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First, we need to realize that we are susceptible to being imprisoned by our pride. God did not give us His Spirit so that we could know all the answers about His character and other people's problems. He gave us His Spirit so that we could become more like Christ. That is the transformation we are trying to achieve. But remember that Jesus' character is the perfect balance of perfection and Grace. The Image we hold of Jesus should be the actual portrait of Scripture that reflects that balance, not one that a certain theological bent has made in its' image. One that is either too conservative or too liberal. Jesus wasn't a politician, He is Sovereign Jesus. He didn't align with any party, He demonstrated a new reality.
If you understand that you were made in the Image of God, then you understand that once the Holy Spirit lives in you, it works to conform us to the Image of Christ. We literally become a temple of the Living God. But when we place anything other than Christ on the altar of that temple, we destroy a little of who we were created to be. We are breaking down the temple.
Listen.
All the knowledge of God on that altar is not the same as God Himself on that altar. Those who base their conformity to Christ on how much they know and how many answers they have to sophisticated theological issues (loving God with all their mind) whilst not living out humble, self-sacrificing, personable service to others (loving God with all their heart, soul, and strength and others as themselves) are least in the Kingdom of Heaven.
I struggled for a long time feeling like I knew a lot of Scripture, but knew little of the intimacy, fellowship, and camaraderie of the Spirit-filled life. That was because I was heady and consumed with a worldly idea of separatist leadership that is displayed almost everywhere I go, including the churches I grew up in. It seemed the more a leader knew, the less available, compassionate, and empathetic they became. The ministry of the Church became leadership development oriented, not servant oriented. I was a part of churches that were extremely proud of their knowledge and sanctity, but struggled to build any kind of evangelism program that actual produced spiritual results. Every jot and tittle of by-law was in place and every parameter and process of ministry preservation had been thought of and was in place, but unless you were like them, you could not fit in. I realized that was not the kind of leader Jesus was, and so I needed to stop trying to be that kind of leader.
A man who walks by faith is not absent of knowledge or greatness. His knowledge is tempered with Christ's nature of self-sacrificing, personable servanthood. He doesn't simply teach how to get out of the hole, he gets in the mud to help. His greatness, is likewise tempered with Christ's nature of compassionate humility. There is little more repugnant than an inappropriate truth given in error based on a hasty assessment and uncompassionate understanding.
A woman who walks by faith recognizes that God's Word is not a rule book to weight people down with, it is a story of Holiness pouring out Grace to liberate from the darkest and most hopeless of prisons. Such a person understands that we don't control God or define God by our "knowledge". That is placing something else on the altar inside our temple. That something comes from a puffed-up mind. We need to keep our intellectualism in it's rightful place, submitted to the Image of Christ so that it serves that Image. Our intellect can never compromise our purpose of serving and loving God and man - WELL.
The answer then is this: Scripture tells us that faith is being sure of what we have hoped for, confident of what we have not seen. Therefore walking by faith is trusting in the fact that we have not yet experienced or arrived at God's reality for this given situation in life. We may have experience that helps, or knowledge that informs, but walking by faith means trusting in the God we know, not the knowledge we have about. Knowledge about does not make mature, knowledge which comes from a saving relationship with, does. Intellectual freedom in Christ comes when the person with all the answers loves and serves like Christ despite what his knowledge tells him about the situation. Mercy will trump judgement. Those who have experienced much love, will love much - regardless of what they know. And they will love the way Scripture says to love; knowing truth and grace are inseperable.
With you for His glory,
