That I May Know Him

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, (Reality) and the life..." (John 14:6). Jesus was saying of Himself, I am the totality of all things possessing actuality, existence, or essence. He is the personification of truth. Notice that I did not say Jesus is the personification of all truth. For there is only one truth, one reality, and Jesus is it! However, reality cannot always be seen, but it can be discovered. For believers, the most significant unseen reality that we must each discover, in order to live the lives that we were meant to, is the spiritual reality of our supernatural God. One of the magnificent things of God, is, He has left us evidence of Himself in the created world, the natural environment around us. Yet, when we contemplate the greatness of His creation, our finite minds still cannot begin to fathom who He truly is and His immense power.

Yes, we have His Word that reveals His will, nature, character, purpose and plan, but man has mostly tried to know God through intellectual means. We can know facts and information about God, but we cannot know Him personally through intellectual knowledge. Why? Intellectual knowledge also known as mental ascent or better yet, sense knowledge is limited because it uses the five senses; taste, smell, touch, see and hear to acquire and assimilate knowledge. Due to our overemphasizing intellectual knowledge, people are very aware of the natural realm but are generally uninformed and or misinformed about the supernatural realm. The natural realm being the dimension that is subject to the laws of time, space, and matter is temporal. Whereas, the supernatural realm or spiritual realm is the dimension that operates above natural laws. It is permanent, invisible, eternal and is located outside of time and space and furthermore, it also exercises dominion over the natural realm.

Intellectual knowledge has its rightful place in society, but it is a poor substitute for spiritual knowledge. The Apostle Paul tells us two things to consider, "We know that we all have knowledge.  (which here is defined as intellectual knowledge) puffs up..." (1 Corinthians 8:1) "But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corinthians 2:14) So, we can see why intellectual knowledge pales to true knowledge which is of the spiritual realm. This is why in the absence of progressive divine revelation, people tend to rely on formal, academic education, much of which attempts to discredit faith. Jesus said, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life." (John 6:63) This also shows us that truth is spiritual and therefore the reason why philosophers also fail to understand or come to know it. Things of the spiritual realm can only be discerned spiritually which is why Jesus said what He did to Nicodemus, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God...That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." (John 3:3, 6) So, in order to know God, one must be born again of the spirit. 

It was never God's intention to remain a mystery to people, especially those who are born again. In fact, He has always desired for us to know Him intimately and to experience Him in a personal way. However, we must understand that only God can reveal Himself.  No person has the ability to know Him apart from Him revealing Himself, that is, a revelation of Himself. He also must do the initiating to accomplish this. This was the case in the life and earth ministry of Jesus, "Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner." (John 5:19) "For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak." (John 12:49) Jesus was an obedient, willing and totally submitted vessel who revealed the will, nature, character, purpose and plan of the Father. However, we see it was the Father who initiated what Jesus spoke and did.

Since the only way to really know God is through revelation, let us investigate what revelation is. The Greek word for revelation means "an uncovering" or "disclosure." Revelation enables us to understand truths about the spiritual realm, truths that are hidden from the natural realm. In Jesus' conversation with a woman of Sychar near Jacobs well in Samaria, He reveals to her a very important key to knowing God, "God is Spirit." (John 4:24) This is a revelation of God. He is not of the natural, temporal realm, but of the spiritual eternal realm. The angel Gabriel tells the virgin Mary, "For with God nothing will be impossible." (Luke 1:37) This is another revelation showing us that God is all-powerful. Malachi reveals that God never changes, "For I am the Lord, I do not change." (Malachi 3:6) We also see that God is eternal, "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God." (Psalm 90:2) God dwells in the dimension of eternity, the spiritual realm. Even though He inhabits eternity, He manifests Himself and His works, at times, in visible form in the natural dimension of our physical world and universe.

