The first one is theoretical knowledge and the second one is experimental knowledge. Many people are confused on the second word, because it is similar to the word experiential. These two are not exactly the same.

The first is based on the word experiment and the second is based on the word experience. The knowledge that we gain in life may be based on the things that we learn and put into our heads, and also the things that we experience in life.

Experiential knowledge is the ultimate knowledge and it embraces both theoretical knowledge and experimental knowledge. Experimental knowledge however simply means the opposite of theory; it means practical knowledge.

So you should learn the theory and then put that into practice. When you combine those two together you get experience. Then you have the ultimate goal which is experiential knowledge which is our ultimate goal.

This may be a minor issue, but it is good to understand what these terms mean.

You need to learn both the theory and the practice. And as you combine those two together and live them, then you gain the ultimate knowledge which is based on your experience in life.

The Importance of Grounding

So where do you need to start with these two types of knowledge?

Firstly you need a foundation or groundwork for your ministry. If you get back to the picture of the dove, it is clear that things are fine while the dove is flying. It has the power of its wings, the tail feathers are working and the dove is soaring high.

But a bird cannot stay in the air forever. It has to eventually come back down to the ground.

That is when the two insignificant body parts called the feet come into play. These are very limited and a bird can only run along the ground with its little feet.

There is not much power in those little feet, but they give the bird stability. Without those feet it cannot survive on the ground. It cannot land on a tree or on the ground, and this prevents the bird from doing much at all.

What do these two feet represent? What is the most important thing that you need as a grounding to carry you when the anointing is not present? Surely it is the Scriptures or the Word of God.

We know that the Bible consists of two parts - the Old Testament and the New Testament. This is our grounding and foundation and the part that takes us through when the anointing is not in operation.

You should know from experience that the anointing is not in operation 24 hours a day. It comes on you when it is time to 'take to the air' and do the work that God has called you to do. But what about the rest of the time when you are not flying?

You need to be grounded in the Word. How do you do this? It is not as much fun as taking to the air and flapping your wings as you fly. We humans understand this because we do not have wings.

The Place of Bible Doctrine

That is why the first and most important part of your training, which starts under the heading of theory, is getting grounded in the Scriptures. So the first part of your training should be in Bible Doctrine.

What is Bible Doctrine? Isn't it that theological religious stuff? No, doctrine simply means 'teaching', so Bible Doctrine is the teachings of the Bible or what the Bible teaches.

Why do you need Bible Doctrine? Because when you read the Scriptures you are reading a whole lot of things that you have never seen before and that you don't understand. I described this earlier when I shared about walking in a forest with plants everywhere.

What Bible Doctrine does is it gives you a kind of skeleton on which to hang all the meat. Or you could think of it as being a pile of boxes or compartments that you can put things in.

If you could set up a spot with lots of compartments or boxes, then the easiest way to study the Scriptures would be like this. As you read and come across an interesting passage, you say,

"I recognize this. It fits into that box over there."

So you put it into that box and you read on. As you continue to read the Bible, you can take everything that you read and put it into all the right boxes.

Then when you put all the boxes together, they become like a jigsaw puzzle. You have many little pieces that made no sense at the beginning, but now they start fitting together. And now the Bible starts to make sense.

You could spend your whole life reading the Bible and trying to discover those boxes. Or you could let someone else, who already knows the boxes, show you what they are.

Such a person could give you a grounding in the main teachings of the Scriptures. Then as you read the Bible, everything starts to come to life.

There is a process known as the teaching process which works like this. If you wish to learn something, then this is how you teach or learn.

You start with something that you know, then move to something that you did not know. In other words you must move from the known to the unknown.

It is much easier to take something that you already know and add some extra information to it. Then, because you already know a bit about it, it makes sense. The pieces drop into place.

If you read the Bible alone, you are reading a lot of unknowns. All you have is a box of jigsaw puzzle pieces. You may think you have an awesome puzzle; a huge puzzle with thousands of pieces. You can even boast about your puzzle.

You have a head full of Bible knowledge, like a puzzle. But then someone asks you to show them the picture.

What will you say? You have not had time to put the pieces together yet, but you have an awesome box of puzzle pieces, bigger than anyone else.

You may know the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. But can you put it together into a picture to show people that they can understand?

Do you even understand yourself where all the pieces fit? You probably don't. You must start with a known, and Bible Doctrine becomes your known.

Adding Knowledge of History

Now you start adding other things to that. You could learn about history.

I hated history when I was at school. You learned about what other people did in the past; the lives they lived and the cultures they had.

I found it very boring. But as I grew up I realized that the world in which we live today came about because of what happened back there.

Sometimes you are not fully able to understand where you are now, until you learn about some of the things that happened back there. When you read the Bible now, how much do you understand? What do you picture and see in your mind?

It helps to have an idea of what happened back there in Bible history. It is good to know what kind of traditions they had, what clothes they wore, what kind of food they ate and what kind of lives they lived.

You need some kind of external knowledge, so that when you read the Scriptures you understand a bit more clearly what the writer is talking about. You can then see it through the eyes of that person and the kind of life they lived back there.

You cannot get this knowledge from the Bible. You will have to get it from the world. You may have to get it from history books and other secular writings that tell you about people and cultures from the past.

That is a lot of extra knowledge, but if you want to be effective in ministry then you need to know these things.

This applies especially if the Lord leads you to travel the world and go to other nations. You need to learn about those nations and their background, so that you know how to present the Word to them in a way that they will understand.

Learning about Human Nature

You also need to learn a bit about human nature. And if you think I mean learning psychology you are wrong. Please do not go and study psychology.

Psychology and psychiatry were created by godless men who tried to explain God away and get rid of sin. Their purpose was that people could live the way they wanted to live, instead of the way God wants us to live.

You simply need knowledge about people. You can learn some of this through your own experience. Or you could learn from the experience of others who have lived a bit longer and have been involved with many different kinds of people.

You can be taught and trained about how human nature works; how people think and operate. Then when you come to ministering to people, you will understand a bit better what kind of person you are dealing with. Now you are in a better position to start ministering to them.

All of these things are only theory. They are knowledge that must get into our heads.

It is very important knowledge, and without it you cannot be very effective in ministry. But you must also move beyond that and into experimental knowledge.

We will cover this next in the final section of this study. We will look at experimental knowledge and how to come finally to the place where you know your calling. Then you can spend the rest of your life doing what God has called you to.

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