As I was completing my bible study lesson last week, there was a passage in I Corinthians that the author, Mary Englund Murphy, asked us to look up for reference. This is how it reads:
"For to us God revealed them* through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words." (I Corinthians 2:10-13)
First of all, the "them" that I stuck an asterisk next to is found in verse 9, "Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him."
In other words, if you have the Spirit of the living God residing inside of you...which occurs when you trust Jesus as your one and only Savior, there will be "things" that come to your mind, your heart and your very soul that could have come from nowhere else, but that very same Spirit. For years, I have pondered this as I've had the random thought of a person pop into my head and I've felt I needed to pray for them and later finding out that at that same moment they were experiencing something for which they've needed prayer. I have also been the recipient of this.
Being prompted, "out of the blue" to say or do something that just makes no sense to my rational brain, or receiving the perfect words to say when you think there is absolutely no way you are equipped for the moment you find yourself in are other examples. Just this morning, I heard someone express this as, 'When it's the absolute last thing you want to do, but you know you have to do it.'
Yep, those are all from God's Spirit.
And there were two things that struck me anew or maybe even for the first time. As I have always been amazed at this when I have attempted to ponder exactly how God does it...this, the first wireless network, designed by God himself...I never knew the answer was right there in I Corinthians all along. It is the very thoughts of God!
God...who is so holy and blameless that He cannot even gaze upon me in my sin...became human and sacrificed himself so that by His Wonderful Counselor (aka the Holy Spirit)...didn't just think that leaving a list of do's and don'ts was enough; no...He determined to give us His thoughts.
Wow! Speechless...about sums it all up right now.
You know...I don't want most people to know my thoughts. But not only does God know all of mine, He graciously grants His to me through His Holy Spirit. This does not make me a god...no...it just allows me to "know the things freely given to us by God" (verse 12).
How can I know God, His plans for me, His grace, His mercy, His Love? Through His own thoughts for me.
I am humbled, for sure.
Did I say humbled? Whatever the word is for "lower than humbled", that is what I felt after I read verse 13. Paul has just written that God freely gives us the things we can know by the indwelling of the Spirit. Then he writes, "which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words."
Yikes! Just that day I had been complaining to someone about people who have hurt me or my children. Part of this played into the lesson I was learning about liking people in spite of themselves. I really am weary of all the petty stuff that goes on amongst Christians in the west. But my gossiping about it just compounds the problem. I needed to repent of my unclean lips (see Isaiah 6:5) and apologize to the person who listened to my ranting. In other words, I wasn't anywhere near the neighborhood of speaking "spiritual words", so I must not have been conveying God's "spiritual thoughts" either.
I must say, I have been challenged in the past regarding my tongue, and to the credit of the teaching of the Spirit, I have improved over the years...but when I read this passage, something new resonated in me. It's not just about disciplining my tongue, stopping gossip and dissension. Honestly, I can't manage those in my own strength. Instead, what I can hope to remember is that when I am listening, God gives me His perfect thoughts. I'm absolutely famished for that, aren't you? Don't you long to have what verse 16 goes on to call "the mind of Christ"? He reminds us in verse 14 that it will seem like "foolishness" to the non-Spirit filled, "natural" man.
If being a fool for Jesus is what it takes to be able to 'appraise all things, yet be appraised by no one'...to never have to worry, connive, manipulate, strive, labor to the point of exhaustion and collapse under the load of self-doubt again...then sign me up!
Abba, Father...You are good. You are holy. And yet, for some unfathomable reason, You want me to have your very thoughts embedded in my life. I am humbled. I am awed. I am filled with the ravenous desire to know You more and to know You deeper. I surrender my thoughts, my pride, my reputation and my sense of fairness so that I will be willing to be a fool for You. Alice thought that Wonderland was backwards, forwards and upside down. But You came and turned this world and everything we knew in it on its head. Wow! How amazing that the holy Creator of the universe would not rest until He could place his very thoughts inside the mind of a sinner like me. May I never seek to have anything stand between Your thought and life-giving Spirit and myself. When You help me recognize there is a hindrance, help me swiftly bring it to You for removal. Help me Abba! I just need more of You!
Amen!
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