Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): This is the Power Walk Ministries broadcast with author and pastor Reverend Paul Cannings. Our current series is titled, "What Does It Mean to Be Born Again?" in which Pastor Cannings takes us to John chapter three to urge us to clearly understand what it means to be saved. Church attendance, knowledge of God, obeying the law, and doing good works—these are all great, but we miss the whole point of our lives as explained in this chapter. Jesus himself shares what we must do, and here is Pastor Cannings breaking this down for us in today's message, "Knowledge Versus Experience." Let's listen.

Dr. Paul Cannings: He says if anyone supposes he knows anything. What is he playing around with this word "know"? There are two connotations to the word "know." There is the word "know" that is just knowledge. In other words, if you look at a motor, you could say that this motor is a motor engine in a car. But a person who is oida could see the problem and fix it. That's the person that has oida. They could see.

You could go to the doctor and say, "Doctor, this hurts," or "This is a problem." The doctor understands it's a problem, but the person who is oida, after doing a bunch of exams, sees. There is a difference between knowledge and oida. He says until a person loves me, they never get to oida because until they come to me, they cannot see anything. That is why sometimes you could read the Bible, be a Christian for 20 years, and it is still complicated to look at.

Knowledge is to have information. There are many tests to let a person know whether or not they actually experienced God. Here is one of the tests. In 1 John chapter 2:9-10, it says this: "And the one who says he's in the light and hates his brother is in darkness until now." We have got hate all twisted. Hate is like, "I have got a gun, I'm going to shoot you." That is actually the end result of hate, but hate simply in the Bible is we are not going to be around each other. Because if you love me with all your heart, your soul, and your mind, you will love your neighbor as yourself.

Look at verse 10. The one who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no stumbling in him. For the one who hates his brother is in what? Darkness. They cannot see and walk in darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. Look at chapter 2, verse 3. These Pharisees, they know that this man lines up. They have got the knowledge. You line up. You look like the Christ. Everything about you is the Christ. But who are you? Because we cannot see that you are the Christ.

In 1 John chapter 2, he says by this we know we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. The one who says he has come to know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth, the Holy Spirit, is not in him. He cannot see. You have a knowledge, but when you have a love, that is when you are built up because when you love me, you keep what I say no matter what you are dealing with.

You are going to be so in love with me you do not want to disappoint me, you do not want to do anything wrong, so you are going to focus on how do I obey God, how do I do what God tells me to do because you are not loving the person first in front of you, you are loving me first. And because you keep loving me first and the situation could be more intensified, guess what you love more? Me more, me more, me more, me more, me more. And because you keep loving me, you no longer live. So love drives you to me. But just knowledge makes you go, "I don't even know about this Jesus."

That is what you see with Nicodemus. But you line up as the Messiah, so I have got a problem. We could be the exact same. That is why Christ is starting out in his huge library of lessons with Nicodemus, because he is dealing with church people who could come to church but never meet Christ or know him. Just go in and out, but we are not being transformed to be like him. Here is the next thing we see. Back to John chapter 3.

Now let's go to this other part of here. Well, how do we not live blind? So he says this: "For no one can do these signs you do unless God is with him." So he's taking it to another level. Not only are you a teacher, man, you do some signs that only God can do. See, Nicodemus backed up on Jesus. What do I mean by that? Every time you look at a person that God establishes in the Bible with these people that do not have all these seminary degrees and elementary schools and middle schools and all this stuff, they have got rabbinical schools. He used signs.

Moses shows up to Pharaoh—signs. Opened up the Red Sea—signs. Elijah—signs. Jesus Christ comes—signs. So anybody that God wants to establish, he does things in their lives to show that he supernaturally walks with them. Look at how important that was with the disciples. Look at Mark chapter 16. In establishing those people, those leaders, he would literally say, "I will provide for you signs that walk with you." Signs that literally represent the fact that because those signs are so supernatural, everybody is going to know you are the apostles that I have anointed.

He does the same thing in Acts chapter 16. Look at what he says in verse 14 after he appeared to the eleven themselves and they were reclining at the table, and he reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed those who had seen him after he had risen. Look at what he said to them, verse 17: "These signs will accompany those who believed: In my name they will cast out demons," which you see them do. "And they will speak in new tongues," which is exactly what you see them do.

