From Bob Hamp

The knowledge of good has done more to separate people from God than the knowledge of evil.  This is what Rick Joyner says in his amazing book, “There were Two Trees in the Garden”.  I couldn’t agree more.  The knowledge of evil is easily identifiable and therefore more easily resisted.  Ironically it is often the knowledge of good that we use to resist or avoid that other branch.

Perhaps even more seductive is that the knowledge of good “is pleasing to the eyes and appears desirable for gaining wisdom”.  The problem is that the knowledge of good appears…well…good. We always have to remember that  the distinction between the two trees is their source.  By it’s very nature the knowledge of good is initiated and completedsolely from a human.  The tree of life originates from and returns to God Himself.  So even good that originates from man alone is good, but based on it’s root system it cannotcreate life.  You cannot fill an empty gas tank by siphoning it’s contents and returning them to the tank.  Emptiness is empty.

The more good we know, the more tempted we are to produce it on our own. Tending to this living conversation with God can be difficult.  He is demanding (meaning He will not settle for less than the very best for us). He is unpredictable (meaning His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways). He won’t leave us alone (meaning He is engaged even when we would prefer to disengage).  And the list could go on.  So think through a day with me.

We know God wants us to commune with Him, and certainly people in our lives expect a certain amount of Godly behavior from us.  So we wake up in the morning and it is tempting to produce a “quiet time”.  You know, some kind of structured time where we go through a variety of exercises which may or may not actually include communing with the Living God.  At least we can convince others (or perhaps ourselves) that we have done the good that God wants. It started with me (I knew I should do it, and it seemed desirable to produce wisdom) it was empowered by me (Will power wins again).  I learned some good knowledge (need I say more?) and it ends with me (I must now apply what I learned and have a better day…).  And herein lies the danger; I now begin my day believing I have “met with God” and so I go on as if my tank is full, when it may not be.  I’ve missed a chance to be real with God and acknowledge what I need from Him today.  The knowledge of good has successfully separated me from partaking of the more sustaining fruit from the tree of life.

Now I have a class to teach, a ministry to perform, a worship set to lead, and I apply all the good that I know.  I know that God wants me to do this, so I begin to produce some version of what I think He wants.  I call on all my knowledge of good, and organize things just the way God did it last time.  He ought to like that don’t you think?  He did last week!  In fact last week, He initiated it.

In many cases, last week’s true experience can be this week’s knowledge of good.

Sometimes when our profession is ministry it practically screams at us to know good and produce a lot of it.  It starts with us, and it returns to us (”you did a really great job with that class”…”thanks”).  And of course we must help others learn to do the same.  So now “discipleship”  (another “good” thing that we should do) becomes us passing on to others our strategies for the good that we know to produce.  I’ve missed a chance to show others that God is interested in a real dialogue…not a repetition of one we have had before, but a fresh conversation between a Father and a son.

Perhaps one of the most deadly places that our knowledge of good separates us from God is in relationships. We see someone coming our way and evaluate who they are and what they may think of us.  Here comes the preacher, so we smile (the Joy of the Lord is our strength you know!) and tell him ” we are blessed”. (because we are supposed to be, so we dare not acknowledge if we are not) We smile and mask our pain with some piece of religious trivia, hoping our knowledge of good can get us through this exchange without our weaknesses being exposed.  We finish and walk away, already beginning to drop our knowledge of who we should be and lamenting who we believe we really are.  The tragedy is that we missed one more opportunity to really share who we really are with God and another potentially caring human being.

The face, the turn of phrase, the slightly too quick answer, that avoids really revealing my heart, all these are good things we learn to do because it is pleasing to the eye and seems desirable for gaining wisdom…and we miss out on the chance to drop all we know and simply be real...and receive life.  I hate that tree, I wish it didn’t taste so good.

From Alan Smith

I was thirteen years old the first time I got on a roller coaster that looped upside down. I was terrified. There were many prior failed attempts. You know what I mean. I waited in line. I made it all the way to the moment of decision and at the last minute stepped into the car and right on through. It took some serious peer pressure from some very cute thirteen year old girls to help me overcome my fear!

