Yesterday, while chopping wood, my mind turned to an old friend, a professor whom I had studied under for many years. A patriot, author, speaker and teacher who has touched so many in his craft; A man who possesses knowledge beyond my comprehension. The greatest thing he taught me though, was not just the craft, but he taught me to think.  He’s bored talking about what you know, he always pushes beyond, something you don’t  know.  He’s famous for saying: “if I can’t show you the math, it’s just my opinion”. I loved that because truth is what matters to me in all that I do. My favorite saying  is “truth does not require interpretation”. As I conjured up  the courage to call him (intimidating for me), I promised myself, I wouldn’t bring up Jesus (this time) as he is a professed atheist.  I have often thought how a man so smart could not believe the greatest story ever told. Oh, by the way, he probably knows the scriptures better than most professed Christians. I have often thought through the years that maybe “I” was sent to him, but have come to know that maybe he was sent to me!  Or… maybe to each other. Well, as promised, I didn’t mention Jesus, but God wouldn’t have it. It took all of 53 seconds for the conversation to turn to  God!  After exchanging pleasantries, he shared with me that a friend had decided to go into ministry and that he had immediately thought of me. I asked what had led his friend to do that and he stated that the friend mentioned she wanted to “get right” with God.  “I think all humans have that innate desire sometime in their life”, I responded. He remained silent. 
Our conversation digressed to current events and ended with philosophy, epistemology to be specific. Epistemology is a branch of philosophy that deals with truth and knowledge, how we know what we know. 

Our conversation ended and as always, he caused me to think…..
Our conversation was on my mind all night and I wanted to tell him of this wonderful gift of knowing I had come to realize. I started by sending him a text and it morphed into this writing. Obviously, too big to text.  

The meaning of “know” as defined in the Greek concordance takes on many uses from Genesis to Revelation. The terms  used in this writing most closely resemble the following:  to come to know, recognize or perceive. Amazingly, it is connected with the root word to appear or be seen.                                                      

I KNOW,

I am, a born again, blood bought, Holy Spirit filled child of God!!!!

How is it that I know what I know? 

Doesn’t one need to first acknowledge something greater than oneself? And, why would a person want to “get right” with that “something greater”?There’s no other logical explanation other than there must be an innate void, a seeking and longing for something that’s missing. Man has always contemplated his origin. 
People spend a lifetime attempting to fill this void with earthly things. Alcohol, sex, money, fame, power, you know the list. (You have your own list)

Science does just that. It seeks to fill a void left in our understanding of that which is greater than ourselves. Greater, in that we could never create that which has been created. Science is God allowing us to peek into His workshop. 

The issue is, where one goes to seek this “something greater” (God). A five gallon bucket can’t hold 10 gallons of water. If one attempts to seek that which is beyond his understanding, from a human or human reasoning, he will only get that which is human or natural. To know something greater, we must turn….to something greater. 

Our conversation took me back to the many years of grappling with and seeking the truth. It’s obvious as we live, breathe, study and think, we see something greater than ourselves. Abraham Lincoln allegedly said, “ I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how a man could look up into the heavens and say there is no God”. 

Can we honestly “look up” or “out” or “down” or “inward” and not see something greater? The fact that we can even look, or think about what we are looking at is amazing!  Just take the time to study the human body’s design or the cosmos and you can’t deny (truth defined is that which is, and can’t be denied, reality). something greater than yourself. We can’t deny the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent love exhibited  when we find out how the world rotates to heat or cool evenly and is tilted perfectly, the correct distance from the sun, so as not to fry us or freeze us!!!! No human could create what we see and realize. 
This awesome intelligence, power, and presence that cannot be denied (truth) is accessible and is not found by intellectual ascent alone. The fact that we are able to identify it is a gift. The clay cannot know the potter without the potter’s gift of knowledge. The potter has placed within the clay the ability to know Him. It seems we humans, alone, possess that gift, but I don’t know that. All of creation outside of humans seems to be satisfied with what they were made to be.   
The knowledge of this something greater  can only come from “the something greater”. It is a “gift” from that power itself. I can’t know you… better than you know yourself. Therefore, only you… could tell me the truth about you (if you choose to). The difference is you could lie to me, but God is not a man that He could lie. Could you even comprehend that a human couldn’t or wouldn’t lie? Do you ever contemplate something greater than a human? Can we even comprehend that which is perfect, that which can only be good , all of the time, that which is all knowing and all powerful, all of the time?  That which is always faithful, when I am not. Is the author of nature, all of creation, somehow attempting to reveal Himself to us?

