What If God Let You Know What He Knows?
We don’t know what we don’t know, but have you ever thought about what it’s like to be God, who does? To know everything! Something occurred to me as I bantered with my friend Paul on Sunday. Open your bible app to 2 Kings 6:15-17 in the ESV. There’s a moment in Scripture that draws you in to one or those scenarios reminding you where God’s done something in the past and you just wish He would do an encore.
Elisha’s servant wakes up one morning in Dothan, northern Israel, looks out of the window and sees an army surrounding the city. Tanks, armoured personnel carriers, apache helicopters, horses, chariots, the full weight of military power surrounding them… He panics. Of course he does. What else do you do?
Like a pigeon about to be savaged by a cat, he runs to Elisha, who in turn, shakes his head and prays a simple prayer. “Lord, open his eyes.” The response from heaven? Immediately the servant sees what was already there, what had been there the whole time. The mountain full of God’s overwhelming presence; horses and chariots of fire. The real situation. The fuller picture. Nothing has changed – except the servant’s perception! He now sees the bigger picture; a heavenly force that was there all the time. Bam! He’s finally seeing things from God’s point of view.
That’s the word of knowledge. Not a party trick. Not charismatic drama that makes for book and DVD sales. It’s God, in his sovereign mercy, briefly pulling back the curtain and letting a human being see a flickering glimpse of what only omniscience can see.
It goes without saying, we are not omniscient. We barely know what we know and forget vast portions of what we learn. God alone holds, retains (and knows) all knowledge, past, present and future, simultaneously, perfectly, without effort or revision. For our part when we see, we see and know in part, and honestly, that’s a grace in itself because the full weight of knowing all things would crush us. I guess we’d all love to know what is going on in Donald Trump’s mind, maybe not.
Paul, writing to God’s alternative society in Corinth, describes something remarkable – among the gifts of the Spirit, there is this dynamic; a specific word or kernel of knowledge. Not all knowledge. A word of it. A fine sliver. A targeted, sovereign disclosure of something hidden, that could not have known. Something God chose to divinely reveal because it mattered; in that moment, for that person, for his purposes.
Let your brain turn that one ever. The God who knows every secret, every hidden shame, every diagnosis not yet made, every prodigal’s location, every lie told in the dark, that God decides, at his discretion, to hand you a single piece of that knowing. Not because you earned it or because you’re spiritually superior, but because he has a reason and wants to encourage, challenge or redirect a believer.
[Consider this: Paul told us to eagerly desire this gift along with the others, that’s why God gives – it builds and encourages the church. So in terms of obedience, which gift(s) are you desiring?]
Jesus famously did this with the woman at the well, telling her things about her life that dismantled every single, solitary defence she had. Five husbands. The man she was with now. He wasn’t condemning her. He was reaching her. And it worked. The whole village came out because she said, “He told me everything I ever did.” That’s the word of knowledge in action, and it led to revival.
This is what separates the gift from guessing, ‘haunches’ or reading body language. It’s about God revealing. You know because He has told you. He takes something from his infinite capacity of knowing and places it, specifically, into a moment. A conversation between friends. A sermon. A ministry time. A quiet word spoken to someone who is barely holding on.
You (look in a mirror to see who I am referring to) carry the Spirit of the omniscient God. That Spirit intercedes for you with groanings too deep for words, which means he knows what to pray when you don’t. That same Spirit, on occasion, will show you what to say, who to pray for, what is actually happening beneath the surface of someone’s careful, guarded composure.
Not all knowledge. A word of it or at least, a burst of it. But that word, in the right moment, can change everything. Including yourself.