The Knowledge of God

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A: GRACE AND PEACE THROUGH THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD

II Peter 1:1-2

1 Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:

2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,

Peter’s salutation establishes that he was writing these letters to the saints, the church that had been scattered throughout Asia. He was definitely writing to those who had like precious faith and had been born again through the righteousness of God. This was the divine Word of God. God’s Word is spirit and must be spiritually discerned.

He is telling them they will attain grace and peace, personally, through the knowledge of God. This is so important since this is one of the keys needed to unlock the mercies of God that will allow us to make it into the eternal purpose of God. That purpose is for us to be able to establish the covenant of God with a demonstration of power in righteousness and holiness. We must understand what the Holy Ghost is saying. Every line of scripture was written or given by the inspiration of God. He is talking to the Sons of God.

We must keep our Sonship before us and take on the mind of Sonship. That is, understanding, accepting and agreeing with God that we are divine in nature. We have been born again.

Romans 6:11

Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Knowledge – 1. The state or fact of knowing.

2. Familiarity, awareness, or comprehension acquired by experience or study.

3. The sum or range of what has been perceived, discovered, or learned.

4. To be intimate with.

5. To exchange.

6. To fellowship and to become one with.

Webster’s Dictionary

II Timothy 3:16-17

16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

We must reckon ourselves dead to sin.

Reckon – To regard as being: consider as.

Webster’s Dictionary

Reckon this flesh as dead. Everything that defined you has been crucified and your mortal body has been brought back alive by Christ. Your body is now the body of Christ’, owned by Him. (For a more extensive teaching, see my book "The Image of God").

The reason why the Body of Christ is not experiencing what the apostles and early church experienced is because we have not accepted who we are. Little offenses, such as someone not speaking to us will cause us not to walk in righteousness. But the early church was boiled in oil, thrown in lion’s dens and were even used as human torches. However, they never lost their testimony of God. When our little offenses come, iniquity fills our hearts and we forget God and everything about Him.

Where is the grace and peace that the early church had in the midst of severe persecution that allowed them to walk willingly into suffering? Where is the peace Peter had when Jesus told him he would be crucified like Jesus? Peter still continued steadfastly in the ministry. Paul maintained great peace even when the council of elders got together and the Holy Ghost told them that he, Paul, would be killed if he went to Jerusalem. Paul still was not moved. Why don’t we have that kind of peace and steadfastness?

I. LACK OF KNOWLEDGE

The reason the Body of Christ is not experiencing that peace is because we have not been fed the knowledge of God and the knowledge of Jesus Christ. We have been fed a mixed diet. What we have been fed has caused us to be full of sin. Churches are full of iniquity because of a lack of knowledge. The Body of Christ is of the same Spirit. There is no division in Him. We are divided because of the lack of knowledge.

Lack of knowledge causes people to perish. This is manifested in the fact that many in the Body of Christ are striving and trying not to sin. That is what people did under the law. Israel had to strive to live holy, but they still messed up. However, we were made the righteousness of God at salvation. We were created brand new and given all things that pertain to life and godliness.

It is important to pause to look at the operation of salvation. When our soul cried out to be saved, God responded by killing it because He had to satisfy His own law that the soul that sinneth must die. He baptized us into Christ’s death, cut away (circumcised) that thing that caused us to crave sin, cleansed the body, placed our souls in the Holy Ghost and raised us up in Him. We rose complete in Him. Christ (the holy seed) remains in the body so it cannot sin. When we sin, we have to usurp authority over Christ and take His body into sin.

II Corinthians 5:17-18

17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

Colossians 2:11

In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.

I John 3:9

Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

Hosea 4:6

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

II. THE NATURE OF GOD DESTROYS SIN

II Peter 1:2-4

2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,

3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

The nature of God frees us from the lust of the world. We have already escaped the corruption of the world by the “divine” nature of God. If you do not have God’s nature, you cannot stop sinning. This is why when someone says they cannot stop sinning; we have to consider whether they are truly born again, because divine nature destroys lust. Those who are born again have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts. If we cannot stop sinning and say we are saved, something is wrong because sin no longer has control over us. The nature of God supersedes any hormones or lust. John wrote in I John 4:4 that “greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” The nature of God is greater than sin.

