The Head It Knows-But The Hearts Knows Better
The Heads Knows But the Hearts Knows Better
The Head Knows but the Heart Know Better
Knowledge is Power but Knowledge is Also Danger
Have you ever had a Head Filling Experience that left your Heart Empty?
Have you ever had a Heart Filling Experience that left your Head Spinning?
While relying on Gnosis (Knowldedge) alone can leave you cold and empty, relying on Yadah (Experiental Knowledge) alone can leave you dazed and confused, but with the warm fuzzies to go along with it.
Yadah alone can be more dangerous because you don’t realize anything is wrong, you think that the experience is all you need and all there is. While with Gnosis, you are always aware that it is lacking. I have seen this in many charismatic churches, a mass hysteria of sorts in which whatever someone claimed to see was accepted without question, falling in the floor or jumping up and down made you more spiritual than someone else, the voices and visions you see MUST be from The Creator because the Enemy isn’t allowed to deceive believers somehow (despite the Apostles giving us a warning about the exact opposite).
The Yadah experience, without the Scriptural knowledge/Gnosis to test it, proved to be equally as dangerous as relying on pure facts.
This going in search of experience left me weary of both the cold, empty ice box of Gnosis without Yadah, and dazed and confused by the rollercoaster out of control ride of Yadah without Gnosis.
Then there is what I call for lack of a better term, the “Reform Experience”. In the Reform Experience “guarding your heart” means locking it in a cage before it gets loose and murders everybody spiritually, or something like that. Hearts belong in cages to keep everyone safe from their heart, is the thinking of the day. Similarly, Tin Men are the only men to be trusted as their heart has been quietly and safely amputated by professional theologians with scalpels from the library.
I eventually found my way into a Messianic Jewish Congregation by way of a friend whose mom was Jewish but lived too far away from a synagogue to drive there so the Messianic Congregation (Christians who embrace the Jewishness of Jesus and Jews who embrace Jesus as the Messiah) was as close as she could get. She gave me a Kippah and I bought a Star of David with the Cross in the middle. So I jumped full into Messianic Judaism because it filled both voids. Through learning some Hebrew, the Jewish context in which the scripture was written, and the context of Paul’s writings, I found a source of true and useful Gnosis. I also found a Yadah knowledge in the prayers spoken in Hebrew, the community feel of the congregation, keeping Passover together as a community. Or so I thought at the time.
For the first time in my life I had a somewhat spiritual relationship that I felt I could share in with others (despite being baptized and having said the sinner’s prayer several times as a child). There was a community that sought Intellectual Truth and not just Friendly Fellowship and Southern Tradition. As in my previous experience with Churches, seeking Truth and seeking Fellowship didn’t mix well together.
I was outright giddy about this new relationship and wanted to tell the whole world, back before Facebook was invented…
Unfortunately, I had a relationship with a religion.
If there had been a Facebook back then, my status would have been
“Brian Newman is in a Relationship with Messianic Judaism”.
I tried to just coast through life on enough Gnosis about the Bible to get by, and just enough Yadah through the Sabbath to get by. I had just enough of The Creator through the filter of Messianic Judaism to get by on, so I thought, without having to actually walk with the Creator instead of just celebrate what He celebrated and study about Him and His life.
When many leave the ‘righteousness by tradition and Church Attendance” thinking absorbed into Catholicism that often times also carried over into Protestantism, they jump right into “righteousness by tradition and Synagogue Attendance” thinking in Judaism and Messianic Judaism, thinking that the Jews kept all of the error out (we all need heroes right?).
We leave Egypt (sin and the world) and get into Churchianity only to discover that it is bordered by Babylon. So we leave the standard Evangelical Churches we grew up near in search of something deeper and more ancient and in a sense foreign, as well as a relationship with the Creator unhindered by the vestiges of former lovers (religious traditions etc.).
Then over time we find that even many Messianic Congregations ignore much of the Torah, some place the Talmud on an even par with the Torah, some still have the same enshrined tradition and same religious thinking as Evangelicalism and Protestantism but with a little more Yiddish Flavor instead of a Southern Twang.
And one day hopefully, we learn to focus on the Giver of the Torah who is greater than the Torah. We also learn that the Torah is all God Breathed Instruction and not just Genesis to Deuteronomy.
