I love when I read a book or listen to a sermon, and the speaker’s words resonate in my heart. It’s like my spirit rises up to the revelation being expressed, and the words encourage my faith. Somehow, my soul senses that truth from the Heart of God has been released, and my spirit captures the revelations hungrily.
I remember one such day. I heard an anointed prophet speak the Word of God, and her words were like spiritual nutrients to my soul. I was so encouraged by what she expressed that I tried to convey the information to my friends days later. But in my haste, I realized that I didn’t have the right foundation to clearly express the ideas I had been given. My soaring faith had no concrete understanding from which to launch.
My problem was that the revelation was still in my heart, but I hadn’t yet possessed it with my mind.
People many times talk about having head knowledge and no heart knowledge. This difficulty occurs when God’s Word is in our mind, but it hasn’t made its way to our heart yet. However, what I was suffering from was having heart knowledge without the head knowledge. I knew the information that I had received was from God, but I couldn’t explain it because I hadn’t yet moved the words from my heart up to my head. The God’s revelation needs to be both places in order to make it our own.
We must have the heart knowledge and the head knowledge, so we can take ownership of the revelation and clearly articulate it. Our faith may be encouraged, but if we can’t adequately explain the revelations to others, we won’t be able to encourage the faith of the people around us. Similarly, if we have only religious knowledge without the faith, people will not respond to our words no matter how learned we sound.
What I finally realized was that when my spirit leaps out to a specific revelation from a teacher, prophet, preacher or even a friend, I need to make that information my own. I’ve discovered that I must personally process the revelation knowledge, so I can effectively share what I’ve gleaned with others. Now before I share a revelation knowledge, I take time to dig into the Bible, ask the necessary questions and apply the truths to my life. I make the nugget of truth my own, so I can offer it to anyone that God brings in my path.
“Listen to the words of the wise; apply your heart to my instruction” (Proverbs 22.17 NLT).
“Getting wisdom is the wisest thing you can do! And whatever else you do, develop good judgment” (Proverbs 4.7 NLT).