[The text below represents an edited transcript of this Tomorrow’s World program.]

God Designed Planet Earth to Support Life

We live on a dynamic and beautiful planet. Consider the majestic mountains, the sight and sounds of babbling brooks, and verdant valleys nestled between mountain peaks. There are beautiful glacier-fed lakes, tropical islands, prairies, and plains. Our planet is divided by terrain, temperature, and soil type for growing an amazing variety of foods—rice, wheat, and corn; citrus fruits, almond and walnut trees, mangos, papayas, coconuts, and so much more!

We are refreshed by afternoon showers that clean the air and give needed water for crops and flowering plants of all kinds. We’re intrigued, and sometimes frightened, when huge thunder and lightning storms pass over us, occasionally accompanied by tornados or powerful straight-line winds. Volcanic eruptions are beautiful and awe inspiring, but they can be destructive and deadly. Hurricanes rip apart homes and disrupt lives, as do floods and earthquakes.

How do we make sense of such a dynamic planet? If God is a loving God, how do we explain so-called, natural disasters? Why does He allow disruption, destruction, and desolation—often resulting in sorrow?

Water: A Powerful Force for Life—and Destruction

A warm welcome to all of you, from all of us here at Tomorrow’s World, where we bring you the good news of the coming Kingdom of God, explain end-time prophecies, and make sense of the world in which we live. On today’s program, I’m discussing natural disasters, why they occur, and what God reveals about some in our future.

As explained in the short introduction, we live on an amazing planet. So much so that we could have a thousand programs on the topography, the natural resources, and the diversity of life—the flora and fauna in the waters and on the land. But let us look at one thing we often take for granted, and that is water. It’s both the source for life and a destructive force.

Have you noticed how scientists and science writers look for evidence of water as they explore other planets—primarily Mars? They know that life as we know it is impossible without it. Many have swallowed the idea that if there is water, there may be life. Of course, this fails to take into account the complexity of life and how it is mathematically impossible to create life from non-living material.

Michael Denton pulls the cover off the idea of a “simple cell” when he wrote:

Although the tiniest bacterial cells are incredibly small… each is in effect a veritable micro-miniaturized factory containing thousands of exquisitely designed pieces of intricate molecular machinery… far more complicated than any machine built by man and absolutely without parallel in the non-living world…. The complexity of the simplest known type of cell is so great that it is impossible to accept that such an object could have been thrown together suddenly by some kind of freakish, vastly improbable, event. Such an occurrence would be indistinguishable from a miracle (Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, pp. 250, 264).

The creation of life needs more than water, but water is far more important to life than merely quenching our thirst. Perhaps you have wondered why so much of our planet is covered by oceans composed of salt water—which is not fit, as it is, for our drinking. The oceans make up approximately seventy percent of our planet, but do you realize how important these bodies of water are? The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, also known as NOAA, informs us of their many benefits. Here are only a few:

Scientists estimate that roughly half of the oxygen production on Earth comes from the ocean. The majority of this production is from oceanic plankton—drifting plants, algae, and some bacteria that can photosynthesize. One particular species, Prochlorococcus, is the smallest photosynthetic organism on Earth. But this little bacteria produces up to 20% of the oxygen in our entire biosphere. That’s a higher percentage than all of the tropical rainforests on land combined (“How much oxygen comes from the ocean?” OceanService.noaa.gov, August 22, 2023).

Wow! Half our oxygen comes from the oceans and 20% of total oxygen comes from one tiny organism. In addition to pumping oxygen into the atmosphere, NOAA explains that our oceans moderate global temperatures by transporting “heat from the equator to the poles, regulating climate and weather patterns.”

The ocean’s water is constantly circulated by currents. Tidal currents occur close to shore and are influenced by the sun and moon. Surface currents are influenced by the wind. However, other, much slower currents that occur from the surface to the seafloor are driven by changes in the saltiness and ocean temperature, a process called thermohaline circulation. These currents are carried in a large “global conveyer belt...”

This circulation brings warmth to various parts of the globe and also carries nutrients necessary to sustain ocean life...

The circulation process begins as warm water near the surface moves toward the poles (such as the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic), where it cools and forms sea ice. As this ice forms, salt is left behind in the ocean water. Due to the large amount of salt in the water, it becomes denser, sinks down, and is carried southwards in the depths below. Eventually, the water gets pulled back up towards the surface and warms up in a process called upwelling, completing the cycle (“What Is the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC)?” OceanService.noaa.gov, January 1, 2023).

