Knowledge and Known-ledge (Santosh Poonen)

Things will degenerate pretty quickly when we try to be like God in “knowing”. Just look at Adam and Eve and their children (Genesis 3:5). Trying to figure out what God is doing with you is as pointless as your phone trying to figure out what your doing with it (Isaiah 55:8-9). The next time you listen to a sermon or spend time in prayer, ask yourself whether you know God better as a result, or whether He knows you better. Most debates about doctrine are merely the exchange of hot air among puffed-up balloons (I Corinthians 8:1-3). Unfortunately many churches are simply a uniform stack of such balloons; the Devil doesn’t even have to bring all his forces against such a church to defeat it. The true church of Jesus is built with bricks that are united together, and all the gates of hell will not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18). God has allowed non-essentials to be vague to differentiate the bricks who build up from the balloons who are puffed up. Only God can tell others whether they’re right or wrong (Romans 14:4). So, if you really think someone should change their convictions, pray about it and never say a word to them. If God really wants them to change their conviction, He will reveal it to them. That other person’s holding to a different conviction will not send him to hell. But your judging him will send YOU there (I Corinthians 11:31; Matthew 7:1)! The secret to judging righteously as Jesus did, is to be known by God, because God reveals His knowledge to us. If you succeed in convincing someone else to change their conviction when God has not given them the faith for it, you will have caused them to sin (Romans 14:22-23)!