Omniscient means to know all there is to know - past, present and future.
We like to know more because it usually benefits us. Consequentially we spend much time and effort to attain even more knowledge. We are even making significant progress in our attempts to know the future through tools such as artificial intelligence (AI) and predictive statistical models.
Collectively our ability to know and understand is growing faster every day. Buckminster Fuller created the “Knowledge Doubling Curve” - in 1900 the world’s knowledge doubled every century; in 1945, every 25 years; and about every year today. This rate acceleration is expected to attain daily doubling or more. - “Industry Tap into News”, 4/19/13 edition
Not knowing causes problems. When I can’t get enough information, I fear I might not make the right decision or take the right action. When others don’t have all the right information, they might misunderstand me. So it’s crazy, then, that what I struggle with the most concerning knowledge can be too much of the wrong kind of information.
I think you misunderstood me.
I usually want to be fully understood and I can get very frustrated or even hurt when I am misunderstood. Sometimes I am the problem. I might only think something instead of actually saying it. Sometimes it is the other person who simply does not know me well enough to understand what I mean. God, however, knows me completely, including even my thoughts and intentions. He knows me better than I know myself and will use that knowledge for my good.
They kill the widow and the sojourner, and murder the fatherless; and they say, ‘The LORD does not see; the God of Jacob does not perceive.’ Understand, O dullest of the people! Fools, when will you be wise? He who planted the ear, does he not hear? He who formed the eye, does he not see? He who disciplines the nations, does he not rebuke? He who teaches man knowledge—the LORD—knows the thoughts of man, that they are but a breath...If the LORD had not been my help, my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence. When I thought, ‘My foot slips,’ your steadfast love, O LORD, held me up. When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.
Can’t I get just a little more information, please?
I gather data for a decision and learn how much I still don’t know. This can be a necessary and scary step, pondering how much I did not know before. Even more scary is realizing how much more I will likely never know.
God knows all I don’t know. Think about that. Knowing we as humans would not know all things, God gave us truth and wisdom through the Bible, along with the Holy Spirit, to help us see and live more clearly despite our lack of knowledge.
“One of the most important questions that needs to be answered is, ‘When is the decision or resolution needed?’… Too little time and the decision is made without knowledge that could have enabled a more informed choice, generally reducing risk. Too much time and the benefits from the alternative solutions are delayed, or in the case of a problem, losses or pain continue to increase. The lack of making a decision in a timely matter (being indecisive) often means that all or most of the best options have been eliminated, and you are only left with the least beneficial option(s). For example, if you delay your decision to apply to colleges, you are often left with the options that have late application dates, but none of these would have been your first choice.
I think I have information overload!
I know obtaining knowledge is important, but too much is simply tiring. I need to get critical information from many different sources, but true perspective on life has been concisely given by God through one book - the Bible.
In the following Psalm, God is “the one Shepherd”. His words inspire me to act (”like goads”), while keeping me grounded (“like nails”) as He constructs good through my life. My uncomplicated job? First and foremost, revere ("fear") and obey God.
Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth. The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd. My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
Only God is omniscient.
The more I learn, the more I realize what I don’t know. I honor God by realizing He has infinitely more knowledge than I have or will ever obtain. This realization makes it logical for me to depend upon Him and His word.
"God is omniscient. He knows everything: everything possible, everything actual; all events and all creatures, of the past, the present, and the future. He is perfectly acquainted with every detail in the life of every being in heaven, in earth, and in hell……. God foreknows what will be because He has decreed what shall be.” - A.W. Pink
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.
Jesus is also omniscient.
Jesus, as God, shares all of God’s attributes. Fully knowing the agony of the cross was in His future, Jesus came from heaven to earth. The cross was not plan B to fix what Adam and Eve broke, but the plan God understood to be necessary from the beginning of creation. Necessary, because in His omniscience, God saw our sins and does not want to leave us in our sinful state.
Jesus said to her (the Samaritan woman), 'Go, call your husband, and come here.' The woman answered him, 'I have no husband.' Jesus said to her, 'You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.' The woman said to him, 'Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.’
So what do I do now?
Pray - in full confidence that I will not only be heard, but fully understood, and given a response that considers all the options and other factors of which I am currently clueless. Let my confession become more self-admittance and the beginning of my true learning with God.
Ask: How do I pray if God truly knows all?
Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear.
Prayer
God, you know me - more than I know myself. I can only know what you have revealed to me through the senses you have given me, and as a believer, through your Spirit inside me. Help me to depend upon You and Your Word more than my own limited understanding.
But the LORD said to Samuel, 'Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.'
The human brain is a finite image of God’s omniscience.
“The human brain may be able to hold as much information in its memory as is contained on the entire Internet, new research suggests. Researchers discovered that, unlike a classical computer that codes information as 0s and 1s, a brain cell uses 26 different ways to code its ‘bits.’ They calculated that the brain could store 1 petabyte (or a quadrillion bytes) of information. What's more, the human brain can store this mind-boggling amount of information while sipping just enough power to run a dim light bulb. By contrast, a computer with the same memory and processing power would require 1 gigawatt of power, or basically a whole nuclear power station…” - livescience’.com 2/18/16 article
The right hand often does not know the left.
Gathering good information has always been difficult - sharing it for good use within a business (or a family) can be even more onerous. The ideal state is having an omni-channel experience.
Many companies (think Bank of America and Disney) have been working hard toward making the same data set available to multiple people (sales, manufacturing, customer service, shipping, customer…) from multiple platforms (phone, tablet, in-person, lap-top, call center…). Communication channels and their supporting resources are designed and orchestrated to cooperate. When successful, these omni-channel experiences mimic a small part of God's omniscience. For example, what I think and declare to be true is well-known by God as, or even before, I know it.
"So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven." - Matthew 10:32-33
"His Eye Is On The Sparrow" - C.D. Martin
"Whenever I am tempted, whenever clouds arise,
When songs give place to sighing, when hope within me dies,
I draw the closer to Him, from care He sets me free;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me." (last verse)