Does God know? (Part 1)

The message I bring this afternoon is entitled: God knows. And I want us to locate ourselves in Hosea, the Book of the prophet Hosea chapter 8, verse 1 to 4.

We keep our biblical text there and pray: Father, we thank you in this hour for Your sovereign Presence in this place, and in that hour we take captive every thought to the obedience of Christ Jesus, in such a way that Your Word does in us that by which You send her today Lord, we open our hearts. Not only have we opened it to worship You, to bless Your Name, but now to attend to Your Word, oh God, in Jesus' Name, amen, amen.

Thus says Hosea chapter 8 verse 1: "Put a trumpet in your mouth. He comes like an eagle against the House of the Lord, because they have transgressed My covenant and rebelled against My law. Israel will cry out to Me: My God, we have known You. Israel rejected the well; enemy will persecute him. They established networks but not chosen by Me, they constituted princes, but I did not know it."

When we read that verse, in particular verse 4, the question arises that we can ask ourselves: but why didn't God know? And we could also ask ourselves: is it possible that in our relationship with God we can listen to God at some given moment in our life: I didn't know?

And it is interesting that in all our Christian trajectory, I am talking about us believers, people who love the Lord, who pray, who serve the Lord, it is interesting that in our Christian trajectory we can maintain that daily relationship of prayer and search for God but At the same time, there may be some area, some matter, or some particular problem or concern that we do not dare to communicate to the Lord.

In the case of the biblical passage that we have just read, we find that Israel, God says of Israel that He did not know what Israel had done. Israel decided to establish kings and princes for itself, as a people and as a nation they made decisions but did not consult them with God. When used, in this passage God uses irony by declaring this expression: "I did not know" since God knows everything, and when God does it this way, He speaks in this way for a purpose. And the purpose it has is that God is telling him that: You Israel did know what you were doing. And it is also giving them to understand that what they were doing not only knew about it but you decided not to consult Me. And we can say: what does that have to do with us?

Sometimes we establish kings, sometimes we establish princes in our lives, sometimes we want to make decisions without consulting the Lord. Israel institutes monarchs, institutes kings thinking that God was still in their favor, but they are not understanding that the judgment is coming and is announced in those passages that we have just read precisely because Israel did not consult him. Those same rulers that they established led the people into idolatry, led the people to worship the god Baal, the pagan god, the god Baal, the god of rain, led the people away from God.

But it is also important that we understand a little more the historical background of how kings are instituted in Israel so that we understand, have an even broader understanding of what is happening, what God is saying in Hosea. God had established a theocracy in His dealings with Israel where He is the one who reigns over His people, but Israel decides to imitate other nations, and other nations had monarchs who were the ones who directed and guided the people and Israel asks for a king to govern it, and God decides to leave it the way He is asking, and grants him what he is asking for but declares to him, with respect to that first king that Israel asks for, he declares to him: "And you will cry out on that day because of the king that you will have chosen." He warns them of the evils that would come upon the people because they chose a king.

And not only that. He also declares and warns them that by choosing a king, by choosing a king they were belittling God himself. So, when we read Hosea, the Hosea passage in verse 4, really what he's saying with the expression: "I didn't know it" is "they despised God." They preferred their own kings and their leaders before the Lord. I didn't know what it means is not consulting with God, it means rejecting the divine government and belittling God himself.

Now, what God did not know about us, is there something that God does not know about us? Is there something we want to hide inside? Obviously God knows everything, nothing can be hidden from His Presence. But when we ask ourselves the question: does God know? It is a rhetorical question that leads us to decide, to analyze ourselves and consider: am I bringing this particular matter before the Presence of my God? Precisely those areas or those issues that we try to hide or not discuss before the Lord are the same ones that can lead us to do ourselves wrong.

I want to bring an example of this with the experience of my son Jhonatan when he was a teenager. We were living in Boston, he decides to go biking and we already had some established rules of where to run and how long to bike. He decided to run down the street, which we had prohibited, and at the moment his brakes fail and he crashes into a car. The police arrive at the house with him and I had a tremendous scare, thank God nothing happened to him, but he put his life at risk because of what? of breaking the principles that we had established at home and did not even ask: can I ride a bike in this area? No. He made his own decisions inside right? of the pranks that adolescents do.

But sometimes we also commit mischief with the Lord wanting to hide things from God and we must ask ourselves: does God know? God is not watching us like a policeman. God is not judging us with His finger pointing at us for how much we are going to do or how much thought we have, but God does want us to have a relationship with Him based on love. A relationship where we long to be in His Presence, a relationship where we want and desire to consult all our affairs with God.

We might wonder: was Israel trying to play hide and seek with God? Was Israel trying to hide what they were doing, was that their intention? But Jehovah who knows everything discovers the intentions of the heart of the people. In the same way, we at some point in our lives could try to hide something from God.

