Knowing Your God

Dannah Gresh: The Bible is key to making wise choices. Here’s author and speaker Kay Arthur.

Kay Arthur: In any given situation, you can either respond and live as God says, and count it all joy and press on and all the Scriptures, or you can turn your back. But the minute that you turn your back, you’re going to be in trouble. No individual, no society can recover except by returning to His Word.

Dannah: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of Heaven Rules, for January 12, 2023. I’m Dannah Gresh.

How’s it going with reading God’s Word every day? I’ve mentioned before that I don’t usually come up with a lot of New Year’s resolutions, but the one goal I do renew every year is to spend some time with God every day, reading from the Scriptures, meditating on what He’s saying to me, and praying. How’s that going for you? I know from past experience: I might miss a day here or there for whatever reason, but for the most part the habit is solidly in place in my life, and I hope yours, as well. Because nothing really blesses me, centers me, creates freedom in me like time spent with the Lord in His Word!

Today we’re going to get to know a woman who feels the same way. Kay Arthur. This is a godly woman who not only knows her Bible well, she knows her God! Kay helped found Precept fifty years ago. Precept is an organization dedicated to helping you “know God deeply and live differently.” Kay was at the recent Revive Our Hearts international conference for women, True Woman. Our team sat down with Kay to ask her how she first began to love studying God’s Word. Here’s how she responded.

Kay: I had just gotten saved. I was married. I was divorced. I had two sons. I was immoral. And God brought me to Himself. He sent a young man who brought me a Phillips translation of the New Testament from England. I started to read it. The Bible says we don't know that there is a "veil" over His Word. But the veil had been taken away.

I put the boys to bed, I had two sons. Like I said, I was divorced and my husband had already committed suicide. I would lay on the living room floor with the Bible and just start reading. I came across a verse that said, "My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory through Christ Jesus our Lord." (Phil. 4:19) I said, "Lord, do You see that?" I rolled on my back, and I said, "I'm taken care of."

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At this conference that Revive Our Hearts has done, it's an incredible conference. They've been taking us to the book of Daniel, which to me is very significant. Daniel 11:32 says, "The people who know their God are able to stand firm." Not just to stand firm, but to take action, to do what is right. We've got to know God. We've got to honor Him as God. And we honor Him as God when we believe Him and we obey Him.

In Isaiah 59:12–15, this is where we need to ask ourselves, where are we? You need to go back to the Word of God. God raised up Precept to teach people how to study the Word of God, how to handle it accurately, so that we might know that we know that God is God, that He watches over His Word to perform, His yay is yay and His nay is nay. He does not change. He created us in the beginning—read Genesis 1. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and it was without form and void." (vv. 1–2) It talks about how God created Adam and how He created Eve—male and female.

So if you are listening to what the world is saying, you're going to absolutely ruin your life. You're going to be so distressed. I have worked with people, I have worked with a woman who had both breasts amputated and then married another woman so that she could be the man to her. Their lives are messed up and they are twisted and perverted. Then we are passing this on to our children.

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Where are the martyrs? Where are those who are willing to stand for the Word of God and to suffer for it, for their allegiance to the Word of God and holding forth the Word of Life in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation? Jesus says, "Behold I'm coming and my reward is with me to give to every man, every woman according to their deeds." (Eze. 24:14) He is just and He will deal with us justly. His holiness demands that.

So why not just go to the Word of God. Go to the Gospel of John and start reading it. Read it aloud and say, "God, if You are there, would You speak to me?" Remember, He speaks through His Word.

The Bible says that we are fainting for the lack of knowledge of God. This is your bread. This is your life. Once you know it, if any man does not speak according to this Word, it's because there is no dawn in them. They are sitting in darkness. Ask God to show you the great light, the One that said I am the Light of the World. He who follows me will not walk in darkness. (John 8:12)

Precious one, God had you hear this so that He might do a work in your life. Get on your knees.

When I got on my knees, and I had been so immoral, the verse came to mind, "And he called her beloved when there was nothing lovely about her." I've been called beloved, and so I say to you: Beloved of God, know this, that God is for you, He’s not against you. He gave His Son to die in your place, to take your sin and the consequences upon Him. And He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us, (2 Cor. 5:21) for this is the love and this is the will of God. Enjoy it. Get in the Word and say, “Love me, God, through Your Word.”

Dannah: I love hearing Scripture just flow out of Kay Arthur, don’t you? Well, later that same day, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth invited Kay to join her on the True Woman platform, in front of thousands of women in the room and tens of thousands watching online. Our theme for the conference was the two-word phrase, “Heaven Rules.” Let’s listen to part 1 of that conversation now.  

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Would you please welcome my dear friend—and yours—Kay Arthur! (applause)

Kay Arthur: We are dear friends. We don’t get to spend that much time together, but her heart and my heart beat the same for the Lord! I love you, and I thank you. It’s such a privilege to be here at my age.

Nancy: Well, thank you, sweet friend. We’ll tell that age in just a minute, but let’s sit down, because we’re all old here! Right?

Kay: Oh, we are.

