THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD.

Daniel 11v32, “And such as violate the covenant he shall pervert {and} seduce with flatteries, but the people who know their God shall prove themselves strong {and} shall stand firm and do exploits [for God].

Jeremiah 9v24, “But let him who glories glory in this: that he understands and knows Me [personally and practically, directly discerning and recognizing My character], that I am the Lord, Who practices loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the Lord”

Malachi 3v6, “For I am the Lord, I do not change; that is why you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.”

Malachi 3v13-18, “Your words have been strong {and} hard against Me, says the Lord. Yet you say, What have we spoken against You? You have said, It is useless to serve God, and what profit is it if we keep His ordinances and walk gloomily {and} as if in mourning apparel before the Lord of hosts? And now we consider the proud {and} arrogant to be happy {and} favored; evildoers are exalted {and} prosper; yes, and when they test God, they escape [unpunished]. Then those who feared the Lord talked often one to another; and the Lord listened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him of those who reverenced {and} worshipfully feared the Lord and who thought on His name. And they shall be Mine, says the Lord of hosts, in that day when I publicly recognize {and} openly declare them to be My jewels (My special possession, My peculiar treasure). And I will spare them, as a man spares his own son who serves him Then shall you return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him who does not serve Him.”

What is knowing God & What can we about Him?

•It is knowing and understating the full counsel of God. Knowing His attributes as revealed in His Word, having fellowship and a personal relationship with Him.


How do you know God?

Psalms 119v99-100, “I have better understanding {and} deeper insight than all my teachers, because Your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, because I keep Your precepts [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying them].”
•Through the word
•Through personal fellowship or communion with Him

What are the benefits, proof or results of knowing God?

Psalms 91v14, “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him; I will set him on high, because he knows {and} understands My name [has a personal knowledge of My mercy, love, and kindness--trusts and relies on Me, knowing I will never forsake him, no, never].
Ps 91:15 He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.”

Psalms 145v8-11, “The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and abounding in mercy {and} loving-kindness. The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works [the entirety of things created]. All Your works shall praise You, O Lord, and Your loving ones shall bless You [affectionately and gratefully shall Your saints confess and praise You]! They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom and talk of Your power,”

What kind of generation are we?

•Judges 2v10, “And also all that generation were gathered to their fathers, and there arose another generation after them who did not know (recognize, understand) the Lord, or even the work which He had done for Israel.”
•With generations coming and going, the true knowledge of God gets diluted and some of the things get lost.
•There are things and the knowledge about God that seem to prevail in different generations
•It seems the devil through ignorance and excesses keeps one generation confined to few aspects about God without grasping the full package.
•We need to have a balanced understanding and knowledge of God and not move from extreme to extreme.

Examples of generational excesses

A) Holiness
•There was a generation that concentrated in holiness and was only concerned about that to the extent of them ignoring the other practical aspects of life.
•Holiness is a standard and requirement in our Christian walk but its not all there is to know and preach, there is more to the gospel than holy living! You can be biased and go to extreme about holiness and protecting holiness and forget to walk in love, mercy, compassion, etc. You may sin against God and other believers because of limited knowledge about “holiness”.
•I heard that long back in the church, there was a generation that would persecute or even kill those that claimed that the earth was round. Probably because the bible talks about the 4 corners of the earth!
B) Money, riches & success evil

•1Timothy 6v10, “For the love of money is a root of all evils; it is through this craving that some have been led astray {and} have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves through with many acute [mental] pangs.”
•Matthew 6v24, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will stand by {and} be devoted to the one and despise and be against the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (deceitful riches, money, possessions, or whatever is trusted in)”
•There was a time in the church when riches, wealth and money was deemed sinful
•Those that believed could have been genuine but ignorant.
•Some believed that being poor was humble
•They believed in Christians not having fun and good life on earth. They did not even believe in academic excellence, etc
•You can be covetous and proud without money in your pocket!

C) Holy Spirit & tongues

•When the church discovered or rediscovered that we can have a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit, some went to extremes.
•People thought that if you spoke in tongues you had achieved all there is in the spiritual life
•They thought that if you did not speak in tongues or were not Spirit filled, you were not a Christian
•Some thought that if you spoke in tongues you would not sin or that was a sign of being holy
•Some went even to extremes of addressing the devil in tongues or casting out devils in tongues!
•Some thought medical science was not right, everything had to be done through the Spirit. If you did use reasoning in some things, you were carnal.
•Some went into extremes about prophecy and being by the Holy Spirit.
•Their emphasis was on being anointed and used by the Spirit even without living godly lives.

D) Sanctification

•Some believed and were out of balance about living consecrated lives
•They taught being set apart for God and not associate with the world
•You could not associate or befriend people who are not saved
•You could not get advice from sinners even your parents or relatives
•You were not supposed to marry as that was being carnal or of the flesh
•Some felt so spiritual that they forgot that they still lived in a natural body with desires and feelings
•Some young man would say, “I can sleep in the same blanket with a woman and not do anything”!

E) Being Called

•There came a time when every young person was called into ministry
•If you received a word of prophecy and had hands laid on you, you were ready to minister!
•Some dropped out of colleges, universities & companies because they were called.
•Imagine coming from a not so rich a family, your parents having sacrificed greatly raising your college fees and then with one year left to graduate, you drop out because God has called you!
•Some thought if called you did not need any qualification where you could, the Holy Spirit would lead!

