Do You Want to Know Who God Truly is?
3 Words in 1
Do You Want to Know Who God Truly is?
Do you want to know who God truly is?
Do you want to see His Character, to experience His Persona?
Then stand before the cross — and look.
Look at Him. Look into Him.
He was personified in Jesus — the Christ — the Spirit revealed in the Son.
What do you see? Power? Might? Majesty?
No… not as the world defines them.
What you see is Compassion. Brokenness.
Surrender. Weakness. Sacrifice.
And that — that — is the most glorious, most powerful, most beautiful, most liberating, most healing truth you will ever behold.
A God who humbles Himself.
Who breaks Himself open.
Who sits with you in the mud and shame of your darkest moment — until He can win your heart back to walk with Him again.
He is not aloof. Not elevated. Not removed.
He is with you.
With you in your failure.
With you in your pain.
With you in your “not enough.”
A Friend who sticks closer than a brother.
Always ready to bind wounds, clean messes, carry burdens.
One who will do whatever it takes — at any cost — to heal, restore, and lift you up.
He finds joy in your joy, and delight in your wholeness.
He seeks nothing for Himself but your healing, your freedom, your fullness of life.
And here’s the truth each of us must come to terms with:
If we are not doing the same for others — those who cross our path each day — Then we have not yet truly known Him, nor recognised His Spirit mirrored within us.
Our greatest confession should not be confessing our failures before Him, but rather our failure to know Him as He really is. And in coming to know Him, to become all that He is, to every other living soul.
Not perfect. Just willing. Not proud. Just broken enough to feel another’s pain.
Not exalted. Just low enough to lift someone else up.
“For as much as you have done it to the least of these, you have done it unto Me.” (Matthew 25:40-4)
Impressing God
The reason you can never impress God is simple —
- He never expected you to.
- His desire has always been to love you right in the midst of your failures and to restore you completely from any wounds they may have caused.
“I came not to judge the world, but to save it.” — Jesus (John 12:47 )
The word translated “to save” also means “to heal” or “to make whole.” Strong’s G4982 — σώζω, sōzō, sode’-zo.
God’s intention was never to fault-find, but to bring healing and wholeness wherever injury has taken root.
The Greatest Pain
The greatest pain you will ever experience is the hurt that you caused others through your ignorance.
It is when we see the great hurt we have caused in others that God finds the opportunity to heal our own lives.
~ Johann van der Hoven
Johann van der Hoven has followed the Holy Spirit on a transformative journey since 1990. From 1991 onward, he has experienced and walked in the profound reality of God’s Presence, a journey that has shaped his life and message.
I just wrote something recently that Holy Spirit impressed upon my heart, very similar. “Do I really want to know Christ?
Paul says in Phillipians 3:10-11 “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.”
May we strive to know him, and glorify him and all we do and say.
Love these words.
Oh so Beautifully written words of Encouragement.
Blessings peace and love to you dear Johann.
Awesome..hallelujah..