The Process)

I mentioned in the first post of this series that there is a pattern of possessing knowledge of a first order, putting that knowledge into practice, then obtaining knowledge of a second order. Put in theological terms, there is first knowledge that gives man faith. It isn’t perfect, but it is enough to make him step out and take some sort of action. He does what he feels God requires of him. When he does, he sees the hand of God delivering the victory, and now his incomplete knowledge is replaced with a sure testimony, which is knowledge of the second order.

This pattern repeats over and over throughout the scriptures. Let us look at just a few examples of it.

An Honest Father)

In the gospels, there is the story of a father who brought to Jesus his son that was under the cruel control of an evil spirit. The man pleaded with Jesus to heal his son, to which Christ replied, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” The man, in pure honesty replied, “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief” (Mark 9:24).

Clearly this man had knowledge or faith, of a type, but it wasn’t perfect, and he knew it. Still, it was enough to lead him to act, to seek out Jesus, and next we read how Jesus did, in fact, heal the man’s son, presumably also fulfilling the man’s request to “help his unbelief” and replace it with something surer. Because the man acted on partial knowledge, a miracle occurred, and fuller knowledge took its place.

Peter’s First Steps)

We also have the example of one of Peter’s defining moments. The story begins with the apostles in a boat, seeing Jesus approaching them, walking upon the water. As a witness to this miracle, Peter is filled with the confidence to ask Jesus if he may come join him on the water. Jesus’s one word response was “Come,” and Peter stepped out onto the water. Miraculously, even though Peter was not the Son of God, the water held him up, just as it did for Jesus.

So, Peter was a witness to something that gave him faith, and that faith led him to act, and that act would have removed all doubt in his mind that all things were possible through their Lord and Master, even mastery of the elements.

Gideon’s Army)

Going back to the Old Testament, there was a time where the Israelites had given themselves over to idolatry and were grave danger from an approaching army of the Midianites. God spoke to a faithful man of Manasseh, Gideon, calling on him to restore the people to their former obedience and liberty. Gideon believed God’s message, but like the father in our first story, there was clearly also a part of him that still held to unbelief. He laid out an offering before the Lord, and after it was consumed by a miraculous fire, he gained the confidence to go and tear down the false idols of his people.

But that wasn’t the end of it. The Midianite army was still approaching, an innumerable host, and Gideon still needed to take his small band of warriors to fight them. Once again, Gideon asked for two signs, laying out a fleece of wool, and one day asking that God would put dew upon the wool and not any of the ground, and then the next night asking that God would put dew on the ground but not any on the wool. After the Lord obliged to both requests, Gideon took his army, whittled it down according to God’s commands, and miraculously confused the Midianite army into destroying themselves.

So, Gideon was given one sign, providing him enough faith to carry out one bold deed. Then the confidence of that deed, combined with two more signs, gave him the faith to carry out an even bolder deed for the Lord. Knowledge led to action, action led to greater knowledge, greater knowledge led to greater action, and we can clearly see a cyclical pattern.

How the Lord Works)

Think also of Abraham being given a son in his old age, providing him the confidence to then give that son up on the altar. Also, in the Book of Mormon, the Brother of Jared gained knowledge of God’s power through multiple miracles before the Lord tasked him with finding a divine solution of his own, the fulfillment of which resulted in seeing the finger of the Lord.

There are many examples of this pattern of knowledge-action-greater knowledge, so many that it seems that there is a fundamental principle in it, a template for how the Lord works with people to lead them to greater and greater things. First, He gives us a sign, providing just enough knowledge of Him and His ways to be emboldened to action. Then, when we do act, even in our imperfect knowledge, the surer testimony replaces the weaker knowledge, and the cycle continues. Thus, knowledge and action go hand-in-hand in the plans of the Lord. We are not meant to be led by just one or the other, we must iterate across both to become the spiritual giants we were born to be.