I remember when my oldest son had some, he was in the sixth grade, we were living here in Boston, and I went to pick him up from school, he was sitting in the back seat, my sister and I were in the front seats, I was driving, and at the moment my sister turns her head to say something to my son and she doesn't see him, and the boy was in the back seat. She is amazed and I say: what's wrong? when I look, my child is not there and I had a tremendous scare, I am desperate, I park, we open the doors, Manuel Alejandro is not there and it turns out that for the moment, from the trunk of the car, that is, from the upper part of the back, the part High on the seat, she turns to the front and the child comes out of the trunk of the car because he was hiding and heard what we were talking about but did not want to come out of hiding.

Sometimes we play hide-and-seek with the Lord, not daring to say all our issues, especially I go back and reiterate, those that could put our spiritual life at risk, our walk in the Lord. They could put our human relationships at risk, they could even put the ministry in different areas and different aspects of our lives at risk.

And I'm not necessarily talking about decisions that have to do with issues of risk of sin although they are included, and that was the case with Israel. But I am also talking about decisions that have to do with daily life. Work decisions, decisions to buy a house, decisions to initiate or not a dating relationship with a person, decisions about study, decisions of our daily life, everything we must consult with the Lord. Ask yourself, ask yourself about what you want to keep for yourself: does God know? Ask yourself: have I told the Lord? Why do I want to hide it, why don't I dare to bring it before His Presence?

In the case of Israel God did not know but the idols did, because Israel went before the pagan idols to consult him, records the Book of Hosea, and the heart of Israel was divided. In the same Book of Hosea God tells him, God declares: "Their hearts are divided; Now they will be found guilty. The Lord will tear down their altars and destroy their idols." Israel established a religious syncretism where it mixed what? the worship of Jehovah with the worship of other gods.

And God calls them to account because they had forgotten to consult with Him and had forgotten the principles established by God himself where this was a people that would serve exclusively and only Him. Those areas that we want to hide are precisely the ones that are going to try, in some measure, to affect us and separate us from God.

And what is it that brings Israel to the point that God does not know their business? The first thing I want to mention is that the fact that he transgressed the covenant established by God and rebelled against God himself, that verse 1 said: "For they transgressed My covenant and rebelled against My law." And the pact that God established with Israel was not a pact that only to comply with the law, with the commandments and precepts, behind the law was the love and care of God.

All the commandments established not only in the old covenant but in the new covenant, all the biblical principles, behind it is God's care and love for our lives, but Israel was forgetting the God they served and that love pact. But when we approach God with a sincere heart and say: here I am Lord, I do not want to bring this issue before You, it is difficult for me but here I am, then God is willing for His love to cover us, protect us and give us light in our walk. I think that sometimes we fail to understand and comprehend the magnitude of God's care and love for us.

I will tell you about the experience of a woman who had all the basic things in her marriage, married and had three children, they had all the basic things at home but lived with a certain amount of poverty, but she did not lack anything; but she felt dissatisfied in her marriage. One day she meets a wealthy man who offers her a different life and she decides to leave her husband and children, and goes with this man, and later divorces and marries this person. One day I ran into her in a restaurant and with tears in her eyes she told me: I didn't know how to value what I had and I lost the most precious thing I had.

Decisions made without consulting God. Decisions that have not been appreciated, in the case of this woman, what she had, the blessing of the husband she had and the children she had, the home she had, regardless of the economic straits she might have, there are other things that have a lot to do with More value.

Israel, returning to Israel, also makes another mistake and that is what leads him to not consult with God. Israel lacked consistency between what it said and what it did. These verses declare: "We have known but not, Israel will cry out to Me: my God we have known you." That is, Israel knew but did not let God know.

At the time of judgment Israel will cry: "We have known you" now they would remember that they had known God but the concept of knowing God that is within the covenant goes much further than simply knowing about God. Knowing God implies an intimate relationship with the Lord. Knowing God implies closeness, knowing God implies intimacy and closeness of a love relationship between the God our creator, the God we serve, the God who loves us and who gave Christ Jesus on the cross of Calvary for you and for me, look how great, let's look how great is the love of God. That relationship is what God wants for us.

And certainly in Hosea, God uses the metaphorical image of marriage to speak of Israel's relationship with Him and uses it to call her to account, to correct her, and also uses it to point out her sin of infidelity. But God is calling him to return to Him and he speaks to him in the way that he says: I did not know, to shake the people, so that they become aware of what they have done and return to Jehovah of Hosts. We need to have congruence between what we say and what we do.

Jesus declared: Why do you call me: Lord, Lord and do not do what I say? We have to have harmony in our sayings in conjunction with our actions. There are many other possible reasons why, applying to us, why we might try to hide something from God. There are many possible reasons and I am going to mention a few of them quickly.