If this is not true, there was no need for Jesus to come. We could have just stayed under the law. Before Jesus came, people struggled to keep the law and stop sinning, but they could not. God sent Jesus so that the way could be made that our nature could change and we could stop sinning. This is the good news of the gospel. We are no longer held captive by sin.

Man was created in three parts, body (flesh), soul and spirit. It is the spirit in which the Holy Ghost dwells. The Holy Ghost, the very presence of God, has captured our spirit. Before salvation our spirit was a human spirit. Everything that it took to make Adam came from the earth.

Man is:

1. Body

2. Soul

3. Spirit

I Corinthians 15:47

The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.

The soul is the heart or spirit of the mind. The body belongs to the soul; it is the ruler of the house. The soul is that eternal part of man that will live forever. It receives or rejects suggestions from satan or instructions from God. (For a more thorough discourse on the soul, refer to: “The Thought War” and “Image of God.”). IT IS THE SOUL THAT MUST BE WON. This is why Paul says in Hebrews 10:39 that we are of them that “believe to the saving of the soul.” We cannot stop once we get saved. We must believe and obey everything that God has said until our soul is saved. The spirit is telling the soul to just listen to Him because He knows the way back to God and has been apprehended by the way.

Philippians 3:7-8

7 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.

Soul:

1. The spirit of the mind.

2. The inner atmosphere of the body.

3. A combination of the brain and its products.

4. This is the mind.

5. The brain and its expressions.

Banks’ Expository

8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

Paul is saying there is an excellency in the knowledge of God. He was willing to throw everything he had learned away for the knowledge of Christ. He suffered all things as loss for Christ’s sake, but realized he needed the knowledge of Christ. He wanted to understand why he was so willing to give everything up for Him and why he (Paul) was alienated from everything else he knew when Christ came in.

III. WE MUST APPREHEND CHRIST

If we are going to be steadfast, we need the knowledge of God. We move out of place because we do not know. The unknown causes us to move.

Philippians 3:9

And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

Paul did not want his own righteousness. He was a student of the law and knew it and kept it. Before he was saved, he did just what the law said, even if it meant offering up sacrifices whenever he sinned.

Philippians 3:10-12

10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

Apprehend –

1. To take into custody: ARREST.

2. To grasp mentally: UNDERSTAND.

3. To anticipate fearfully

4. To understand.

Webster’s Dictionary

Paul wanted the thing that had apprehended him (his spirit), the Holy Ghost; the life of God that God had given him, to apprehend his soul. In other words, he wanted his soul to remain at one, or in agreement with the life of Christ. He wanted to embrace and walk in that knowledge because he realized that it was a must if he was going to “attain unto the resurrection of the dead,” if he was going to make it in Christ.

1 Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;

2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

The Conscience is:

1. The spirit of the mind.

2. Co-perception of both worlds (good and evil, flesh and spirit).

3. Is the judge of all the actions and deeds of the flesh. (Ephesians 4:22-23, Hebrews 9:9-14).

4. The hidden man of the heart.

5. The knower.

Banks’ Expository

The conscience and spirit are synonymous. We are to live as the apostles lived, commending ourselves to every man’s conscience or spirit. When we commend ourselves or entertain each other God’s way, we will see no man after the flesh (II Corinthians 5:16) and only deal with each other as though we are really entertaining God.

IV. UNBELIEF: A WALL OF PARTITION

Revelation 21:8

But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

The salvation experience is only an opportunity to be saved. We have to walk holy until the end. We cannot be like those who “draw back to perdition because it will be just as if we were never saved” (Hebrews 10:39). There are those who have been partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted of the powers of the world to come (Hebrews 6:4-5), but drew back to perdition. They will have the same penalty as those who were never saved.

The gospel is more than just the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. It is also the life of Christ. When you make a decision just not to believe God, you are in trouble. If you do not believe what is written, you are gambling with your own soul. There is then a wall of partition called unbelief, between God and your soul. This unbelief is sin. This unbelief, sin or fear, hinders us from what we want. We fear we will not get what we want; how we will look to people; we will be the tail and not the head; or even that we will be humiliated. Fear builds a wall of partition. When that wall is there the light of the gospel is hid. Satan can blind your mind.

Christ is the light and His light is the life of man. This light is the life of Christ that needs to shine in our soul, but unbelief, sin, offenses, flesh and wants, have alienated us, and is the wall of partition that keeps the light from shining.

II Corinthians 4:5-6

5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.

