Knowledge of the Holy Spirit

Good evening, guys! Last week was an awesome one. Most of you guys went out into the community to have some real conversations about Jesus, and that was awesome. Those conversations can be super uncomfortable, right? Walking up to a complete stranger and asking some intensely personal questions right off the bat, it takes a little bit of courage. It’s been awesome hearing stories from last week.

I know that some of those conversations went a lot smoother than others though, right? Some of them felt natural, almost easy. Some of them you had to fight and pursue, but I know that a couple of you had some really meaningful talks with people that maybe wouldn’t have received that word last week. Everybody planted seeds, and the Word says that those won’t come back empty, so I’m proud of you!

This week we’ll be continuing with the Holy Spirit, who He is and what He does. Let’s recap what we’ve learned so far. We know that He gives us wisdom and understanding, right? The ability to see past our own selfish desires and conflicts and get a bigger picture of what God is doing inside of a situation. We get counsel and strength, the input fortitude of the Holy Spirt into situations that we aren’t capable of tackling without His help. This week we’re going over the knowledge of the Holy Spirit. I know when you first hear that, it sounds like it’s basically the same thing as counsel and wisdom but remember that these gifts are kind of piling on top of one another, linking together to create this completeness. It’s hard to understand at first, but we’re going to dig into it this evening.

Open your bible back to Isaiah 11:2

Isaiah 11:2 The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—a Spirit of wisdom and understanding, a Spirit of counsel and strength, a Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.

2. What does it do?

Ephesians 1:17- 19I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you the Spirit, of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the mighty working of his strength.

The first key word here is “revelation,” or “apocalypses” in the Greek. You hear it and immediately think of the end of the world, right? But that’s because it’s the name of the book that literally describes the end of the world. It’s actual meaning is to make something fully known that was previously completely unknown. It’s the “ah-ha” moment that we love, where something clicks and all of a sudden everything makes sense. Where the synapses in your brain finally connect, and everything gets clear.

The second word I want us to pay attention to is knowledge. By itself, it seems like it’s pretty obvious. Knowledge; to know. But when you tie it in with revelation, all of a sudden this “knowledge of Him” becomes something way bigger. Getting this divine knowledge brings a revelation of God. So, these verses after, they’re pointing to what this divine revelation is. They’re basically saying that Paul is praying that his reader gets this, then wakes up to the hope of His calling, the wealth of His inheritance, the greatness of His powers. In other words, who God is. The Holy Spirit can bring you divine knowledge, and immediate understanding of who God is.

The knowledge of the Holy Spirit provides that connection in our brains where everything just…makes sense.

I grew up in a fairly non-religious household. Not that we weren’t told that God existed, we were. My mother was always pretty straightforward about the fact that there was a God, but none of us had any idea who He was. We were Christmas and Easter only. CEO’s. We were really good at putting on that brand new Easter suit, or those shiny Christmas shoes (don’t sing the song or you’ll be escorted from the room) and walking into church like we’d been there the whole year.

We went to public schools where we were taught an extremely nonbiblical worldview. I learned all the scientific facts about history, and evolution, and how the world was made over billions of years. How we evolved from this giant hunk of nothing. How that nothing began spinning very fast for no reason, and then turned into everything. That’s what we were taught.

Guys, I’ve been a Christian for 10 years, and I’ve figured out one extremely important thing. Maybe you guys already had this information; Did you know that what they’re teaching in public schools doesn’t line up with the Word of God? I was shocked! Completely blown away! Turns out, God made everything in 6 days and took a breather on the 7th. Mic drop. No 37,000,000-step program to evolve slime into fish, and fish into monkeys and monkeys into men. Just, boom. It was good. So, here’s the thing; while I’ve been a God fearing and absolutely perfect Christian for 10 years, I was living in the world for almost 30 of those years. Yes, I’ve been a perfect picture of Christ since day 1 of my salvation, but every day before that I was a dumpster fire.

The knowledge that I had accrued so far in my life was worthless, but not gone. If the wisdom of the world is ingrained in our hearts, then surely the knowledge of the world is embedded in our heads, right? It’s still a fight for me mentally to say that the Earth is less than 10,000 years old. Not because I believe that it’s older, but because I spent 27 years being told that it was! That was the lie that was force fed into my mind for my entire life, so naturally it feels foreign to say something different. At least without the knowledge of the Holy Spirit.

1. What is the Knowledge of the Holy Spirit?

So, what is this Holy Spirit knowledge?

Have you guys ever seen the Matrix? It’s kind of this post apocalypse movie where the man v/s machine war has left all of mankind enslaved by the machines; we’re basically all in this deep sleep and serve as a literal battery for the computers that now rule the world. Keanu Reeves is given the option to take the red pill and wake up from that sleep to fight the machines or take the blue pill and go back to sleep. It’s awesome, you should watch it.