There are many more critical life-sustaining benefits provided by our oceans. Huge amounts of water evaporate, forming clouds that drift over land and provide needed rain. And consider the massive amount of food that comes from our oceans.

But our oceans are not always so benevolent.

They sometimes produce storms that cause great destruction in the form of hurricanes and cyclones. And when undersea earthquakes occur, they can produce devastation on a grand scale. In less than ten years, the world experienced two tsunamis. The first in 2004 killed more than a quarter million people along coastal Indian Ocean areas. The second was in Japan, which took as many as 20,000 lives in 2011. Why, if God is a god of love, does He allow such powerful forces on this planet? Can He not prevent them? Or is all this a matter of chance?

When Does God Control the Weather—Including Natural Disasters?

So far, we’ve noted that our home here on earth is beautiful and diverse. How different it is from any other celestial object we’ve been able to observe.

Its oceans, its temperature range, its 24-hour day divided into light and darkness, all shout the message that this planet was made for life—not life as a result of chance, but life by design. But, as we have also noted, there are powerful forces that bring devastation and disaster: volcanos, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes and cyclones, droughts and floods, fires and tornados.

The question is, if God is a loving Creator, why do we see such contrast on earth between the beautiful and the ugly, the beneficial and the destructive? To answer that question, we must go back to the beginning.

God Gives Us the Ability to Make Choices

The Bible tells us that our first parents were placed in a beautiful garden filled with wonderful foods of all sorts. Man was made in God’s likeness and image for a grand purpose. He was given a mind to think, to reason, to invent and innovate, to make decisions far above what any animal kind can do. But these decisions go beyond how to make and construct. Mankind must make decisions on how to relate to others—in other words, moral decisions. Adam and Eve were thus tested to see whether they would trust God’s judgment as to what is good and what is evil, or whether to strike out on their own and determine good and evil for themselves. Adam, who was not deceived by the serpent, chose the latter and mankind has been doing the same ever since.

As a result, God said, in effect, “If you want to do it your own way, have at it, but don’t expect me to bail you out of every jam you get yourself into.”

However, despite our rebellion, God does care for all of His potential children. Note what Jesus said as recorded by Matthew:

But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He [that is God] makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust (Matthew 5:44–45).

Yes, God even gives rain to the unjust. He has not left our environment totally to chance. But notice also that God does manipulate our weather from time to time based on our behavior. To Israel He said,

If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them, then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Your threshing shall last till the time of vintage, and the vintage shall last till the time of sowing; you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely (Leviticus 26:3–5).

God Promises Blessings for Obedience and Curses for Disobedience

Can we not see that the God who created the entire universe, can change weather patterns for the good—that is, if we obey Him—but also withhold the good if we despise Him? Here is the result of the latter:

But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments, and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My covenant, I also will do this to you… (Leviticus 26:14–16).

Now the first thing He said would happen is that He would give His people over to terrorism and disease epidemics. But also:

I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. And your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the trees of the land yield their fruit (Leviticus 26:19–20).

Or, as we read in Deuteronomy 28:24:

The Lord will change the rain of your land to powder and dust; from the heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed (Deuteronomy 28:24).

We see that God makes it possible for the righteous and the unrighteous to survive on earth—giving sun and rain to produce food for man and beast alike.

Expect Worsening Natural Disasters in the End Times

Our home is teeming with life forms of every sort—soaring birds, fleet-footed animals, and creatures that live in our waters. Then there is plant life coming in all shapes and sizes. We’re overwhelmed by the natural process of mountains and islands being formed by volcanic activity. We’re awed by lightning and thunderstorms. But volcanos, severe storms, earthquakes, floods, and droughts can be frightening and devastating. So, I have asked the question, if God is a god of love, why does He allow such destructive forces to plague mankind?

God will send terrible calamities on those who repeatedly reject Him

As we’ve already seen, it’s man that has rejected God, and essentially said, “God leave us alone. Don’t tell us what to do.” And so, He has. But we’ve also seen that He hasn’t left us entirely alone. He makes the sun shine and the rain to come upon both the just and the unjust.

We have also seen that He blesses those who strive to obey Him with rain in due season, but He directs unfavorable weather patterns upon those who despise His commandments. In this portion of today’s program, we’ll see that God will use disasters of unimaginable proportions in the very near future to get our attention. The book of Revelation describes a number of so-called natural disasters.