God reveals Himself to us as the supernatural and all-powerful God through the Holy Spirit. There is no other means by which we can know Him. Again, we cannot know the "reality" of God without Him revealing Himself to us. Even a theologian may know that a superior being exists, but that does not mean that he knows God personally. Many theologians operate merely with information acquired through intellectual research, reasoning, mental processes, or through the experiences of others. But the Holy Spirit is the source of all revelation from God. Jesus said to His disciples,  “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you." (John 16:12-15)  

Now, some will say something to the effect, "the disciples needed revelation from the Holy Spirit, but we do not need it now because we have the Bible." This is only partially true. The Bible tells us, "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12) For instance, did you ever read a passage of scripture several times then all of a sudden it made complete sense or you see it in a different light that is life changing. This is God revealing Himself through a Word within the Word, revelation. Why does this happen? Because God's Word is living, not changing, not static, but alive, living. Remember, Jesus said His word is Spirit and Life. Revelation from God allows us to suddenly understand something without the aid of the natural senses.

Revelation includes knowing things you otherwise would not know, perceiving things without having a prior awareness of them, and seeing things that have yet to occur. It is God revealing His mind, His thoughts to man so that they can know Him personally and exercise their God-given roles and responsibilities on earth. Unfortunately, because we in the western world rely so much on intellectual knowledge, we are trained to reject anything that cannot be explained according to human understanding alone. This is why the Holy Spirit spoke to Paul to tells us, "For we walk by faith, not by sight." (2 Corinthians 5:7) The writer of Hebrews tells us, "By faith we understand..." (Hebrews 11:3) and "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." (Hebrews 11:6) True faith, the faith that comes from God, His Word (Romans 10:17, 12:3), gives us understanding of spiritual things as well as pleasing God. Although the Bible consists of words written on paper, it is not of the natural realm. It is spiritual! Therefore, without a revelation from and of God, faith will not grow. If faith is not growing, it is because faith will not exceed our revelation of God. This is why it is so important for believers to seek God through His Word for revelation each day. 

An analogy of this is found in the history of Israel in their life in the wilderness before entering the promised land. The Lord provided manna for them to eat each morning, “This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. This is the thing which the Lord has commanded: ‘Let every man gather it according to each one’s need, one omer for each person, according to the number of persons; let every man take for those who are in his tent...And Moses said, “Let no one leave any of it till morning. Notwithstanding they did not heed Moses. But some of them left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and stank..." (Exodus 16:15-16, 19-20) Notice that they were in need of fresh bread every morning. The bread from the previous day was old and not worth feeding on. Jesus said, "...“I am the bread of life..." (John 6:35) Jesus is the bread that we believers also need every day. We cannot try to live off of yesterday's bread, revelation, or we may find ourselves "old wines skins." We also cannot know God through intellectual knowledge, by doing so we will not come to truly know God in a personal, intimate way and Christianity will be nothing more than any other lifeless, powerless world religion.  "Where there is no vision [no redemptive revelation of God], the people perish..." (Proverbs 29:18 AMP)   

Revelation Knowledge

 When God created man, "He created him in His own image according His likeness." (Genesis 1:27) This has nothing to do with mans body, for it was "formed from the dust of the ground" (Genesis 2:7) It wasn't until God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; that man became a living being." (Genesis 2:7) The Holy Spirit reveals through the apostle Paul that man is composed of "spirit, soul (mind, will and emotions) and body." (1 Thessalonians 5:23) However, when we consider that man was made in Gods image and likeness, "God is Spirit..." (John 4:24) we then come to understand that the real man is a spirit, with a soul who lives in a physical body.

The body possesses the five senses, touch, taste, feel, hear and see and until one is "born again, born of the Spirit" (John 3:3-8) the senses are the educators and teachers of the brain. However, if the senses are impaired then the brain cannot assimilate knowledge properly. For instances, if a person is born without hearing, then trying to listen to an announcer at a baseball game is meaningless. If a person is born without sight then taking them to view the magnificence of the Grand Canyon will have very little benefit. In other words, the brain is totally dependent upon the five senses. Without them in full operation, not only is knowledge limited, but the body and soul are limited also.