Why was I afraid? What was the cure? Interestingly enough, correct information did nothing to help me overcome my fear. I understood enough about physics to know it was perfectly safe to ride the Shockwave. In a science classroom, if asked to explain this, I could have said some very reasonable things about centrifugal force that would have adequately explained why there was no reason to fear. And the thing is, I really sincerely affirmed this to be fact. I was nevertheless still afraid.

There is a distinction between affirming right data and belief. Belief is much more than intellectual agreement. Belief embraces more than information. It is possible to sincerely affirm correct information and yet actually believe something completely incongruent with that data.

This can be a dangerous trap for Christians. Failing to understand the distinction between what they intellectually affirm and that which they actually believe, many mistake doctrine for belief. It is possible to sincerely embrace right doctrine and have little to no faith in operation. The doctrine of Justification by Faith can be learned, rehearsed, and vigorously defended from scripture by someone who has never heard the Judge of all Creation declare them innocent of all charges. The God who is fully present in every place can always seem distant and removed from someone who fully embraces the doctrine of God’s omnipresence and has verses from Psalm 139 ready to back it up.

What do you believe about God? I’m not asking about your doctrine or your theology. What do you really believe? Is he good? Is he near? Is he powerful? Beliefs are shaped by experience not Sunday School. The lenses through which we see reality are shaped by what we encounter. Have your experiences taught you to believe that God is good? Near? Powerful? Or do you just have right doctrine.

If you discover an incongruence between the good doctrine you’ve learned in church and from the Bible and the actual assumptions your heart makes about God based on your life experiences, then what you need is a new experience. You need to encounter God, hear his voice, experience his presence. Only this kind of revelation will produce lasting growth and change. Only this kind of experience will result in faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word (spoken word) of Christ (Rom 10:17).

Am I minimizing the importance of sound doctrine? No! Bad doctrine is of no benefit whatsoever. The point is that right doctrine is simply an accurate description of reality. It explains something real. In itself doctrine is insufficient for it is simply the explanation of a thing, not the thing itself. To the degree that right doctrine leads you to pursue the reality it points to, it is helpful. But to the degree right doctrine simply becomes a collection of correct information, it is simply the Knowledge of Good, which really isn’t any better than the Knowledge of Evil. Eating fruit from either branch of that tree will kill you!

Roller coasters were not made to be studied. Get in, buckle up, and ride.

This week, I’ve had some wonderful connect time with God. He was reminding me of Ephesians 3:20. We have such a limited understanding of what this scripture means, because we so often only quote the first part of it: “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think…”

And that’s where we stop. Sure, God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think.  That’s God at work, but there is a part B to this scripture, one we often forget to include when we quote this.  Here’s the full verse:

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.”

God can do amazing things–exceedingly abundantly above all we can ask or think–but, he can only work “according to the power that works in us.”  That word “according to” is more of a limiting context. God can only work according to what power is at work in us.  We are the conduit, the valve of God’s power at work in the earth. Is your valve wide open for God’s power to flow through you?  Or, are you just dripping?

God deposited his power in us through Christ. Early in Ephesians 1:19-20, Paul clarifies that this same power raised Jesus Christ from the dead, and lives inside of us today. God can really do amazing things, but it’s “according to the power that is in us” already.

This week, God began to speak and show me how to tap into this power through passion, through our spiritual heart.  Here’s what he said to me:

Son, I am able to do so much in you, and it happens through you. You are a conduit of my power, according to your faith. Believe that it is there, right now, inside you. Creative power, divine power to doing all that you need to do, son. It’s there. And, because it’s there, I can do exceedingly, abundantly, above all you could ask or think based upon that power inside you. So, ask, think, believe, son.

What do I ask for, Father? I’m not sure what to ask.

Son, you ask what’s on your heart, what you are passionate about, what you need?  Son, you have a new heart. I can trust your heart.  Even when your flesh is loud, screaming and very strong, I know that your heart–the real part of you–is not set on sin. It is set on righteousness, and my Holy Spirit is a seal to show that.

So ask, son. Believe. Then, watch me work in you and through you.