The Seven Trumpets of Revelation

Revelation describes a scroll sealed with seven seals, and when the seventh seal is opened, seven angels are given seven trumpet plagues to blow upon the earth. Now let’s look at three of them. We read of the first disaster in chapter 8, and verse 7:

The first angel sounded: and hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. And a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up (Revelation 8:7).

Now it’s difficult for us to know the precise means of this disaster, but it will be of God, and will be devastating beyond what the world has ever known. The second disaster may be more easily defined.

Then the second angel sounded: And something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. And a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed (Revelation 8:8–9).

This would appear to be a super-volcano, a mountain exploding and tossed into the sea. We may even speculate, that it will be one of the known, or currently unrecognized, super-volcanoes in or around the geologically volatile South China Sea, as it would have to be near busy shipping lanes.

Now note this:

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) estimates that roughly 80 percent of global trade by volume and 70 percent by value is transported by sea. Of that volume, 60 percent of maritime trade passes through Asia, with the South China Sea carrying an estimated one-third of global shipping. Its waters are particularly critical for China, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea, all of which rely on the Strait of Malacca, which connects the South China Sea and, by extension, the Pacific Ocean with the Indian Ocean (“How Much Trade Transits the South China Sea?” ChinaPower.csis.org, August 2, 2017).

The next natural disaster is described in verse 10:

Then the third angel sounded: And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water (Revelation 8:10).

We often refer to a meteor as a “shooting star.” Scientists know that many large meteors and asteroids cross Earth’s path on a regular basis. A few have struck the earth with devastating effect in the past, but God has protected our planet for our sake. However, according to this passage of scripture, a large asteroid striking the earth appears to be in our future.

The Bible has much more to contribute to our understanding of natural disasters, and that is the reason we are offering a free resource that explains why a loving God allows, and at times even causes, terrible disasters to occur on earth. Yes, there are powerful natural forces that affect our planet, but there is a God who controls whether and when they strike mankind. They remind us that we are not nearly as much in control of our lives as we sometimes think we are.

God Will Get Our Attention Before He Gives Us a Safer World

So-called natural disasters have been a part of mankind’s experience from the beginning. Some of these are the result of a dynamically changing planet. Some are the result of time and chance upon humanity—the result of our rejection of God. But, as shown in the previous segment of this program, there are great calamities in our future, and those disasters will not be so “natural.” However, there is good news regarding the future. There is coming a time when rain will come in due season, when God will protect His creation from devastating floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, and tornados.

Quoting from Acts of God: Why Natural Disasters?:

Could God stop natural disasters? Could He give adequate warnings so people could get out of the way while He builds a new island or mountain? Could He direct the wind to take a course away from His children? (p. 22).

The obvious answer to anyone who truly knows God is:

Of course He could! Who created the dirt under our feet? Who created the law of gravity, the strong force and the weak force? Cannot the God who created the universe and life on this planet protect us? (p. 22).

So why do these things happen now? Our resource continues:

Scientists understand that our universe did not always exist. So how did it come to be? We are so arrogant we conclude that it all happened by chance—so God is allowing us to live in a world of chance. The disasters that “time and chance” throw at us should get our attention (p. 22).

Sadly, our attention span is short. But God will get our attention. When we come to the end of our rope, Jesus Christ will return to save us from ourselves, as explained in Zechariah 14, verse 4.

And in that day His feet [the Messiah—Jesus Christ] will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west, making a very large valley; half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south (Zechariah 14:4).

After Jesus Christ returns, a river of living waters will heal the earth.

Following that earthquake, a river of living waters will flow both east and west from Jerusalem and bring healing to today’s polluted seas and rivers. Ezekiel describes this river, obviously also a type of God’s healing spirit, flowing out to heal our damaged planet.

Then he said to me: “This water flows toward the eastern region, goes down into the valley, and enters the sea. When it reaches the sea, its waters are healed. And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live. There will be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters go there; for they will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes” (Ezekiel 47:8–9).

Isaiah describes a future time of climate change when today’s deserts and wildernesses will be transformed. Notice it in Isaiah 35:6.

For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water; in the habitation of jackals, where each lay, there shall be grass with reeds and rushes (Isaiah 35:6–7).

Isaiah continues a few chapters later:

I will open rivers in desolate heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar and the acacia tree, the myrtle and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the cypress tree and the pine and the box tree together, that they may see and know, and consider and understand together, that the hand of the Lord has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it (Isaiah 41:18–20).

The God who created the universe and our tiny planet in it, is more than capable of controlling the forces that shape this earth. He has given us time to prove to ourselves that our ways do not work. He’s allowed us to live by time and chance to remind us that we are not as high and mighty as we think, but once He gets our attention, He will show us how things could have been from the beginning if we had chosen to trust in Him.