Looking back at the Garden of Eden, Adam's act of treason brought death to all mankind resulting in condemnation (Romans 5:17-18) The moment Adam realized what he did, both he and his wife hid from God, "And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden." (Genesis 3:8) Naturally, they could not really hide from God. However, the instance that Adam fell, his spirit lost it dominion and he now had to rely on his senses. His spiritual prowess had now become enveloped by his flesh,"And the LORD said,"My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh..." (Genesis 6:3). Although Adam was created with the five senses, I believe that his senses did not play a very large part of his life prior to the fall as they did after. Prior to the fall his spirit dominated his body as well as his soul. His spirit governed his reasoning faculties and was the avenue in which his mind received knowledge. However, once he fell, he would be fully dependent on his senses to survive because he (his spirit) had lost contact with God, his body was now subject to death and all the knowledge that he would acquirer would come solely through his senses.

All the knowledge that one acquires through the senses is dwarfed when compared with the knowledge that comes through the spirit. Saul of Tarsus, who we know as the apostle Paul was a highly educated and intelligent religious leader, yet he said, "But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.  Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." (Philippians 3:7-8) The knowledge that he had received prior to his conversion was through his senses. However, now he boasts in the knowledge of Christ Jesus because it far exceeds sense knowledge, it is spiritual. It is revelation that comes by the Holy Spirit through the recreated (born again) spirit. Paul also tells us, "...We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up..." (1 Corinthians 8:1) He is saying that it is sense knowledge that causes people to become filled with pride. Now we can understand why the natural, sense knowledge person has trouble understanding the things of God, "But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corinthians 2:14)

When people operate in sense knowledge only, their reaction to God (spiritual things) becomes much like Adam and his wife. In a sense (no pun intended) they hide from God. The sad thing is, many in the church today, especially church leaders, depend on their senses to obtain knowledge which directly opposes the kind of faith that pleases God (Hebrews 11:6). If what they believe cannot be assimilated in their mind by what they have learned through their senses, then it must not be true, ego why we have the doctrines of man superseding the Word of God in the church today. However, their is some wonderful news.

First, for the non-believer, simply by "confessing with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.' (Born Again) (Romans 10:9) The moment this takes place you become, "a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17) Your recreated spirit can now give revelation knowledge of spiritual things to your mind. Secondly, for the believer, the apostle Paul prayed, "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened;" (Ephesians 1:17-18) The believer can have revelation knowledge which supersedes sense knowledge. However, in either case revelation knowledge comes through a steady diet of reading, studying and most importantly, meditating on the Word of God. This in turn builds our faith (Romans 10:17) which will ultimately bring believers to the place where our spirit, the real you and me, dominates the soul and body as it did with Adam prior to the fall.

So, where are you? Are you living out your Christian life believing because your senses make it believable, like the apostle Thomas (John 20:24-29) or do you believe because the Word of God says so, period? The first will cause us to hide from God because we do not truly know His will, nature, character, purposes and plan, but the latter will cause us to walk on this earth as super people "walking by faith and not by sight"
(2 Corinthians 5:7) 

Well What Do You Know

Throughout the ages, man has accumulated great amounts of knowledge. We have experienced advancements in the sciences that have led to many technological achievements. The majority of these advancements have come by way of mans ability to reason. In reality it comes down to the knowledge that his five senses can understand which I call sense knowledge. However, anything outside of the five senses that cannot be explained becomes a guess. For instance, Charles Darwin could not fully understand the reason for creation. He did not truly know the reason or origin of man, nor the origin of life, motion, matter or light. Therefore, at the end of what his senses could make tangible, he developed a system of nothing more than ideas, theories, that were unproven and today many accept as fact. The theory of evolution is a product of Darwin's lack of knowledge of the aforementioned things due to his rejection of a revelation of the Creator. His limitation was then transformed into nothing more than the great guess that has deceived man for over a century and a half.

