“The highest calling of God is to be a learner,” says the Spirit of Knowledge and Understanding through author and Rabbi Jason Sobel . . .
‘Love the Lord with all your heart is the first commandment. To be a lover, you have to be a learner.”
To be a learner, we must know what God says.
To know what God says, we must read what He says.
To learn what He says, we must read both the old and new testaments of His Word – the Holy Bible.
At the age of 15, Jewish children who wanted to, could choose to learn and grow in faith with a rabbi. But they had to be chosen as one who would not bring disgrace to the teacher/rabbi. When they made the ‘cut,’ they were the ‘chosen.’
Other children who were not ‘chosen,’ or did not want to learn beyond what they had learned from the Torah (first five books in the Old Testament), could choose to go into a profession of their own.
Jesus chose his twelve disciples and took them away from their professions of fishing or tax collecting, or of a zealot, to be full-time learners and followers – to be like Him.
Do we have to leave our professions and jobs to be a disciple of Jesus Christ today? No, we don’t, but some may choose to. We can choose to be ‘chosen’ by becoming a learner by reading His Word and making it priority in our lives––in order to become like Him.
We have Jesus, THE Rabbi, at our disposal, 24 hours per day, seven-days per week through the Seven-Fold Holy Spirit of the LORD. What a privilege we have with access to many Bible translations that the early disciples did not have. Are we taking advantage of it?
This is the fifth in the series from Isaiah 11:2, the Seven-Fold Spirit of the Lord, a prophecy about Jesus:
“And the Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him (Jesus), the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.”
Intimate knowledge and understanding of God come from the ONLY Truth that exists: making Jesus our First Love and making His Word priority of each day.
[The Spirit of Understanding will have its own article but cannot be divided from any of the other Spirits.]
What the Bible Says About the Spirit of Knowledge and Understanding
The word knowledge is a noun in the above Isaiah passage. From the Strong’s dictionary, number 1847 it is da’ath: meaning knowledge, insight, intelligence, understanding, wisdom, cunnng. It is the Hebrew word for knowledge gained through the senses.
Though it is a general term, it can be personal, technical ‘know-how,’ or skill. Exodus 35:30-33 gives us a perfect example of da’ath knowledge:
See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel, he son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. And He has filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding and in knowledge (da’ath) in all craftmanship; to make designs for working in gold and in silver and in bronze, and in the cutting of stones for settings, and in the carving of wood, so as to perform in every inventive work.
Sometime after the Red Sea crossing, all the Israelites gave a freewill offering to the LORD to build the tabernacle in the wilderness. Women whose heart stirred with a skill spun the goat’s hair. God also put in the heart of Bezalel and Oholiab to teach them. And they did the engraving and designing of embroidery in blue and purple and scarlet material, and in fine linen, and of a weaver––all done to the detailed instructions the LORD gave Moses.
We can see from this that there is no end of da’ath knowledge from the LORD to His people for righteous purposes. “For in Him, we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). Art and craftmanship can be in any form, from culinary arts, paintings, writing and publishing a book, teaching, building anything and even crafting blog posts. Some Christians have felt called to run, or to make a trip around the world sailing for God’s glory.
God Possesses the Spirit of Knowledge and Understanding
Almighty God is omni (all) everything: omnipotent [Almighty or unlimited and all-powerful], omnipresent [everywhere at all times and omniscient [having complete or unlimited knowledge, awareness, or understanding; perceiving all things.]
“Such da’ath knowledge it too wonderful for me; it is too high, I cannot attain to it. Where can I go from Thy Spirit? Or where can I flee from They presence?“ (Psalm 139:7).
The whole chapter of Psalm 139 is filled with God’s intimate knowledge and understanding of us, His creation. He sees us [El Roi – the God Who Sees) and knows what we are doing at all times, He was there when we were conceived, and his eyes saw our unformed substance. He wrote a book about us before we were born, spelling out our purpose and destiny on earth. His thoughts toward us outnumber the sands on the seashore. He has called us by our name, and we belong to Him, and He us (if we choose). Imagine that!
God Teaches Us His Knowledge and Understanding
“The LORD gives wisdom and from His mouth come da’ath knowledge and understanding” (Proverbs 2:6). “He teaches man da’ath knowledge” (Proverbs 94:10).
Jesus came to earth as a Rabbi and taught with His words and example. The words from His mouth contradicted everything that seemed right naturally. He taught and exemplified to do to others as we would have them do to us; to love the unlovely, even our enemies; how to pray and see people healed; how to cast out demons; to embrace persecution, insults, and all kinds of evil falsely on account of Him.
