Jesus said to Peter, "Blessed are you, Simon Peter, because flesh and blood have not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven!" Jesus "knew" who to annoint as chief of the Apostles because He saw the Spirit at work in Peter---most of us probably would have thought John the more likely candidate, but rough Peter was the one who received the knowledge of who Jesus was.
Knowledge is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, a list derived from Isaiah 11's description of the Messiah:
A shoot (Nezer, in Hebrew) will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him---
The Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of power,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord---
and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
or decide by what he hears with his ears;
but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
with justice he will give decisions
for the poor of the earth.
Jesus, the Nazarene, was annointed and filled for ministry by the Holy Spirit at the time of his baptism----and the gifts of wisdom, knowledge, understanding, judgment, power, reverence, and fear of the Lord flowed throughout His public life. The seven gifts are all inter-connected, and cannot be separated so that one person has wisdom, for example, and another has understanding. They are all "a package deal," inter-dependent. We cannot have wisdom without fear of the Lord, or knowledge without understanding----the Spirit is One, and His action in us contains all the gifts simultaneously.
The gift of knowledge can be seen as Jesus speaks to the woman at the well and tells her she has had 5 husbands---His "judgment" of her was not condemnation, but mercy and understanding---she was the first missionary as she ran off to her village to say, "I have found the Messiah!"
The inner voice of knowledge warns us against "judging by what we see with our eyes" or deciding by what we "hear with our ears." There is an inner witness to the truth beyond appearances that we would do well to listen to.
I am convinced that twice in my own life, my life was spared by the gift of knowledge beyond appearances. The most recent event happened a few years ago on a hot summer day as I was parked by the lagoon in City Park eating a snow-ball. I often went to the Park between classes to grade papers, but this was the first time I chose to park on this grassy area facing the lagoon; I went there because of its proximity to the snow-ball stand off Harrison Ave. Later, I was to hear what a dangerous area this was, but at the time I had never heard any stories about the area.
As it was a lunch hour, there were a number of cars parked in the area around the lagoon, with people in and out of their cars eating lunch or just resting on the grass. Suddenly, I heard a voice in my head saying, "As soon as she finishes that snow-ball, I'm going to kill her!" What?! Where did that come from?? What a thought to enter my mind!
It seemed that I was "hearing" something from someone else, so I left my own world, so to speak, and began to carefully observe the people and cars around me. Usually, I am totally oblivious to types and makes of cars, and I could not tell you after leaving a place how many people were there. But on that day, though I was very calm, I looked at everyone and every car. There was a white car, older model Ford, parked at a right angle to my car, about 25 feet away, and sitting in the driver's seat with the car door open, was a young kid in his mid-twenties. He was facing me, and obviously observing me, but I was not frightened by him. I went on eating my snow-ball, and then slid my seat away from the steering wheel so that I could begin grading papers.
A few minutes later, I looked up to see this boy heading toward my car. When he saw me look up, he ambled toward the lagoon just in front of my car, as though he were out for a stroll. I watched him carefully and noticed that in the hand closest to me, he was concealing a knife. If I had not been warned, I would not have been noticing him at all, but would have been totally absorbed in my work. Now, though, I watched him walk to the edge of the lagooon and then circle back casually on the other side of my car. Through the rear-view mirror, I saw him move behind the car and up toward me on the driver's side. Quickly, I turned around to face him head on, locking my eyes on his. I could tell that he did not expect that, as he thought he was sneaking up on me. Flustered, he said, "Do you have the time?" I knew better than to take my eyes off his to glance at my watch, so I carefully pulled my watch up to my eyes and told him the time without taking my eyes off his. He backed away, went to his car, and drove off.
Thinking the whole incident was over and that maybe I had just imagined danger, I went back to grading papers as everyone in the area gradually left and I was alone. My car was about 10 feet from the lagoon, so in order for me to leave, I needed back up, and my seat was still too far away from the steering wheel and pedals for me to drive, but I was totally relaxed and focused on my student papers for the next few minutes. Suddenly, I glanced into the rear-view mirror and noticed the same white car sneaking, almost tip-toeing, off Harrison Ave. onto the grassy area. Immediately, I knew and understood what was happening. If I had not previously studied that car, I would not have recognized it at all, but I knew it was the same car, and I knew that he was planning to trap me against the lagoon by parking behind me so that I could not back up and leave the area.
Without taking the time to move my seat forward, a slow process since it was motorized, and without taking the time to put my shoes on, I quickly scooted to the edge of the seat where I could reach the gas pedal, started the car, backed up quickly, turned around, and drove off past a very surprised young man.
I never was afraid, but without the "gift of knowledge," if I had not heard a very strange thought go through my head, I'm not sure I would be alive today to tell this story. So now when I "hear" a thought that does not seem to be coming from me, I pay attention and listen to it.
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