Knowledge – Light from the Word

To Know God, Is To Be Known of Him

The desire of all who claim to be God’s children should be that of wanting to know Him; to know Him as Lord of our life, as we seek and acknowledge Him in every aspect of circumstance that we face. Walking with Him day by day in the newness of life in Him. The key word here is relationship, for it is in relationship that we are connected with our Lord in good times, and in bad times. Relationship binds us to Him, while empowering us with spiritual and physical strength. This should be our most important and determined purpose while here on this earth. Paul counted everything as loss compared to the possession of the priceless privilege of knowing Christ YAHSHUA his Lord and of progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him; perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly that was his determined purpose (Phil. 3). For this reason, he was empowered by God’s strength in his trials, which were many in his life time as God’s minister. Paul’s life is an example of someone’s determined purpose to know God. It shows in his bodily and emotional sufferings when persecuted for the sake of the Gospel, without losing focus of his desire to know God. Suffering persecution for the sake of the Gospel is a true sign that we are in relationship with God.

The misconception that we are exempt from trials and sufferings when we walk close to the Lord, is one that has caused confusion and weakness of faith, for we were called to be molded into the image of God’s Son (Rom. 8:29). That means, our old and sinful nature, which is the soul comprising of the intellect, the emotion, and the will must submit and conform itself to God’s nature. The molding process is hard and painful, for we were born in sin, carrying the weight of iniquity of our forefathers. For this reason, we tend to be evil and contrary to God’s nature, as He has said, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9). The Lord, often calls us to the still waters, a place where we can be alone with Him. It is a place where we are spiritually refreshed in His presence, for water speaks of the Holy Spirit. His comforting presence refreshes us, and leads us close to God, by convicting and shaping our nature to His nature. The closer we get to Him the more that we see ourselves for what we are. YAHSHUA said to His disciples when life was so busy for them without even the leisure to eat, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place, and rest a while” (Mark 6:30). That’s what we should do today in our busy life style, and not run away from His presence. YAHSHUA wants our friendship with Him, as He told the disciples, “You are My friends if you keep on doing the things which I command you to do” (John 15:3,14). Friendship is strengthened by doing what is pleasing to a friend and vice-versa.

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Our Ways Are Not God’s Ways – God’s Thoughts Are Not Our Thoughts

(Isaiah 55: 8- 11)

Abraham was seventy-five years old when God called him to leave his country, relatives and his father’s house to a land He was going to show him. He promised to make a great nation from him and bless him with riches. Seventy-five in those days was still a young age, relatively speaking, for his father had died at the age of 205. He had no children at that time, for his wife was barren. When the Lord appeared to Abraham in a vision a second time, he said to the Lord God, What can You give me, since I am going on childless and he who shall be the owner and heir of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? Look, You have given me no child; and born in my house is my heir. Abraham in his human nature is puzzled, not understanding God’s time line for the fulfillment of His promise. Sixteen years later, God came to Abraham again and this time he made a covenant between Him and Abraham. This covenant was that Abraham shall be the father of many nations; he probably wondered when, since sixteen years had passed since God had called him out of his land to a new land He was going to give him but his wife still was barren.

When God came to Abraham the last time before his wife conceived, he was at the age one hundred and his wife at ninety years old. God’s promise of a son became a matter of laughter to both of them. But God assured them that time that He was going surely to return to them when the season had come round, and behold, Sarah his wife was going to have a son. The reality to them was that they were now old, well advanced in years; it had ceased to be with Sarah as with women. Therefore Sarah laughed to herself, saying, After I have become aged shall I have pleasure and delight, my lord being old? The Lord saw and heard Sarah and said, Is anything too hard or too wonderful for the Lord? At the appointed time, when the season comes around, I will return to you and Sarah shall have borne a son (Gen.17,18:10-14). God’s thoughts are not our thoughts; our ways are not His ways!

The Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for her as He had promised (Gen. 21:1). Abraham was one hundred and Sarah ninety years old; but what is it to the Lord, since He is the Creator of life, and He is not in a frame of human time? He opened the womb of Sarah and what seemed impossible to them and their family, and a matter of laughter, became an expression of God’s power and faithfulness, for there is nothing hard for Him. His thoughts are not our thoughts; our ways are not His ways. He could have called someone younger according to our thoughts and reasoning; or He could have given Abraham a son earlier, but how would they have known the depth of God’s power and wisdom in the fulfilling of His promise to them? In our weakness God’s strength is manifested. Abraham had to go through a few experiences in life before he would see the reality of the promises. First he had to believe in the only true God, since he had come from a family of idol worshippers; second, he had to have faith to take the first step in obedience to God. Faith and obedience were then credited to him, for doing the impossible as far as to obey God in sacrificing his only son as God had asked of him to do. He had waited for that son twenty-five years. Now the Lord wanted to take him back. The depth of his faith went beyond the visible reality; in his faith he obeyed, believing God was going to give him his son back after he had killed him, as we read in Hebrews 11:17-18: By faith Abraham, when he was put to the test, had already brought Isaac for an offering; he who had gladly received all welcomed [God’s] promises was ready to sacrifice his only son, of whom it was said, through Isaac shall your descendant be reckoned, for he reasoned that God was able to raise [him] up even from among the dead. Indeed in the sense that Isaac was figuratively dead, he did receive him back from the dead. “God’s thoughts are not our thoughts; our ways are not God’s ways”!

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The Faithlessness of Today’s Church

Will not God defend and protect and avenge His elect, who cry to Him day and night? Will He defer them and delay help on their behalf? I tell you, He will defend and protect and avenge them speedily. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth? (Luke 18: 7-80)

The faithlessness of today’s church is perceived everywhere. The Lord YAHSHUA rightly asked the question: When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth? What possibly caused the church to lose her faith? From one extreme to another, the church has lost her faith through the multiplied wickedness and through the pursuit of worldly things. The prosperity teaching has caused the church to lose focus on YAHSHUA’S teachings concerning the pursuit of heavenly treasures. They instead are running after the worldly treasures and losing faith. Do not gather and heap up and store up for yourselves treasures on earth, He said, where moth and rust and worm consume and destroy, and where thieves break through and steal. But gather and heap up and store for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust nor worm consume and destroy, and where thieves do not break through and steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matt. 6:19-21). The church’s heart is sunk in the wealth of the world, not in heaven. In their faithless acts they pursue the world, not YAHSHUA. So they have become faithless.

The church’s faithlessness happens also when wickedness abounds and super abounds without correction. The acceptance of wickedness is easily received and adopted, as one example, the case of moral issues. Faithfulness to the teachings of the Word of God has faded and many has followed the wide road, in the attitude of co-existence, instead of taking a stand for the teachings of the Lord. They spare their lives but will lose it in the end. YAHSHUA said, Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven; many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, and driven out demons in Your name and done many mighty works in Your name? And then I will say to them openly, I never knew you; depart from Me you who act wickedly (Matt. 7:21-23).

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Is God’s Mouth Muzzled Not to Speak to Us Today?

“My people perish for lack of knowledge.” These are words of profound and consequential meaning, as we read in Job 36: 12: But if they do not listen, they perish by the sword and die without knowledge. The rejection of knowledge is a dangerous attitude to have. For it is hearing, but not listening, hearing but not perceiving; hearing but not understanding; seeing but not discerning. It is being deaf and blind spiritually. For God speaks not only once, but more than once, even though men do not regard it (Job 33:14). The spirit of unbelief is very predominant in the world today in spite of all the information being available in every avenue of life. Words found in the book of Job 33:15 seals the matter that men hear God’s voice in a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men while slumbering upon the bed. Then He opens the ears of men and seals their instruction. The Prophet Daniel experienced dreams and visions and interpretations by angels. The entire chapter seven of the book of Daniel reveals the three visions he had and the interpretations of them. Those visions served to warn the world of yesterday and of today’s what were and what is going to happen in the future because our God desired and desires that none of us should perish.