Be sure to order your free copy of Acts of God: Why Natural Disasters?, and be sure to come back next week, when Richard Ames, Wallace Smith, Rod McNair, and I explain the prophecies of the Bible, proclaim the good news of Christ’s coming Kingdom, and help you understand the world in which you live today. See you next time.

I hope you profited from this video.

If you found it helpful and want to learn more, be sure to get your free copy of our booklet “Acts of God: Why Natural Disasters?” by going to TWTV.ORG/Disasters.

We here at Tomorrow’s World want to help you understand our world through the pages of the Bible. So be sure to like, subscribe, and hit the bell so you don’t miss another video.

Thanks for watching! See you next time.

[The text below represents an edited transcript of this Tomorrow’s World program.]

Why and How to Seek God

We live in stressful times. In a world of political chaos, warfare, pandemics, and civil unrest, we need a source of stability, calm, and peace that is bigger and greater than all of our concerns. That source is God.

A deep and profound relationship with the One who created you, loves you, and has a purpose for your life really IS possible. Join us today as we reveal “Five Keys to Knowing God.”

Seeking God Will Bring Peace of Mind

The world as we know it seems to be unraveling at the seams. Our streets see growing unrest. Our halls of government are alternately filled with either incompetence and gridlock or chaos and conflict. Wars and conflicts rage as our leaders seem increasingly incapable of managing the growing number of crises around the globe.

Even outside of government, the institutions at the heart of civilization seem to reveal themselves on a weekly basis as untrustworthy at best and agenda-driven at worst.

Our educational institutions often seem more devoted to indoctrinating and programming our children than they are to actually educating them. Many fields of science increasingly seem to be driven more by social agenda and political activism than a sincere desire for truth and a devotion to reality.

The chaos of our world isn’t merely abstract or academic, and it doesn’t stay within the pages of our newspapers. It impacts our lives. Our food and other staples of life seem to cost increasingly more money, even as we seem to have less money to spend. Parents look at their children and understandably wonder what sort of world they will inherit.

And while there are always ups and downs, Bible prophecy reveals that the trend is exactly as it appears: things really will get far worse before they get fundamentally better. Nations that were once sources of global stability in the world, such as the United States or Great Britain, will continue their decline, and no change in the presidency or premiership of these nations is going to completely halt the decline and solve the growing chaos. Because that decline and that growing chaos is fundamentally not due to policies or politics or economic plans or anything of the sort.

The chaos and decline is due to the sin of these nations. And unless there is fundamental national repentance on the part of the people themselves and a turning of their hearts to the laws of their Creator, then expect that chaos and decline to continue!

So, what can we do to find peace of mind and stability in a world so lacking in peace and stability?

In fact, there is only one source of such reassurance and hope: The God who created you, who loves you, and who has a remarkable plan for your life.

On today’s program, we are going to give you five keys to truly knowing God—five keys you can use to unlock a deep and profound relationship with the Eternal God who very much wants to build a relationship with you.

Far from being a God who is far away and inaccessible to us, our Creator is near and very accessible. But we must do our part to seek Him. God explains this through the prophet Jeremiah, encouraging His people,

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart (Jeremiah 29:11–13).

But every search has to start somewhere! And if you are willing to take advantage of these five keys, you will find yourself well on your way to a deeper and more invigorating walk with your Creator.

1. Know God by Spending Time in Nature

The first key you can use to know God is creation.

The entire world around us is the work of the master Creator of all things, and He tells us in His word that we can come to know Him better by spending time soaking in His Creation.

In Romans 1:20, the Apostle Paul addresses the ridiculous denial of those who look at the Creation around us and deny the reality of God:

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse….

Indeed, so many of God’s invisible attributes can be clearly seen and understood by the things that are made—including his eternal power and Godhead, or His divinity and deity.

Regrettably, in our world today, most of us are increasingly separated from the natural world. We live much of our lives with concrete under our feet and fluorescent lights above our heads. But if you would like to really know God, consider spending some time with His Creation.

Take a walk at a local park, if you can—get outside, in natural surroundings. Look up on a clear night sky and let your eyes wander through the stars. Consider the astonishing variety of complex lifeforms that make their home with us on Planet Earth. The Creation is a physical, living hymn that praises its Creator with a beautiful clarity for those who are willing to listen to its song.

