Spiritual Truth Is Discerned In The Spirit
Matthew 11 – 25 At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. 26 Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. 27 All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.
The New Testament indicates that its truths – and Jesus Himself – are hidden in plain sight and not simply read and understood with the intellect apart from the grace of God to open one’s eyes. Many Christians have heard things like this, but still go forward in the strength of their intellect and find themselves disagreeing with one another on matters of the faith, and not knowing Jesus’ voice. This article outlines a delicate balance of conditions required by God to approach truth which He must reveal. Sadly, many maintain deep misconceptions and even fallacies about learning the things of God.
For starters, Christians have long approached the study of the Bible and God’s truth as a form of intellectual pursuit. They may pray asking God to guide them, but theologians, pastors, and ordinary Christians tend to dive into the Bible similar to the approach people take toward any school subject.
Study of the Bible using the mind to read, understand, and meditate on its truths was a foundational assumption that the Protestant Reformers carried over from Catholicism who themselves had delved into mysteries for 1,200 years before Martin Luther. The most conscientious Protestants refined the study of theology to nearly an art form, and formalized techniques of Bible scholarship. Notions that go along with Bible study and learning about God in general may include an assumption that the human mind is God-given and meant to serve. Indeed, this is true, but God’s truth is addressed to the made-alive spirit in a covenant-keeping child of God. It says there are two identities co-existing within a Christian – the flesh and the spirit. Alternately called the “old man” and the “new man,” these co-exist in Christians and the two selves compete against one another.
1 Corinthians 3:1 – And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ.
Galatians 5 – 16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.
Ephesians 1:17 – This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, …
Excerpts from Ephesians 1:22-24 – … put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt … be renewed in the spirit of your mind … put on the new man …
Galatians 3:3 – Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?
The flesh is your old self, and the spirit is the real “you” God addresses. The fleshly mind is your default natural self. Before a Christian ever heard of Jesus Christ he or she had a fully capable and independent mind. It was able to learn, think, act, speculate, conjecture, declare, and so forth. For the majority of those who name Christ, the dividing line between the flesh and spirit is blurred, and even theologians have overlooked or misinterpreted these realities the Bible speaks of as they attempt to decipher the Bible.
The Study Of Theology
The word theology comes from two root words – theo and logy. The Greek term theo pertains to God. The term logy is a Middle English derivation of an older Greek word that means the study of. So theology means the study of God. The term theology is just like other terms meaning the study of an academic subject such as biology, physiology, psychology, meteorology, and so forth.
The approach Christians take to learning the things of God tends to produce far more failures than success. This can be seen if one defines “success” as development of Christlike spiritual people who keep the commandments of Jesus Christ and the apostles from a heart of love.
For 1,900 years the best efforts by an army of theologians and ordinary individual Christians has led to irreconcilable differences among Christians of whom Jesus cried out that they should all love one another as one (Jn 17:20-23).
The natural consequence of many disagreements about the things of God has been further division, unjustified confidence and misguided zeal as the case may be – and ultimately, a house divided.
Applying academic protocols to the study of God sounds intellectually honest – and can be – but it tends to overlook one problem: God’s truth is received by the spirit, not the intellect apart from the spirit. The Bible says human beings are cut-off from God, and the natural mind is in a sinful state.
The Bible tells Christians how to approach learning of God. It sets the conditions many read and never comprehend. It says we must become “spiritual” (1 Cor 3:1) and God is the true Teacher (Jn 6:45, Mt 23:8,10).
1 Corinthians 2 – 10 But God has revealed them [the things of God] to us through His Spirit. … 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. 13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
First Corinthians 2 contains some of the clearest explanations spelling out that God’s truth is received and known in the spirit and not first in the mind – the brain, or emotions apart from the spirit. The mind and emotions, as part of a whole person, do of course grasp and contemplate truth. They are meant to work in harmony with the spirit. But they are to serve the spirit. Christians are warned not to “quench” the Spirit.
1 Thessalonians 5:19 – Do not quench the Spirit.
This verse warns not to suppress the Spirit like one would extinguish a fire. God’s Spirit would be a Holy Fire in a yielded person. The Holy Spirit united with the human spirit is to have mastery over the mind. It is not to be crushed under foot by a strong-willed person dominated by his or her fleshly side.
Excerpts from Colossians 2:18 – Let no one cheat you of your reward … intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind …
The context of Colossians 2:18 concerned a local problem of people who wrongly worshipped angels, but key elements are quoted illustrating a broad principle. Paul said people may presume to delve into spiritual things they have not “seen” – lacking spiritual enlightenment – and they do so with their “fleshly mind.”
There are many interdependent conditions for truth seekers – and central in all motivation ought to be the love of God.
John 14:21 – He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.
