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Knowledge helps us to be aware of the possibilities that exist in the spirit which if combined with faith results in a hunger and a cry in our hearts for more of God in our experience.
Knowledge can precede experience, however, an experience can come before knowledge, However, that experience will lack substance if knowledge does not come.
But it is common knowledge that we understand retrospectively sometimes, evidenced by what we see in the gospels where the writer will tell us that it was after the resurrection that they understood what Christ did or said to them.
That was because after the resurrection, their eyes were opened to the scriptures.
Knowledge helps us not to be deceived, this is because God is not the only Spirit capable of giving us experience.
However, by knowledge we can know the nature of God and what to expect from God, his will for us and the expectations that his will has placed on us.
There are many deceiving spirits, only a man who knows can escape deceit.
There are experiences that will fail to conform to knowledge and it can result from two things:
- The recipient is deficient in knowledge
- It is not from God.
However, I believe the second is the most likely to occur because most times God deals with us as far as our knowledge can bear, if we are growing not when we remain stagnant.
All experiences, if they are to be from God, must be traceable to the already revealed knowledge as found in scriptures. Any experience that cannot be understood, to some extent, in the light of scriptures or does not absolutely agree with the biblical doctrine is not of God.
In conclusion, knowledge is important, experience is important. The knowledge that does not lead to experience will only puff up and increase one's corruption. True spiritual knowledge leads to godliness and to healthy experience of God.
God did not establish to we have either knowledge or experience but that we should have both. Lacking one is like showing your child a chocolate only to refuse to give him. By knowledge experience grows, by experience knowledge is truly understood.
This is the curse of our generation, seeking one and leaving the other. I am guilty of this and I cry daily that liberation comes to us. It is only when we combine both that we will truly be the church of Christ.
Shalom!