Omniscience: The Knowledge of God
From the Series—Omni
May 31, 2002This evotional is part 2 in a three-part series titled Omni: To Infinity and Beyond.
Last week’s evotional explored omnipotence. Next week’s evotional will examine omnipresence. This week’s evotional focuses on omniscience.
Webster defines omniscience this way: “having infinite awareness, understanding, and insight.” God knows everything about everything. That’s Jesus’ point in Matthew 10:29. He says, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your father.” I don’t think Jesus is using hyperbole. He’s stating fact. Nothing escapes God’s attention.
I’m not sure exactly how many sparrows are airborne at any given time, but for comparison purposes, there are 10,000 airborne airplanes crisscrossing the United States everyday and 25 million airborne insects over every temperate square mile of planet earth. You’ve got to figure that the number of sparrows falls somewhere in between planes and insects. Any way you look at Matthew 10:29, it’s an amazing feat of air traffic control. “Not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your father.”
Who cares? Evidently God cares. Jesus goes on to say in verse 30, “Even the very number of hairs on your head are numbered.” In his book, Meeting God at a Dead End, Ron Mehl says, “Blondes have the most hairs with 145,000. Brunettes are second with 120,000. And redheads come in last with 90,000. Who keeps track of such trivia, you ask? God does. He knows when number 587 comes out in your brush. He sees number 132,401 when it slides down the drain.”
God is great not just because nothing is too big for him. God is great because nothing is too small for him. Nothing is lost on God. The Message translation of Psalm 36 says, “His love is meteoric, his loyalty astronomic, His purposes titanic, his verdicts oceanic. Yet in His largeness, nothing gets lost.”
God knows every thought. God knows every deed. He knows every motive, every dream, every fear, every desire. He knows when you cry and when you sigh.
A few years ago, my father-in-law passed away without warning. In fact, the week before he died he’d been given a clean bill of health. The next thing we knew he was dead from a massive heart attack. I remember two distinct feelings. I felt helpless. There was nothing I could do to bring him back. And I felt overwhelmed. You go into a state of shock because of the emotional overload.
During the funeral, I realized that I couldn’t stop sighing. I read later that according to psychologists, sighing is one way we process grief. I didn’t know how to vent or verbalize what I was experiencing so I sighed. That’s when I read Psalm 5:1. David says, “Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my sighing.” Even when we don’t know how to put feelings into words, God hears those low-frequency distress signals. Psalm 38:9 says, “All my longings lie open before you, O Lord: my sighing is not hidden from you.”
God knows absolutely everything there is to know about you. The Psalmist said it this way in Psalm 139, “O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, you know it completely, O Lord. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, to lofty for me to attain.”
God knows everything about you. And here’s the amazing thing: He still loves you! The One who knows you the best loves you the most.
The Enlightenment
God is all-powerful. And He wants to empower you. In the same way, God is all-knowing and He wants to enlighten you. That is Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:17. “I keep asking that God may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation…I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.”
Wisdom is kaleidoscopic. It cannot be reduced to a single definition because it is multidimensional. One dimension of wisdom is “skill.” According to Exodus 28:3, the skill of the Temple craftsmen was the byproduct of wisdom. Exodus 31 says this about the chief craftsman, Bezalel. “I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts--to make artistic designs…to cut and set stones…to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship.” Too often there is a disconnect between “spiritual” wisdom and “secular” work. If God knows everything about everything then He can help us draft a piece of legislation or develop a more effective customer service department or plan our curriculum for the year. We need a “spirit of wisdom” at work.
Another dimension of wisdom is the ability to solve difficult problems. Scripture says that “in every matter of wisdom” Daniel was “ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters” in the entire Babylonian kingdom. Daniel 5:12 says he had “the ability to interpret dreams, explain riddles and solve difficult problems.” Whether it’s a parenting problem, a dating problem, or an employment problem, God is ready and willing to help you solve it. Einstein said, “A problem cannot be solved on the same level it was created.” Natural problems require supernatural solutions. We need “a spirit of wisdom.”
A third dimension of wisdom is the ability to see both sides of an issue. Job 11:6 says, “True wisdom has two sides.” Either/or thinking is one sided. Both/and thinking is two-sided. As the old aphorism says, there are two sides to every story! The ability to see both sides is what makes a good judge, a good counselor, and a good parent. Whether it’s making a decision or resolving a dispute, we need “a spirit of wisdom.”
That’s the tip of the iceberg. It’s no wonder Proverbs 4:7 says, “Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Thought it cost you all you have, get understanding.” The question is: how do we “get wisdom”?
Job 12:12 says, “Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding?” There is no shortcut to wisdom. Wisdom is accumulated experience. That doesn’t mean that wisdom is the automatic byproduct of experience. I know some people who have been Christians for fifty years, but they don’t have fifty years of experience. They have one year of experience repeated fifty times! Proverbs 24:32 says, “I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw.” We need to live and learn. That’s the only way to graduate to the next spiritual grade. Proverbs 10:14 says, “Wise men store up knowledge.” Whether it’s keeping a journal, compiling a list of “life quotes,” or building a personal library, knowledge needs to be stored. Our generation has no excuse. The average person in Old and New Testament times couldn’t read or write. Their storage capacity was limited to their memory bank. We have computers with terabyte hard drives!
