Ephesians 4:13
Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
In part two of this series I am going to dive into our responsibility of having knowledge of the Son of God. What is this knowledge we need to know concerning the Son of God. The word knowledge comes from the Greek word epignōsis pronounced eg-pig-naw-sus. It means to have precise and correct knowledge of God being able to discern and know whats of God and what is odd. The saints in the church need to understand and have the correct knowledge of Jesus. What is this knowledge that we are to have within us concerning Jesus? It is knowledge of who Jesus is and His function in our lives. One of His functions is being a shepherd to the church. The shepherd has responsibilities but so do we as His sheep.
1-We must be able to recognize Jesus’ voice when He speaks to us.
John 10:14
“I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.”
Jesus is our Shepherd and as His sheep we have the capability to hear His voice and obey it. Jesus uses the word known which means to learn to know or gain a spiritual ear to the voice of Jesus. This starts with Gods word.
John 15:7
“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”
It is the idea of taking Gods word and taking it out of the logos (written word) and placing it into the rhema word or spirit word. The word abide means to dwell or maintain a place in the spirit of the believer. The more we allow the word to dwell in our spirits influencing our mindset the more we are able to understand the voice of Jesus within our spirit. Why? Because His word will never contradict the logos word. Our desires are His desires which is the will of the Father. Any voice that is contrary to Jesus’ written word is a false Jesus and is (s)atanic in its nature.
2-In order to understand Jesus we must understand who He is and His role in our lives. He is our shepherd. What are some of the traits of Jesus as our shepherd?
First He has a personal relationship with His sheep and knows each by name.
John 10:2, 3
“But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”
Jesus knows who you are and has a deep seated interest in you. He invested His life in you on the cross. He calls you by name! The word call means to invite or to summon someone for something. Jesus calls you and leads you in the Fathers will. We have to learn to listen to Jesus’ voice in order to fulfill the will of the Father, think with the mindset of Jesus, and operate in the power of the Holy Spirit. We have to have this knowledge of Him in order to move as He moves from pasture to pasture or each step in the plan the Father has laid out to us.
Second He is the door that allows us to run into safe pastures in times of trouble. Jesus is our protector.
John 10:7
Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
The door is a opening where a sheep can enter into the kingdom of God. When one accepts Jesus as Savior and Lord he/she can enter into the kingdom which is a safe place for the sheep. In our knowledge of Him we understand that the kingdom of God is where we are to dwell as it is in the supernatural. We are to dwell in the supernatural kingdom of God at all times maintaining constant fellowship with the shepherd.
Third Jesus acknowledges that His sheep are so important that He willingly gave up His life for the sheep.
John 10:11
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.”
Our knowledge of Jesus must include that He gave up His life for us so that we could enter into the kingdom of God which is our pasture our haven so to speak. The kingdom of God allows us to hear and obey the shepherds voice so that we can avoid the snares, schemes and devices of (s)atan both corporately and individually. We must have a intimate knowledge of Jesus in order to live in the will of the Father. One of the problems I see in the church today is a lack fellowship between the Shepherd and the collective sheep (the church). Many parts of the body of Jesus Christ are comatose or being destroyed by (s)atan because of their straying from the good shepherd Jesus. They escaped from the supernatural pastures and walk in the natural unable to hear the voice of Jesus. The (a)atanic wolves single out and attack the natural church and it becomes corrupt developing spiritual dementia to who they are in Jesus Christ. This should not be so. We need to encourage the church to get back to the perfect knowledge of Jesus Christ leaving the natural carnal pastures and return to the supernatural pastures of the good Shepherd Jesus. Where do you stand?
Part 3 next month!
Jesus is Lord!
Lee
Christos Life Teaching 