The consistent and dependable order of the world and the cosmos tells us that God is orderly and lawful. Its complexity and design speaks to His unimaginable intelligence. The variety we see around us speaks to a God who loves creativity and beauty. For those who long to know their Creator, the Creation, itself, is one of the best-kept secrets around.

If you want to know God, then take advantage of the key of creation, and let His craftsmanship teach you about who He is and your relationship to Him. As King David, the Warrior Poet of ancient Israel, wrote in Psalm 19:1, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork.”

2. Know God by Studying the Bible

Our first key is the creation.

The second key to knowing God is the Bible—God’s sacred word.

If you really want to know the real God, this key is absolutely crucial. Too often today, people say they “know” God, but they don’t. What they think of as “God” is a product of their imagination—it’s what they imagine God to be. But if God is real—and He is—then we want to know the real God. The One who created the universe. The One who has the power to work in our lives.

And that God has given us His word to help us do that. The Bible is like God’s mind in print. When we read it, we discover how He thinks, what matters to Him, what makes Him happy or angry, what His plans and desires are—both for the world, and for you. Reading the Bible is a key to unlocking these things for us.

But we have to read it RIGHT. In Isaiah 28, God inspires the prophet to speak about understanding the divine message:

Whom will he teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from the breasts? For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little (vv. 9–10).

We have to be willing to put it all together.

Read the Whole Bible: Old Testament and New Testament

You can’t just read part of the Bible—say, only the New Testament or the Old. You have to be willing to consider the entire book, as a whole, to get an accurate understanding of the mind of God.

Consider owning a large collection of letters written by a great-grandfather who died before you were born. Reading only one or two letters wouldn’t really give you a full picture—and might even give you a wrong idea or cause you to draw a conclusion about him without enough context.

Many people do this with the Bible, being fooled into thinking they understand God by studying only the New Testament, perhaps, or throwing in the Psalms or a few other Old Testament books.

But in 2 Timothy 3:16, we’re told the following:

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness….

The Scripture—all Scripture—is “given by inspiration of God”—or, as some translations have it, is “God-breathed.”

If you find the idea of studying the entire Bible intimidating, then I’d recommend you start by visiting our website at TomorrowsWorld.org. We have a number of free resources to help you begin, including today’s free DVD.

Yet, simply reading and studying is not enough. Knowledge, by itself, does nothing but make us prideful. We must act on what we learn!

3. Know God by Keeping His Commandments

That brings us to our next key to knowing our Creator: keeping God’s commandments.

God’s word contains His Law and His commandments—the Ten Commandments.

It’s too easy (and wrong) to simply think of God’s commandments as a list of “dos and don’ts” when they are so much more. God’s laws represent a way of life that forms an integral part of the journey to eternal life. They also help us to understand the mind and character of God. But they only reveal that mind and character to those who do more than read about them—they must be obeyed and lived. As verse 10 of Psalm 111 says, “A good understanding have all those who do His commandments.”

Unknown to most of mankind is the purpose of God, which involves His reproducing His own character inside us. Paul pointed to an element of this purpose when he wrote in Philippians 2:5,

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus….

Seeking to live by the commands of God is a part of the process by which God duplicates the mind and character of Jesus Christ in us. It is how we learn how God and Jesus see right and wrong, how They want to be worshiped, and how They want us to interact with Them and with others. And obeying those commands is how we begin to make Their character our own.

But it can’t be just an academic pursuit. It isn’t just a matter of learning to know God through what we read with our eyes or hear with our ears. It’s a very personal matter of getting to know Him through what we choose to do with our hands and where we choose to go with our feet.

Keeping God’s commands is so crucial to knowing God that He inspired the Apostle John to warn us very clearly:

Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him (1 John 2:3–4).

Those are strong words, straight from your own Bible! Anyone seeking to know God must keep His commandments, and that includes you and me.

4. Know God by Praying Wholeheartedly

Let’s review our first three keys.

First, we pointed you to creation, encouraging you to truly open your eyes to all you can learn about the God who made you by taking the time to soak in the majesty and design of the world around you.

Next, we directed you to God’s word, the Bible. The Holy Scriptures represent God’s own mind in print—telling us His thoughts, plans, and purposes. Though our world is increasingly forgetting the miracle this book represents, it remains a powerful and necessary key to understanding the God who inspired it.

Third, we highlighted the necessity of keeping God’s commandments. The Bible strongly declares that those who claim to know God but who do not keep His commandments are liars—whether they know they are liars or not. God’s character and heart is taught to us by not just knowing His commandments, but by keeping them ourselves.