Although man has advanced in many fields, he is still limited to what his senses can achieve. Many today refuse to step beyond the sense realm which keeps man in darkness and come into the light of revelation knowledge. It is the lack of the revelation of God that keeps man in this impassable chasm causing him to make one guess after another. This is not God's doing, For it is God, "who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." (1 Timothy 2:4) If Charles Darwin would have sought the Lord, he would have found Him and would have received the revelation knowledge that would have supplemented his limited sense knowledge. This would have brought him to a real conclusion of creation.

Jesus said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3) This is the only way that man can escape from his own thinking and see the things of God. Unfortunately, many church leaders today look to senses knowledge and have missed the freedom that comes with revelation knowledge. They say the Bible is the Word of God but totally deny it through their words and lack of action. The Bible stands alone among all of the books of the world as the book of a revelation from God to man. It presents a revelation of the origin and reason for man and creation as well as the origin of sin and mans redemption. It provides a revelation of the new creation in man through Jesus Christ and most important, it provides a revelation of God Himself, His nature, character, will, purposes and plan.

Many reject the reality of God because they say that they cannot see Him, hear Him or touch Him so He is not real. Well, think about this. Silent movies mean nothing to a person who is blind, but it does not mean that they are not real. Radio means nothing to a person who is deaf but it does not mean that it is not real. In the same manner, God may mean nothing to the person of sense knowledge but in the same way it does not mean that He is not real. Many Christians today also operate in the same realm of sense knowledge. They do indeed say that all things have been created by God, but when it comes to His nature, character, will, purposes and plan, they tend to balk. They quickly return to reasoning and in doing so have limited God in their lives. God is not out of reach, He is not out of touch nor has He or His Word changed (Malachi 3:6, Hebrews 13:8) So, it stands to reason that if Christians are struggling in this life (apart from persecution for Christ's sake) then chances are they too are operating through their senses and not through revelation knowledge.

To grasp revelation knowledge is to let go of the senses and hold on to another intangible, faith. The writer of Hebrews says it this way, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1) In other words having the assured confidence that the things you want to happen, which are inline with God's Word, will indeed happen even though there is no tangible evidence. This is the realm that makes the impossible, possible (Matthew 17:20) This is the only realm where God responds (Hebrews 11:6) and it is the realm that every Christian can walk in (Mark 9:23). So if you want to come into the realm of revelation knowledge, you must yield to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, believe God's Word has not changed nor will it change and then act upon His Word. Grace and peace be multiplied to you...        

We Can Know

One of the greatest problems that bothers most of God's people is, how to know the will of the Father. The Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul tells us, "For this reason we also, from the day we heard of it, have not ceased to pray and make [special] request for you, [asking] that you may be filled with the full (deep and clear) knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom [in comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God] and in understanding and discernment of spiritual things." (Colossians 1:9 AMP) Simply put, the will of the Father is found in His Word and personified in Jesus, "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me." ( John 6:38) "He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him." (John 8:29)

The Apostle Paul tells us, "Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to the Lord." (2 Corinthians 5:9) If Jesus could please the Father and do His will, if Paul could please the Father know His will and do it, then it is possible for us to do it also, because we have His Word which is His will. When Paul was saying farewell to the believers at Ephesian, he said, "So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified." (Acts 20:30)

Looking back to Colossians 1:9 Some may say, "It does not seem credible that we could have a full, deep clear knowledge of God’s will.” But why shouldn't we? His Word is a perfect revelation of His will. The Bible is a perfect book. The Holy Spirit is a perfect teacher. We are perfect New Creations, created in Christ Jesus. We have perfect Righteousness. We have a perfect relationship with the Father and the Son. We have a complete and perfect redemption. The Holy Spirit through the Apostle John tells us, "...and of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace." (John 1:12) and the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Peter tells us, "...we are partakers of the divine nature." (2 Peter 1:4)