This was my experience. While I was learning more historical and cultural truth than I ever did around a Protestant Church in the past, and I was walking closer than I ever had. I still needed to go deeper than Messianic Judaism, waiting on a Rabbi to tell you what a scripture means in the same fashion that most Christians wait on a preacher to tell them.
It became evident in time that the only Knowledge that would fulfill is the truth of Yeshua. This goes beyond what He REALLY TAUGHT, how He REALLY LIVED, His REAL MESSAGE.
All of the nuances of history, sociology, psychology, etc. just leave you empty and educated.
Knowledge is like cotton candy in that way, it is very pretty and brightly colored, and spiritual children go gaga over it. But try to fill up inside on cotton candy alone and all you get is a tummy ache and strong desire to wash it off your hands.
The Yadah/Experiental Knowledge of Yeshua Himself and not just His Culture and Message is the only knowledge that satisfies.
It also became evident in time that the only Yadah that would fulfill is a genuine experience with Yeshua, who He REALLY IS, How He REALLY FEELS about things, and what REALLY PLEASES Him. Yoga, meditation, alcohol, religious fervor, and jumping up and down at Christian concerts just won’t do it for any of us.
We must have both the facts about Yeshua and the experience with Yeshua, not one or the other of course. Without the person, reading the the approved autobiography leaves you Wise but Lonely.
As of these edits I am making in 2022, (original article was back around 2015) , I attend a Service and Spiritual Gifts oriented Evangelical Sunday Church in Chattanooga, TN called “5 Stones”. It keeps me centered, and sustained, and sane. I also study the Jewish Roots of Christians and Educate Christians on the same through my own ministry. Psalm 16. I celebrate the Feasts with a few like minded people who discovered the emptiness of new Knowledge as I did, and came home to find something deeper than Religious Education.
So I leave you with these admonitions from scripture.
“Knowledge puffs up but love builds up”
Paul speaking of his great Gnosis apart from Yeshua “I Count it all as Poo Poo”.
“Test the Spirits” (with the Scripture/Gnosis).
“My people perish for lack of knowledge, because you have rejected My laws (Instructions) I will reject you as a my priests”.
“Away from me your workers of lawlessness, for I NEVER KNEW YOU.”
“My sheep will HEAR my voice.”
“The Father desires those who worship in SPIRIT (Yadah Knowledge) and TRUTH (Gnosis Knowledge)” TOGETHER
Are you past the point of weary?
Is your burden weighing heavy?
Is it all too much to carry?
Let me tell you ’bout my Jesus
Do you feel that empty feeling?
‘Cause shame’s done all its stealing
And you’re desperate for some healing
Let me tell you ’bout my Jesus
He makes a way where there ain’t no way
Rises up from an empty grave
Ain’t no sinner that He can’t save
Let me tell you ’bout my Jesus
His love is strong and His grace is free
And the good news is I know that He
Can do for you what He’s done for me
Let me tell you ’bout my Jesus
And let my Jesus change your life
Hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujah, amen, amen
Who can wipe away the tears
From broken dreams and wasted years
And tell the past to disappear? Oh
Let me tell you ’bout my Jesus
And all the wrong turns that you would
Go and undo if you could
Who can work it all for your good
Let me tell you ’bout my Jesus
He makes a way where there ain’t no way
Rises up from an empty grave
Ain’t no sinner that He can’t save
Let me tell you ’bout my Jesus
His love is strong and His grace is free
And the good news is I know that He
Can do for you what He’s done for me
Let me tell you ’bout my Jesus
And let my Jesus change your life
Hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujah, amen, amen
Amen
Who would take my cross to Calvary?
Pay the price for all my guilty?
Who would care that much about me?
Let me tell you ’bout my Jesus, oh
He makes a way where there ain’t no way
Rises up from an empty grave
Ain’t no sinner that He can’t save
Let me tell you ’bout my Jesus
His love is strong and His grace is free
And the good news is I know that He
Can do for you what He’s done for me
Let me tell you ’bout my Jesus
And let my Jesus change your life
Hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujah, amen, amen
Hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujah (amen, amen)
Let my Jesus change your life
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