Nancy: Let me just ask, how many of you (because I just may not need to introduce Kay) have been through a Precept study or heard Kay teach or have been in some way impacted through her life and ministry? I want you to stand up so she can see you. (cheers)

Kay: Whoo! Look at all them over there!

Nancy: To God be the glory! You may be seated. 

And that’s all Kay has ever wanted, for God to get the glory. We contacted Kay and said, “We’re going to be talking about Heaven rules—that’s our theme.”

That’s been Kay’s theme for as long as I’ve known her, which is pretty much most of my life. Our hearts beat alike when it comes to the providence of God, the sovereignty of God, that you can trust God to write your story.

So I just knew she was a fit for what we were talking about this weekend. We asked her office if she could come, and she said she wanted to. She’s been here all weekend! I just expected her to show up tonight, but she loves sitting under the Word! 

We’ve been so thrilled to have you, Kay. How old are you?

Kay: I am eighty-eight, and I will be eighty-nine November the 11^th [2022], Lord willing. I just want to say one thing, because it means so much to me. One of my favorite truths about God is the fact that He rules over all, that He is the Sovereign Ruler of all the universe! 

When I got saved . . . I’d been married; I’d been divorced; I’d been immoral. I’d shaken my fist in the face of God and said, “To [expletive] with you. I’ll see you around town. I’m going to find someone to love me!”

So I went out and looked for love in all the wrong places. And then, God gloriously saved me! Blessed, blessed are we who belong to the Lord and know and realize that we are daughters of the living God and that God does according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, and none can say unto him, “What doest thou?” (Dan. 4:35) What He does is good and perfect and acceptable! (applause)

Nancy: And that verse comes from Daniel. You’ll find it there.

Kay: Yes it does. Yes, I love Daniel!

Nancy: I know you do, and you’ve helped me to love it more. So as you think about God’s providences and His sovereignty in your life, that doesn’t mean it’s been an easy life. 

Kay: That’s right.

Nancy: So, as you’ve experienced testing—the dementia and departure of your precious Jack and now you’re dealing with Parkinson’s . . .

Kay: Yes. See my foot shaking? Camera, get the foot shaking. (laughter) I thought I might as well just let everybody know what it’s like to go through Parkinson’s and share it with them so that they can know, they can pray, and they can help others.

Nancy: Tell us how God’s rule in your life in this season, and in the hard seasons, how does God’s rule make a difference?

Kay: Why fight against God when He is God? Why not allow Him to put His arms around you and encircle you and be your Strength, your Life, your Redeemer? So in any given situation . . . because I’ve been in the Word of God so much, it’s really neat, because God often will just give me a Scripture, give me a truth. 

You have to forgive me, but in Alzheimer’s . . . No, in what is this disease that I have? (I have to keep Nancy on the ball!) In Parkinson’s, there is a shaking, but there is also a memory problem.

And so sometimes while I’m talking, I’m thinking, Lord, now what is her name? And the Lord has to bring it to mind. So, I’ve decided that what I will do is that I’ll just stop and be honest, “You know, I can’t remember what I was saying. Help me say it.” Now, did I answer your question?

Nancy: I don’t even remember my question! (laughter) Robert and I listened to a message on the way here that Kay gave five years ago to a group of seminary students at Dallas, and it was so powerful! We looked at each other and we said, “That’s the kind of heart and faith that we want to have!”

The two things you come back to again and again and again—you’re like a broken record (for those who remember records!)—the character of God and the Word of God. You talk about “they who know their God.” Tell us why it’s so important to know your God.

Kay: It’s vital that you know God, because you and I are living in a time when what we are being fed is a colossal lie about our gender and our morals. We’ve got to know the Word. We’ve got to hold it forth in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. (Phil. 2:15)

In Isaiah—this is another book that I would think that it would be good for you to start reading—it says, “To the [law] and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.” (Isa. 8:20 ESV) In other words, they’re walking in darkness.

We are living in a time when they are speaking against the Word of God. It goes on to say what is going to happen. It’s in the passage. This just came to me and I felt like I was to share it, and that is in chapter 9, we have that wonderful verse. 

It says: “A child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will [rest] on his shoulders. [His name shall be called] Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9:6 CSB)

The passage says there will be no end of the increase of his government or peace on the throne of David, and over His kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. (Isa. 9:7)

It’s been said that everything depends on our response to His Word, everything! In any given situation you can either respond and live as God says and count it all joy and press on in all the Scriptures, or you can turn your back. (James 1:2) But the minute that you turn your back, you’re going to be in trouble!

No individual, no society, can recover except by returning to His Word. That’s why I love Revive Our Hearts, because it holds forth the Word of God in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. (Phil. 2:15) We’ve got to live; we’ve got to let His Word be heard; we have to remember that it’s truth.

Isaiah 59:14 says it, “Justice is turned back [and we see the lawlessness right now] and righteousness stands far away. For truth has stumbled in the streets, and uprightness cannot enter.” We’ve got to hold forth the Word of God!

Nancy: So, Kay, for women who maybe are newer to the faith or haven’t had a disciplined study and devotional life in the Word, help us get started. Help encourage us to know how we can make the Word . . . You’ve lived in the Word. You’ve pointed people through the Word through Precept studies.

