But it was to us that God revealed these things by His Spirit. For His Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.
1 Corinthians 2:10-12
God revealed these things by His Spirit. His Spirit shows us God’s deep secrets. Just as you can’t know a person’s deep thoughts except the spirit of the person reveal them to you, so too you can’t know the deep thoughts of God unless His Spirit reveals them to you. Deep spiritual things are taught by the Spirit. When we became children of God, He deposited deep within us His Holy Spirit as guarantee of what is to come. So too by that same Spirit He reveals deep spiritual truth to us. It can come in a moment. Not as a result of deep human study and time spend pouring over books. Although at times He uses that too.
Allow me again to share with you a personal testimony of me coming to the understanding of this. One day while living in Matamata, New Zealand before we became involved with Wycliffe I had been thinking about the things of God. I had been musing on worship and people being eternal. I took Tania to the hairdressers and was sitting in the car waiting for her angled parked to the curb. I had a cassette playing worship music at the same I was reading my Bible and praying. I started looking at people passing on the street, some I knew; some I didn’t. Suddenly I noticed the car beside me was reversing out of the car park WITHOUT A DRIVER. I was amazed and totally focused on this car backing out without a driver. Then my car hit the curb. I had not put the handbrake on and the car had been in equilibrium until my moving around caused it to roll forward. While my senses told me the car beside me was backing out because I was not doing anything to move my car forward relative to the car beside me, in fact it was my car moving forward.
God took that moment to download to my spirit in an instant gigabytes of thought. He seemed to say to me just like with the car, you have to see from a new perspective. My perspective! In a instant I was aware of His perspective related to worship and the souls of people and what God wants of us. What His plan in this world is all about. All that dropped into my spirit in a nanosecond. The things of God are to be perceived and understood spiritually. Oh how we need His help.
All of this reminds me of the passage in John’s gospel:
Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”
“How are these things possible?” Nicodemus asked.
Jesus replied, “You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things? I assure you, We tell you what We know and have seen, and yet you won’t believe Our testimony. But if you don’t believe Me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if I tell you about heavenly things?
John 3:6–12
Bring the Holy Spirit with you when you approach the Word of God. As you want to understand pray the following:
Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in Your Word.
Psalm 119:18
Growing older only guarantees winkles, not wisdom. Many people live the same year over & over, never learning anything new.
Rick Warren
Small deposits of time in critical areas over an extended period of time take us to where we need to be.
Andy Stanley