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Occasionally, I am the guest speaker at a church. As a guest, I am not well known, so the pastor says a few introductory words about me. Usually, the introduction boils down to this: “George Paul Wood is a good man and a good speaker, so pay attention to what he says.”

If you’ve never been introduced to an audience this way, you probably don’t know the embarrassment that arises from the discrepancy between others’ perception of you and your self-perception. Would anyone think I’m a good man if they knew what I know about me—my doubts, fears, and besetting sins? Would anyone think I’m a good speaker if they knew the intellectual sausage grinder my message had passed through before delivery?

This isn’t confession time, so I won’t go into detail about my own shortcomings. I simply want to make a point: You are the person who knows you best. You are the expert about you. That’s why, if others want to know you better, you must reveal yourself to them.

The same is true of God. So if we want to know him better, we must listen to his self-revelation. Consider what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2:10-13:

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.

In Christian theology, God exists eternally as a unity of three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The relationship between the first and second persons of the Trinity is described using a familial analogy: father-son. But the relationship between the first and third persons is described using a psychological analogy: a man reflecting on his own thoughts.

The Holy Spirit is the expert about God. If there’s anything to be known about God, the Holy Spirit knows it and reveals it. If you want to know about God, then, you must pay attention to spiritual revelation.

Where does the Spirit reveal God? In creation, of course—for God is the Creator. And in conscience too, for God is our Judge. But the Spirit reveals God best in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ “who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption” (1:30).

How do you come to know God personally? Too many of us rely on “words taught by human wisdom.” To know a man, ask a man to reveal himself. But to know God, you must ask him for the same. God is his own expert, and he speaks to us through the Spirit.