Sometimes we can be afraid of the answer. In other words: fear of what God is going to tell us regarding what we are requesting or regarding what we are considering. Some time ago I had a particular matter that I wanted to present before God and I mentioned it to him, and I told him but going around, right? like you don't get to the point, to the heart of the matter, but I know that He knows all my thoughts. Until one day I knelt down before God and said: here I am Lord. There is this situation, I have alternative A, I have alternative B and here I am Lord. I've taken my time going around introducing this to you but here I am.

And it turns out that that day I received a call from a woman that God uses a lot in specific words and in prophecy, I am not a person who is looking for, running after the prophetic Word or a Word of knowledge but God has His gifts and they He administers as He wants, and I respect it, and I receive them, and this woman God uses her to speak to me directly to the point, directly to what I was asking the Lord, and God speaks to me. Here I classify it as A for not specifying.

And God tells me: If I say yes to A it's fine, and if I tell you B I know that whatever you want, you're going to obey me. My inner fears were there, questions within me, and God understands our questions. But sometimes we think that God is ready to judge us and point us out, and what God wants and desires from us is a relationship of love and tenderness where he cares for us, and understands our thoughts, our options A or our options B and is determined to work with us according to our needs but we have to go before His Presence to consult Him.

Other possible reasons could be the experiences sometimes lived from our childhood. I remember a brother who usually, while I lived in Puerto Rico and sometimes I am praying publicly and call God: Daddy, I talk to God about Daddy or Dad. And at the end of a time of prayer, this brother comes up to me and says: sister, I cannot talk to you the way you talk to God with that trust, and in dialogue with him I discover that from a very young age his father treated him very hard, gave him many orders, many scolding but there was no treatment of love and tenderness, and he could not express to God the affection and closeness of a son to a father because he was reflecting the experience he had in his relationship with his father, the he was reflecting on his relationship with God and did not dare to approach God with confidence.

Sometimes our experiences and our emotions when they are affected, have been affected by experiences from our past, that is reflected in our relationship with God. On other occasions we allow ourselves to be deceived by the enemy, strategies and situations that the enemy raises to obscure our vision of God and so that we refrain from going before the Presence of God to consult all our affairs. On other occasions, sometimes we neglect spiritual disciplines, to pray, to cry out to God, to read the Word of God, God speaks to us and gives us direction through His Word.

So there may be many reasons why we want to refrain from talking to God about all our issues, but the message this afternoon is: does God know? Let us ask ourselves within, let us ask ourselves in our hearts: Lord, here I am, or let us look within and say: here I am, Lord, I have not consulted this matter but it is of the utmost importance to me and You will have direction for my life.

What to do if God did not know? turn to God God says to Israel: "You, then, return to your God." And turning to God means, it entails a genuine change, where? in the heart and entails acting correctly. In other words, I not only determine within myself to change and say: here I am, Lord, but also: whatever You tell me, that is what I am going to do. What else is told to Israel or what else should we do? Allowing God to come first and worship only Him. God calls Israel to worship Him alone and God calls us to allow Him alone to be on the throne of our hearts ruling our lives, our steps, our decisions and that we adore only and exclusively Him.

There are people who their idolatry, sometimes we do not enter into idolatry like Israel in terms of idols of wood or stone, but there are times when idolatry, work becomes idolatry, sometimes the professional career, the social position, the friendships, the possessions we have, the house, the car or some other things, or even people become our idolatry and God is calling us to analyze ourselves: who are your kings, who are your princes? Is there something that is taking priority in our lives? Is there something that we are giving the priority that the Lord should have in our lives?

For example, in the workshops or conferences that I give for women I have found women who, while they have been alone, have been serving God, but when a partner arrives, a partner sort of cools off that relationship. Sometimes it happens the other way around: some women are serving the Lord together with their partner, and for the moment they are no longer with their partner, and so now their relationship with God cools. And I said in the previous service that I preach what I live, and I can tell you: accompanied or not accompanied I will serve Jehovah. With material possessions or without any I will serve Jehovah, and Him alone I will seek and Him alone I will worship. What else?

We must trust God and not our own ways. Israel established its own ways and made its own decisions. But God has not come down from His Throne. He knows what you don't know, He knows what I don't know, He knows what is best for me and He knows what is the appropriate determination for my life, so let us ask ourselves: does God know? Dare to trust that God will guide your steps and take care of you in the midst of your decisions. What else should we do? know and obey the Word of God. To Israel God says: "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge."

There are people who delight in listening to preaching, but it is not only to understand intellectually, but we know intellectually, we listen to the preaching, we listen to the teaching, but then what? we are called to put it into action, we are called to put it into practice. That we do not lack knowledge not only from here inside our little head, but that we do not lack knowledge in the sense of putting biblical principles into action because they are all well-being for our lives.