So, if these things are true, which they are, then it should be obvious that we can have complete knowledge of His will. Fear, doubt and unbelief from dogma and doctrines that have held believers in bondage for centuries have thwarted faith from believing God's Word. The Apostle Paul tells us, "For we walk by faith, not by sight." (2 Corinthians 5:7) "But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ." (1 Corinthians 2:14-16) "We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up." (1 Corinthians 1:8)

Wait a minute. First you are saying that we can have the concise, complete knowledge of God’s will and now, knowledge puffs up. This shows us two type of knowledge. First, in 1 Corinthians 1:8 the Greek word for knowledge is "gnosis" which means intellectual knowledge; mental assent; sense knowledge. In Colossians 1:9 the Greek word for knowledge is "epignosis" which means precise and correct knowledge, revelation knowledge. The first is carnal and comes via the five senses. The latter is spiritual and comes via the recreated spirit. Paul also tells us, "giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light." (Colossians 1:12) and "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints." (Ephesians 1:17-18 )

We have an enormous inheritance. The Father wants to open the eyes of our understanding and enlighten us to all these things that are legally and vitally ours through faith in Jesus Christ. He has given us His ability to know His will and to know what our share is in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has given us the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth, therefore the believer should not be ignorant of the Father's will, our place and standing in Christ and of our rights and privileges that we have been given through faith in Jesus Christ. We are the sons and daughters of God. We are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. So, let us believe and receive all that He has for us. Amen?

Wise as Serpents

When Jesus commissioned the twelve to go out before Him, He told them, "Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves." (Matthew 10:16) 
Wisdom is defined as, the ability to discern or judge what is true, right, or lasting; the ability to use knowledge correctly. Although wisdom is defined as such, we must understand, as there is God's Kingdom of light and life, there is also Satan's kingdom of darkness and death. This means that wisdom can come from only one of these sources.

The Holy Spirit through the Apostle James tells, us, "Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy." (James 3:13-17)

So we can see, the wisdom that is in the world is not from God, but "earthly, sensual, demonic." This simply means, that every person on planet earth, that is not born again, uses earthly, sensual, demonic wisdom to use their knowledge correctly. However, the truth is, as they use this type of wisdom to promote their knowledge, the results are, bitter envy and self-seeking in their hearts, they lie against the truth and their world is filled with, envy, self-seeking, confusion and every evil thing. Simply look at any society, people group or person who does not know God or His Word, and we clearly see that these things are quite evident. For example, creation, God's wisdom, whereas, evolution is, earthly, sensual, demonic wisdom. For the believer, "By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible." (Hebrews 11:3) For those who are not of God, there is still debate, vain discussions and differing opinions of how everything came into being.

The Apostle Paul's letter to the church at Colossi reveals another interesting point concerning wisdom, "...that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." (Colossians 1:9) The Holy Spirit tells us through Paul, that believers can be filled, (to make full, to fill up, to fill to the full) with the knowledge (precise and correct knowledge) of God's will (His will is His Word and His Word is His will) in all wisdom (from above, which is pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy) and spiritual (things of the Holy Spirit) understanding (the correct use of knowledge, moreover, the knowledge of His will, His Word). PTL

Think about this. If believers have God's ability and His wisdom, and we do, and if we were to let them loose, what limitlessness there will be in the church as well as in the believers ministry. It is not a problem of education, but of letting God loose in us, liberating Him in us so He can reveal Himself through us to others. Again, the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul tells us, "But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God..." (1 Corinthians 1:30) Simply put, Jesus has been made wisdom from God to and for every believer.

