Epignosis: To become thoroughly acquainted with or knowing God's word & truly living and applying it in our lives.
William James, Harvard's most distinguished professor psychology wrote: If you wish to be learned you will be learned.
What does all the above have to do with the title...read on.
I learned that as followers of Christ and His teachings we believe in the Holy Spirit (The Holy Spirit is the third person in the Trinity. He is fully God. He is eternal, omniscient, omnipresent, has a will, and can speak. He is alive. He is a person. He is not particularly visible in the Bible because His ministry is to bear witness of Jesus (John 15:26).
Regarding the Holy Spirit, believers can be divided into 3 categories:
- Believer's that understand how to be led by the Holy Spirit & have testimonies and lives that cause many to be saved.
- Believer's that knows the word of God, but operates out of the emotional realm and who have consequently never learned how to operate our of their spirit man. This is Gnosis and knowing what God's word says, but not applying God's word. Therefore, the battle of the mind & emotion is like a roller coaster ride with many ups and downs.
- So called Believer's that don't acknowledge any form of divine leadership at all. They don't believe that anyone can be led by the Holy Spirit and that God has abandoned them. As far as they are concerned, God exists and they are going to heaven.
Life Through the Spirit
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.
Remember that Satan has gone through a lot of trouble to keep believers in Christ, confused, using every deception at his disposal to make sure the keeps us walking down the wrong road. Satan does not want us to reach our potential to be led by the Holy Spirit. He uses the same tactics over and over again on saints around the world, therefore, believer's in Christ stumble and fall, only to get up and repeat the same mistakes.
Q: How does Satan do this to believer's in Christ?
A: Neutralizing us to indoctrinate us into a program where we look to our emotions or outward circumstances as a basis for God's leadership and direction in our life instead of yeilding to the Holy Spirit's inner witness in our spirit man.
Q: How can you tell if we've been affected by satan's deceptive ways?
A: If we look to these believers as role models of being led by the Holy Spirit, we easily become confused. Although they claim to be divinely led, they go through one situation after another, suffering defeat again and again. The bottom falls out of everything they do as they make bad decision after bad decision.
Q: Why is the devil so avid in his oppostion to our being led by the Holy Spirit through the inner witness?
A: Just the fact that Satan fights it so hard ought to tell us how powerful and how dangerous to his kingdom this divine leadership can by!
We must continue to crucify our flesh, daily! Thank you Jesus!
Thank you Pastor Mel & Tim (The Bridge Church Hawaii)