Kay: Well, this is a good way to start. I’m not trying to sell my book, but this is a good way to start. It’s called Lord, Teach Me to Study the Bible in 28 Days. I heard once that one woman said to the other, “Oh, don’t do Precept. Don’t do what Precept does. It’s too hard, you don’t have time for that.” 

That was not from God! (laughter) You’ve got to know God’s Word for yourself! And there are basics. Anytime you study it, you want to ask the five “W’s” and an “H”—who, what, when, where, why, and how?” It takes time, but this Book is the Book that is absolute, pure, unadulterated truth! So you want to answer the questions, like I said.

You want to mark the text. The very action of marking the text and coloring the text . . . We’re known for being “the colored pencil people.” But marking the text, seeing key repeated words, finding out what the text says.

So, everything that we are doing is designed not to show you what we believe, but to show you how to get truth for yourself. Now, some of the people were saying, “Oh, you can’t do Precept! It takes too long!” That kind of makes me mad, but anyway, you can’t be in the Word of God enough! 

So, I wrote the 40-Minute Bible Studies—no homework. You go through the Word of God. And this one is, The Power of Knowing God. This is where it would fit in really well with what you’re doing. You’re talking to us about knowing God and that Heaven rules and what He is like. So this one will really help.

Another one is Breaking Free from Fear. The first one I ever wrote was Lord, I Want to Know You. It’s a study on the names of God. The name of God is a high tower, and the righteous run into it and are safe. (Prov. 18:10)

“Man does not live by [what?] bread alone, but by [what?] every word that comes from [where?] the mouth of God.” (Matt 4:4) So those books are designed to help you discover truth for yourself and know what God has to say, and not to turn to the right and not to turn to the left. (Deut. 5:32) 

I love the verse, “He sent His word and healed them, and he delivered them from all their distresses.” (Psalm 107:20) He will keep us in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because He trusts in Thee. (Isa. 26:3) You cannot spend too much time in the Word of God! Of course, you wouldn’t neglect your family . . . But you’ve got to know it for yourself; you’ve got to know it!

Nancy: Kay, I’ve heard you talk about the importance of knowing all the Word of God, sixty-six books. Talk to us about that.

Kay: Yes, the whole counsel of God. There are sixty-six books in the Bible. How many of them do you know? He gave us this Book in its entirety. This is what we are to live by and this is why you want to spend time—not legalistically—but you want to spend time in the Word of God.

Nancy: If we’re not in the Word, we’re going to be in darkness. And that’s what we see all around us. Some of you have sons and daughters and parents and mates that you’re praying for who are sitting in darkness because they don’t have the Word of God.

Well, you can’t make them love God’s Word, but you can love God’s Word! Our lives can create a hunger. I get around Kay, and I want to know God better. I want to know His Word better. But you and I can be that kind of woman too, in the places where God has put us.

Dannah: We’ve been listening to the host of Revive Our Hearts, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, in conversation with Kay Arthur. Isn’t it encouraging to see someone who’s in her later years of life, still loving the Word of God and challenging all of us to know God better? One of the reasons we wanted you to hear that conversation is so that you would be inspired to make the adjustments necessary to get yourself into God’s Word more, and to get God’s Word into you.

The ministry Kay helped start, Precept, is a wonderful resource. If you’ve never done a Precept Bible study before, I highly recommend them. My first taste of Bible study as an adult was a Kay Arthur study, way back . . . oh, let’s not go down that road. But that class, taught by an older woman in my church who used one of Kay’s books, changed how I felt about reading my Bible, because I finally got it!

Would you like to kickstart a new understanding of God’s Word? Kay’s Bible studies, I couldn’t recommend them more highly! Just head to ReviveOurHearts.com, find the transcript of today’s program, and there’s a link there to the Precept website. And while you’re at ReviveOurHearts.com, why not check out our newest resource we’ve put together to help you train your mind in truth? It’s a set of 52 Scripture cards. If you picture a deck of playing cards, that’s about the size of these. But each card has a different Bible passage printed on it in a fun design.  

You can use these cards however you’d like. And this month, we’ll send you a full set of fifty-two Scripture cards. It's our way of saying "thanks" for your gift of any amount in support of Revive Our Hearts. Again, there’s more information, or you can make your donation at ReviveOurHearts.com, or call us at 1-800-569-5959. Be sure to ask about the Scripture cards when you call.

Tomorrow, Nancy and Kay Arthur continue their conversation from True Woman '22.

Kay: Any time that I have a need, I run to the Word of God. I ask God, "God, show me what I need to know. Show me what I need to do." Then I wait upon the Lord. The more you study the Word of God, the easier it is. I've been in the Word of God for all these years, so it is ready for me. It's not necessary that you know where to run, but we teach you how to go to the Word of God and how to discover the answers because there is everything that pertains to life and godliness. (2 Peter 1:3) Everything is in this Book.

Dannah:  Please be back for Revive Our Hearts.

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth wants to help you know your God as you discover freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

All Scripture mentioned are paraphrases from NIV and NKJV unless otherwise noted.