"In
the beginning was “The Word”, and “The Word” was with God, and “The Word” was
God.” This phrase “The Word” is, among other things, referring to the knowledge
of God conveyed by His written word, scripture, which includes knowledge of
“The Word” which became flesh, the incarnate Word… Jesus. “God, who at various
times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets,
has in these last days spoken to us by His Son…” The Old Testament is God’s
self-disclosure, and the New Testament is God speaking forth the revelation of
His Son, both of which make up “The Word”, The Knowledge of God to mankind.
Hebrews chapter four establishes
a spiritual principle within the context of receiving a promise from God. In this
passage God is chiding Israel for failing to enter Canaan, which He calls His
“rest”, because of unbelief. “For indeed the
gospel was preached to us (New Covenant believers) as well as to them (Israel);
but “The Word” which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith
in those who heard it.” Notice “The
Word”, the knowledge of God’s promise of a rest for His people, did not profit
them. They did not receive God’s promise because they did not mix the knowledge
of His promise with faith.
It is the knowledge of God mixed
with faith in that knowledge that enables our spiritual experiences. This is
how God engages and intervenes in our life. The promise in Hebrews is the rest
of God, which for New Covenant believers is the experience of one who has fully
surrender to the Lordship of Christ and is totally controlled by the Holy
Spirit. “For we who have believed do enter
that rest”: To access this promise
experientially we must first know the promise then believe it, mixing our
knowledge with faith. We are called to be “partakers of Christ” -- not imitators
– and to be the temple of the Godhead: It is faith in the knowledge of these
promises that produce the indwelling Christ-Life. Salvation becomes a living reality through
faith in the knowledge that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of
God” – wherein we recognize our need for God – and faith in the knowledge of
who and what Jesus is that leads us to confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in our heart that God has raised Him from the dead, which produces the
salvation experience. And so it is with all the promises, blessings, and
commandments of God. We must do the “mixing”: We must put our faith into the
knowledge of God, His Word, to ever experience the life He has planned for us.
There are those who want to
elevate spiritual experience by the belittling of spiritual knowledge. This is
simply wrong! Without “The Word”, without the knowledge of God, we can have no
meaningful experience of God – no understanding. Knowledge always precedes
spiritual experience and defines it for our understanding… and, ultimately, for
our spiritual wisdom. This is why it is so very important to make partaking of “The
Word” of God a daily lifelong passion.
We cannot believe in “something” without
knowledge of the “something”! We cannot experience God without knowledge of and
faith in that which we are to experience.
(John 1:1; Heb. 1:1-2; Heb.
4:1-10; Heb. 3:14; 1 Cor. 3:16, 6:19; Rom. 3:23, 6:9-10)
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