What do you know?

I find it interesting how reading something trigger a train of thought that stays with you for a while. Then the thought is added to and reinforced from a variety of places.

I was reading Mathew 16 in the bible and this passage attracted my attention.
Verses15-17
15:But what about you? Who do you say I am?
16: Simon Peter answered " You are the Christ, the son of the living God"
17 Blessed are you Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven".

My wife and I have recently been away on holiday and I like to read historical novels so I was reading a murder mystery book about Tudor England in the time of Henry the Eighth. a time that was dominated by divided spiritual and religious viewpoints. I began thinking that this is not so different from today. Or even as the above verses begin to reveal, the spiritual turmoil the arrival of Jesus brought to his time. And I began to think how to do we navigate our way through the plethora of voices, ideas, books and other things that bombard our spiritual understanding. The spiritual world we live in has a large number contradictory voices all speaking at once, some poles apart others just subtly different.

I came back to the passage above "for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven". I came back to the concept of revelation from God. This for me comes back to what do I know? I was reminded of a quote from a lecturer I had at bible college 20 years ago who simply said "You have to know what you know in your knower". I guess this for me is revelation of God deep in my spirit, what do I know in my Knower. Therefore it does not come down to so much what I am taught, what I am reading and what is the latest craze around, but how does the Holy Spirit within me respond to these things. Allowing the Holy spirit to respond  takes both commitment and time but I am just beginning to grasp how worthwhile this can be. I am beginning to know more.

I have always had a fear of getting it wrong or failing. Which I have always found difficult in dealing with this spiritual stuff when the results can be eternal. However God reminded me of the words he said to Gideon in Judges 6. "Go in the strength you have....."To which I have added "go in the revelation you have" as well as strength because  Gideon had just had a very personal encounter with his God. It comes back to what do I know.

What do you know? For me that is always going to be the starting point!! How does whatever is being suggested tie in with that basic question.