Gaining Spiritual Wisdom

Do you have friends who ask you, “How can you believe that?” To try to answer the question intellectually is to bypass an opportunity to testify and say, “In my old life I wouldn’t have believed it either, but in the renewing of my mind I know what the Holy Spirit reveals is truth.” It might not satisfy them as an answer, but it allows that you know that normal logical, deductive or intellectual capacities won’t be able to verify some things we regard as the truths of scripture.

Popular Christian author Neil Anderson (Bondage Breaker, Victory over the Darkenss) has been blogging since January of last year at the Freedom in Christ website. Yesterday he posted this article about Spiritual Wisdom, to which we’ve added the referenced scriptures.

The Holy Spirit leads us into all truth, enables us to discern good from evil and live a righteous life. How He does this is difficult for the finite mind to comprehend, but Paul offers some explanation of the process in 1 Cor. 2:6-16.

⁶ We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. ⁷ No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. ⁸ None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. ⁹ However, as it is written:

“What no eye has seen,
    what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”—
    the things God has prepared for those who love him—

¹⁰ these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. ¹¹ For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. ¹² 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. ¹³ This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.  ¹⁴ The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. ¹⁵ The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, ¹⁶ for,

“Who has known the mind of the Lord
    so as to instruct him?” 

But we have the mind of Christ.

First, the natural person cannot understand spiritual truth. “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (vs. 9). It is humanly impossible to understand the wisdom of God through our natural channels of perception and our limited ability to reason, “but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit” (vs. 10a).

Second, the Holy Spirit knows all things and reveals the nature of God and His will. “The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God” (vs. 10b). Third, as believers we have not received the spirit of this world, but we have received the Spirit who is from God. The Spirit makes known to us the things freely given by God. Fourth, we have the mind of Christ, because the very presence of God is within us. Fifth, the Holy Spirit takes words (logos), that are not taught by human wisdom but by the Spirit, and combines (brings together, or explains) them. The original language literally reads, “spirituals with spirituals.” That phrase is translated in the NIV Bible as, “words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truth in spiritual words” (vs. 13b).

Recall that we are transformed by the renewing of our minds

² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2).

Paul says, we are to be made new in the attitudes [literally, the spirit] of our minds

²³ to be made new in the attitude of your minds; (Ephesians 4:23).

The Holy Spirit discloses to us the mind of Christ as we study God’s Word. The Holy Spirit then enables our thoughts and renews our minds with the Logos. The peace of Christ rules in our hearts as the Words of Christ richly dwell within us

¹⁵ Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.(Col. 3:15,16).

Finally, the peace of God guards our hearts and our minds

⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 4:7).

We may not fully understand how God does this, but we don’t have to in order to believe that He does. Nobody can fully explain the virgin birth of Jesus, the mystery of the incarnation, the Holy Trinity, and the miracle of our new birth, but liberated Christians believe it. When we choose to believe what God says is true the Holy Spirit renews our mind and we begin to understand and see more clearly. Those who refuse to believe God and His word until they fully understand will never fully understand. Those who choose to trust God and live accordingly by faith are blessed and began to understand more fully as they mature in Christ. Thomas saw the resurrected Jesus and believed prompting Jesus to say,

“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20: 29).

Forgiving Each Other…As God Has Forgiven You

Some thoughts on forgiveness, from Neil Anderson at yesterday’s and today’s devotional at Crosswalk.com:

It was for freedom that Christ set us free ~Galatians 5:1

Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you ~Ephesians 4:32

How does God intend for you to resolve hurtful, controlling past experiences? In two ways ….

First, you have the privilege of evaluating your past experience in the light of who you are now, as opposed to who you were then. The intensity of the primary emotion was established by how you perceived the event at the time it happened. Remember: Your emotions are a product of how you perceived the event, not the event itself. As a Christian, you are not primarily a product of your past; you are primarily the product of the work of Christ on the cross. The flesh, which represents how you processed those events according to the world and without Christ, remains. But you are able to render it inoperative.

When a present event activates that primary emotion, many people believe what they feel instead of believing what is true. For example, people who have been verbally abused by their parents have a hard time believing they are unconditionally loved by Father God. Their primary emotions argue that they are unlovable to a parent figure. They believe what they feel and their walk is off course. Believing the truth and walking by faith is what sets us free.

