There are two kinds of knowledge
There is sense knowledge
This is knowledge we acquire through our five physical senses – sight, sound, smell, taste and touch – to which we then apply the reasoning ability of our brains. The world relentlessly pursues this kind of knowledge believing it to be the only kind of knowledge that exists. The world grades people on the extent of their sense knowledge and on their ability to process that knowledge.
None of us can know God through sense knowledge, although many try to:
1 Cor. 1:21 For in the wisdom of God the world (people) by its wisdom (sense knowledge) did not know God …
Having perfect natural eyesight and hearing and a high I.Q. will contribute nothing to knowing God if we are looking to the natural human faculties of sense knowledge and reason:
Matthew 13:13 Therefore I (Jesus) speak to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Matthew 13:14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which says, By hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive:
Matthew 13:15 For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
We may be very religious and spend much time in the study of the Bible, mentally trying to understand the scriptures and apply them to our lives, but our knowledge of God can never begin or advance this way. All we will have is an accumulation of sense knowledge of the Bible and some inevitable pride. Many sincere born-again Christians are under the illusion that Christian growth comes this way.
Jesus speaking to the religious leaders of Israel:
John 5:37 …You have neither heard His (The Father’s) voice at any time…
John 5:38 And you have not His word abiding in you: …
John 5:39 Search the scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me.
John 5:40 And you will not come to Me, that you might have life.
John 5:42 But I know you, that you have not the love of God in you.
They knew the scriptures – but only through sense knowledge and human reason – consequently they had never heard the Father’s voice speaking a scripture to them by His Spirit. Therefore the word of God was not in them, in their hearts. Consequently neither the life of God nor the love of God was in them, which God communicates to people through living words. In other words Christ was not in them.
Then there is revelation knowledge - God must reveal it to my heart
Matthew 16:17 Jesus answered and said to him “Blessed are you Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood (people) have not revealed this to you but my Father which is in heaven (has revealed it)
John 3:27 …A man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven above.
This is knowledge that God reveals to me. It is exclusively a gift from God. None of my natural human abilities, especially my brain, can increase in the slightest way my receiving revelation knowledge of God. Because it is only given to the heart, that is the spirit of a person.
Eph. 1:17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him:
Eph. 1:18 The eyes of your hearts being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
1 Cor. 2:14 For the natural man (including the Christian seeking to know God through sense knowledge) cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, neither can he know them for they are spiritually discerned (received and revealed exclusively in the heart).
Proverbs 4:23 Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it flow the waters of the springs of eternal life. (His revealed words)
Many Christians after being born-again of the Spirit, are taught to and seek in vain to know God better and to grow in Christ through a sense knowledge approach to the scriptures. This leads to destruction.
Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (revelation knowledge):
Everything God wants to give the new born Christian, who was born-again through God unveiling to his heart the knowledge of Jesus Christ, comes only through further revealed knowledge:
II Peter 1:2 (To Christians) Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
II Peter 1:3 According as his divine power has given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who has called us to glory and virtue:
The Bible, the written word of God, also called “the Letter” in scripture, has no life changing power while the words remain on the page. Sense knowledge tries to bring them to life but to absolutely no avail. Only the Spirit of God can breathe life into the written word so that it becomes the living word which can then be grafted into and revealed to my heart. Jesus Christ is the living word. I am completely dependant on the Holy Spirit for all revelation knowledge of God.
II Cor. 3:6 Who (God) also has made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter (or written word), but of the Spirit: for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (to the written word - giving my heart understanding of it and imparting Christ’s nature)
The knowledge of God is always revealed by the Holy Spirit through the living word of God (Jesus Christ) to a believer with a tender heart, as in, a hearing spirit.
Wouldn’t I like to personally know God better?
2 Pet. 3:17 Beloved, since you know this beforehand (that some twist the scriptures – by sense knowledge) beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked;
18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ….
Col 1:9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
10 That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
How well do I personally know God? Here are 12 questions:
Do I know that He loves me unceasingly ? Jer. 31:3
Do I know He’s willing always to forgive me ? 1 Joh. 1:9
Do I have His Spirit and know Him as my Father ? Rom. 8:15
Do I know the joyful sound of His voice Psa. 89:15
Do I know Him as my healer ? Psa. 103:3
Do I know Him as my provider ? Phil. 4:19
Do I know Him as my guide, every moment ? Isa. 27:3 & Rom.8:14
Do I know His wonderful ongoing will for me ? Col. 1:9
Do I know Him as my Lord, the One who owns me? 1 Cor. 12:3
Have I know Him in His death to sin and resurrection? Rom. 6:5
Do I know Him as my righteousness 2 Cor. 5:21
Do I know Him as the creator of the fruit of my lips Isa 57:19, Pro 11:30
to win souls to Him and to make others His disciples? Mat 4:19 & Matt 28:19
Faith, the Bible kind of faith, always knows. In fact this faith is generated as a direct result of having knowledge, of knowing. There is no faith without knowledge – that’s why faith is not blind but sees clearly, in the spirit, because it knows because it springs from a heart that has revealed knowledge of God’s words.
Everything we need from God and that God can do through us for others, comes only through the knowledge of Him, that He has personally revealed to our hearts:
II Peter 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
II Peter 1:3 According as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him …
Colossians 3:10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image (likeness) of Him that created him:
John 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they might know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
How then does my knowledge of God increase or how can I know Him better?
Proverbs 22:17 Bow down your ear, and hear the words of the wise (God’s words, like these), and apply your heart unto My knowledge.
Proverbs 22:18 For it is a beautiful thing if you keep them (God’s words) within yourself (your heart); then your lips will speak them.
Proverbs 22:19 So that your trust may be in the LORD...(and not yourself)
Proverbs 22:20 Have I not written to you excellent things in counsels and knowledge, (God’s word is knowledge, waiting to be revealed)
Proverbs 22:21 That I might make you to know (by My Spirit) the certainty of the words of truth; that you might answer with the words of truth those that ask you? (for the words were revealed to you)
When God speaks His Word to me personally by His Spirit, and I hear and receive understanding of them with my heart, that is revealed knowledge. That is how I know Him and that is how I continue to get to know Him better. By those words and by that Spirit is how I share Him. Christianity is a relationship not a religion.
The cost of a lack of knowledge – or not getting to know God better - destruction
Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (of Me): … My people are destroyed because they don't know me,.. TLB
God’s people, Christians, are destroyed for a lack of knowledge of God. Christians, Bible reading, Church attending Christians, are defeated – defeated spiritually, financially, relationally, physically and defeated by sin, because we haven’t continued to get to know God better, because we have not grown sufficiently, by revelation, in the knowledge of God our Father since we were born again. Even though we may have an abundance of sense knowledge of the scriptures, it is of no help! We have not “Desired (with our whole hearts) the sincere milk of the word, that we may grow (in our spirits, in the revealed knowledge of God) thereby” above everything and everyone else in life.
