Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble”. 2 Peter 1:1-10
- We have to be diligent, and make steady efforts to make our calling and election sure. Jesus Himself said it is he that endures to the end that shall be saved. (Matthew 24:13) You do not endure what is pleasant. In spite of all, we must finish well. We must endure to the end, for there shall be a great falling away as the day draws closer to the end.
- If we will not become unfruitful, fall or fail, we must be diligent, and make steady efforts to grow. To be fruitful requires a deliberate conscious effort. If you do nothing, you will go nowhere.
Often, what we ought to see as a beginning, we see as an end. BEING BORN AGAIN IS THE BEGINNING, NOT AN END.
There's so much more to add. The word ADD means to MINISTER, NOURISH, IMPROVE and BUILD UP. In order to sustain and maintain anything, you have to improve. “Your path needs to keep shinning more and more...” (Proverbs 4:18) To improve, you have to deliberately and consciously make an effort to know the truth. It is the truth you know that can set you free. (John 8:31-32) We can’t know the truth if we don’t continue in His word.
Having information of truth and knowing the truth is not the same. You cannot become a disciple of Jesus if you don’t continue in His word. What brings a change is TRANSFORMATION and REVELATION. We need to BRIDGE THE GAP BETWEEN INFORMATION AND REVELATION. You don’t really know until what you are experiencing and what you claim to know clinches. True knowledge has fruits.
This improvement/upgrading takes place from the inside. Until it takes place on the inside, there’s no improvement that will take place on the outside. Having more money will not make your life better, it is more of God you need.
We need to develop the CHARACTER, the STRUCTURAL FORMATION for the VISION, MANDATE, EXPECTATION, CHALLENGE, BLESSING ahead. Thus, we have to prepare for what is coming.
To your faith, add knowledge. This kind of knowledge produces fruits. By their fruits, you shall know them. The knowledge of God is seen in the life of a man who claims to be in fellowship with Him.
Information is not revelation. You have to do something about the information you have for it to become a revelation. Between INFORMATION and REVELATION is TIME. The time to gather the information is nothing comparable to the time needed to receive the revelation. You have to be patient for the revelation to come. To bridge that gap takes TIME. As you are waiting, you engage in praying, meditating, reading and studying.
Jesus knew who He was but He still needed to grow. (Luke 2:40, 52) There’s room for improvement/growth. Take the ‘driving seat’ of your life. There are many things we are informed about that we don’t believe. REVELATION comes when you BELIEVE, and you can only believe what you have information about and have fellowshipped with, and it takes time.
If you believe, you wouldn't compromise; you wouldn't be anxious or afraid. Your CHOICES, DECISIONS and ACTIONS come to show what you really believe. You can only believe with your heart. To do that, you have to ask yourself if the steps I’m taking as it pertains to the information I have, can take me to where I’m going. You have to ask yourself, if the kind of prayer I’m praying is enough for my level or if the kind of reading, studying is enough for my level,. The higher your position, the more you need to upgrade.
To see the power of God, you must believe the report of the Lord, to believe the report of the Lord; you must find it in the word and fellowship with it.
“That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death”. (Phil. 3:10)
Paul did not assume that because he’s been in active ministry for more than three decades, that he automatically knew the Lord. His desire was to know more of Him. The more you know God, the more you want to know Him. True knowledge of God humbles you and births a hunger in you to know Him more and more. In order to know Him, you must set your affection above, seeking to know Him.
It’s very dangerous to walk on assumption. This happens when you feel you know based on the information you have.
Let’s stop taking the things of eternal value for granted. Let’s remind ourselves that we are not doing God or anybody a favour by serving Him but ourselves.
Let’s start taking the personal initiative to improve our walk with God because that’s what our life is all about. Let’s make a sincere and genuine assessment: “Is what I’m taking in from God enough”? In 1 Kings 19:7, Elijah was told to eat because the journey was great.
Let’s stop living like cursed men and women and start living like blessed people indeed. We have to take the responsibility to know God. We must seek to learn of Him. For some of us, coming to church is not a problem, but family and personal altars are in shambles.
Since we are talking about knowledge, it’s also about learning.
There are three types of LEARNING
1. Cognitive
2. Affective
3. Psychomotor
Let’s see the aspects of COGNITIVE LEARNING;
- Recall knowledge: We should be able to remember what we learn from God’s word. In order to recall, you must put a system in place to be able to do that
Comprehension: To understand or appreciate what you’ve learnt. To comprehend;
1. Privately study what you’ve learnt.
2. Ask the teacher questions.
3. Discussions among yourselves on what you are taught. The call of God is to
come and learn of Him and not to solve our problems. We want our problems
solved but don’t want to learn of Him. Many times, we want things to change,
but don’t want to give ourselves to learning. Learning is some work and it must
be deliberate.
- Application to real-life situations and different scenarios
- Analysis of the knowledge: Breaking it to bits for better understanding and communication
- Synthesis: Rearranging the bits to form a pattern
- Evaluation: Using the knowledge you have to make sound judgments and decisions and your life expresses it.
We can see the scriptural proof of cognitive learning in 1 John 1:1, 3. “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life… that which we have seen and heard, we declare to you ...”
Parents, if you are really interested in your children knowing, then you must be diligent to know. You can’t communicate what you do not know. We have crisis because many times, we simply communicate what we have information on and not what we know. You can only effectively communicate what you know and not what you don’t know.
Like Paul, we must desire to know Him.
