Money in itself is neutral. It is what is behind it, motive, driving force, application, roots and outcome that makes of money an evil thing or a true blessing.
Can we see knowledge in the same way?
Wise king Solomon in the bible encouraged us to get knowledge, get understanding, get wisdom.
Lets look:
Proverbs 4 in the KJV states:
5 Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.
6 Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee.
7 Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.
8 Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her.
9 She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.
10 Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many.
11 I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths.
12 When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble.
13 Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life.
We can conclude that in order to have wisdom, one needs to first get understanding
Proverbs 17 (KJV)
24 Wisdom is before him that hath understanding; but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth.
But what about knowledge and understanding - how are they related?
2 So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;
3 Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;
4 If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;
5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.
6 For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.
7 He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.
8 He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints.
9 Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.
10 When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;
It seems thus that in order to get understanding, one first needs a basis of knowledge. But this is the knowledge that comes from the Lord, out of HIs mouth. One needs to cry after knowledge, lift up your voice for understanding and incline your ear unto wisdom. Apply your heart to understanding.
Getting understanding is not enough. When having understanding onen eeds to apply your heart towards it and incline your ear unto wisdom.
The different kinds of knowledge
There is a kind of knowledge that leads us to eat more and more of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil. This is the kind of knowledge about right and wrong, what is good and evil, but a kind of knowledge that comes from the soul. IT is gnostic in nature. It leaves us with a heavy load of do's and dont's to try and "save" ourselves in some way. It leaves us in a mooshy misty cloud of uncertainty and striving from the flesh to try and measure up to try and compete to try and reach out to God from our own soulish strenght.
This is the kind of knowledge that puffs up. That leads us to the occult. That leads us to the Illuminism of Lucifer. And that takes us further and further away from truth and more and more into deception and dilutions.
There is another kind of knowledge that leads us to eat more and more from the Tree of life. That is the kind of knowledge that comes from the mouth of God, and that will bring to us also, if we hearken to it greater understanding and also leads to wisdom. True wisdom. The wisdom of God is foolishness to this world the bible says, the world can not understand it. Unless one has the mind of God you can not comprehend the thoughts of God. For the thoughts of God is higher than our thoughts and the ways of God is higher than our ways.
We need the mind of Christ. Withouth the mind of Christ our soulish and fleshly mindsets will make it impossible for us to relate to God in any way. He is Holy. Seperate. He is not like us. His love is Holy. His love is not like human love times millions. His love is Holy. Seperate. His ways are Holy. He is Holy.
When we desire for understanding as for the ways of God we need to bend the knees. And as we receive in humility and fear of God knowledge from the mouth of God we will come to know HIm more intimately. Our mental ungodly constructs about God will start melting down. Those very mental constructs that lead us to idolatrous worship of God and not worship in Spirit and Truth will start crumbling as our spirit man receive revelation, through a spirit of wisdom and revelation about who God is.
Lets make it practicalA person is doing a marriage course in order to eat from the Tree of knowledge of good and evil. He uses the information received to bible bash his partner and shuff the manual in his or her face when performance are not delivered as per the courses outline. He or she also uses the knowledge to measure himself or herself against. This measuring leads to two things. Either the person gets so puffed up in pride when he thinks he finally managed to discipline himself hard enough to make some progress to change some of his behaviours or he or she falls into the pits for not being able to measure up. When pride is the outcome but humility is required, a false humility will be "put on" in order to mask the pride and still pat self on the shoulders, but just in a more discrete way.
This is self-righteousness. This is religion. This is what Christian mysticism and all mysticisms are about. Self-improvement soulish programs to try and better oneself.
A person that is doing a marriage course in order to gain Godly understanding in the design of a man and of a woman, and in order to apply as the Holy Spirit leads, when expressing the law of love that is already written on the tablets of the heart of that believer, a believer that already understands his or her identity in Christ, the outcome is rather different.
Grace is here the focus.
No longer am I trying to measure up, trying to perform and trying to judge myself and everybody around me from the soul, but my cry is for understanding, for knowledge and for wisdom and in order to grow in and apply from the heart. This is an attitude that pleases God. An attitude totally dependant only upon the grace of God and a heart that realizes it's need to grow in understanding and wisdom in order to draw closer to the heart of God. In reverance and respect of God. For fear of God is the beginning of Wisdom.
Eating from the Tree of Life always leads to greater worship, worship in Spirit and Truth of the One and only God, Almighty and Holy, from a heart that is only focussed on Him and not on self and realizes its dependancy on God in deep thankfulness for the grace of God. That is Life.
Eating from the Tree of knowledge of good and evil always leads to condemnation and death. In so many areas of our lives and of our society. IT robs us of true intimacy with God. IT may lead us deeper into the occult with deceptions and distortions running after occult experiences that is not from God, but may seem to be that. This is the path of death.
Unfortunately the church today is swomped with Christian mysticism and eating of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil. Seems instead of moving forward, we are moving back to the garden of Eden, and the same old enemy trick is still used today.
Will the church open their eyes and see!!!? That is the question.
For more about the priorities of God and the essence of Christianity see: "The tree of life, the throne room, Christian mysticism and the global oneness drive"
