THAT WE MAY UNDERSTAND

“… no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.”  1 Corinthians 2:11b-12

       Due to faulty teaching from some folks who had infiltrated the church, the Corinthians had come to an unhealthy and even arrogant understanding of who they were in Christ. They believed they knew the mind of God and thus thought that the Lord would sanction anything they did.  Paul wrote to them that only the Holy Spirit, an integral part of the Trinity, knew the deepest thoughts of Almighty God.  Man only thinks he’s tapped into God.  In reality, without the proper humility and hunger to know God intimately, we cannot know Him at all.  Our own thoughts and presuppositions enter into our thought processes and skew things in our mind so that a personal message from God becomes based on our own wants and desires.  This is why it is so incredibly important to align ourselves with God’s Spirit. 

       The Spirit is one with God, just as Jesus is.  That is the Trinity; the Godhead, three in one.  Therefore, if Christ is God and the Spirit is God, it stands to reason that only a member of the Godhead can know the deepest recesses of God’s mind.  The Spirit of God is omniscient (a knower of all things) just as God the Father is.  Just as with Almighty God, the Holy Spirit has exact knowledge of all things pertaining to the Father and to us, His children.  No one on this earth can have such a thorough knowledge of anyone; perhaps not even our own selves.

       The world could never give us what God has given us. That thing that was given to us was grace.  The Holy Spirit helps us understand this wonderful gift that was freely and willingly given to us.  We must embrace this faith that we have and understand the deep significance of what God has done for us. Without His forgiveness we would never now true peace and fulfillment and would live out our days on this decaying earth and die without hope.  Life doesn’t end when we die, for as it states in Hebrews 9:27, “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment,…”. Give your mind over to the Holy Spirit so that you might understand the deeper things of God.  Until next time, walk with the King and be a blessing!

Resources: The Matthew Henry Bible Commentary; The Asbury Bible Commentary.