In the days of Noah, when evil had taken over the world of yesterday, God chose Noah the only just man found among all who lived then, to save him from the coming earth destruction. As it is consistent with God, He confined in Noah, His servant, the news. At the same time, Noah was to warn the people, so they would repent to be saved. For 120 years Noah faithfully warned the people. Unfortunately, they did not listen to take the message to heart and repent of their way of life. They continued living their lives as usual, until the flood took them by surprise. The message heard in those days, if mingled with faith, salvation would have come to more than just a few. As it was, all died, except Noah and his family, eight in all. The days of Noah are days in which constitutes signs of the coming of YAHSHUA. He said, As were in the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and given in marriage, until the day when Noah went into the ark. And they did not know or understand until the flood came and swept them all away – so will be the coming of the Son of Man (Matt. 24:37-39). The ark, Noah was building, constituted a testimony, and a sign confirming what God had spoken to him to warn the people of God’s coming judgement upon the earth. The message, however, was not received with faith, and they perished in their sins. God gave the people a time line of 120 years to be warned about His judgment. A long time so it seems; so, they were without excuse.

God has been speaking to men since the beginning of time; His message has been carried on one way or other, through His prophets of old and new. He spoke to Noah, He spoke to Abraham, He spoke to Moses, to Joshua, He spoke to all the prophets and gave them warning messages to give the people, for not desiring that people should perish, but have a chance to repent.

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Where We Are in the Prophetic Pages of Time

(Luke 21:34-36)

The world is screaming confusion. Where is truth, does anyone know? We ask ourselves. Whom to believe in these days? As the Prophet Isaiah said, Truth has fallen on the streets, and I add to it and it had been stepped on over and over to hide it under the foot of those who are hiding it. In the confusion of the minds, truth is lie, and lie is truth. Do you perceive it? The Bible says that in the latter days we will see and experience perilous times of great stress. The increased iniquity and lawlessness will cause many to lose love for God; their love will grow cold. Many have asked, Why does God allow evil to prosper? A question that is heard often in our days in view of what’s happening; a question, if we are not careful, will drag us out of faith to doubt our God in our disappointment and lack of understanding. Our hearts have been asking this question, until God showed us the reason behind of what is happening. We must ask God if we want to understand the final end of these things.

YAHSHUA warned us of such times, in which we are living right now. The present lawlessness and iniquities seen as normal, are trends with the purpose to bring about the evil intent of those few who are planning the destruction of life and normality. What they are doing are creating chaos in order to bring in their messiah- the man of lawlessness mentioned by Paul in his second letter to the Thessalonians. However, judgment will rise against those who practice lawlessness in God’s due time. Paul described the extent of their lawlessness as violence, lovers of self, boasters, abusive, ungrateful, unholy and profane, uncontrolled and fierce haters of good and the list goes on. Don’t these sound like today to you? When we read Genesis six in reference to the accounts before the flood, we see in some degree the extent of lawlessness and iniquities seen today. As YAHSHUA said, “As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” So, this means that He is at the door, for the days of Noah are here.

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Ignorance- the Lack of Knowledge

(Hosea 4:6; Proverbs 19: 2)

“Father, grant me a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of You, by having the eyes of my heart flooded with light, so that I can know and understand the hope to which You have called me.” (The prayer of Paul)

Knowledge is something acquired through life’s opportunities. The world is full of the knowledge of God. Everywhere we go, we see His handiwork pointing to Him. So knowledge is the awareness of facts acquired through experiences, through books of all kinds. Knowledge is the soul eye opener. Having knowledge with understanding is a must in life; it will guide in important decisions. When man accepts knowledge it will enter his heart and understanding will rule his emotions and will. Having knowledge without zeal is indifference. Many lives have been lost for not having been warned. But many lives have also been lost for rejecting knowledge. The Lord speaks through the Prophet Hosea concerning His people saying: My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4: 6a). He blamed their priests in that they had rejected the knowledge of Him. Priests, in many ways, are responsible to impart spiritual knowledge to the people. They are held responsible before God for the spiritual wellbeing of the people. The Lord told Ezekiel that if he did not warn the wicked, and they died on their sin, their blood will be required from Ezekiel’s hand (Ezekiel 3: 18). Having knowledge is a privilege and a light in dark times. But unshared knowledge has personal consequences.

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