Knowledge is Power

"Many Christians remain in bondage to fears and anxieties simply because they do not avail themselves of the Discipline of study.  They may be faithful in church attendance and earnest in fulfilling their religious duties, and still they are not changed...They may sing with gusto, pray in the Spirit, live as obediently as they know, even receive divine visions and revelations, and yet the tenor of their lives remains unchanged.  Why?  Because they have never taken up one of the central ways God uses to change us:  study....Good feelings will not free us.  Ecstatic experiences will not free us.  Getting "high" on Jesus will not free us.  Without a knowledge of the truth, we will not be free".

Celebration of Discipline, Page 62-63,  Richard J. Foster

Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, [then] are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.  John 8:31-32.

Beloved, it can't be overstated that knowledge in the Word of God and the workings of the Holy Spirit is imperative to be a successful Christian today.  Throughout these lessons, I've emphasized the importance of each Characteristic of God's Holy Spirit as an integral part of becoming perfected in Christ.  The fact of the matter is, each one of these characteristics have an immense amount of importance.  The Holy Spirit of Knowledge is one of the biggies.

The Importance of Knowledge:

In the verse above, Christ was trying to express that those who believed in Him should learn of His words, live by His words and to be intimately knowledgeable of His teachings.  The word  "know" here is the Greek word "ginosko", which suggests to perceive, understand and to know in an intimate way as one might "know" their spouse.  This is much stronger than just an awareness of Christ.  He was telling them they need an intimate knowledge of Him, and this knowledge would "make them free".

This is the concept that Dr. Fosters is expressing in his 5th chapter on study.  He quotes Romans 12:1-2 as his emphasis on the fact that to "know" the scriptures is to be transformed within the mind.  This is a very common thread of teaching in the Bible.  The Israelites were commanded to write God's laws on the doorposts and on the lentils of their homes, and to bind them on their hands so as to have them always in the forefront of their minds as they went about their daily work.

Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates:  Deuteronomy 11:18-20

This particular passage was connected to a promise from God to His people.  If they would keep His commandments, He would drive out the other nations and give His people the land as their own.  We have the same promise.  Christ offers us the promise land as well, and it starts when we ask Him into our hearts, allow Him to be Lord.  But, as we continue to learn of Him and His word, he will drive out the ungodly thoughts from our minds and give us a "land of plenty" as well.  But we are to get to know Him as He stated in John 8 above.  

Let us not get confused here.  We are sealed with the promise of Heaven by His grace through faith at the time of salvation.  I am speaking of the fertile ground within our minds, as we live here on earth today(Luke 8:5-15 )(Matthew 13:22).  Christ wants to plant His word within us as a sower sows a field unto harvest.  Our minds, this fertile ground,will bring forth the fruit of His harvest within us by way of Love, Faith, Joy, Gentleness, Longsuffering, Knowledge, Wisdom, Understanding, Peace, Mercy, and so on.  Thus becoming truly free!

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, [and] easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.  James 3:17-18

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.  Galatians 5:22-23

James expresses it this way, that God "begat" us by His own will, through His word of Truth, we should put away from us our old man ways of thinking, and replace it with godly things.

Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures...Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.  James 1:18,21-22)

The message time and again is we should be knowledgeable of His Word and Spirit. When Christ came onto the scene, he raised the bar, the standard of things.  Instead of writing God's word on our doorposts, lentils and binding them to our hands, we are to "write" them in the fleshy tablets of our hearts, to "engraft" it into our minds, so as to make the Word of God a permanent part of our beings.  The Holy Spirit characteristic of Knowledge is a big one, and Christ was full of knowledge.

And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;  Isaiah 11:2

The Practical Application of Knowledge:

Knowledge is key to fight deceiving spirits.  It will also help us organize our thoughts.  With these two benefits, we will be a formidable warrior during times of temptation.  We can also be ready to give an answer when we are asked.  Just as when the eunuch asked asked Phillip what the scriptures meant, and Phillip was able to give an answer, then share the gospel with him (Acts 8:29-35), so are we called to be able to give an answer when given the opportunity.

To be Christ like, we must have the Word of God en-grafted within us.  We can use this knowledge to guide our thoughts, our actions.  Knowledge works hand in hand with wisdom and understanding to complete the ability to choose the right decisions.  There's an old cliche' "knowledge is power".  This is definitely true with the Word of God.  As Christ used scripture to battle Satan in the desert, we too will achieve victory over the evil one as we use scripture to base our responses with during our day to day activities.

Let us keep this old cliche' in mind as well, "with great power comes great responsibility".  God expects us to be responsible with what He gives us.  Let us use His word and Spirit with fear and respect.  To do otherwise would be to work against all that God had intended.  I want to challenge each of us this week to go back through the previous posts. Pick one and really dig in deep.  

Use resources to check my references, pray over what was written, and discern what is being said.  Write in your journals as ideas come.  There are several ways to study and retain information.  It appears that repetition works best for me.  Use this time as a different time from your devotional time.  Devotion time is for ruminating or meditation on a thought or scripture! Study is for excavating the scriptures for specific truths! 

May God fill you with Knowledge this week!  Here are some verses to consider for your devotional time.

Isaiah 11:2                          Proverbs 17:27
James 1:22-25                    Galatians 4:3-7
Phillipians 4:8,9                 Ephesians 1:17,18
1John 2:3-5                        1John 5:20