"The Knowledge of God" part III

1. As to God’s Covenant
In Haggai 2:5 we read: “According to the WORD that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so my SPIRIT remains with you; fear not.”

2. As to Creation
In Psalm 33:6 we read: “By the WORD of YEHOVAH were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the BREATH ( or Spirit) of His mouth.”

3. As to the Commission of the Messiah
In Isaiah 48:16 we read: “And now, ADONAI YEHOVAH, and His SPIRIT, has sent ME.”

4. As to Incarnation
In Luke 1:35 we read: “PNEUMA HAGION (Holy Spirit) shall come upon you, and the power of THE HIGHEST shall overshadow you: therefore that holy thing which shall be begotten also shall be called God’s SON.”

5. As to His Baptism
We read in Matthew 3:16,17 how He was consecrated for His office of prophet: the SPIRIT of God descending upon Him; and the voice of the FATHER, saying “This is My beloved SON.”

6. As to Crucifixion
In Hebrews 9:14 we read: “How much more shall the blood of CHRIST, who through the Eternal SPIRIT offered Himself without spot to GOD, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the Living God.”

7. As to Christ’s Ministry
In Acts 10:38 it is revealed, by the lips of Peter, “How GOD anointed JESUS of Nazareth with PNEUMA HAGION (the Holy Spirit) and with power.”

8. As to the Promise of the Comforter
In John 14:26 we have “The Comforter, who is the HOLY GHOST, whom the FATHER shall send in MY name, He shall teach you all things.”

And in John 16:16 we have the same Truth: “HE (the Spirit) shall glorify ME, for He shall receive of Mine and shall show it to you. All things that the FATHER has are Mine; therefore, said I, that He (the Spirit) shall take of Mine and shall show it to you.”

Yes, “all things”. All things revealed later by Him in the Epistles specially addressed to the Church of Christ, which is His Body. All things essential to the members of that Body for their salvation through instruction; all things necessary for their safe conduct to Glory shall be taught in the school of spiritual experience by the promised Spirit of God, for the benefit (Grace) and the blessing of all who have been given to Christ by the Father.

9. As to the Provision made for God’s Children
In Romans 8:16,17 we learn what wonderful provision is made for the teaching and training of the Living children of God: “The SPIRIT Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of GOD; and, if children, then heirs - Heirs of God, and joint Heirs with CHRIST.”

10. As to the New Standing of God’s Children
In telling us how the sanctification and justification of His people are secured, we have the revelation of the same God in 1 Corinthians 6:11. After speaking of the vileness of those who had been taken out of nature’s dark pit of mire and clay, the apostle says:: “And such were some of you: but we are washed, but we are sanctified, but we are justified in the Name of the LORD JESUS, and by the SPIRIT of our GOD.”

11. As to the Experience of God’s Children
In every part and stage of a divinely wrought experience the same God is revealed as being engaged. We read in 2 Corinthians 1:21,22: “Now He who established us with you in CHRIST, and has anointed us, is GOD; who has also sealed us, and given the earnest (with serious intent)of the SPIRIT in our hearts.”

12. As to the Workings of the New Nature
In the heavenward aspirations of the New Nature we see the same God working and securing them. In Galatians 4:6 we read: “And because we are sons, GOD has sent forth the SPIRIT of His SON into your hearts, crying, Abba [ie., my] FATHER.” Here the gift of the Sonship spirit implies the Giver, the Holy Spirit.

13. As to their access to God
In expressing the nearness to which they were brought who had once been “far off”, we are told in Ephesians 2:18, “For through HIM (Christ; see v. 16,17) we both (Jews and Gentiles) have access by one SPIRIT to the FATHER.”

14. As to the Activities of the New Nature
In Philippians 3:3 the New Nature by which we worship and serve God implies the Holy Spirit, the Giver. “We are the circumcision, who serve (or worship) by GOD’S SPIRIT, and rejoice in CHRIST JESUS, and have no confidence in the flesh.” Here we learn that it is only by the New Nature, which is the Gift of the Holy Spirit, that we can worship the Father, or rejoice in Christ Jesus. This also implies a nature of intercourse and intimacy.

15. As to the Calling of God’s Children
In 2 Thessalonians 2:13,14, we learn how the Thessalonian saints owed all their blessings to the Divine work which had been wrought within them: “We are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of THE SPIRIT and belief of the Truth; whereto He called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the Glory of our LORD JESUS CHRIST.”

16. As to the Election of God’s Children
In 1 Peter 1:2 the election of those believers to whom Peter wrote is declared to be “according to the foreknowledge (predestination) of God the FATHER, through sanctification by the SPIRIT, to obedience and sprinkling of the blood of JESUS CHRIST.”

17. As to the Hope of God’s Children
In Jude 20, 21, we have the same God revealed (the Gift given of the Holy Spirit, implying, of course, the Giver); “But we, beloved, building up yourselves on your most Holy faith, praying by the Holy SPIRIT, keep yourselves in the Love of GOD, looking for the mercy (David's Loving-kindness) of our Lord JESUS CHRIST to eternal Life.”

In all these and other similar Scriptures we have not a creed to confess; not a dry doctrine to preach: not a theory to reason about; not a cold dogma to propound: but, Divine Truth for us to feed upon, to be receptive of, to live upon, to experience; and Divine facts to rejoice in. We have to do with, and get to know our God, Who reveals Himself as the Living God, Loving, saving, succoring, keeping, preserving, guiding, and blessing His children with all spiritual blessings. (but these children, alas! instead of getting to know Him, are taken up with themselves; they are occupied with their own blessings instead of with the Blesser. Hence it is that they are lost in themselves, and never really get to know the God with Whom they have to do. They will reason about His Person, instead of rejoicing in what He says and resting in what He has done. They thus come to regard Him as a God afar off, instead of as the One Whom we have, and Whom we know; and with Whom we have to do.