Fully Equipped with Knowledge,
Wisdom and Understanding
When an individual is born into God’s family by faith in
Jesus Christ, he is born with all that he needs to grow toward spiritual
maturity.
How many believers fail to realize “you are complete in
Him” (Colossians 2:10)? You are complete in Christ for the only experience you
need is the new birth. You do not have to look for something else, something
new, something different, and something in addition to Christ.
What is needed in the Christian life is to continue to grow
in what we received when we received Christ at the new birth. We have been fully
equipped in Christ.
The apostle Paul wrote, “We have not ceased to pray for you
and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all
spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may walk in a manner worthy of
the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and
increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to
His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience;
joyously giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to sharer in the
inheritance of the saints in light” (Colossians 1:9-12).
There were false teachers telling these Christians they had
to have some additional experience in the Christian life. They were suggesting
that Christ is not enough. The apostle Paul writes this letter to refute that
nonsense. Christ is all-sufficient for every believer in everything.
Paul prayed that God would fill them “with the knowledge of
His will.” He prayed these believers would be filled out to completeness with a
full, deep understanding.
The Holy Spirit enlightens a believer’s inner person (1
Cor. 2:5-6; Eph. 3:14-21) with the truth from the Word of God. The Spirit of God
makes known the will of God through the Bible and gives spiritual stability
(Eph. 2:14).
Where do we find this “spiritual wisdom and understanding”?
We discover it “in Christ.” The false teachers were saying you find it in their
exclusive possession of their kind of knowledge. The apostle Paul said no you
find it in an intimate personal knowledge of the Son of God. This knowledge is
not a hidden secret to be whispered in the ear of an initiate. It is open to all
and it is to be broadcast to the world. Paul’s prayer is that every Christian be
filled with this knowledge. The end result of such knowledge is to “walk worthy
of the Lord.” What we know will affect the way we live. Right thinking leads to
right conduct.
Paul says that you will be filled with the knowledge of
God's will in all spiritual, wisdom and understanding so that you may walk in a
manner worthy of the Lord. That comes from the study of the Word of God under
the illumination of the Holy Spirit. We can please Him in all respects, bearing
fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of Christ Jesus.
Spiritual growth is not automatic, but we have been equipped us by the
Word and the Spirit.
The best person in any church well knows that he is unable
to come into the presence of God on the basis of any self-merit. No one can
receive anything from God on the grounds of his or her own goodness. However, on
the merits of the shed blood of Jesus Christ even the worst sinner who turns
from his sin and accepts Christ as his Savior can come with boldness and be
“strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might.” That “strength
with all power, according to His glorious might” comes from God. It is what God
gives us “in Christ.” It is possible only on the basis of the death of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
True prayer is prayer to God the Father through the Lord
Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit.
We “receive from Him anything we ask, because we obey His
commandments and do what pleases Him” (1 John 3:22). “We have confidence to
enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus” (Hebrews 10:19), and ask Him
for whatever we need that we may “be filled with the knowledge of His will in
all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that we may walk in a manner worthy
of the Lord.”
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
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