Knowledge
puffs up, but love builds up.
The
man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know.
But
the man who loves God is known by God.
1
Corinthians 8:1-3
The fact is this, that we may advance a long way in spiritual
knowledge (I mean in information, the knowledge of the truth) beyond our own
real measure, and then have the shock, under terrible conditions, of
discovering that all that we have accumulated through the years does not help
us. We are right up against things and have to say, "I have not got the
realities I thought I had, they are not helping me; I am being brought right
back to foundations in my real, personal, living knowledge of the Lord
Himself." The peril then, of course, is to jettison all the teaching we
have had and to say that it is a valueless thing. It is not valueless; but we
must recognize that there is all the difference between knowing the thoughts of
God in our minds, and the Holy Spirit's using that knowledge to accomplish
God's ends. Thus we have to come back with every fragment and have very real
dealings with the Lord. Our attitude every time must be, "Lord, do save me
from ever coming to the time when what I have heard proves only to have been a
thing heard; make it a basis of Holy Spirit activity to reach the Divine
end."
Now, if you can grasp this, it is going to be a great
deliverance. Why are the people of God suffering? That they may be conformed to
the image of His Son. Of course, we may not need a world upheaval to do that,
but God is going to use all conditions to that end, and, tragically enough,
there are multitudes of the Lord's people who do need a world shaking. They are
so bound up with the externalities of Christianity, with its whole structure
and system, that nothing but that which will overthrow, disintegrate, destroy,
and raise tremendous questions about the whole business, will bring them to the
place where the Spirit of God can begin really to do the work which He has come
to do in them.
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