6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Paul realized that they could not do anything. God did everything that was done. He, God, stepped out on space and said, let there be light and the light appeared out of darkness. (Genesis 1:3).

This same God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness in the beginning has commanded the light to shine in our hearts. We are now charged to walk in that light. Unbelief, sin, offenses, flesh and selfish wants are walls of partitions that keep the light from shining. When we take away the wall of unbelief, this same light can now indeed shine in our soul and we walk in obedience to Christ.

V. WE LEARN BY BECOMING

When you see in the scripture the knowledge of Jesus Christ and the knowledge of God in New Covenant context, it does not mean the same kind of knowledge one goes to school and learns. This knowledge does not mean information about something nor does it mean we know by learning alone. It means WE LEARN BY BECOMING.

St. John 1:12

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

As we learn, we become. This is why when we hear the Word there is a test. The trial demands we become the Word we just heard. This is what Paul meant, when he said that we should “put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27). Christ is already on the inside. We have the divine nature on the inside. It is not our nature to sin. We no longer have to struggle not to sin. Because our nature is divine, we have to struggle to sin. We must take this mind and put it on.

If we keep the walls of partitions out, we can walk in our divine nature. Every son must be tested, tried and approved by God. As we are taught the Word, the trials come to bring this same Word to life, in our life. The Word then becomes more than textbook knowledge. God allows situations to come to cause us to step into the Word, experience the Word in that trial so we can then take on the emotions of the Word.

Even if situations are negative, and we do what is right, we feel good. We are feeling the emotions of the Spirit. The Spirit man will then be living His life through the flesh.

The Sons of God:

a. Have been given a divine nature.

b. No longer struggle not to sin.

c. Must learn by becoming.

II Corinthians 4:16

For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

The outer man is perishing, he is dying and the spirit man is then passing through the veil of the flesh.

To come into the knowledge of God is to experience Him. We must walk experiencing Him. We must relinquish ownership of the flesh and melt right into Him. We must determine in our hearts not to do anything that brings darkness to the soul or that will alienate us from the life that is in the Spirit. Everything we do sinful adds darkness to the soul. If we would simply believe and obey, we will walk as Jesus walked. We must be determined to walk like Jesus walked. We can get there!

A: GRACE AND PEACE THROUGH THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD

II Peter 1:1-2

1 Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:

2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,

Peter’s salutation establishes that he was writing these letters to the saints, the church that had been scattered throughout Asia. He was definitely writing to those who had like precious faith and had been born again through the righteousness of God. This was the divine Word of God. God’s Word is spirit and must be spiritually discerned.

He is telling them they will attain grace and peace, personally, through the knowledge of God. This is so important since this is one of the keys needed to unlock the mercies of God that will allow us to make it into the eternal purpose of God. That purpose is for us to be able to establish the covenant of God with a demonstration of power in righteousness and holiness. We must understand what the Holy Ghost is saying. Every line of scripture was written or given by the inspiration of God. He is talking to the Sons of God.

We must keep our Sonship before us and take on the mind of Sonship. That is, understanding, accepting and agreeing with God that we are divine in nature. We have been born again.

Romans 6:11

Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Knowledge – 1. The state or fact of knowing.

2. Familiarity, awareness, or comprehension acquired by experience or study.

3. The sum or range of what has been perceived, discovered, or learned.

4. To be intimate with.

5. To exchange.

6. To fellowship and to become one with.

Webster’s Dictionary

II Timothy 3:16-17

16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

We must reckon ourselves dead to sin.

Reckon – To regard as being: consider as.

Webster’s Dictionary

Reckon this flesh as dead. Everything that defined you has been crucified and your mortal body has been brought back alive by Christ. Your body is now the body of Christ’, owned by Him. (For a more extensive teaching, see my book "The Image of God").

The reason why the Body of Christ is not experiencing what the apostles and early church experienced is because we have not accepted who we are. Little offenses, such as someone not speaking to us will cause us not to walk in righteousness. But the early church was boiled in oil, thrown in lion’s dens and were even used as human torches. However, they never lost their testimony of God. When our little offenses come, iniquity fills our hearts and we forget God and everything about Him.

Where is the grace and peace that the early church had in the midst of severe persecution that allowed them to walk willingly into suffering? Where is the peace Peter had when Jesus told him he would be crucified like Jesus? Peter still continued steadfastly in the ministry. Paul maintained great peace even when the council of elders got together and the Holy Ghost told them that he, Paul, would be killed if he went to Jerusalem. Paul still was not moved. Why don’t we have that kind of peace and steadfastness?

