As we said before, gaining knowledge about God is a whole different deal than learning about other humans. In this world, knowledge is a commodity that we buy and sell. It’s ammunition that we use to gain power for ourselves and trash others. But because knowledge is so readily accessible, we’ve learned to treat it as a cheap and common thing. We’re used to feeling entitled to it, and we’re used to flaunting it like gaudy jewelry just to draw attention to ourselves.

Consider how often you see people broadcasting intimate facts about someone else just to draw attention to themselves. Gossip rags delight in posting pictures of celebrities sobbing or making out just so the rags will sell more copies. With the introduction of forums like Facebook and Twitter, we’ve seen the value of private information drop even lower. It used to be that couples went on their honeymoons to get away from others and share secret, intimate moments in the bedroom. Now people bring their phones with them and take pornographic photos of themselves making out with their spouses. Pregnant mothers post pictures of themselves in the nude just before giving birth so we can all see the size of their stomachs. When loved ones are ill, we photograph them sitting in hospital beds and invite the whole world to gawk at them. People can’t share secrets or sincere compliments anymore without some concern that what they said will end up pasted on the internet. “My husband said the sweetest thing to me in bed the other day.” Really? Since when are bedroom conversations supposed to be broadcast to the whole world? Did you even bother to ask for your friend’s permission before you repeated what she said to you to an audience of strangers?

Now in the Church, we find a similarly nauseating show of people broadcasting their personal conversations with God just as a means to draw attention to themselves. Pompous prophets crank out the books and blogs in which they give us all a blow-by-blow description of the night Jesus materialized in their bedroom and told them how impressed He was with them. Many fat-headed pastors just can’t wait to get onstage Sunday morning and tell us all about the conversation they had with God at breakfast. Prayer warriors are always going on about who said what in the prayer closet. Healers are known for flaunting the secret insights they claim God has given them. Christian musicians turn their personal prayers to God into songs for us all to sing. And then there are all of the untitled masses who are always competing with each other to come up with the best “God said something to me” story. It’s really quite repulsive, the way we’re treating our personal exchanges with God so cheaply. And as long as we’re only interested in God talking so that we can have new material to boast about, we can be sure that He’s never going to invite us to really know Him.

God doesn’t view Himself as our toy. He doesn’t share information with us to entertain us or to help us exalt ourselves in this world. To know God is a priceless privilege, not a right. When we reject this, He begins taking back any knowledge that He shared with us and we drift into ignorance without even realizing what’s happening.

When you’re attempting to relate to the Beings who made you, you are relating to three Beings who consider Themselves to be the most magnificent, fascinating, and desirable Beings in existence. To say that They are “egotistical” is a major understatement. There is no limit to how highly our Gods think of Themselves, and understanding this about Them is critical for anyone who wants to approach Them correctly. We are not dealing with our equals–we are dealing with Beings who infinitely outrank us, and who say that we ought to consider ourselves humbly honored by any invitation to know Them better.

In mainstream Christianity, you simply aren’t going to be taught to treat your Gods with the level of respect that They want. The purpose of our site is to help souls understand what cherishing, honoring, and respecting God means. Cultivating the four soul attitudes that we’re always talking about is vital to you approaching your Creators in a way that They will be receptive to. As we often say, our Gods delight in sharing insights about Themselves with souls who are treasuring Them above all else. But learning about God requires a very different approach than learning about people. With God, we ask our questions, but then we must learn to respectfully wait for Him to bring us answers in His own time. We can’t take an entitled attitude with Him, for there are going to be many questions that He refuses to answer. If we cherish any insights He is willing to share and if we treat those things as the sacred treasures that they are, then He will be pleased to share more with us. But if we treat the knowledge of God as a cheap, expendable thing which we can use to promote ourselves–or if we try to find ways to go around God and unearth secrets about Him without His help, then we will learn the hard way just how foolish it is for specks like us to scoff at the concept of treating our Creators with respect.