only a whole-hearted desire can reveal the glory of God: (3:11) Seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul. Deuteronomy 4:29 (3:12) Just as radar must be highly sensitive to a signal while filtering out noise, so must be our souls. If we filter out 'the noise,' we will hear God's voice from every atom in the universe. Every stone, every leaf, every bird sings His praise, except a heart that is out of order and out of tune. (3:13) God never breaks His veil of secrecy. That would destroy His entire design of creation. Expecting the display of miraculous powers from God at the time of the advent of every Redeemer is an example of a failure to understand and appreciate this principle, this most fundamental link between God and His creatures. (3:14) Within the depths of every soul God has deposited the potential to know Him: He hath moreover deposited within the realities of all created things the emblem of His recognition, that everyone may know of a certainty that He is the Beginning and the End, the Manifest and the Hidden, the Maker and the Sustainer, the Omnipotent and the All-Knowing, the One Who heareth and perceiveth all things, He Who is invincible in His power and standeth supreme in His Own identity... 14 The Bab (3:15) And this is another sign of knowing God: The one who truly knows God also recognizes His Messengers. The Pharisees who rejected Jesus considered themselves strong believers in God, yet Jesus told them they did not know Him: (3:16) My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. Though you do not know Him, I know Him. Christ (John 8:54-55) Their preoccupation with earthly power and glory was the best evidence of their ignorance and lack of spiritual insight. They expected God to break the veil of secrecy and suddenly manifest His power and majesty by giving them visible dominion and supremacy over their enemies. (3:17) Divine Messengers provide the most direct and obvious link between God and His creatures. By speaking through them, God can maintain His secrecy and still talk to us in our language, just like another human being. It is impossible to imagine that God could speak more directly to us than this, short of actually revealing Himself to us as He does to His Messengers and Redeemers. (3:18) This is an amazing phenomenon: God, the Creator of the universe, speaking to us just like a friend and telling us that He is our true Beloved! Yet so many human beings refuse to accept this honor-- to be God's true lover and friend! (3:18) God respects our freedom. That is one of His choicest gifts to us. Without it we would be like slaves. He wants us to know Him and to love Him by choice, not by force; by desire, not by demand. Every choice is both an evidence and a test of our freedom. The tests bring to light our hidden selves. They show whether we are gold or mere glitters. They allow our souls to choose and reveal a given level of goodness and perfection. Some reach for the sublime; others for mediocrity. One drop out of the ocean of His bountiful grace is enough to confer upon all beings the glory of everlasting life. But inasmuch as the divine Purpose hath decreed that the true should be known from the false, and the sun from the shadow, He hath, therefore, in every season sent down upon mankind the showers of tests from His realm of glory.15 Baha'u'llah
(3:20)
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