I. LACK OF KNOWLEDGE

The reason the Body of Christ is not experiencing that peace is because we have not been fed the knowledge of God and the knowledge of Jesus Christ. We have been fed a mixed diet. What we have been fed has caused us to be full of sin. Churches are full of iniquity because of a lack of knowledge. The Body of Christ is of the same Spirit. There is no division in Him. We are divided because of the lack of knowledge.

Lack of knowledge causes people to perish. This is manifested in the fact that many in the Body of Christ are striving and trying not to sin. That is what people did under the law. Israel had to strive to live holy, but they still messed up. However, we were made the righteousness of God at salvation. We were created brand new and given all things that pertain to life and godliness.

It is important to pause to look at the operation of salvation. When our soul cried out to be saved, God responded by killing it because He had to satisfy His own law that the soul that sinneth must die. He baptized us into Christ’s death, cut away (circumcised) that thing that caused us to crave sin, cleansed the body, placed our souls in the Holy Ghost and raised us up in Him. We rose complete in Him. Christ (the holy seed) remains in the body so it cannot sin. When we sin, we have to usurp authority over Christ and take His body into sin.

II Corinthians 5:17-18

17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

Colossians 2:11

In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.

I John 3:9

Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

Hosea 4:6

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

II. THE NATURE OF GOD DESTROYS SIN

II Peter 1:2-4

2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,

3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

The nature of God frees us from the lust of the world. We have already escaped the corruption of the world by the “divine” nature of God. If you do not have God’s nature, you cannot stop sinning. This is why when someone says they cannot stop sinning; we have to consider whether they are truly born again, because divine nature destroys lust. Those who are born again have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts. If we cannot stop sinning and say we are saved, something is wrong because sin no longer has control over us. The nature of God supersedes any hormones or lust. John wrote in I John 4:4 that “greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” The nature of God is greater than sin.

If this is not true, there was no need for Jesus to come. We could have just stayed under the law. Before Jesus came, people struggled to keep the law and stop sinning, but they could not. God sent Jesus so that the way could be made that our nature could change and we could stop sinning. This is the good news of the gospel. We are no longer held captive by sin.

Man was created in three parts, body (flesh), soul and spirit. It is the spirit in which the Holy Ghost dwells. The Holy Ghost, the very presence of God, has captured our spirit. Before salvation our spirit was a human spirit. Everything that it took to make Adam came from the earth.

Man is:

1. Body

2. Soul

3. Spirit

I Corinthians 15:47

The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.

The soul is the heart or spirit of the mind. The body belongs to the soul; it is the ruler of the house. The soul is that eternal part of man that will live forever. It receives or rejects suggestions from satan or instructions from God. (For a more thorough discourse on the soul, refer to: “The Thought War” and “Image of God.”). IT IS THE SOUL THAT MUST BE WON. This is why Paul says in Hebrews 10:39 that we are of them that “believe to the saving of the soul.” We cannot stop once we get saved. We must believe and obey everything that God has said until our soul is saved. The spirit is telling the soul to just listen to Him because He knows the way back to God and has been apprehended by the way.

Philippians 3:7-8

7 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.

Soul – 1. The spirit of the mind.

2. The inner atmosphere of the body.

3. A combination of the brain and its products.

4. This is the mind.

5. The brain and its expressions.

Banks’ Expository

8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

Paul is saying there is an excellency in the knowledge of God. He was willing to throw everything he had learned away for the knowledge of Christ. He suffered all things as loss for Christ’s sake, but realized he needed the knowledge of Christ. He wanted to understand why he was so willing to give everything up for Him and why he (Paul) was alienated from everything else he knew when Christ came in.

III. WE MUST APPREHEND CHRIST

If we are going to be steadfast, we need the knowledge of God. We move out of place because we do not know. The unknown causes us to move.

Philippians 3:9

And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

Paul did not want his own righteousness. He was a student of the law and knew it and kept it. Before he was saved, he did just what the law said, even if it meant offering up sacrifices whenever he sinned.

