No human being can understand all there is to know about God. However, God’s Word is chock full of admonitions for us to seek understanding! The book of Proverbs alone is like a broken record on the subject. I could write many pages listing all God’s complaints in the Bible about how His people don’t understand Him and His ways, to their own harm.

So the better question is not “Is it possible?” but “How shall I respond to what God desires of me?”

God made those desires clear when he said through Jeremiah the Prophet,

“Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord.

Jeremiah 9:23-24 (NASB)

Let him boast — that he understands me, and what I’m all about!

God couldn’t be more clear.

Think about the three ways God is most concerned about in expressing Himself: lovingkindness, justice and righteousness.

Each has the potential to conflict with another in any given situation. Of course God has all the wisdom He needs to weave these together perfectly.

Your problem is that everything God “exercises on earth” He does through human beings — you and me! So you can be sure, Beloved, that it pleases God for you to seek to understand Him, His truth, His wisdom, and His ways, enabling Him to exercise Himself through you.

Understanding doesn’t light upon your soul without your participation in the process.

God could have set it up that way, but He seems to have this thing about delighting in a partnership with you, in making it necessary for you to participate. As if you are a true son or daughter, and not a puppet.

There is a subtle tendency in us to pit faith against understanding. I have heard Christians say things like, “You don’t have to understand why God wants you to do something, just do it! That’s really walking in faith!”

Yes, there are times when God will ask you to do something without giving you the bigger picture or letting you know the outcome. We have all followed God in things before we understood, and it was good. But that does not mean you shouldn’t seek understanding, or believe that walking in blind faith is more pleasing to God than understanding.

It takes as much faith to acquire understanding as it does to walk blindly in God’s will. Faith that you can receive living counsel from Him, that you can be taught by Him, whenever you need it, as James said:

But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

James 1:5-8 (NASB)

Notice: God gives His wisdom generously and without reproach.

When Jesus gave His disciples Orientation 101 on the Holy Spirit, He said:

“All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things…

John 14:25-26 (NIV)

The Apostle Paul confirmed this in 1 Corinthians 2:

7 We declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him — 10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.

16 …for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:7-12, 16 (NIV)

With the Spirit residing in you, you have the mind of Christ.

You, beloved, have access to the thoughts of God. You are a privileged character.

Finally, the Apostle Paul released this prayer upon all who follow Christ. If that’s you, this prayer has been released and is waiting to be answered in you. It sums up nicely the best reasons to seek understanding:

We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God…

Colossians 1:9-10 (NIV)