Daily Devotional September 13 - Unlearning leads to enlightenment

"And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God."  Ephesians 3:19

To know the love of Christ: This is more than accumulated knowledge. Accumulated knowledge can take you deep into understanding the sciences and the world, but the knowledge of Christ is given by the Holy Spirit into the inner man as God sees fit. You will never be in charge of how much God gives you or how much God allows you to see or understand. You are only in charge of what you do with what God gives you and allows you to see and understand. You are not in competition with anyone to see who can be the most religious or the most spiritual. If you are in any competition at all it is with your own ego.

The love of Christ emanates from God and cannot be learned or earned by seminary degree or by any other means of competing for knowledge. Wisdom is given to you by God, at God's good pleasure, to the faithful, and cannot be earned by study or good works. The love of Christ is the outpouring of the love of God upon mankind. God does this because He loves you. God pours out His Spirit on you because He is God. God does this to fill you up with God-likeness. The more you empty of yourself the more room is available for God-likeness. You can empty out the stuff that keeps you from more of God; push down and out thoughts and actions that are not godly, but you can do nothing to be filled with more of God except to receive from God what God freely gives you. You can acquire knowledge, but you can only receive the love of Christ.

You have to get this right if you ever want to see more of God. You will have to unlearn a great deal for the love that passeth all knowledge to be recognized. Each generation is being taught what the last generation learned. If they learned well they give us a good start for our venture with God but if they learned poorly they give us a bad start. Either way we must unlearn what is erroneous and learn truths that empower us for ourselves. If you want to rest on the laurels of those before you, go ahead, but if you want all the fullness of God, you must unlearn some things.