Philippians 3:10-12

10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

Apprehend –

1. To take into custody: ARREST.

2. To grasp mentally: UNDERSTAND.

3. To anticipate fearfully

4. To understand.

Webster’s Dictionary

Paul wanted the thing that had apprehended him (his spirit), the Holy Ghost; the life of God that God had given him, to apprehend his soul. In other words, he wanted his soul to remain at one, or in agreement with the life of Christ. He wanted to embrace and walk in that knowledge because he realized that it was a must if he was going to “attain unto the resurrection of the dead,” if he was going to make it in Christ.

1 Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;

2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

The Conscience is:

1. The spirit of the mind.

2. Co-perception of both worlds (good and evil, flesh and spirit).

3. Is the judge of all the actions and deeds of the flesh. (Ephesians 4:22-23, Hebrews 9:9-14).

4. The hidden man of the heart.

5. The knower.

Banks’ Expository

The conscience and spirit are synonymous. We are to live as the apostles lived, commending ourselves to every man’s conscience or spirit. When we commend ourselves or entertain each other God’s way, we will see no man after the flesh (II Corinthians 5:16) and only deal with each other as though we are really entertaining God.

IV. UNBELIEF: A WALL OF PARTITION

Revelation 21:8

But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

The salvation experience is only an opportunity to be saved. We have to walk holy until the end. We cannot be like those who “draw back to perdition because it will be just as if we were never saved” (Hebrews 10:39). There are those who have been partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted of the powers of the world to come (Hebrews 6:4-5), but drew back to perdition. They will have the same penalty as those who were never saved.

The gospel is more than just the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. It is also the life of Christ. When you make a decision just not to believe God, you are in trouble. If you do not believe what is written, you are gambling with your own soul. There is then a wall of partition called unbelief, between God and your soul. This unbelief is sin. This unbelief, sin or fear, hinders us from what we want. We fear we will not get what we want; how we will look to people; we will be the tail and not the head; or even that we will be humiliated. Fear builds a wall of partition. When that wall is there the light of the gospel is hid. Satan can blind your mind.

Christ is the light and His light is the life of man. This light is the life of Christ that needs to shine in our soul, but unbelief, sin, offenses, flesh and wants, have alienated us, and is the wall of partition that keeps the light from shining.

II Corinthians 4:5-6

5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.

6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Paul realized that they could not do anything. God did everything that was done. He, God, stepped out on space and said, let there be light and the light appeared out of darkness. (Genesis 1:3).

This same God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness in the beginning has commanded the light to shine in our hearts. We are now charged to walk in that light. Unbelief, sin, offenses, flesh and selfish wants are walls of partitions that keep the light from shining. When we take away the wall of unbelief, this same light can now indeed shine in our soul and we walk in obedience to Christ.

V. WE LEARN BY BECOMING

When you see in the scripture the knowledge of Jesus Christ and the knowledge of God in New Covenant context, it does not mean the same kind of knowledge one goes to school and learns. This knowledge does not mean information about something nor does it mean we know by learning alone. It means WE LEARN BY BECOMING.

St. John 1:12

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

As we learn, we become. This is why when we hear the Word there is a test. The trial demands we become the Word we just heard. This is what Paul meant, when he said that we should “put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27). Christ is already on the inside. We have the divine nature on the inside. It is not our nature to sin. We no longer have to struggle not to sin. Because our nature is divine, we have to struggle to sin. We must take this mind and put it on.

If we keep the walls of partitions out, we can walk in our divine nature. Every son must be tested, tried and approved by God. As we are taught the Word, the trials come to bring this same Word to life, in our life. The Word then becomes more than textbook knowledge. God allows situations to come to cause us to step into the Word, experience the Word in that trial so we can then take on the emotions of the Word.

Even if situations are negative, and we do what is right, we feel good. We are feeling the emotions of the Spirit. The Spirit man will then be living His life through the flesh.

The Sons of God:

a. Have been given a divine nature.

b. No longer struggle not to sin.

c. Must learn by becoming.

II Corinthians 4:16

For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

The outer man is perishing, he is dying and the spirit man is then passing through the veil of the flesh.

To come into the knowledge of God is to experience Him. We must walk experiencing Him. We must relinquish ownership of the flesh and melt right into Him. We must determine in our hearts not to do anything that brings darkness to the soul or that will alienate us from the life that is in the Spirit. Everything we do sinful adds darkness to the soul. If we would simply believe and obey, we will walk as Jesus walked. We must be determined to walk like Jesus walked. We can get there!