Jesus said He will “manifest” to those who love Him. He had a specific picture of what this looks like in mind. It is not vaporous or imaginary, but real and potent and one ought to know if this has happened or not. Jesus manifesting speaks of a precious reality of knowing God over and above knowledge of the written Bible, but please understand: The New Testament was addressed to first-century Christians to whom Jesus had manifested, and who knew and loved God. This state of being – or at least willingness and desire to get to this state of being – is what people need if they hope to learn the Bible’s truth.
The study of the Bible is potentially good. Even if someone knows nothing about God, it can help lead to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, especially if a person who knows Him helps him or her at first. The Bible is given by inspiration of God for our learning, but its Author requires one come on His terms, and with the right attitude of heart.
Note! Here is a scenario to illustrate how Bible learning is so different from learning other academic subjects: Imagine a young man who wants to become a doctor. Imagine he is intelligent, a great student, and talented so learning comes easily. It does not matter why he wants to become a doctor. If he has good motives or bad motives he can still succeed because he has a good brain. If his reason for becoming a doctor is a noble motive like he wants to work with poor people for minimal compensation, he can learn and get his doctorate. If on the other hand he has self-serving motives with no conscience and his intent is to open abortion clinics and become a multi-millionaire before he is 40, he can still learn and succeed as long as he has that good brain and works hard.
This is where learning the Bible’s truths is nothing like ordinary learning. The authors of medical school textbooks are just human beings and could not know why someone wants to understand their books. But the Author of the Bible is the all-knowing God. He monitors your deepest thoughts while you read and knows you better than you do. He cares a lot about your motives of heart. The Bible says this in no uncertain terms.
So, the Bible does speak to all people who would come to God in truth, but it is effectively God’s appeal to those who will hear Him in their spirits. It is a divine book of spiritual truths that God ensures will filter out the wrong in heart. There are atheists who want to discredit the Bible and who know some of its words better than many Christians. But Jesus will not manifest per John 14:21 to atheists short of an act of mercy – which has reportedly happened on occasion.
Otherwise, please settle it. Even excellent reading comprehension and a high IQ are not enough in themselves to glean rightly understood truth from the Bible. They are not enough to have Jesus manifest and allow you to enter His rest (Heb 4:1-13). Required are true faith along with other conditions.
1 Corinthians 1 – 20 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.
The kingdom of God is not a democracy in which anyone and everyone’s opinion is equally valid. Christians have long been accustomed to speculating, even carelessly offering off-the-cuff opinions about the things of God. In America, it is common to offer opinions – just read the comments under online articles, videos, in Internet chat forums, etc. People are full of opinions. Some of them may be good, some are not.
But God says there is only one Jesus Christ and one gospel He would reveal to a person who comes to Him in faith, on His terms.
A Way Few Find
If people are not aware of these truths, they are bound to make mistakes and may never learn the “narrow” way of knowing and walking with Jesus He said “few find” and some seek but are “not able” to find.
Isaiah 55
6 Seek the Lord while He may be found,
Call upon Him while He is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way,
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
Let him return to the Lord,
And He will have mercy on him;
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.
8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.”
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God counsels the wicked to forsake their ways and the unrighteous to forsake their thoughts. This can apply even to one called a Christian who is wrong in heart or motives, or who is in a state of unrepentant sin.
Inasmuch as any person dwells in and operates from his or her fallen mind, this Scripture passage applies to them. God says His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and His ways are higher than our ways. No one can judge against Him – alleging He is unfair, or not good. This is more preposterous than an ant trying to tell a human being its business. God has all right to set the terms of a Christian life. He made us. He alone is good. He requires a person be submissive and want only to hear from Him.
Hebrews 11:6 – But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
God’s requirements that we come to Him on His terms is to satisfy His goal to empower formerly independent-from-God people to live wholly dependent upon Him just like Jesus did toward the Father.
This requires acknowledging all God says is true and being ready to abandon anything that is not helpful for this holy purpose. It requires allowing God to show us His truth and it is wise to put our opinions in neutral gear, pray to the Lord, and ask Him to help us see things His way.
Proverbs 1:7 – The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
But fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Proverbs 1
20 Wisdom calls aloud outside;
She raises her voice in the open squares.
21 She cries out in the chief concourses,
At the openings of the gates in the city
She speaks her words:
22 “How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity?
For scorners delight in their scorning,
And fools hate knowledge.
23 Turn at my rebuke;
Surely I will pour out my spirit on you;
I will make my words known to you.”
The Proverbs are full of wisdom, and it all begins with the fear of the Lord. God – who is Himself “Wisdom” – has long been crying aloud to anyone who will open their spiritual ears, but people have not been in a place to hear. God asks people to desire His will completely. That was what Jesus said to the obtuse and blind Jews in the gospel days.
John 7:17 – If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority.
Jesus said if anyone is in a place that he or she wills to only do God’s will then they will “know” if they hear truth from God or a made-up story.
Indoctrination Can Short-Circuit Revelation
Be warned: Christians who are indoctrinated by theories derived from misunderstood Bible words may short-circuit this and not even know that they are indoctrinated. They may even think a true teaching is false because it goes against their prior mental programming.