He taught them to rejoice and be exceedingly glad no matter the circumstances; how to confront evil rulers without prior preparation; how to steward money and give from meager resources; and what to expect in the end times when they would be hated on account of His name.
Jesus used harsh words to call out hypocrites [Greek word Hupokrinȏ indicating secrecy; to judge, to divide, separate … to emulate anything as an actor, to act a part or pretend to be what they are not]. He called them:
“hypocrites, children of hell, blind guides, fools, white-washed sepulchers, full of iniquity, serpents, murderers, robbers.”
He did everything he could to make people face the true state of their spiritual nature. He was not politically correct. For crying out loud! He even turned over tables in the church (temple) calling out money changers as thieves, saying, “My house shall be called a HOUSE OF PRAYER but you are making it a robbers’ den!” (Matthew 21:13).
Should this not motivate us to look CLOSELY at Jesus’ life in the New Testament books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and be more like him––as His Spirit leads? If we are wrong, would we not want to have someone speak the Truth in love to us, so we be right with God?
Is Da’ath Knowledge a Spiritual Gift of the Holy Spirit of the Bible?
Put simply, the answer is no. The spiritual gift of the ‘word of knowledge’ that is found in 1 Corinthians 12:8 says, “For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit.”
The word knowledge here is from the original New Testament Greek, root word gnȏsis (Strong’s #1108) meaning “to know experientially. A present and fragmentary knowledge . . . a clear and exact knowledge which expresses a more thorough participation in the object of knowledge on the part of the knowing subject.”
In other words, there are times when a godly Christian can say or write something to you and it’s like you know that God just spoke to you. You feel as though He read your mail or saw directly into your heart and it impacted you greatly.
How Can a Person Gain this Da’ath Knowledge?
Remember, the five senses have to be involved; therefore, there is a choice to be made here – a quality decision to get it!
It takes time and effort. It takes learning something you are interested in; passion follows faith steps. When it comes to Jesus and spiritual knowledge and intimacy with Him and how to live, it means spending quality time with Him. That comes ONLY through His Word for:
“In the beginning [before all time] was the Word {Christ} and the Word was God Himself. . . And the Word {Christ} became flesh {human, incarnate} and tabernacled {fixed His tent of flesh, lived awhile} among us; and we [actually] saw His glory” (John 1:1, 14 Amplified)
My Story of Learning Intimacy with God
Let me tell you a story about how Jesus taught me how important it is to Him that we spend time in His Word, and that it is spending quality time with Him alone that makes Him our First Love:
One day last winter on a snowy day, I was watching the birds eat the seed my husband had just put out for them. I thanked the Lord for being able to watch them and let Him know how much I enjoyed being able to do so through my back porch window in the comfort of my warm, cozy home.
He immediately spoke to my heart so clearly, “That’s how I feel when I watch you eat my Word.”
I thought about the Scripture in Revelation that we have probably misinterpreted to mean Salvation only, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come into him, and will dine with him, and he with Me.”
There’s nothing better than to dine with Jesus over His Word! His da’ath Spirit of Knowledge and Understanding are the servers.
When we spend time with Him and He sees the devotion of our heart to be a learner, He will share His heart with us.
*More Scriptures from Jesus, the Word
Psalm 119:50, “This is my comfort in my affliction, that Thy Word has revived me.”
Psalm 119: 66-67, “Teach me good discernment and da’ath knowledge, for I believe in Thy commandments. Before I was afflicted, I went astray, But now I keep Thy word.
Psalm 119: 71, “It is good for me that I was afflicted, That I may learn Thy statutes.”
Revelation 2:3-4, “You have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary, but I have this against you, that you have left your first love.”
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My Challenge to You
*All Scriptures are taken from the New American Standard Version of the Bible (NASB) except where noted. The best study Bible for the real, ordinary Christian, like myself, is the Key Word Study Bible (NASB or NKJV). It has the Strong Dictionary numbers for key words of each Scripture, and gives all the Scriptures in the Old and New Testaments in Hebrew/Greek that apply.
It also has a Concordance, Word Studies, Introductions and Footnotes––all in one book. It is worth at least 10 million dollars to me, which is the value of one of the 48 Guttenberg Bibles remaining of the original 180 printed in 1452. Learning the original word meanings brings intimacy with Jesus when you know that you know.
I challenge you to get a good study Bible like this. If you are a new believer, you will love my book, GOD Who Are You? AND Who Am I? Knowing and Experiencing God by His Hebrew Names. I break down the Hebrew names of God for you. There is no better way to find intimacy with God of the Bible than knowing who His is—that reveals who we are in the process.
Click the book below for more information…