Encouraging words. Do you find it  hard to believe that God loves your new heart, your new spiritual heart that Jesus died to give you? It’s quite unfathomable, but it’s true. Scripture is peppered with God’s love and grace towards.

I’m learning more and more that in Christ, we are not sinners. There is no sin in us when we receive Christ.

In Christ, we are dead to sin (Romans 6:2). We are free from sin (Romans 6:18-22). It was dealt with on the cross.  When we receive Christ and are baptized into this death, then we have died to sin.  We are no longer “sinners”.  Rather, we are “saints” (called ones).

Think about what John said when he saw Jesus coming to be baptized. He said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Did you see that? What did Jesus take away? “The sin of the world.” Reminds me a bit of the often-quote scripture, John 3:16, “For God so loved the world…” He sent his son to die for the sin of the world.

We must move from a place of a “sinner mentality” to a “saint mentality”.  Do you often have thoughts like, “I’m such a sinner”? Or, “I can’t go to God, because I messed up yesterday.”

In Christ, you are not a sinner.  You are a saint. And, you can boldly go to the throne of grace in your time of need (Hebrews 4:16).  And not only that, you are seated with Christ in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6).  And, if God cannot sit in the presence of sin, then you are free from sin.  Completely free.

Think about this scripture from John 16:8-11 where Jesus explains why it is good for him to go to heaven and send us the Holy Spirit. He explains what the Holy Spirit’s job is here on earth:

And when He [the Holy Spirit] has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
of sin, because they do not believe in Me;
of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more;
of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

It tells us immediately what the conviction of sin is, “because they do not believe in [Christ]“. Notice it didn’t say, “of sin, because they do not know the difference between right and wrong.”  Sin is not believing in Christ.  So, believing in Christ means your sin is gone.

That’s why the second in that list is “of righteousness, because [Christ] goes to the Father”. If you are in Christ, you are free from sin.  Most believers understand that Jesus died for their sins.  What most believers don’t understand is that if you have put your faith in Christ, then you are righteous.  You have been “saved by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

So, the Holy Spirit’s job is to convict Christians that they are righteous in Christ.  And, through that righteousness, we have access to God our Father.  We are children of God (John 1:12). We are justified (Romans 5:1).  We are friends of Christ (John 15:15).  We are saints (Ephesians 1:1).

Can Christians still commit sin? Yes, of course. But according to Romans 7, it’s the sin in my flesh, not who I am in Christ.

“For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.” Romans 7:15-17.

Paul talked about this “body of death”. He said in the next verse (18), “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells.” He understood that in the flesh, there may be sins, but it doesn’t define who we are.  In Christ, we are saints, we are free, we are seated with him at the right hand of God.

From BobHamp.com

“I’m just not sure I have the faith it takes to get through this.”

“I just know I don’t have as much faith as I should.”

These thoughts, and many like them, course through our minds as we wrestle with our sense of inadequacy as children of God.  I am convinced that we wrestle with this sense of inadequacy because way too often, we try to generate from our soul, what can only come from God Himself.

Faith is not the mental agreement with a religious system or doctrine.  Nor is it our resolve to carry out a mindset or a mission.  It is a way of seeing that comes from listening instead of thinking.

I also see, far too often, that people think that the fact that they experience fear means that they do not “have enough faith”.  What if that is not true?

I know the Bible tells us that faith without works is dead.  I also think that faith without fear may be dead. If not dead, at least it is not really faith. Often the lack of fear is because we can see or reason the solution to, or we can rescue ourselves from our circumstances. What happens when we can’t see, but believe anyway?

Let me put it this way. Which demonstrates more faith; jumping off a curb, or jumping off a cliff. The first requires no faith at all because the risk (or fear factor) is minimal. Jumping off a curb allows you to still catch yourself, to rely on your own capabilities. Where is the fear (or faith) in that.

Jump off a cliff. (Don’t really go do this OK?, it’s an illustration…) You are now without the ability to catch yourself. Your resources are of no help. Only God can help you now. The fear factor increases the faith required to act.

Sometimes real faith means feeling the reality of the fear, but trusting and acting anyway. Trusting because you have a way of seeing that came from hearing and not from thinking.