I always ask an atheist or agnostic if they would like to know or communicate with the amazing intelligence, power and presence behind what we are capable of seeing. Most answer a resounding “Yes, if I knew how”

Doesn’t God ask the same question?

How you answer that question will change your life. 

So, again, where do we go to seek God?

We must enter into that which is beyond what we can comprehend. Epistemology keeps us focused on ourselves, nature and material things.  We are humbled when we seek beyond ourselves into the metaphysical (beyond or after nature) realm, a higher learning we were designed for. You cannot stop, and look up, down, out, or within and not be humbled. If you can, maybe you need to get over (above) yourself.  

I have found that the Holy Scriptures reveal this higher learning when we are ready to learn.  When we submit… 

The Great Spirit Being of “all” knowing , power, and presence – Stop and think for a moment , the magnitude of knowing everything, possessing all power and being present everywhere. Outside of time as we know it – eternal, creator of all things, the beginning and the end. The I Am, not was or will, but always was and always is. One that speaks……and all that we have found or seen or know (embarrassingly minuscule) was put into motion. A hundred billion galaxies constantly expanding in all directions, just by a Word………..OMG!
Yes, Oh…My…God!!!! I say it in praise. Friends,  This… is… outside…of..nature!  Nature was given to us to reveal that which is greater. The things seen, speak of the unseen. 
[20] For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: (Romans 1:20)
The invisible explained by the visible! Can we even understand that? Yes, get over yourself. 

“Meta” means “after” in Greek. “Physics” means “nature, natural law, material”. Metaphysical means beyond the things of nature, the “something greater”. Parmenides, Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, all the so-called great thinkers of their day looked “up”. They knew of the something greater, but they looked to their own intelligence and understanding.  Oh, if they had gotten over and above themselves! 

The Apostle Paul encountered their students at Mars Hill (Areopagus, where the great Greek councils met to discuss all matters of truth etc.) where Paul was allowed to speak. Those great thinkers wanted to hear what Paul had to say; a man who had encountered and was tutored by the almighty God –  The risen Christ!!!!!!!!

Watch this:

[16] Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. [17] Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him. [18] Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection. [19] And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is ? [20] For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean. [21] (For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.) [22] Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. [23] For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. [24] God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; [25] Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; [26] And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; [27] That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: [28] For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. [29] Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. [30] And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: [31] Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. [32] And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter. [34] Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them. (Acts 17: 16-34)

The Apostle Paul was selected by God to bring the gospel of grace to the Gentiles – to the great thinkers of the world. To all the world – to you and I. 
Paul does here what Paul was born to do – to reveal that God can be,  and wants to be known! That He is close, and can be known if we would seek Him. That we are His offspring. That we live and move and our very being is in Him. That we were made in the image of God, not in the image of gold or stone, but in the image of a living being higher than ourselves! That Jesus, the Word (God) made flesh and dwelt among us, was crucified, dead, buried and the third day arose to life, was seen by many and is the assurance to all men.  Christ is our blessed assurance. The way for us to know the Almighty God! Paul tells them that God winked or allowed their ignorance “but now”, with the coming of Christ, it is finished. There is nothing more the human can do to satisfy God (they wouldn’t do it anyway and God knew it) with the final, once and for all propitiation of Christ at the cross. 

Amen, Amen and Amen!!!! Remember, this is coming from a man (Paul) that had met and was tutored by the risen Lord of glory! (Galatians 1:12) Can you imagine some philosopher or  “great thinker” asking Paul: How do you know what you know? It’s laughable. 

