(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_3_-_Scientia.pdf)
At Revive US 2016, Francis Chan mentioned there’s a huge difference between knowing about a person and knowing the person. Francis mentioned Michael Jordan. We might know all about Michael Jordan. We might know all his statistics. But if we show up at his door, he probably won’t let us in since he doesn’t know us.
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(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_3_-_Scientia.pdf)
If the human mind has stopped communing with the Holy Spirit, Christ seems far away and unreal, and divine revelation can eventually degrade to dead form, ritual, theology, theory, and rationalization. The theory can even be correct in every way and yet without divine life. It seems a Christian can even be performing miracles in Jesus’ name without knowing Him.
“Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness.’” ~ Matthew 7:22-23 Berean Study Bible
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(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_3_-_Scientia.pdf)
We experience the conflict between the fleshly mind and the mind of Christ, but we can’t separate the mind of Christ from Christ Himself. So if a Christian isn’t communing with Christ, the revelation goes dead. It’s not that this Christian stops being God’s child, but communication with Christ breaks down, and the Christian’s heart begins to harden against Christ. Then the Christian begins to lean on his or her worldview rather than acknowledging Christ in every situation until, eventually, the fleshly veil obscures the Christian’s vision.
“Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: The devils also believe and tremble.” ~ James 2:19 King James Version
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(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_3_-_Scientia.pdf)
Just tasting of these heavenly blessings doesn’t instantly remove our fleshly nature, nor does it guarantee we’ll always be obedient. However, it does open the door to walk in His love, and love fulfills the whole law.
“Since we live by the Spirit, let us walk in step with the Spirit.” ~ Galatians 5:25 Berean Study Bible
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(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_3_-_Scientia.pdf)
God tells us not to lean on our intellects because human understanding is sin-tainted by the fall. Christ leads every person who follows Him. He makes His wisdom, knowledge, and understanding available to us as we stand in His presence submitting to the Holy Spirit. We contrast God’s wisdom with the weakness of human understanding.
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(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_3_-_Scientia.pdf)
We were Satan’s slaves, but Christ rescued us from this slavery, and He opened the door for us to walk free from sin. Therefore, we can know Jesus Christ. Anyone can know Christ since every person who seeks Him finds Him, and He reveals Himself to us. So He’ll continue to lead us, teach us, correct us, and purify us moment by moment as we yield ourselves in obedience to His love. That’s His gift to us. It’s free. When we receive this revelation from the Holy Spirit, we’re born again into God’s family as one of His children. Our fellowship with God began at our new birth as we began an expedition of the unfolding revelation of Christ and His glory. Now, we continue our journey from one glory to the next glory in an ever-upward walk toward the fullness of Christ.
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(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_3_-_Scientia.pdf)
Note that it’s His power or regulation rather than our self-effort and our ideas. It’s His gift of righteousness by grace. Grace is through faith. Faith comes by hearing. Hearing comes by the rhema of God. It all starts with His rhema, His utterance, His leading, His teaching, His correcting voice. We must topple is the idol of human intellect and self-righteousness.
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(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_3_-_Scientia.pdf)
There’s another part of God’s revelation we must understand, and everyone on this journey may already understand, but we put it here to be complete. God loves us, and we can know this truth with certainty by God’s revelation. He knows we fall far short of absolute righteousness and holiness. Therefore, being a just God, He must judge us in a just way. That would mean punishment in hell. However, He didn’t want this punishment for us since He loves us so much, so He suffered our penalty, paying the price for our wrong thoughts, words, and acts. That price was the highest price anyone’s ever paid for anything. And He paid it with His blood on the cross, a Roman instrument of torture and shame. He bore the curse of every sinner.
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Simple message: Listen to God’s Spirit and yield the members of your body to His righteousness. “But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me.” ~ Psalm 81:11
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