Going back to the Apostle James, we see, "And if any one of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask God for it, who gives with open hand to all men, and without upbraiding; and it will be given him.
But let him ask in faith and have no doubts; for he who has doubts is like the surge of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed into spray. A person of that sort must not expect to receive anything from the Lord such a one is a man of two minds, undecided in every step he takes." (James 1:5-8 WEY) However, I summit to you, that you have the knowledge of the life of God that is in you. You have the knowledge of the power and authority of His Word. You have the knowledge of your legal right to use the Name of Jesus in your combat against spiritual forces. You have the knowledge of the fact that God is actually in you, because you have the wisdom of God in you! So, now you are going to use these mighty facts to bless humanity. Amen!

The Holy Spirit, the greater one Who is in us, is no longer imprisoned, but is now set free to use us as He pleases. We are no longer hidden. People know who we are. The Father is glorified, the Name of Jesus is Magnified, the Holy Spirit is working mightily through us and the Word of God is growing and prevailing mightily. So, declare with me, "I have let God loose and have given Him the freedom to do through me the works that He did through Jesus to bless the world." "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." (Luke 4:18-19)

Do You Really Know Him - Part 1

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, (Reality) and the life..." (John 14:6) Jesus was saying of Himself, I am the totality of all things possessing actuality, existence, or essence. He is the personification of truth. Notice that I did not say Jesus is the personification of all truth. For there is only one truth, one reality, and Jesus is it! However, reality cannot always be seen, but it can be discovered. For believers, the most significant unseen reality that we must each discover, in order to live the lives that
we were meant to, is the spiritual reality of our supernatural God. One of the incredible things of God, is, He has left us evidence of Himself in the created world, the natural environment around us. Yet, when we contemplate the greatness of His creation, our finite minds still cannot begin to fathom who He truly is and His immense power.

Yes we have His Word that reveals His will, nature, character, purpose and plan, but man has mostly tried to know God through intellectual means. We can know facts and information about God, but we cannot know Him personally through intellectual knowledge. Why? Intellectual knowledge also known as mental ascent or better yet, sense knowledge is limited because it uses the five senses; taste, smell, touch, see and hear to acquire and assimilate knowledge. Due to our overemphasizing intellectual knowledge, people are very aware of the natural realm but are generally uninformed and or misinformed about the supernatural realm. The natural realm being the dimension that is subject to the laws of time, space, and matter is temporal. Whereas, the supernatural realm or spiritual realm is the dimension that operates above natural laws. It is permanent, invisible, eternal and is located outside of time and space that also exercises dominion over the natural realm.

Intellectual knowledge has its rightful place in society, but it is a poor substitute for spiritual knowledge. The Apostle Paul tells us two things to consider, "We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge (intellectual knowledge) puffs up..." (1 Corinthians 8:1) "But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corinthians 2:14) So we can see why intellectual knowledge pales to true knowledge which is of the spiritual realm. This is why in the absence of progressive divine revelation, people tend to rely on formal, academic education, much of which attempts to discredit faith. Jesus said, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life." (John 6:63) This also shows us that truth is spiritual and therefore the reason why philosophers also fail to understand or come to know it. Things of the spiritual realm can only be discerned spiritually which is why Jesus said what He did to Nicodemus, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God...That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." (John 3:3, 6) So, in order to know God, one must be born again of the spirit. 

It was never God's intention to remain a mystery to His people. In fact, He has always desired for us to know Him intimately and to experience Him in a personal way. However, we must understand that only God can reveal Himself.  No person has the ability to know Him apart from Him revealing Himself, that is, a revelation of God. He also must do the initiating to accomplish this. This was the case even in the life and earth ministry of Jesus, "Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner." (John 5:19) "For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak." (John 12:49) Jesus was an obedient, willing and totally submitted vessel who revealed the will, nature, character, purpose and plan of the Father. However, we see it was the Father who initiated what Jesus spoke and did.

