timeless teaching
by Kenneth Copeland
originally published August 1990
Hidden for You
How do you know what you know? The answer to that question can mean the difference between standing and falling, between success and failure in the kingdom of God.
Remember when you went to school and learned your ABCs and your multiplication tables? You know them because you learned them. Someone taught them to you.
That kind of knowing took you all the way through school. It’s called natural knowledge. You get it by using your five senses and your logical abilities to gather information and sort it out.
But in the kingdom of God there’s another kind of knowing. One that works its way from the inside out—instead of from the outside in. It’s called revelation knowledge.
Jesus spoke about this kind of knowledge in Matthew 16. He’d just asked the disciples, “‘Who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter answered and said, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven’” (verses 15-17, New King James Version).
In other words, Jesus was saying, “Peter, you didn’t learn this information through your physical senses. You received it another way. You received it directly from God.”
Actually, Peter did have to learn that truth later. He had to begin to grasp it with his mind. But he knew it in his spirit first. If you’ve never experienced this, it may seem hard to understand. But if you’ve ever had Jesus reveal something to you by the Holy Spirit, you know exactly what I mean.
First you received it—you knew it in your spirit. Then you learned it with your mind.
It can also work the other way. You may have already learned some information about a subject. But when the revelation comes, you begin to see that information in another light entirely. Suddenly it has depth and dimension it never had for you before. It becomes such an unshakable reality in your life that, as Jesus said to Peter, “The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
I remember one time I was battling with a particular problem. I’d prayed with other people about it, but still I was struggling with it.
As I studied and meditated about it, suddenly it seemed as if a ball of light exploded in my spirit concerning two people agreeing in prayer. Several scriptures popped into my mind.
“One [can] chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight” (Deuteronomy 32:30). All at once, I understood that when believers agree, the power doesn’t just double, it grows to the 10th power!
Then the Spirit of God said on the inside of me, 'Don’t you see that two born-again people agreeing, bring Jesus on the scene?'
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