But yet you say to me,  “how do I know”?

I know Christ because I have met Him. Not on the road to Damascus, but on the road to Destruction!  He saw my heart and the door of my soul open just enough to let that glorious light in and to shine all through my dead bones. He saw my seeking and remembered his promise.  He reached down, plucked me up as Simon Peter when he was bid to come, and would have drowned in the treacherous waves,  but for these beautiful words: Lord save me! Just that small cry from a humble heart summons the God of the universe! Just that small plea changed my identity from the child of Adam to the child of the living God!!!! He  quickened me, gave me a new spiritual birth that will never die, He took my old dead man to the cross with him, He died in the flesh so I could be born and raised in the Spirit with Him. I  know it’s Him as He renews my mind and conforms me to His image. I know now the sound of His voice and long to hear him all through my day. He comforts me in the person of the Holy Spirit in all that I do and promises never to leave me. I seek Him in all that I do. Even when my flesh sins, He does not leave me but comforts, corrects and teaches me. He reminds me that He has removed my sin, nailing it to the cross. He guides me to all truth. I know Him because He lives in me, as close as my breath. He’s there when I slumber and there when I awaken to the day He has sent. I have come to recognize this beautiful Spirit that has taken up residence in my body. He reveals more and more of Himself to me as I submit to His teaching.  I know Him because my desires are not what they used to be. I love what He loves and long to be as He is. He is the Son of the living God poured out for me to know. I’m not ashamed to say that I know Him. 
Flesh and blood did not reveal this to me, but my Father in Heaven and I’m grateful. Glory!

Who am I that He would come and live in me!
What a blessing and privilege!!
[19] What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19 KJV)

The natural man in his own intelligence will not receive this, he must get over himself!
[14] But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14 KJV)

[18] For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. [19] For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. [20] Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? [21] For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. [22] For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: [23] But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; [24] But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. [25] Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. [26] For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called : [27] But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; [28] And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: [29] That no flesh should glory in his presence. [30] But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: (1 Corinthians 1:18-30)

It’s all there folks, Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. B.I.B.L.E. 

The Holy scriptures reveal God’s relationship with His creation. Nowhere else can you find it. All you will find is what man has contrived in his attempt to reach up to a Holy God through intellectual ascent or religion. If we take the entirety of scripture and rightly divide it, meaning to apply it correctly, understanding that God spoke in time past, but now, and in the future to different people at different times, we will see the greatest love story ever told, between a Creator and His creation. The Potter and the clay. The Father and His children. 
Most importantly, when we allow His teaching and guiding, through His living Word – Christ and His written word – holy scriptures, we will see His promises manifest in our lives. It’s undeniable. We are allowed into this amazing intelligence, power and presence, right into His throne room (Hebrews 4:16.) He seats us with Him in heavenly places. [6] And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: (Ephesians 2:6)

We become His children, joint heirs with Christ. All that is His is mine. Did you know that? His righteousness is my righteousness. Totally forgiven! His peace is my peace. His truth is my truth. His love is my love. His life is my life.  His knowledge is my knowledge. 
He knows me and I know Him. 

To the regenerate soul, it becomes undeniable (truth). Knowing. They would die rather than denounce it. They have gone to the burning stake, the lion’s den, ripped to sunder in the coliseum, tied to stakes and drowned, placed in furnaces, become human torches, shot in the head, experienced every kind of death imaginable rather than deny this truth they have come to know (read Fox’s Martyrs). And…. it’s still happening today. 

My dear friend and sister in Christ puts it this way:
“No one who has experienced the supernatural power of the quickening of your soul when God reveals something to you either through His Word or someone’s actions could ever deny the spiritual blessings here and now, nor the promise of the future blessings” 

By faith, yes the slightest amount of faith, He comes and dwells in us and promises to never leave us. We become alive as He is alive. He gives us His mind, His knowing.
[16] For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:16 KJV

Faith is the conduit that leads humanity into divinity. Faith unleashes all that He has for us. Our little “less than a mustard seed” faith, with His faith,  brings us from death to life, as we were designed to be at the beginning, before man chose to trust in his own knowledge. [17] But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. (Genesis 2:17)

Faith, leads us to a believing and believing to a knowing. I know Him because He has allowed me to know Him. It becomes my greatest possession, my greatest reward. There is nothing ahead or above it, in this life or the next. 