Our fourth key today to knowing God, personally and intimately, may seem increasingly difficult in a busy world that demands more and more of our time, from the second we wake up to the moment we collapse on our beds for a short night of sleep before we start all over again. But this key is a necessity, and we cannot come to know God without it.

The fourth key is the practice of regular prayer.

Here at Tomorrow’s World studios, we know that this program is broadcast to peoples and nations all around the world. And when I say “prayer,” many of you may have different ideas about what that means. For some, it might be memorized words or a formula that you recite, perhaps in connection with something like prayer beads. It might even involve some sort of ritualistic chant. But none of these are biblical, nor are they sufficient to help you know God.

Jesus is plain about this in Matthew chapter 6:

And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him (vv. 7–8).

No, the sort of prayer the Bible is speaking of is a wholehearted conversation with God, speaking to him about what is on your mind and in your heart.

Consider how you came to know your spouse while you were dating, or how you became close to your nearest and dearest friends. Those relationships took time and included conversation—a sharing of thoughts, ideas, concerns, hopes, and dreams. If you want to know God, you need to spend that sort of time in prayer to Him, as well.

Not many do—at least not the sort of time we’re talking about. In fact, one of God’s complaints about His people in prophecy reflects such a lack of heartfelt prayer. As the Moffat translation of the Bible renders His words in Hosea 7:14, “They never put their heart into their prayers.”

But there is so much to be gained by doing so. By humbling ourselves, kneeling before God, and pouring out our heart to Him. That sort of wholehearted contact not only invites Him to lift our burdens from us, but also opens up an avenue through which we can grow to find Him and know Him. As He said to ancient Israel, “You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord…” (Jeremiah 29:13–14).

To some extent, this key of prayer can work with our second key today, the Bible, and act as a sort of electrical circuit.

If you remember your studies from high school science, you might recall that electricity needs a closed loop to flow through. For a light bulb to glow, the electricity needs to flow through the bulb, which isn’t possible when the circuit is broken. In a similar way, prayer can work with our study of the Bible. As God shows us more about Himself in His word and shares with us, then we, in turn, can talk to Him about what we are learning and how we see it reflected in our lives, and we can share with Him our questions, hopes, and concerns. Then He, in return, can share more with us.

So many who claim not to be able to find God have not truly sought to build a relationship with Him in this way. But if that relationship is what you seek, then you must turn the key of prayer.

5. Know God by Understanding Jesus Christ

The last key adds power to all the others, and without it, we can only go so far in truly coming to know God.

That last key is the Son of God, Jesus Christ, Himself.

The Bible tells us that long before this world, or this universe, ever existed, the Being we now call Jesus Christ lived in eternity past with the One we now call God the Father. In the very beginning of his gospel account, the Apostle John calls the pre-incarnate Christ “the Logos” or “the Word” of God, and he describes the intimate union between these two God Beings that they shared before the world was:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1).

This member of the Godhead became flesh and blood, walking and teaching among us 2,000 years ago as the Son of God. Part of His purpose in doing so was to reveal the Father more intimately to us. As He says, Himself, in Matthew 11:27,

All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.

If we truly want to know God, then the teachings of Jesus Christ are an indispensable key. In fact, in John 14:9, He tells His disciples, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father….”

He wasn’t saying that He was the Father! Rather, Christ is saying that everything we need to know about God the Father was revealed through Him!

Jesus Christ was the perfect revelation of God to mankind. In His love, mercy, and compassion for others; in His wisdom, insight, and remarkable teachings; and in His character, example, and obedience to the laws and ways of God; Jesus Christ is the revelation we need of God’s own love, wisdom, and goodness. And having been resurrected from the grave and glorified, and reigning over His Church from heaven until His soon coming return, Jesus is alive today, right now—able to empower all who will sincerely yield to Him and come to know their Creator.

If you truly long to have a relationship with God, then Jesus Christ is the only way to fully do so! In fact, your knowledge of and relationship with God will fall far short if you do not seek the Son of God in your life, as well. As Jesus says in John 14 and verse 6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Seek God With Your Whole Heart

These five keys—creation, the Bible, keeping God’s commandments, prayer, and Jesus Christ—can help start you on your way to a relationship with God that will not only carry you through today’s hard times, but right on through to the Kingdom of God for all eternity.

All of us here at the Tomorrow’s World studios work very hard to help you understand your world through the pages of your Bible.

If you’re interested in our free DVD “Claim God’s Promises,” you can get that DVD by going to TWTV.org/claim or just clicking on the link we have in the description.

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