Knoweth part 1
Good old King James English. But bear with me. Last week I preached about "The First Move." About how we love in response to being loved. We don't have to make the first move, because God made the first move. He gave us His only begotten Son. He gave us His Spirit--the love receptor, the Spirit of Truth--so that we might know and believe the truth. That's what the Holy Spirit does; He leads and guides us into all truth. The truth that we are loved. See, the cross (and being filled with the Holy Spirit) did not change us into something God could all of a sudden love. He always has loved us and He always will love us. He IS love. That's not just what He does, that's who He is. The problem was that from our point of view, God's love seemed too good to be true. It seemed like something that maybe, just maybe, we could earn. And that's why the Law made so much sense to the carnal mind. If I do good I'll be rewarded. If I do evil I'll be punished. Makes perfect sense. But that was man's plan, not God's plan. All God ever wanted us to do was receive and release His love. But in order to receive it and release it we have to know it and believe it. And that's how we got--in a roundabout way--to the title of this Rant series. Look at John 14:17, "Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth in you, and shall be in you." We know Him. Intimately. Because He dwells in us. And we dwell in Him. The Spirit of Truth leads and guides us into all truth--again, the truth that we are loved by our heavenly Father--by testifying of our true selves. Those who are led by the Spirit are the Son(s) of God. And the Spirit testifies of OUR true selves by testifying of Jesus. Because He IS our true self. Jesus. God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in OUR flesh. Love in OUR body. And this "knowing" is so vitally important because you can't believe something you don't know. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word of God. There's a desire in our hearts... to be loved. That's the most basic human appetite. It's what we all want. What we all NEED. And, really, it's already true. We ARE loved. But seeing is believing. Our verse says the world cannot receive because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him. But we know Him. Because we see Him. In ourselves, and in each other. 1 John 4:16 says what I think I'm trying to say. "And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." Known it... and believed it. The word "known" there is number 1097 in Strong's Greek Concordance, and it means, "to 'know' (absolutely), be aware of, feel, perceive, be resolved, can speak, be sure, understand." This isn't knowing in the sense of just head knowledge. This is knowing in the sense of heart knowledge. Experiental knowledge. This is something we understand. And can speak about--bare witness to. Something we're aware of. Something we have resolved within our hearts. There's a difference between "knowing" and KNOWING, right? Well, the Holy Spirit is what equips and empowers us to KNOW that God loves us. And then to love one another with that same love!