ALL HIS…WORK!!!!! His Grace, Mercy and Love.  

God so loved us, that He set aside His glory and became one of us in the person of Christ to reconcile us back to Him.

2 Corinthians 5:19 KJV
[19] To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
This, prophesied through men for thousands of years since the beginning.  Go and read it!

I know, His death paid the debt of man’s sin. The blood from a perfect sinless man (required to satisfy the debt owed to a perfect and righteous being), born to a virgin, where the blood of the mother mingled not with His royal blood, rendering Him a man like no other –  A God-man. “And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” Luke 1:35. 

It’s like that for us. The Holy Spirit of God enters us as it did the virgin when we are born of God. A supernatural birth! By Faith. (John 3)

I know, He was born in a stable, just a baby, walked on water, changed the natural state of water into wine, calmed raging storms, brought sight to the blind, multiplied the content of a few fish into enough to feed thousands, read minds and hearts, walked through walls, raised the dead to life, never once sinned, was crucified on a cross for telling the truth of who He was. He was dead, was buried and on the third day raised to life, walked out of a fortified tomb and was seen by many. He walked the earth for 40 days continuing to do supernatural acts. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God interceding for those who believe. 
I know, His raising to life,  a supernatural (metaphysical) event, was to bring man from a natural state, into a supernatural state, if we but believe. 
I know, by grace, Divinity entered  humanity, to allow man in his fallen state, separated from his creator, dead in his own sin, to enter into that which on his own he could never obtain. Eternal life, Divinity and his original place with his creator, Almighty God. 

I’ll be the first to tell you that the natural intelligent man thinks it’s stupid!  But a man who has just cracked the door and allowed (submit) the supernatural, something bigger than himself, to guide and teach, will come to believe it with all his/her heart and mind. He will know it! Knowing is believing made manifest. 

I can’t give it to you, no man can. I can plant the seed, another can water, but God gives the increase. 

You will find this truth, this salvation, this knowing in the written word of God, The Bible. You may read through it many times and and get nothing, as many do, if you rely on your own intellect. If you read it and pray for the Holy Spirit’s guiding and understanding, you will come to know the living Word..  JESUS CHRIST!!
This knowledge is not achieved from natural man but it is a gift, a wonderful gift from the source of all knowledge and wisdom that becomes your very life. 
It’s no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me.
I know because He has allowed me, gifted me to know. 

What a blessing it is to know this amazing truth. It fills the human void as nothing else can. 

Yes, we become a peculiar people, we look different than the world. We are those who have found a treasure hidden in a field and go and sell all we have and purchase the field. Or, one that has found a perfect pearl and would sell all we have to secure it. 

We must seek higher, something greater than ourselves. You will know it when you find it. He promised!

In Jesus, the problem of religion is solved, the reconciliation and fellowship of man with God. We must expect no clearer revelation of God, nor any higher religious attainment of man. 

Christ in us , our only hope of glory. 

[27] To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: (Colossians 1:27)

“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” (Revelation 3:20)

MERRY CHRISTMAS – True Story!

The Son of God became the son of man, so the sons of men could become the sons of God.

God is seen in nature, heard in song, but is made manifest in the person of Jesus the Christ.

We must understand, that by faith in the finished work of the cross, we are translated into the spiritual realm of God. We are allowed to enter that which the natural man lost.
[13] Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: [14] In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: [15] Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: (Colossians 1:15-17)

It’s as close as right there where you are, THE SINNER’S PULPIt. You speak and He will in no wise cast you off. It matters not what you have done, but what He has done for you. 

I love you all and pray that you don’t waste another second. “ Get over yourself“ and open the door”. 
“ For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding” (Colossians 1:9).

THESINNERSPULPIT.com “Come in a sinner and leave a saint.”