F) Without Direction

•There arose another generation that was some how directionless
•They loved God, lived holy lives, studied the Word, but when you follow their lives, they aren’t going anywhere
•They are roaming around the mountain!
•They seem very content with nothing
•Their extreme could be complacency or laziness.
•The greatest dream they have is marriage and children!
•Most of the times their marriages are not enjoyable again, they are just enduring.
•They can’t challenge you with anything, they can’t motivate you, they are not progressing or growing to anything. They are just waiting for heaven!


G) The Loose and light – yoyo generation

•There is another generation, mostly associated with our time, I do not like to be part of it either.
•They are loose in most of the things they do. They want simple and light things.
•It does note possess a genuine character, they are very deceptive.
•They may do a lot of things in church, but live in sin. They do not want to accountant. They do not want you to criticize them, you are not supposed to judge them!
•There is a very thin line (in any) between them and the world
•James 4v4, “You [are like] unfaithful wives [having illicit love affairs with the world and breaking your marriage vow to God]! Do you not know that being the world's friend is being God's enemy? So whoever chooses to be a friend of the world takes his stand as an enemy of God.”
•We need to be careful; you may wound up being part of the world and end up an enemy of God.
•This generation does not believe in difficult things, it does not believe in being patient
•It is I know it all generation
•It is a generation that is light, loose, lazy, full of compromise & hypocritical.
•These days, in the world there is a lot of divorce, loose talking, lack of respect for parents, people demanding their rights and freedom, the things we buy in stores are not made to last, loose habits, etc
•It is unfortunate that we have allowed the same in the church and in our lives.
•Divorce is now common in church, respect and honor for parents and older people is lacking, people are very lazy, faithfulness is lacking, honest and integrity is lacking, etc
•There is no much commitment and accountability
•Anything can be done, there are no boundaries, people are free to do what they want! People do not want rules and regulations, they do not believe in dos and don’ts!


Which Generation are you on?

Proverbs 30v11-14, “A generation is, that lightly esteemeth their father, And their mother doth not bless. A generation -- pure in their own eyes, But from their own filth not washed. A generation -- how high are their eyes, Yea, their eyelids are lifted up. A generation -- swords are their teeth, And knives -- their jaw-teeth, To consume the poor from earth, And the needy from among men.”

•I want to be among the generation that will be balanced, walk in the full truth and light of the Word!
•I believe a human being’s life here on earth has facets or different aspects that need to full equally developed and worked on.
•Just like we need to exercise our physical bodies, we need to exercise our whole being.
•When working on or developing your body, you do not concentrate on one part and expect to be strong in all areas.
•There is a spiritual aspect of life, physical aspect, relational aspect, academic & professional aspect, financial aspect, moral & ethical aspect, family aspect, etc
•Being prayerful sound and spending time in God’s presence does not automatically makes you successful in all areas.
•Excelling in education and or financial issues does not make you successful in your spiritual life.
•Being faithful in attending church meetings does not make you balanced.
•You need to make a conscious and deliberate decision to develop all aspects of your life.
•I once heard a minister say “My wife is very good in the Word, she is better than me in studying the Word but I am better than her in prayer” I am not very sure whether that is proper!
•My desire is than I be able to help others and the next generation in the full package of the gospel.
•I desire to be balanced and help the next generation to be balanced
•I do not want to leave the coming generation with bits and pieces of the gospel
•I am afraid to leave the coming generation with the kind of loose and light gospel.
•I do not want to leave a generation without direction.
•I believe in the full package- holiness, consecration, being called, being successful, full of the Holy Spirit and power and other principles that the Word teaches.

Proper Knowledge Of God leads to success.

•1Peter 3v10-12, “For let him who wants to enjoy life and see good days [good--whether apparent or not] keep his tongue free from evil and his lips from guile (treachery, deceit). Let him turn away from wickedness {and} shun it, and let him do right. Let him search for peace (harmony; undisturbedness from fears, agitating passions, and moral conflicts) and seek it eagerly. [Do not merely desire peaceful relations with God, with your fellowmen, and with yourself, but pursue, go after them!] For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous (those who are upright and in right standing with God), and His ears are attentive to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who practice evil [to oppose them, to frustrate, and defeat them].”
•It is important to know and understand that God wants us to succeed
•If you do not understand or are ignorant of God’s purpose for your life, you will not succeed
•There are principles that govern or operate in the spiritual realm which have to be followed for things to work
•Ignorance will lead you to death and failure
•The will of God is not automatic in your life unless you agree with Him
•Many times we think if it God’s will, it will work (without us doing our part).
•We need to find out, pursue and fulfill God’s purpose and or destiny for our lives
•We need to find out what the Word says we can do and do it.
•Being successful is basically fulfilling the reason for your being.
•Being successful I believe entails being balanced and progressive of doing well in all aspects of your life.
•We need to have good lives, Peter says “…who wants a good life…”, I want a good life. We need to plan for good life, be a generation that will succeed in everything and leave something tangible for our children.
•We need to prepare for our marriages and children. Find out how to have a good and healthy marriage, how to raise children, etc. Its not difficult to get into a relationship, its not difficult to have children, but it needs commitment to have a healthy marriage and taking care of your children.
•Let us live holy lives, have direction in life, seek God, pray, study the Word, be educated as much as we can, make much money as we can, preach the gospel, be resourceful and help other people, fear God, have health marriages & families, etc.
•Do not limit how God wants to use you, be it in ministry, business, politics, marriage, etc
•Let us aim and work on being that generation that will find out the full counsel of God, will not be limited and hindered by other people and lack of knowledge but will pursue God and impact others and much more the coming generations!