But there’s this scene in the first movie where Neo is trying to figure out how to be this “chosen one” in the movie. He’s like 2 days into this new life where everything is new, probably pretty scary because there’s no more sun light and he’s part of this rag tag team of rebels trying to restore humanity, and he sits down in this chair. Someone takes this massive plug-in thing and shoves it into his neck, because now there are plugs on the back of our neck, and he starts this literal upload of information into his brain. The dude looks up after a few seconds and is just like, “I know kung-fu.” Just like that. Decades of information uploaded into his brain like he’s getting a new OS. All of a sudden, Neo is running Mojave and is super good at everything.

Now, I’m not saying that’s exactly what happens with the Holy Spirit. What I am saying that the knowledge of the Holy Spirit can be given to us without our understanding, without us putting in the work to get all this wisdom, all this patience, all this discipline. We should always be working toward gaining those things naturally, but when in need, the Holy Spirit has you covered.

Head back to Isaiah for a second. Same chapter, but let’s read verse three together.

Isaiah 11:3 His delight will be in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, he will not execute justice by what he hears with his ears

He won’t judge by what he sees with his eyes. It seems obvious, but for the sake of a few minutes let’s talk about what that means. We know from 5 weeks ago that wisdom is what? True wisdom is desiring to know God’s will. It’s laying down what we think we know, in pursuit of understanding what we want to know. It’s understanding that our own knowledge isn’t enough. Not only is it not enough, but our own natural intuition will guide us quickly and effectively away from God. That’s wisdom, recapped.

If we move up to the fifth gift, the gift of knowledge, it’s going to kind of piggyback onto that wisdom and deliver that thing that we are wisely seeking. If wisdom is the desire to know God’s will, then knowledge is the faculty by which these things are known. Think of it as this kind of “ask and receive” relationship. It perfects the virtue of faith. Wisdom is knowing that you need this divine upload of information and searching for a way to get it. Knowledge is the upload itself.

3. How do I use it?

Knowledge of the Holy Spirit allows us to see things from a biblical perspective; to see the circumstances of our lives as God sees them. Granted, it’s an incredibly limited way. We’re human. He’s, well, God. We’ve got the constrictions of our human nature that He just doesn’t have. But here’s the deal, the knowledge and wisdom that the Holy Spirit give us, that’s not really for us. We don’t get that just so we can be smarter and know more about God, we get that so that we can proclaim through the things that we do, the decisions we make, that God is good. That God is holy.

Ezek 36:26-27I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will place my Spirit within you and cause you to follow my statutes and carefully observe my ordinances

This tags the wisdom we talked about before. Basically, this is divine instruction on how to live. The secular world, it isn’t black and white like we’d all appreciate. There are a million different shades of grey out there. The Bible is wrong or right, not doubt, but the places that we have to go every day to exist in this world, to be able to spread His word, there are intricacies that we just can’t understand on our own. This insight and knowledge from the Holy Spirit, it allows us to navigate all these insane people who think they’re shark filled waters. To keep the law given to Moses and at the same time bring the grace that Jesus bought us on the cross. To do His work and trust God to accomplish His purpose.

2 Kings 6:15-17When the servant of the man of God got up early and went out, he discovered an army with horses and chariots surrounding the city. So he asked Elisha, “Oh, my master, what are we to do?” 6 Elisha said, “Don’t be afraid, for those who are with us outnumber those who are with them.” 17 Then Elisha prayed, “LORD, please open his eyes and let him see.” So the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he saw that the mountain was covered with horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

This is about as clear a picture as I believe exists. This is the knowledge of God given to Elisha by the Holy Spirit. He’s surrounded, right? It looks like there is no escape. All human faculties say to panic and abandon all hope but Elisha, he’s as cool as a cucumber. Why? Because Elisha can see with the intimate knowledge of the Holy Spirit, through the eyes of God and see this massive angelic army at the ready. It may look like I’m surrounded, but I’m surrounded by you.

What have we learned so far about the Holy Spirit? That He grants us these immaculate gifts. All free of charge, and all abundantly if we what…ask. If we ask for these things, pray to God to open our eyes and let us see. To open our minds and let us understand, to open our hearts and replace the ones of stone with ones that resemble His. To replace the hope that we have in the world with the hope that we must have in Christ.

Rom 15:13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit has given us the gifts of wisdom and understanding, counsel and strength, knowledge, with these things comes hope. It’s almost like God sent us a deposit on what’s to come, to allow us to wait with eagerness and righteousness for what we hope by faith.

As we close tonight, where is your hope at? Do you hope that you can climb to the top of the ladder? Do well in this life? Do you hope in your friends? Do you hope in your bank accounts? Do you put all your hope in God, that He’s sent you and will continue to send you all that you need in this life, so that your hope may truly be in the next? Knowledge of the Holy Spirit gives us all this insight into these Godly and spiritual things that we can’t comprehend on our own. He lets us see the chariots of fire not so that we can win, but so we can understand that He is in control. So we can push ahead with the knowledge that He’s got us covered. So we can put all our trust, all our faith, all our hope in Him.

2 Cor 3:18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit