The knowing and the believing

It is crucial to our eternity that we know what The Lord has said about our lives


The Knowing
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” Hosea 4:6
There is something about knowledge that is crucial to our existence here on earth. We spend a good part of our lives in various educational institutions in the pursuit of knowledge. Even outside the sphere of schools and institutions we learn things out of genuine interest, a way of advancing ourselves or sheer necessity. This truth about life is at the heart of the phrase: Knowledge is power.

Brothers and Sister if mere human knowledge is power then how much more spiritual knowledge?

I thank God almighty that on a cool evening on the streets of Manhattan I would be imparted with a blessed revelation – That for every issue in my life God has a word that can be specifically found in scripture. A verse for every circumstance, a passage for every hope….a chapter for every distance I must travel in years to come.

Our God is no respecter of person and I believe that for every single person alive today there are specific passages in the bible that God has placed to speak directly to them concerning very specific things; things that we struggle with or even wonder about.

For example, God has spoken to me through scriptures that I can point to concerning things such as what I must do before I can move back to Africa, the nature and origin of the woman I will marry, what will happen if I continue to preach his word (To me and those that hear me).

The point is that these things are in the bible but are spiritually discerned through the revelation of the Holy Spirit. And so we cannot simply open the bible and pick which promises or words we like for a specific future outcome, but we must trust God to imprint them in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Alas, if we do not study his word, then we will not know what The Lord has said. The importance of “staying” in the word of God (The bible) cannot be overstated. It is God’s love letter to us and the food for our spirit.




Abraham knew what God said about his life
The bible says that “Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness”” Romans 4:3. What did Abraham believe? He believed God when God told him that at 99yrs old he and his wife Sarah would have a son, and he would be the father of many nations. Abraham, this 99yr old childless man believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now imagine if Abraham never heard what God said, then what would there have been to believe? Inevitably it is clear that we must not only battle the spirit of unbelief but we must also battle the spirit of ignorance, and the latter to the extent that God was moved to say “My people suffer for lack of knowledge” Hosea 4:6.

The believing
Brothers and Sisters, when we hear from God concerning our lives we have got to believe. Not because it makes sense, not because someone says we should but because he is God and his word is most holy and does not return void but accomplishes that for which it was sent (Isaiah 55:11). Believe because God cannot lie and does not repent of what he says (Numbers 23:19) – He does what he says. Believe because God’s word concerning your life is as sure as his love manifested through Christ our lord who himself was the word made flesh (John 1:1). God sends his son Jesus to your life whenever he speaks his word about your life.

But Brothers and Sisters, believing can be a difficult task. Life and experience has shown me that it is easy to believe on those things that we deem possible, but when it is time to believe in God for things simply miraculous our faith is truly tested. But the bible specifically calls faith “The assurance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Hebrew 11:1

But I thank God for grace. I confess that when I began to write this article I was going to complete it but God asked me to stop when I was done writing about knowing what he has said. There was something he wanted to show me concerning believing, unbeknownst to me. A few minutes later I read a devotional that referenced II Chronicles Chapter 20, and as I read the entire chapter I was in awe of the blessed revelation of God, and how much this meant to him that he would direct me to what believing is all about.

It was in the story of King Jehoshaphat and the children of Judah. Word had come to the King that their enemies had banded together and amassed a great army to come against them. In the 3rd Chapter the bible says “And Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout Judah”. This King called on all the people to seek the Lord their God, even as he went before God to plead their case. Reminding God that they did nothing to provoke these people he cried “O our God, wilt thou not judge them? For we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee” Verse 12.
And the bible tells us that The Lord spoke through Jahaziel a Levite and said unto the people “Hearken all ye Judah and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou King Jehoshaphat. Thus saith The Lord unto you: Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude for the battle is not yours but God’s”. Verse 15

God commanded them to go out against their enemies and told them specifically where to find them. He told them that they would not need to fight, but that they should stand still and see the salvation of The Lord. And so the next day they went singing songs of praise to God. “And when they began to sing and to praise, The Lord set ambushmets against the children of Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, which were come against Judah and they were smitten” II Chronicles 22. The bible tells us that the Lord made these people start fighting each other until they utterly destroyed one another. When the Children of Israel arrived, they had waiting for them a field of slain enemies who left behind them treasures for the Israelites to take back to Jerusalem. Praise God!

Brothers and Sisters, this story of Israel has truths that speak to the very issues of life. When we seek God’s face through fasting, praying, drawing nigh unto him we draw his most sacred word unto ourselves. His word finds us and when he speaks we hear. When he speaks, we believe. When we believe we go out praising and singing songs of Joy. When we go out praising the right hand of God is moved. When the right hand of God is moved obstacles disappear, ways are made clear, enemies are scattered, doors are opened, sicknesses are healed, the dead are raised. When the hand of God moves all things are possible.

I write this in a season of life when the enemy is pouring out the spirit of unbelief with one hand and trying to keep the Children of God in darkness with the other. I urge you, seek the face of God, hear his word and receive it. Believe him concerning your life…and when ye go out, ye shall not go out empty!

To Jesus is the glory. Angels adore him; the earth pays homage to his lordship. He is everything. Amen