Kennen and Wissen. (Matthew 16:13-20)

Intimate knowledge of The LORD can only be had in intimate relationship.
When asking, "Who do you say that the Son of Man is?" the invitation to think about what they have seen and what they know, what they have experienced. So that while others may see the battles between Elijah and Ahab & Jezebel, or Jeremiah calling out the leaders who were walking away and think deeper.

The question itself invites a place of thinking about Who GOD is in our lives. On a personal, intimate, real level we are invited to speak truth to who we know GOD to be. Who you know HIM to be. The ONE who has kept every promise and is ever faithful. That relationship place where we can either be sure we know HIM (Wissen) or we just know about HIS Mercies (Kennen).

As to what I overviewed moment with verse 19, which is, "And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you forbid (bind, lock) on earth will be forbidden in heaven and whatever you permit (loose, open) on earth will be permitted in heaven." It's a curious thing that YESHUA is saying to Peter that the Keys of The Kingdom are given to The Body-of-Christ (the Church) and that what the church allows will be seen. There is also the personal level of it as well. The fact that whatever we allow in our lives, we will generally see. So if we allows death we will see it. If we allow hate, we will see it. If we loose love, we will see it. This, on a personal level, invites a shift of thinking and view. After all, is it a garbage day or did you just have a bad moment and the rest of the day can get better. It's the words we speak and the perspective we have. Gratitude for the barrowed breath, or grumpy that we didn't get our way. (Which is as childish as it sounds, I'm really not going to pull punches about why we bitch, it's the thing we do, doesn't mean it's right. Got to at least call it for what it is. A place of not trusting that GOD is greater. I mean Job looses everything, including his children, in one afternoon and we will say that "god hates me" because we lost a good parking spot? Really?! That's a grow up moment, don't feel called out just call it what it is and let's do better, because GOD has given us an amazing playground and we get to enjoy every moment of it. Choice is focus. The GOD-Who-Sees-To-It, {Literally Jehovah Jireh, YHWH-Jireh} being true to HIMSELF and HIS very Name, seeing to it. Or do we want to focus on the world. The choice is simple, the justifications to ignore it, plenty.)

We can speak love and speak life, opening up the flood-gates of heaven by being HIS and living the love HE gives us and telling the enemy to hit the road or we can work actively against GOD; and that's JESUS talking.