Know God and Know Thyself

An enlightenment from the fellowship with a brother we enjoyed today at Hyderabad as we embarked one five days national brother fellowship. 

Spiritual blindness is not knowing God. As as result of ignorance of God, one is also ignorant of himself. In this case, ignorance is never a bliss. Many people, Christians and non-Christians alike, are groping in darkness, living in the wilderness, not knowing where they are, and to which direction they are headed to. One clear sign of such ignorance is to think highly of oneself, self glory, self boasting, pride, and foolishness. This was the case with Job and his friends in the book of Job, so is the case with many of us.

God in His sovereignty allow such ones to linger around in their blindness and then ultimately convicts them, leading  them to see themselves who they really are: ignorant, foolish, and blind. Job experienced such in Job 38-41 when God asked him thirty one questions of which he could answer none.  Such knowing of himself led Job to see God finally, then he declared:

Job 42:5-6 RecVer

I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye has seen You; Therefore I abhor myself, and I repent in dust and ashes.

Spiritual growth is to know what we are not and then to know who God is. Know God and know thyself.

When one knows who God is and gains God, perhaps, individually first, and then corporately, that is the blessing. God is the Blessing. This blessing comes as God Himself as the anointing Spirit. When we have this anointing, we have God. However, this gaining of God and His anointing comes with a price, the price of self denial through the experiences of the cross, leading to oneness and one accord among those who know God and know themselves.

To gain God, the self must go. For the self to go, one must see himself and know for sure that he is nothing and can do nothing. This will lead to self denial and allow Christ be everything. Thereby, always leaning and depending on God and God alone, never taking anything for granted. This is just like the experience of the Shulamite.

Song of Solomon 8:5-6 RecVer

Who is this who comes up from the wilderness, Leaning on her beloved? I awakened you under the apple tree: There your mother was in labor with you; There she was in labor and brought you forth.

Set me as a seal on your heart, As a seal on your arm; For love is as strong as death, Jealousy is as cruel as Sheol; Its flashes are the flashes of fire, A flame of Jehovah.

This has been my personal experience these days, even in the past 9-12 months. By God’s mercy, I could see and know something of God, many things of myself, and desperately depend on the Lord.

This personal experience also led me to depend on the Body, on the brothers and sisters, as I also very much depend on God Himself. For the experience of God on Christ as the Spirit is also the experience of His heart's desire, His Body, His church, the many fellow believers whom He has placed me with. 

This dependence on Christ and His church, brings in the oneness and accord which is the key to all the spiritual blessings in the New Testament. When God blesses based on this condition of oneness as in Psalms 133, the anointing is the result. When God blesses, there is the anointing. This anointing is the Spirit. When there is the blessing, we simply must praise rather than pray. 

On the cautionary note, no one can fake the anointing. If there is the anointing, there is the anointing. If there is no anointing, there is no anointing. This is the simple fact.

Such knowledge of no anointing should drive one to desperately humble oneself, repent and abhor oneself in dust and ashes as Job did, and seek God to gain Him. Then, this exposure and merciful dealing will pave the way to turn from blindness to seeing, from darkness to light, and from self to God, issuing in the presence of God bestowed on us as the anointing Spirit, the Blessing. This is to know God and to know oneself. 

Know God, know thyself. 

God is and we are not. 

Where the self is, there will no God be. Where God is, there will no self be. 

More God, less self.

More knowing God, more knowing of the self.

More knowing of God, more knowing of God's will.

Know God,and know thyself.

Lord, cause me to know Thee.

Lord, cause me to know myself. 

Lord, cause me to know Thy will.

Lord, cause Thyself as the Blessing bestow upon me.