What else do I want to point out? uphold the principle of telling God everything. When we make this a practice and when sometimes those areas of our life that we would like to hide arise, in the end and in the end we are going to bring them in front of dad. If at any time you feel that you don't dare how to say something to God, start for example by saying: Lord I don't know how to tell you but here I am Lord, or I have something I should tell you but I don't dare but it's a little difficult, I don't know what What are you going to tell me? Begin some way and you will see that indeed what is in your heart will come forth in the Presence of God, and you will find a loving Father. A Father who understands you, a Father who understands your struggles, a Father who knows that you would like to hear a yes from Him but you don't know and are afraid that God will say no. Inwardly what He says will be for your good so let's tell God everything.

And also another important principle - appeal to God's mercy. "Take with you words of supplication" God said to Israel in Hosea, "return to the Lord and tell him: remove all iniquity, accept the good; We will offer you the offering of our lips. The Assyrian will not deliver us" that is, the other peoples in whom the kings wanted to trust, "we will no longer ride a horse nor will we ever again say to the work of our hands: God is ours" that is, we will no longer trust what we were trusting, and then he declares: "Because in You the orphan will obtain mercy."

There is a beautiful metaphorical image. The orphan has nowhere to go. The orphan has nowhere to lay his head. The orphan has no one to ask, he has a lack. But even the orphan in Jehovah will find mercy. And you and I are sons and daughters of God, and in Him we will certainly find mercy, so if at any time we do not want to dare to consult something with God, understand that the God of mercy loves you, that you are a son, daughter of God and He wants to bless you, guide you and take care of you. Even when at times we have become a little rebellious with God, God's mercy is extended to us.

I want to bring the example of a young woman from Costa Rica and I tell you this example with her permission. Carol served the Lord, she got sick to her stomach, something she didn't know was happening to her, she lost a lot of weight, she became very thin, very weak, she went to see the doctors, they couldn't find what she had, after many studies for Finally they determine that she has bacteria lodged in her stomach and intestines, she is very weak and very sick, a very exclusive diet that she had to follow. She gets angry with God in the midst of circumstances and she was angry with God for almost three and a half years.

Until one day she returns to the Lord and when I was in Costa Rica, from Costa Rica, when I was in Costa Rica and went to minister in a women's camp, she was already looking for God and she went to this camp. And when there was a call, she sat there praying to God and waiting for the line to go down, and she said to the Lord: Lord, I need You to confirm my healing of spirit, soul and body. When she comes forward and I go to pray for her, the first thing the Lord shows me is that I place my hands on her stomach, and I obey the Lord, and I place my hands on her stomach, and I begin to pray for her, and God begins to give me specifically what to pray for, and God shows me and I declare: Lord, healing of soul, spirit and body. What she asked for.

God's mercy reached him, although at one point he even became angry with God for not understanding what was happening to him. Let us appeal to God's mercy. If we do not understand something or if we have failed to bring before the Presence of God our important matters, He is there to extend His Hand of mercy. Let us ask ourselves: does God know?

When God knows His grace is upon our lives, we appreciate the grace that God grants us. We also understand that our help is in God, not in other places, not in other people, but in God. We also have God's care and we are productive people full of encouragement and full of what? of expectation for what God is going to do in our lives. We also have divine direction, we know God more and we can also have peace despite the circumstances and storms that life brings, and trust in God's sovereignty over our lives. Let's consult everything with God, especially those matters that for some reason we would like to hide from him. Only and only in this way are we going to live full lives in God.

So, before sending your text message or exposing it on any social network, before communicating what you want to communicate and your decisions, ask yourself: did I send it to the social networks of the Kingdom of Heaven first? ask yourself: does God know? God wants to bless you and save your life, and guide you, he only expects us to go before His Presence consulting all our affairs. Let us inquire into our hearts: does God know? If God knows, there is a blessing for your life and divine direction.

Stand up please. We adore you God, we adore you Lord. Blessed are you God. Father: We are in Your Presence or we continue in Your Presence, and at this hour we want to present ourselves before You, Lord. And at this time we tell you that if at any time we had failed to consult with You on any particular matter, here we are Lord, we return our hearts to You and ask for Your guidance Lord, give us the answer we are asking for or any other answer, we are determined to trust in You God and only in You Lord, and we ask for Your guidance in all aspects and in all areas of our lives.

We know Lord that in this hour, if we have failed in the past, in this hour You forget all that and You want us to head towards a relationship of closeness and intimacy with You, oh God, and just as Christ overcame we are going to win in all our Christian trajectory as long as we keep consulting with You Lord. Thank you we give you in this hour, thank you Lord. Spirit of God ministers in this hour to every heart. Minister in this hour Your Presence and Your anointing.