Since the only way to really know God is through revelation, let us investigate what revelation is. The Greek word for revelation means "an uncovering" or "disclosure." Revelation enables us to understand truths about the spiritual realm, truths that are hidden from the natural realm. In Jesus' conversation with a woman of Sychar near Jacobs well in Samaria, He reveals to her a very important key to knowing God, "God is Spirit." (John 4:24) This is a revelation of God. He is not of the natural, temporal realm, but of the spiritual eternal realm. The angel Gabriel tells the virgin Mary, "For with God nothing will be impossible." (Luke 1:37) This is another revelation showing us that God is all-powerful. Malachi reveals that God never changes, "For I am the Lord, I do not change." (Malachi 3:6) We also see that God is eternal, "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God." (Psalm 90:2) God dwells in the dimension of eternity, the spiritual realm. Even though He inhabits eternity, He manifests Himself and His works, at times, in visible form in the natural dimension of our physical world and universe.

God reveals Himself to us as the supernatural and all-powerful God through the Holy Spirit. There is no other means by which we can know Him. Again, we cannot know the "reality" of God without Him revealing Himself to us. Even a theologian may know that a superior being exists, but that does not mean that he knows God personally. Many theologians operate merely with information acquired through intellectual research, reasoning, mental processes, or through the experiences of others. But the Holy Spirit is the source of all revelation from God. Jesus said to His disciples,  “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you." (John 16:12-15)  

Now, some will say something to the effect, "the disciples needed revelation from the Holy Spirit, but we do not need it now because we have the Bible." This is only partially true. The Bible tells us, "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12) For instance, did you ever read a passage of scripture several times then all of a sudden it made complete sense or you see it in a different light that is life changing. This is God revealing Himself through a Word within the Word, revelation. Why does this happen? Because God's Word is living, not changing, not static, but alive, living. Remember, Jesus said His word is Spirit and Life. Revelation from God allows us to suddenly understand something without the aid of the natural senses.

Revelation includes knowing things you otherwise would not know, perceiving things without having a prior awareness of them, and seeing things that have yet to occur. It is God revealing His mind, His thoughts to man so that they can know Him personally and exercise their God-given roles and responsibilities on earth. Unfortunately, because we in the western world rely so much on intellectually knowledge, we are trained to reject anything that cannot be explained according to human understanding alone. This is why the Holy Spirit spoke to Paul to tells us, "For we walk by faith, not by sight." (2 Corinthians 5:7) The writer of Hebrews tells us, "By faith we understand..." (Hebrews 11:3) and "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." (Hebrews 11:6) True faith, the faith that comes from God, His Word (Romans 10:17), gives us understanding of spiritual things as well as pleasing God. Although the Bible consists of words written on paper, it is not of the natural realm. It is spiritual! Therefore, without a revelation from and of God, faith will not grow. If faith is not growing, it is because faith will not exceed our revelation of God. This is why it is so important for believers to seek God through His Word for revelation each day. 

An analogy of this is found in the history of Israel in their life in the wilderness before entering the promised land. The Lord provided manna for them to eat each morning, “This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. This is the thing which the Lord has commanded: ‘Let every man gather it according to each one’s need, one omer for each person, according to the number of persons; let every man take for those who are in his tent...And Moses said, “Let no one leave any of it till morning. Notwithstanding they did not heed Moses. But some of them left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and stank..." (Exodus 16:15-16, 19-20) Notice that they were in need of fresh bread every morning. The bread from the previous day was old and not worth feeding on. Jesus said, "...“I am the bread of life..." (John 6:35) Jesus is the bread that we believers also need every day. We cannot try to live off of yesterday's bread, revelation, or we may find ourselves "old wines skins." We also cannot know God through intellectual knowledge, by doing so we will not come to truly know God in a personal, intimate way and Christianity will be nothing more than any other lifeless, powerless world religion.  "Where there is no vision [no redemptive revelation of God], the people perish..." (Proverbs 29:18 AMP)   

Where Are You

When God created man, "He created him in His own image according His likeness." (Genesis 1:27) This has nothing to do with mans body, for it was "formed from the dust of the ground" (Genesis 2:7) It wasn't until God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; that man became a living being." (Genesis 2:7) The Holy Spirit reveals through the apostle Paul that man is composed of "spirit, soul (mind, will and emotions) and body." (1 Thessalonians 5:23) However, when we consider that man was made in Gods image and likeness, "God is Spirit..." (John 4:24) we then come to understand that the real man is a spirit, with a soul who lives in a physical body.