Alternately, they may think they already know what they are hearing or reading in the Bible or a sermon, etc., but have something fundamentally off in their understanding or relationship with God.
Just like the Pharisees and Sadducees who were unafraid to confront Jesus, it is possible to know a lot and know nothing yet as one “ought to.”
1 Corinthians 8 – Now concerning things offered to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. 2 And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. 3 But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him.
Paul’s commentary on things offered to idols also illustrates a sobering truth: Head knowledge is not spiritual knowledge. It “puffs up” which is translated proud or arrogant. With this comes spiritual blindness while saying one sees, just as Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and Sadducees for doing. Misbegotten confidence can make people bold to speak about matters that they know nothing rightly about. But Jesus said in Matthew 12:36 on the day of judgement He will make people give an account of “every idle word” they ever spoke.
Spiritual blindness and unrepentant sin were how the apostate Jews in Jeremiah’s day could deny God’s prophet in favor of prophets and teachers who told them all was well. This phenomenon has likewise been the story in Christianity for ages and why so many may passionately oppose one another to this day.
All of this ought to make a wise person take pause. Man is made in God’s image. God is not made in man’s image, and neither should anyone insist that He become so. People need to properly appreciate the great and awesome God we may so casually contemplate. We must come to Him on His terms, and He defines when He is satisfied, we do not.
Matthew 11
16 “But to what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions, 17 and saying:
‘We played the flute for you,
And you did not dance;
We mourned to you,
And you did not lament.’
18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by her children.”
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In Matthew 11, Jesus says religiously knowledgeable people who confronted Him essentially said He did not dance when they said dance. Americans could rephrase this as the unbelieving Jews wanted Jesus to “jump through hoops.”
The people Jesus spoke to had a sense of entitlement and were very wrong in heart. Nothing Jesus did could please them and He said they found fault with Him no matter what He did. This was a very dangerous attitude and serves as a warning to those who would follow Christ also.
Instead, as the following Scripture passage shows, one must also “receive the love of the truth,” and this is doubly true if we are living in the times preceding the coming of the Antichrist, as the Bible warns:
2 Thessalonians 2 – 9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
If God sees a person is spiritually dishonest or looking for an excuse to not repent of sin, and justify one’s self, He said He may just “send them strong delusion” and let them think they are right.
Romans 1:28 – And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
God said He may also give those who resist Him over to a “reprobate” mind headed toward damnation.
Please be clear: God does not give a person over to a fatally wrong mind because He is malicious or unjust – that can never be! People unafraid to judge God with an outsized sense of personal entitlement may snap to this wrong conclusion, but God is Love and His ways are vastly higher. The truth is God already knows who will reject Him or resist and turn away from what truth He tries to share.
God reveals truth for people who wish to serve Him. If in your heart you really do not want to serve God, He knows, and will deal with you accordingly. First, He tries to get you to repent. He does not owe us this, but in His kindness and wisdom, He does it, though nothing is guaranteed.
The whole purpose of learning about God is so we may know Him and serve Him in spirit and truth with no ulterior motives. God knows who these people are. He is super kind to those who He knows want to agree with Him and come to Him on His terms.
And Jesus said His sheep know His voice and do not heed a stranger. If one does not know Jesus’ voice, he or she is not where they need to be.
Requirements Jesus Stated For All Christians
God’s truth is learned by those who meet non-negotiable conditions Jesus gave for who could be His disciple. A much more detailed list of conditions the New Testament calls for from anyone who would come to the Lord may be found here. Following are some major ones:
John 3 – 3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” …
5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’”
Jesus says one cannot “see” or “enter” the kingdom of God unless he or she is born again. This has not stopped those who do not know this miraculous experience from talking about the things of Christianity and God. But you must be born again to see what God would have you know.
Matthew 18 – 2 Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, 3 and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”
One must be converted and become as a little child. Even if a person is many years old in this life, he or she must become humble, Jesus said, or they “will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”
It follows that a little child as described is to also be teachable and know a whole new life is ahead that he or she knows nothing yet about. This is a life in Christ, in the Spirit, learning the ways and means of God’s eternal kingdom.
Mark 8:35 – For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.
When Jesus talks of losing your life, He means the life of your personal desires and pursuits and all your will that serves you above God. A variation of this verse is in all four gospels! (John 12:25, Matthew16:25, Luke 9:24, Luke 17:33)
Luke 9:61-62 – 61 And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.” 62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Luke 14 – 26 If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— 29 lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’? 31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. 33 So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.
The Lord assumes anyone who calls him or herself “Christian” is a “disciple” and covenanting with Him – life for Life. He expects absolute surrender, and obedience which are an outflow of a love He plants in them.
Mark 10:24-25 – Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!”
A covenant is more than a contract. Marriage is a covenant. It is supposed to be an intimate union of love, trust, and dependability. The New Testament declares Christians in covenant are to be as a woman engaged and awaiting to be married to the One she loves.
May the grace of God be with you.
