One of the most needed things among the body of Christ today is revelation knowledge of the Word of God.
To understand what revelation knowledge is and how to get it functional in your life, you have to know at least some of the basics about your spirit, soul, and body. Your spirit is the part of you that was changed at salvation. Second Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” Your body and soul didn’t become totally new. They can be changed and renewed as you grow in the Lord, but that is a continuing process. The only part of you that is completely changed at salvation is your inner man or spirit.
This born-again spirit is continually renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him (Col. 3:10). First Corinthians 2:16 says “But we have the mind of Christ,” and 1 John 2:20 says “But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.” These scriptures show us that our spirit man is complete (to make full) in Jesus (Col. 2:10). We know all things.
But even though that is true in your spirit, this knowledge will not profit your physical and soulish parts until you release it by renewing your mind. Romans 12:2 says, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
Our minds are actually the battleground. Our spirits are complete (Eph. 4:24, Col. 2:10), and our bodies will do what they are told, but our soulish parts (which include our intellect) have the responsibility to choose or exercise our free will. So, in that sense, a person’s soul is the master control over our whole person. For the born-again man, the spirit is the driving or life-giving force, but the soul has the last say-so because of the will. Therefore, it is necessary that we get this “mind of Christ” (which we have received in our spiritual man) functioning in our soulish minds so we can make the right choices. This is done by studying the Word of God. God’s Word is the wisdom of God (Luke 11:49), written down so that our soulish man can read and understand it. But 2 Corinthians 3:6 shows us that the mere knowledge of God’s Word is not enough. We must have spiritual understanding because God’s Word is spirit and it is life (John 6:63).
When the knowledge of God’s Word enters our soulish minds through hearing or studying it, our spirits bear witness with the truth and imparts wisdom, which is the ability to apply knowledge. This then becomes revelation knowledge, not just facts about God (you could program a computer with that), but the knowledge of God which has been divinely quickened in us by God through our born-again spirits.
This explains why the Word of God seems to work for some people and not for others. On the surface it may appear that all knew the Word, but in truth, only those who overcame had the Word of God made alive on the inside of them through revelation knowledge. God’s Word works! And if we have the true revelation of God’s Word in our hearts, we will overcome the world.
How do we receive the Word of God being made alive and powerful in our lives as Hebrews 4:12 talks about? One important way is by meditating God’s Word. Too many times, we get so hungry to learn God’s Word that we don’t take sufficient time to let the mind of Christ in our spirit man give us a full disclosure of the power that is in those words.
There was a time in my life when I was so busy reading every book and going to hear every preacher that the Lord told me to stop all of that and make the truth He had spoken to me a reality in my life.
I am not saying that we should stop filling ourselves with the knowledge of the Word, but we need to realize that only the Word which has been mixed with faith (which comes from our spiritual man, Rom. 10:10) will profit us (Heb. 4:2). We would be better off with only a small amount of the Word in us if it was a true revelation to us from God than if we had vast amounts of Scripture with only carnal understanding. The early disciples proved this because in comparison to the completed Word of God that we have today, they did not have the majority of the New Testament scriptures. The Old Covenant scriptures were not readily available to them, and yet they still transformed their present-day world.
This revelation knowledge is what has been missing in the religious realm’s presentation of God’s Word. Carnal preachers have been putting out carnal knowledge to carnal people, and therefore, the true power of God’s Word has not been released. But in this time, God’s revelation knowledge is beginning to flow among His people more than ever before. Believers are not responding to the titles before or behind a man’s name but rather to the power of God’s Word, regardless of which vessel it comes through, “For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power” (1 Cor. 4:20). You can have this revelation knowledge, for God has already given to you the “mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16).