"They will pick up serpents"—Paul is the one, snake bit him, didn't die—"he has got to be an apostle. They drink deadly poison"—I do not know which one of them did that—he said, "it will not hurt them. They will lay hands on the sick and they will recover." Every time you watch the disciples, you see these supernatural signs. So Nicodemus is backing up saying, "Hey, every time in our Jewish history, anybody that was a key leader, these signs followed them. So therefore, when I look and see signs around you and it is supernatural, God must be with you. So you cannot just be a teacher, you are supernatural."

Because do not forget, 400 years God did not talk to anybody until John the Baptist showed up. Well, as a matter of fact, he said the first time he talked to anybody is Mary when he told her Jesus Christ is going to come through her. It was the first conversation in 400 years. So you haven't seen any signs, no supernatural stuff, but Nicodemus is at the temple. He's committed to be a Pharisee. He's a part of the Sanhedrin. He's trying to follow the laws, but there are no signs. There is no smoke coming down over the holies of holies. Nothing.

So when he sees Jesus show up, he goes, "Whoa, you cannot just be a teacher. You have got signs. So you must be a part of God. I still cannot figure out who are you even though I know that you line up completely and we know you must be the Christ. I'm blind. I cannot see it even though I know." So watch this carefully. I like how Jesus does this. In other words, he's saying, "I ain't arguing with you. You're right on all counts." That's literally what Jesus Christ is saying implicitly.

"I'm not going to say these signs didn't follow me." So when Jesus answered him, Jesus answered him basically saying once and for all, "I'm saying this to you, and what I'm saying to you is going to always be this." So past you, Nicodemus, this is going to be the story for everybody. That's what it means in the Greek text. So what I'm going to answer you is a one-time answer, but my answer lasts forever. So it relates to us.

So anybody that wants to come to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, this is the first step where they could experience God. He says, "Truly, truly I say to you, what I'm saying to you is without question what you need to know. Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." The Bible says we were lost, we were dead in our trespasses and sin. Dead. Dead in the Bible is not the dead we call dead. God is life. Anybody that is not with God is dead.

So people that die sinners go to hell, feel the fire like they would feel the fire in August in Houston, but they are dead. The reason why they are dead is they are not with God, so they are dead. Because God is life and they are not with God, they are dead. That is how the Bible views dead. So as long as I was unsaved, when the time I was unsaved, he says, "You were dead." In other words, you could not relate to me because I am life. We are like oil and water; we could never connect.

So I have to come inside of you and wake up the spirit that I put in Adam that helped Adam to talk to me. So when Adam died, the conversation between me and Adam was not the same. He was blind because he was dead. So a person getting saved, the Bible is saying we could have a knowledge: "Jesus died for my sins, rose from the dead, I believe in the Bible, I believe all this stuff." He says, "All you did was one thing: confess. You didn't show belief. You're just like Nicodemus. No difference."

Guest (Male): Thank you, Pastor Cannings. Believing in our hearts about who Christ is and what he has done for us is more important than having great knowledge about him or even just confessing the facts of scripture. Friend, if you do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ or you have questions, then please give us a call and let's talk about it: 281-260-7402. Again, that's 281-260-7402. You are also welcome to visit us online at powerwalkministries.org.

Dr. Paul Cannings: One of the hardest things in ministry is not actually doing ministry, but it is to get the resources to get it done. Oh folks, that is the hardest because it costs to do what we are doing. We have stepped out in faith because we believe that—in other words, it must be a step of faith from us first, not from you first. And that's what we've done in developing this ministry. But we pray that God will touch your heart to partner with us.

You could do that simply by going to our website. It is a secure website. Press the donate button, and on that button you will be able to become a partner with us and we will seek to bless you for being a blessing to us. I pray that God will move on your heart to be our partner. God bless you.

Guest (Male): That is powerwalkministries.org. Or if you would prefer to write us, our mailing address is Power Walk Ministries, PO Box 920517, Houston, Texas 77209. And now as we close, I hope you will be absolutely sure that you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and that everything else pertaining to godliness will follow as the Holy Spirit guides you in all truth each day.