Now that you are in Christ, you can look at those events from the perspective of who you are today. Christ is in your life right now desiring to set you free from your past. That is the gospel, the good news that Christ has come to set the captives free. Perceiving those events from the perspective of your new identity in Christ is what starts the process of healing those damaged emotions.

God’s good news about our identity is revealed in 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” This is what you must believe first in order to be set free from your past.

The second step in resolving past conflicts is to forgive those who have offended you. After encouraging Cindy, a rape victim, to deal with the emotional trauma of her rape, I said, “Cindy, you also need to forgive the man who raped you.” Cindy’s response was typical of many believers who have suffered physical, sexual or emotional pain at the hands of others: “Why should I forgive him? You don’t know how badly he hurt me!”

“He’s still hurting you, Cindy,” I responded. “Forgiveness is how you stop the pain. You don’t forgive him for his sake; you do it for your sake.”

Why should you forgive those who have hurt you in the past?

First, forgiveness is required by God. As soon as Jesus spoke the amen to His model prayer–which included a petition for God’s forgiveness–He commented: “If you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions” (Matthew 6:14, 15). We must base our relationships with others on the same criteria on which God bases His relationship with us: love, acceptance and forgiveness (Matthew 18:21-35).

Second, forgiveness is necessary to avoid entrapment by Satan. I have discovered from my counseling that unforgiveness is the number one avenue Satan uses to gain entrance to believers’ lives. Paul encouraged mutual forgiveness “in order that no advantage be taken of us by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his schemes” (2 Corinthians 2:11). Unforgiveness is an open invitation to Satan’s bondage in our lives.

Third, we are to forgive like Christ forgave in order to keep our hearts from bitterness. Paul wrote: “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:31, 32).

Your act of forgiveness will set the captive free, then you will realize that the captive was you!

Prayer: Loving Lord, thank You for making me a new creation in Christ. Help me walk away from anything in my past that is restricting my freedom.

Continue reading archive editions of Neil Anderson’s writing at Daily in Christ; you can also subscribe to receive his messages daily by email.

Today’s two-for-one special: After preparing this, I found this quotation on Tim Keller’s Twitter feed:

When you forgive, that means you absorb the loss and the debt. You bear it yourself. All forgiveness, then, is costly.

Neil Anderson on Prophecy

Throughout October we’re looking at devotional and study materials located at one of the largest repository of online resources by Christian radio broadcasters, OnePlace.com   This time, Neil Anderson looks at manifestations of prophetic gifts in  a piece he titled, The Proper Use of Prophecy.

The Bible says there is only one intermediary between God and man, and that is Jesus. False prophets and teachers often function like intermediaries. When God sent the prophet Nathan to David, it was for the purpose of bringing conviction in order to establish righteousness. In the church age, bringing conviction is a primary ministry of the Holy Spirit.

The proper use of the gift of prophecy would reveal unrighteousness in order to establish people in Christ. Once people are living righteously with the Lord, the Holy Spirit will lead them. False gifts will not consistently promote holiness but often will specify decisions concerning direction in life. That function is the role of the Holy Spirit alone,

...because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.(Romans 8:14).

Some churches encourage their members, including the immature, to come into the fullness of the Spirit with manifestations. I ask, “Why not the fullness of the truth?” It’s the fullness of the truth the Holy Spirit has promised to lead us into. I’m deeply concerned for young converts in ministries that push for them to seek total manifestations of the Spirit. Many have not had the time to understand the foundation laid by the apostles and prophets. The church at Corinth had similar problems. They were exhorted by Paul to get back to the basics of faith, hope and love, and govern very closely the use of tongues and prophecies in public worship because God does everything decently and in order,

But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.

(1 Corinthians 14:40).

A pastor received a letter from a former staff member who was dismissed for moral reasons. The letter contained a prophecy for the pastor’s church. I asked, “Why would God give a prophecy for your church through this man?” I suggested that they shouldn’t even read it since it would function like a curse. Everything that happened in the church would be evaluated by the prophecy (either to substantiate it or invalidate it).

If a person or church is earnestly seeking the Lord, God will work through the lines of authority He has established in His Word.

Prayer: Father, protect me from false teaching and guide me into all truth by Your Spirit.

~Neil Anderson