KNOWLEDGE OF GOD
Knowledge of God is knowing God and having a continuous relationship with Him! It involves relationship and continuity:
1, Relationship – To have knowledge of God or to know God is to create a cordial relationship with God by accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord, this happens by repenting from all your sins, confessing them and forsaking them, then starting to please God in new Life. To please God is to keep doing the will of God, and the will of God is righteousness, truth and holiness. Matthew 7:2, ““Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”

There is difference between knowing God or being known of God. If you do not have genuine salvation through repentance, if you are not living in newness of life after your salvation, God does not know you. You can know many things about God and can even recite many Bible verses but God does not know you if you don’t have genuine salvation through godly sorrow and repentance.

2, Continuity – knowing God is not about the past experience, but present matter. If you have known God yesterday and pleased Him, but today you have gone back to sin, then the knowledge of yesterday is immaterial and before God now you do not know Him at all. Please read what Ezekiel 18:24, “But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? All the righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; because of the unfaithfulness of which he is guilty and the sin which he has committed, because of them he shall die.” So it is not about, “I have given my life to Christ Jesus, I have experienced salvation and gifts Holy Spirit” But are you continuously living to please God in holiness and righteousness up to date?

You can be saved in the morning and lose the salvation in the afternoon if you do not start to walk in holiness and righteousness, if you do not start to work out your salvation with trembling and godly fear, if you do not immediately depart from old sinful path, and if you do not take conscious effort to detach from sinful relationship, lifestyle, and if you do not destroy every ungodly materials, music, movies, magazines, and other stuffs in your possessions; let alone being saved some months or years back. So many Christians and ministers are claiming lost salvation and empty relationship with God. Relationship which you claim to have with God without pleasing Him in holiness and righteousness is an empty relationship.

You wonder how possible or realistic is Matthew 7:22 and 23 which says, ““Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”

You may be wondering, how possible is it for someone to know Jesus to the point of using His name to cast out demons, that means the demons recognize the person as a child of God. And not only that, but to also do many wonders in Jesus name and now Jesus is saying He never knew them.

If we connect Ezekiel 18: 24 with Matthew 7:22, 23, we will get a clear understanding.

Ezekiel 18:24, “But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? All the righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; because of the unfaithfulness of which he is guilty and the sin which he has committed, because of them he shall die.”

The Bible says “When a righteous man turns away from the way of righteousness and join himself with the sinful world, there is something you need to take note here, The Bible says, “All the righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered” it means when a Christian turns back into sin and worldliness, all his salvation experience, his righteousness and holiness of the past, all will be wiped away from God’s record, it will not be remembered any more. It will be as if the person never come to the Lord before. Now if you read what Jesus says in Matthew 7:23, “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”

With the understanding of Ezekiel 18:24, Matthew 7:23 will make meaning to you. These people were born again at a particular time, they experienced salvation, sanctification, serving God with all their heats and had baptism of Holy Spirit that they had several gifts of Holy Spirit of prophecy, of casting out demons and of performing miracles but because they fell back into lawlessness, into the common worldly system, and it-doesn’t-matter-sins, all their spiritual experiences and righteousness were wiped away from God’s record according to Ezekiel 18:24, “All the righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered.” So Jesus could not remember them again and he said, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”

But then you may ask, “But the gifts continue the manifest in their lives and ministries!” Yes, you are right as you rightly call it GIFTS. Prophecy is a gift of God, speaking in tongue is a gift of God, casting out demons is a gifts of God, performing miracles is a gift of God. And God is not a man that always collect back what He gives someone, if God gives you gifts of Holy Spirit, and you go back into lawlessness and worldliness, He will only wipe out your name from His Book of Life and all your previous righteousness from His record Book, but He will leave the gifts with you.

So if you see the manifestations of gifts of Holy Spirit in your life or in the life of your pastor, prophet or daddy G.O, that is not an indication that you or your pastor still have a continuous relationship with God or you are still pleasing God.

“Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.” John 8:31. Continuing to abide in the Word and will of God is what makes a person a disciple of Jesus Christ indeed, and not in self-deception.

Have you really known the Lord in genuine salvation since you have been a Christian or a minister? Do you still know the Lord in continuous sanctification of life after your salvation, or you are relying on empty testimony of yesterday and continuous gifts that God has dashed you in your backsliding?

Check your life in the light of the word of God before it is too late.

If you will like to surrender your life to Jesus, rededicate your life to Jesus, please click the link
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