Know spiritual truth?

1 Corinthians 2

My devotional book does not have an entry for Leap Year so today I selected an article floating around social media that sounds good. The title is “One minute after a believer dies” and it is followed by six points and Scripture references.

When I read it, I thought the points sounded true, but the references are shaky, taken out of context and most of them do not say what the points claim they say. One response called this article “fake news” and others warned Christians to be careful of what they were reading.

Yet why do these points sound true? Biblically, some knowledge comes by ‘experience’ such as when the disciples witnessed the life of Christ and knew He was a real person. However, some of what Jesus said was a mystery. They needed to understand, but their knowledge came by only ‘revelation’ — which is much more difficult to define. On this topic, Paul wrote to the church at Corinth.

Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. (1 Corinthians 2:6–13, italics mine)

Sometimes I have what is called ‘senior moments’ when the name of a person or a word drops out of my mind. No matter how hard I try, it will not come to me. That is what it is like to be in the dark about spiritual matters. A person might realize there is something to know, or have a vague idea, but the reality of it seems to be blocked. Revelation is something like that ah-ha moment when I remember the name!

Regarding spiritual matters, those realities do not come to mind the same way. The problem is not that they are blocked as much as the ‘receptor’ isn’t working. The human spirit without Christ is what the Bible calls ‘dead’ — not cold and inert dead but separated from the things of God and we cannot ‘get’ our heads around them. We might be aware something is there but at best can only guess what it is. Sin does this. Sin is that determination to do life my way — but that approach messes with understanding or even seeing God’s way. I needed God to reveal it to me.

Paul explains further:

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:14–16)

This explains why revelation is needed and how it happens. The Holy Spirit revealed to me that I was a sinner in need of salvation and gave me His gift of faith and eternal life. This happened because Jesus Christ entered my life — an entrance so powerful that He gave me His mind as well as His life to energize my dead spirit and make it alive.

The result? The ability to think God’s thoughts, which is utterly amazing. Sinful me might try to figure out what the Bible says and means without relying on God to show me. It might lead to stuff like this list of what happens when we die. The Spirit may be revealing that some of this is true, but the sinful flesh tries to find proof-texts rather than simply believing what God has revealed by faith.

I KNOW that I will be with Jesus the moment I die. How do I know? I cannot explain it; I just know. These verses might miss the mark in proving it, but the entire biblical message used by the Spirit assures all God’s people of things that experience cannot reveal, and human knowledge cannot grasp. For that, I need Jesus and the gift of faith.

God is God — where is my focus?

Exodus 11:1–12:20; Job 29; Luke 14; 1 Corinthians 15

After weeks, perhaps months, of experiencing plagues from the hand of God through Moses, Egyptian Pharaoh was ready to let God’s people go from his sight and their slavery. The Egyptian people also had enough. Their crops and livestock had been destroyed and their lives totally disrupted. For all this, these verses are astonishing:

The Lord said to Moses, “Yet one plague more I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterward he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will drive you away completely. Speak now in the hearing of the people, that they ask, every man of his neighbor and every woman of her neighbor, for silver and gold jewelry.” And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people. (Exodus 11:1–3)

Sociologists try to figure out why this should happen. Most of them forget that God can intervene. He can turn the hearts and minds of people. This happened in Egypt and has happened in other parts of the world when massive revival transforms hundreds of people. It is happening right now in the state of Tennessee. One Christian news channel quotes a pastor who said, "People were getting serious about dealing with personal sin and people were coming to Christ for salvation. 30-year feuds were made right, relationships have been restored, and many masks have been removed. People made public confessions of sin, bitterness, and laziness about their involvement in God's kingdom activity."

One of our pastors would say, “Only God” as he knows the reality of God’s power. However, many sociologists find such change in people inconceivable because they believe in closed systems where people have definable reasons for doing what they do and they don’t change very much. Yet God can graciously intervene. He can change people and make them “favorably disposed” to the preaching of the Gospel. I agree, for He did it to me.

There is a question about the power of God to change lives. Why isn’t everyone transformed? Why do many people say NO to God? Could it be that they realize that salvation may be freely available but there is a cost to following Jesus? Up front, that cost could be the reason that people whom God has drawn toward His Son begin to back away. Up front, to them that cost seems very high:

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26–33)

At the time Jesus called me, I did not hear Him asking me to count the cost. I jumped right in only to later find out that being a Christian meant giving my entire life to Jesus. By then, I loved Him so much that it did not seem difficult.

Saying NO to God does not change the love of God or the power of God. It just means those who say it will miss out on experiencing the wonder of His grace and power.

APPLY: Disobedience on my part is a choice. It does not change the power of God; it only means I lose opportunities to see Him at work. He is alive and well, whether I focus on that or on the futility of my own life. Giving up that focus on Jesus is costly? I don’t think so!

Amen to that . . .

Exodus 10; Job 28; Luke 13; 1 Corinthians 14

Sometimes a Bible story reminds me of another passage God uses to bless me. Today’s reading in Exodus is about the eighth plague, a swarm of locusts. Other passages about locusts, including one in Revelation, use locusts to illustrate destruction. All except one:

I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you. “You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame. You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God and there is none else. And my people shall never again be put to shame. (Joel 2:25–27)

In this passage, the word “restore” is from a Hebrew word that refers to a covenant of peace making this promise special to those who have had a hard life with lots of losses or regrets. Essentially it says that God will give great peace to a person who feels shame over their past and for the life they have wasted.

Amen.

Added to that promise is another from Job. He speaks about the difficulty of finding wisdom. It is not found in creation nor can it be bought with money. I know from experience that regrets and loss can produce a great longing for it, but wisdom is hidden and seems only a mere rumor. However, “God understands the way to it, and He knows its place” (Job 28:14) and He says to us:

“Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.” (Job 28:28)

Not only does God graciously grant peace of mind, but also wisdom to those who asks. In great respect and awe for His wisdom, turning away from evil makes sense and gives me access to His answers for life’s issues.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. (James 1:5)

And that gives me an even greater sense of awe. The God who spoke the universe into existence and who knows all things will grant to me all that I need to know and the ability to act on that knowledge — and He is totally generous about it!

Amen.

As for acting on what He reveals, God also reminds me that He grants a willing heart. In Luke, Jesus laments over Jerusalem and says:

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ” (Luke 13:34–35)

How awful to be unwilling, yet I know that it is the sinner’s normal state. However, the grace of God keeps me wanting to be gathered up by Jesus, taken into His care and understanding His will, experiencing His peace even for all that I’ve done wrong. Woe to those who say NO to the grandest gift from the Lord — a heart that is willing, even eager, to know and understand Him, to love Him. This is grace and not my doing. I am so grateful.

Amen.

I’m also thankful that the Bible says, “For God is not a God of confusion but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33) and that, “All things should be done decently and in order.” (1 Corinthians 14:40) These verses have helped me many times. When my mind or situation becomes a blurry muddle or I am confused or upset about something, I know that God is not stirring me up. I have a spiritual enemy whose devices often include messing with my mind. This is an occasion to call for that peace, or ask for that wisdom, or check and see if the enemy gained access because of some unwillingness in me.

The latter problem also reminds me of a favorite verse: “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7)

This tells me that there is a logical order to winning a spiritual war. I cannot resist the devil while unsubmitted to God. He will grant a willing mind if I confess the sin that has cropped up and He will enable me to submit to Him so I can resist whatever the devil is trying to do. This too is the grace of God.

APPLY: Let symptoms indicate whether I’m in spiritual trouble or not and seek God’s grace for any necessary cures. He is faithful and wants me to experience His peace, know His wisdom, and have a willing heart of obedience.

Amen.