Growing in the Knowledge of God

Written by Michael Bradley


This first verse completely setsrepparttar stage for you to be able to receive knowledge fromrepparttar 148281 Lord. This first verse is literally telling us that God is wanting us to grow inrepparttar 148282 knowledge of Him and His Son Jesus.
"... but GROW inrepparttar 148283 grace and KNOWLEDGE of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 3:18)
This verse is only one short sentence long, but a lot is being said in it. After we get saved, God expects us to start growing inrepparttar 148284 knowledge that He wants to transmit to us. Andrepparttar 148285 only way we can spiritually grow is by seeking afterrepparttar 148286 knowledge that will cause this growth to occur inrepparttar 148287 first place! This right here is why a lot of Christians do not make much spiritual growth overrepparttar 148288 course of their lives after they initially get saved - because they are not seeking afterrepparttar 148289 knowledge of God that will cause this growth to actually occur.

Fear ofrepparttar 148290 Lord isrepparttar 148291 Beginning of Receiving Knowledge and Wisdom

Now that we know that God wants us to grow inrepparttar 148292 knowledge that He wants to give to us, these next two verses will tell usrepparttar 148293 first step that needs to be met before God will even begin to release His knowledge to you. These two verses are specifically telling us thatrepparttar 148294 fear ofrepparttar 148295 Lord isrepparttar 148296 beginning of being able to receive knowledge and wisdom fromrepparttar 148297 Lord. Here arerepparttar 148298 two verses:

  1. "The fear ofrepparttar 148299 Lord isrepparttar 148300 beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction." (Proverbs 1:7)
  2. "The fear ofrepparttar 148301 Lord isrepparttar 148302 beginning of wisdom, andrepparttar 148303 knowledge ofrepparttar 148304 Holy One is understanding." (Proverbs 9:10)
Notice that in both of these verses it says that fear ofrepparttar 148305 Lord isrepparttar 148306 "beginning" of being able to receive knowledge from God. In other words - if you don't have a healthy fear ofrepparttar 148307 Lord - then chances are, God is not going to be working with you very closely in releasing His knowledge to you. This first condition right here is another reason why many of God's people are not getting more knowledge, revelation and wisdom being transmitted to them.

What exactly is God meaning when He says we must have a "fear" of Him? He obviously does not want you to be so afraid of Him that you then become to afraid to approach Him for prayer and to enter into a healthy personal relationship with Him. What I believe God means byrepparttar 148308 phrase "fear ofrepparttar 148309 Lord" is that we are to have an extremely reverent respect for Him and all of His ways!

Many Christians have a good healthy fear of God Himself, as they know that He is all powerful and that He is God Almighty Himself. But where many Christians are getting into trouble off of these two verses is that they do not have a healthy fear of all of God's ways. And one of God's ways for us is that we try and stay out of sin - especially some of them more serious type sins.

God's People Are Destroyed For Lack of Knowledge

Written by Michael Bradley


These next two verses are extreme - and I mean extreme! These two verses are telling us that God's people are literally, and I mean literally, being destroyed for lack of knowledge. The second verse below says that God's people can literally go into captivity as a result of not havingrepparttar right amount of knowledge about something.

Godrepparttar 148280 Father is giving all of us a major warning withrepparttar 148281 ways that He has these two verses worded. A perfect example of these two verses in actual operation arerepparttar 148282 Muslim suicide bombers. Many of these suicide bombers are young kids. They have been brought up being brainwashed byrepparttar 148283 extremist element of Islam, and they really do think they are going straight to heaven if they are willing to blow themselves up and anyone else they can take with them.

This is a perfect example of these young kids being led into "captivity" as a result of not havingrepparttar 148284 appropriate knowledge to fully understand what they are getting into inrepparttar 148285 first place. And then when they actually take their own lives in these suicide bombings, they are literally being "destroyed" as a result of this lack of knowledge.

That is why seeking afterrepparttar 148286 knowledge of God is so important with allrepparttar 148287 crazy and demonic things that are going on in this world. Having God's knowledge on certain things, situations, different issues and topics is what can keep you from getting entangled into something that could end up turning deadly on you.

These two verses should be memorized by every Christian. Here they are:

  1. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." (Hosea 4:6)
  2. "Therefore My people have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge ..." (Isaiah 5:13)
If these two verses are telling us that not havingrepparttar 148288 knowledge of God operating in our lives could literally lead us into getting into some kind of captivity - not to mentionrepparttar 148289 possibility of getting us killed or thrown intorepparttar 148290 pits of hell when we die - thenrepparttar 148291 reverse is also true - that havingrepparttar 148292 knowledge of God operating in your life can help keep you out of serious trouble, help keep you free and possibly help lengthenrepparttar 148293 number of days that you can live down here on this earth.

4. Knowledge and Wisdom are Better than allrepparttar 148294 Material Things of This World

These next 7 verses are once again making a very radical statement. God is literally telling us thatrepparttar 148295 knowledge and wisdom that we can receive from Him is better and more valuable than allrepparttar 148296 silver, gold and rubies of this world. In other words,repparttar 148297 knowledge and wisdom that you can receive from God is better than allrepparttar 148298 material wealth that this world has to offer!

God then goes one step further in this first verse I will list below, and states that knowledge and wisdom is better than anything else you can possibly desire in this life! Think about how radical this statement really is givenrepparttar 148299 materialistic and money hungry society we live in.

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