Hello, my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends on this Thursday,
While you and I cannot be in two physical places at the same time, can we be in two places in our minds simultaneously? Of course! But can we see our world, understand our world and think in our world with TWO minds simultaneously? Can we think with our practical mind, based on the things we validate with our five practical senses, and at the same time think with a spiritual mind, with the Holy Spirit of God validating that type of spiritual thinking?
Do you understand what I’m asking? Has God given us human beings, made in His image, the ability to think both practically and spiritually at the same time, while living very practical lives here on earth? YES, that is God’s design for every person! But the truth is relatively few people achieve that God given potential. Why?
Paul wrote about this in his first letter to his Corinthian Christian friends, in his second chapter. Let’s take a close look for if you and I could achieve the potential God gives us in this remarkable way of living, it will change everything for us!
Paul wrote: “We speak a message of wisdom…but not the wisdom of this age...No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” (1 Cor. 2:6-8)
I wonder if Paul put down his stylus to think about what the Holy Spirit had just put into his mind. Perhaps, Paul went over to a window, in the room where he was writing, just to watch the people outside of Ephesus going about their busy, practical lives. As Paul contemplated the difference between the wisdom of God and what we humans think is wisdom, which is from God’s perspective so often foolishness, what did Paul conclude?
Along with Paul, let’s wrestle with that statement, for it has such powerful implications for our modern times. Would you agree ‘the wisdom of this age’ is human wisdom found in textbooks in school, but those textbooks change from generation to generation and sometimes even year to year, right? And it is also wisdom learned in the experiences of daily living, yet social values change so fast, and the rules and laws of acceptable conduct are constantly changing. And then there’s public opinion wisdom, found on social media or just listen to the public conversation.
If you are over 50 you can see all human wisdom is fluid, changing constantly. But wait a minute, should not reliable wisdom withstand changes and be rock solid over the long haul? Should it not be the unwavering foundation upon which to build a life, a family, a business and a society?
YES! Which is why Paul contrasts the human ‘wisdom of this age’ with ‘God’s wisdom’ and Paul indicates God’s wisdom has been consistent from before time began. Did you notice Paul refers to ‘a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.’
What is this mystery Paul speaks of? I think this mystery is the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is God incarnate, who explained and lived God’s truth, demonstrated God’s miraculous power, but was rejected by the people He had created, and crucified in their attempt to eliminate God’s presence here. Paul clarifies that if supposedly wise people had understood WHO Jesus really was, and WHY He was here, and WHAT the message of God meant, they would have embraced Him rather than killed Him. But they looked at Jesus through human wisdom, and he made no sense, so they attempted to eliminate Jesus.
But of course, He was raised to life and lives now reigning in all His sovereignty in heaven. But our understanding of this mystery is only possible with the help of the Holy Spirit of God, right? That is the main point of Paul’s second chapter. Paul wrote: “These are the things God has revealed to us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God…No one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.” (1 Cor. 2:9-11)
This great mystery of our understanding Jesus and actually having a relationship with Almighty God through Jesus, begins right here. Our human minds can only understand IF the Spirit of God helps our thinking move from ‘the wisdom of this age’ practical thinking, to God’s wisdom spiritual thinking.
Paul writes that in our God-accomplished salvation experience: “we have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us….in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.” (1 Cor. 2:12,13) Oh my that’s big.
It means there is a spiritual vocabulary, which describes the spiritual work of God in our lives and our world, that is only understood as the Holy Spirit of God enables us to think with God given, spiritual wisdom! Pause. Did you get that?
Now here’s the final, powerful declaration from Paul about this: “The person without the Holy Spirit does not accept the things which come from the Spirit of God, but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them, because they are discerned only through the Holy Spirit…But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Cor. 2:14-16) Do you see it my friends? One of the very important daily, ongoing works of the Holy Spirit of God, in the life of a genuinely born-again, redeemed Christian, is refining our minds to THINK like Jesus about anything in the human experience!
This is God’s ‘spiritual wisdom’, and it enables us to fully engage with practical life here on earth with our human minds, but also fully engage with our Holy Spirit guided spiritual minds! Oh my, what a wonderful miracle taking us to living life on a whole different level of fulfillment and eternal perspective! Do you understand it and are you living it, every day, my friends? Fully engaging in life with your practical mind, but also your Holy Spirit given and led, spiritual mind.
Now the ‘lessons learned’ notes at the link below will really help us further digest these truths, and the worship song will draw our hearts to Jesus, and I’ll be here tomorrow ready for you, with more.
Today’s Scripture: 1 Cor. 2:6-16.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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