Two powerful mediums for storing knowledge are memorization and meditation. David said in Psalm 119:99, “I have more insight, than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes.” Meditating on the word of God is the key to finding practical and creative ways to put the word into practice.
Saint Ignatius espoused a form of Bible study known as imaginative meditation. He encouraged his followers to enter the gospel stories. Imagine the sights and sounds and smells. Move from the role of spectator to participant. Instead of reading about the crucifixion, play a role. Imagine what Mary was feeling as her son was dying. Take the place of the one of the thieves on the cross next to Jesus. Play the part of Simon and carry the cross. Ignatius even encouraged conversation with characters.
That may sound a little strange at first earshot, but I think our problem isn’t over-dramatizing Scripture. Our problem is under-dramatizing. Our problem isn’t getting into it too much. Our problem is not getting into it enough.
Here’s a final thought on wisdom. Proverbs 13:20 says, “He who walks with the wise grows wise.” Find a mentor. If you can’t find a live mentor then a dead one will do. I have dozens of mentors that sit on my bookshelves, at my disposal whenever I need them. Autobiographers are vicarious mentors.
The Sixth Sense
God has given us five senses--seeing, smelling, hearing, tasting, and touching. They are five channels of perceiving the world around us. And each of those five senses have preset limits. Anything within our range of hearing or seeing, for example, we can perceive. Anything outside our range is imperceptible.
Our sense of sight is limited. There is a limit to how far we can see. Under optimum conditions, the human eye can see a candle at fifteen miles. Anything beyond that outer limit is imperceptible. There is a limit to how small we can see. At the microscopic level, our sense of sight fails us. There is a limit to how fast we can see. A motion picture consists of 24 still frames per second. There are twenty-four gaps between each picture but our minds cannot perceive them because they are moving too fast.
Those things that are very far, very small or very fast are imperceptible--beyond our sense of sight. They exist, but we cannot perceive them. God designed us with preset limits on each of our senses, but followers of Christ have a sixth sense. The Holy Spirit helps us perceive those things that are beyond our five senses! He gives us extrasensory perception--the ability to see the invisible and hear the inaudible.
I Corinthians 2:9-10 says, “No eye has seen [sense of sight], no ear has heard [sense of hearing], no mind has conceived of what God has prepared for those who love him, but God has revealed it to them by his Spirit.” It doesn’t say that God reveals by sight, smell, touch, taste, or hearing. The Spirit of God bypasses the brain and communicates Spirit-to-spirit. He reveals things that are imperceptible to our five senses. Dr. Ian Marshall says, “Thinking is not entirely a cerebral process, not just a matter of IQ. We think not only with our heads but also with our spirits.”
I Corinthians 12 lists nine gifts of the Spirit. They can be divided into two categories--extrasensory perception and supernatural power. “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the word of one and the same Spirit, he gives them to each one, just as he determines.”
Word of wisdom, word of knowledge, and distinguishing between spirits fall into the extrasensory perception category. The Spirit enables us to perceive the imperceptible.
I Corinthians 2:10 says, “The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but that Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.”
The Phillips translation says, “God has, through his Spirit, let us share his secret.” The Message says, “Who knows what you’re thinking except you yourself? The same with God--except that he not only knows what he’s thinking, but he lets us in on it.”
Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy, wants to “make intelligence into a public utility.” He envisions a wireless device, one-tenth the size of a watch on your wrist, and a tiny speaker in your ear, “whispering practical information pulled off the web.”
“Has your flight been canceled? A little voice will alert you, book another flight and call your wife, so she won’t wait at the airport. Need a doctor? The little voice will help you find the right one. Stock investments plunging? The voice will warn you and, if you wish, sell or buy shares. Traffic jam or bad weather ahead? Kid in trouble in school? Housebreakers loose in the neighborhood? More discreet whispers, more knowledge, more wisdom, more security.”
The MicroStrategy mission is “Intelligence Everywhere"--a virtual worldwide web of information available at your fingertips, the right information at the right time, an answer for every question, a solution for every problem.
That cutting-edge technology has actually been around for centuries. The “still small voice” of the Holy Spirit has been whispering practical information since long before the advent of wireless phones and Internet service providers (ISPs). His information is unlimited--there is nothing He does not know. And His information is infallible--He is never wrong.
The prophet Hosea said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”
What you don’t know can hurt you! That is especially true in the information age. Knowledge is power. That gives followers of Christ an unfair advantage. Jesus promised his followers a Teleprompter. “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers, and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourself or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”
The Holy Spirit tells us what we need to know when we need to know it. The Spirit triggers thoughts and surfaces the subconscious. We just need to tune into His frequency. Jesus said, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says.”