All in Understanding
How do we maintain our faith once we have it? How do we hold firm in the face of false prophets, or the antichrist? Do we have to return to school like a nurse, or some other licensed professional, and receive so many additional hours of training each year? The answer is no because within us we already have the knowledge we need, and the anointing of the Holy Spirit who teaches us how to apply God’s Word, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to everything in our lives.
Do you really know what tomorrow will bring you? Oh you think that you can surmise it based on the events of today, but in fact we can not. Life is fluid and ever changing, and many things are understood only by God Himself. So how does not knowing tomorrow make you feel, less human or more human? Does not being able to fully understand the world or something in it turn you towards God, or cause you to feel alone and insignificant?
Is studying the Bible and theology something that you do so that you can mine the truth from it? Do you read in order to gain an understanding of God’s embedded secrets? Are you seeking the title of “Bible Scholar?” If this is you let me encourage you to continue your studies, but remember to approach them in childlike fashion. Bring the heart and wonder of a child to the effort. Because God reveals his hidden wisdom from all but the children of faith... the childlike.
Keeping the Word of God in our hearts and mulling over it all the day long is the way we glean from it the intricate details of what has been placed there for us. By quietly chewing every syllable over and over again we find that we can extract all of the flavor it contains, and then every bit of nourishment. In this way we are thrilled, and then fed. In this way we see God in our everyday world.
How do we come to understand the Word of God, and His will for us? Is it by our own intellect, and through diligent study that we are able to piece it together like a puzzle? Do we somehow find the hidden key within it that allows everything to fall into place so that we can stand back from it and marvel at our ingenuity? No, we understand with our hearts, and not our minds. Our minds barely scratch the surface, but our hearts use them like a scalpel.
Do you tell God what you actually want, or need, when you come to Him in prayer? Perhaps you don’t really know yourself, you just know that you are hurting, or that you are in distress. Depression is such an illness. We don’t know why we feel this way, and yet we do. Most of the time though you know what it is, but God always wants you to tell Him. He wants you to take the time to understand your own needs, and to determine if what you desire is something within His will for you... and then call out to Him.
Satan would have you think that obeying God’s will means that yours must be destroyed, and that you must become some kind of automaton to God. He would have you think that if you are in God’s will then yours has been done away with. This couldn’t be further from the truth; your will is valued by the Lord. He desires your obedience to His Will and plan for you, but that obedience must come by choice, and in concert with your own. Jesus chose to do God’s will.
Is the Word of God alive to you? Is the gospel of Jesus Christ breathing within your being? If we really desire the Word to come alive and to infuse us with the life that only God can provide, then we need the Holy Spirit moving within us. It is the difference between a grade school child reading “The Charge of the Light Brigade”, (the work of poet Lord Alfred Tennyson), and sitting at his feet while Tennyson himself reads the verse. The Spirit brings life to the Word for us.
Do you depend on your intellect to search out the wisdom of God? Do you study and ponder His Word to find truth there, or do you alternatively use your intellect to spoon feed yourself the Word, while your spirit seeks and sifts it for those things that are of God? When we depend upon our intellect it brings us very few of those wonderful revelations that we recognize as being of Him, but when our spirit is engaged, it finds treasure for us in His most glorious depths.