The body possesses the five senses, touch, taste, feel, hear and see and until one is "born again, born of the Spirit" (John 3:3-8) the senses are the educators and teachers of the brain. However, if the senses are impaired then the brain cannot assimilate knowledge properly. For instances, if a person is born without hearing, then trying to listen to an announcer at a baseball game is meaningless. If a person is born without sight then taking them to view the magnificence of the Grand Canyon will have very little benefit. In other words, the brain is totally dependent upon the five senses. Without them in full operation, not only is knowledge limited, but the body and soul are limited also.

Looking back at the Garden of Eden, Adam's act of treason brought death to all mankind resulting in condemnation (Romans 5:17-18) The moment Adam realized what he did, both he and his wife hid from God, "And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden." (Genesis 3:8) Naturally, they could not really hide from God. However, the instance that Adam fell, his spirit lost it dominion and he now had to rely on his senses. His spiritual prowess had now become enveloped by his flesh,"And the LORD said,"My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh..." (Genesis 6:3). Although Adam was created with the five senses, I believe that his senses did not play a very large part of his life prior to the fall as they did after. Prior to the fall his spirit dominated his body as well as his soul. His spirit governed his reasoning faculties and was the avenue in which his mind received knowledge. However, once he fell, he would be fully dependent on his senses to survive because he (his spirit) had lost contact with God, his body was now subject to death and all the knowledge that he would acquirer would come solely through his senses.

All the knowledge that one acquires through the senses is dwarfed when compared with the knowledge that comes through the spirit. Saul of Tarsus, who we know as the apostle Paul was a highly educated and intelligent religious leader, yet he said, "But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.  Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." (Philippians 3:7-8) The knowledge that he had received prior to his conversion was through his senses. However, now he boasts in the knowledge of Christ Jesus because it far exceeds sense knowledge, it is spiritual. It is revelation that comes by the Holy Spirit through the recreated (born again) spirit. Paul also tells us, "...We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up..." (1 Corinthians 8:1)
He is saying that it is sense knowledge that causes people to become filled with pride. Now we can understand why the natural, sense knowledge person has trouble understanding the things of God, "But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corinthians 2:14)

When people operate in sense knowledge only, their reaction to God (spiritual things) becomes much like Adam and his wife. In a sense (no pun intended) they hide from God. The sad thing is, many in the church today, especially church leaders, depend on their senses to obtain knowledge which directly opposes the kind of faith that pleases God (Hebrews 11:6). If what they believe cannot be assimilated in their mind by what they have learned through their senses, then it must not be true, ego why we have the doctrines of man superseding the Word of God in the church today. However, their is some wonderful news.

First, for the non-believer, simply by "confessing with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.' (Born Again) (Romans 10:9) The moment this takes place you become, "a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17) Your recreated spirit can now give revelation knowledge of spiritual things to your mind. Secondly, for the believer, the apostle Paul prayed, "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened;" (Ephesians 1:17-18) The believer can have revelation knowledge which supersedes sense knowledge. However, in either case revelation knowledge comes through a steady diet of reading, studying and most importantly, meditating on the Word of God. This in turn builds our faith (Romans 10:17) which will ultimately bring believers to the place where our spirit, the real you and me, dominates the soul and body as it did with Adam prior to the fall.

So, where are you? Are you living out your Christian life believing because your senses make it believable, like the apostle Thomas (John 20:24-29) or do you believe because the Word of God says so, period? The first will cause us to hide from God because we do not truly know His will, nature, character, purposes and plan, but the latter will cause us to walk on this earth as super people "walking by faith and not by sight"
(2 Corinthians 5:7)