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THE FUNCTIONS OF THE SPIRIT
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We communicate with the material world through the body. We communicate with the spiritual world through the spirit. This communication with the spiritual is not carried on by means of the mind or emotion but through the spirit or its intuitive faculty. It is easy for us to understand the nature of the communion
between God and man if we have seen the operation of our intuition. In order to worship and fellowship with God man must possess a nature similar to His. "God is spirit, and those who worship him must "worship in spiritand truth" (John 4.24). There can be no communication between different natures; hence both the unregenerate whose spirit obviously has not been quickened and the regenerate who does not use his spirit to worship are equally unqualified to have genuine fellowship with God. Lofty sentiments and noble feelings do not bring people into spiritual realitynor do they forge personal communion with God. Our fellowship with Him is experienced in the deepest place of our entire being, deeper than our thought, feeling and will, even in the intuition of our spirit.
A close scrutiny of 1 Corinthians 2.9-3.2 can provide a very clear view of how man communes with God and how man knows the realities of God through the spirit's intuition.
"What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived,
what God has prepared for those who love him" (v.9).
The Heart of Man
The larger context of this one verse speaks of God and the things of God. What He has prepared can neither be seen or heard by man's outward body nor conceived by his inward heart. The "heart of man" includes among other facets, man's understanding, mind and intellect. Man's thought cannot envisage God's work, for the latter transcends the former. It is therefore evident that he who desires to know and commune with God cannot depend solely upon his thought.
"God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches
everything; even the depths of God" (v.10).
The Holy Spirit
This verse sets forth the fact that the Holy Spirit searches everything and not that our mind conceives all. Only the Holy Spirit knows the depths of God. He knows what man does not know. By His intuition the Spirit searches everything. God is thus able to reveal through Him what our heart has never conceived. This "revealing" is not acquired after much thinking, for our heart cannot even conceive it. It is a revelation; it does not require the help of our thought.
The Spirit of Man
The next two verses tell us how God reveals Himself:
"For what person knows a man's thoughts except the spirit of the man 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 which is from God,
that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God" (vv.11 and 12).
No one knows man's thoughts except the spirit of man; likewise, no one knows the things of God but the Holy Spirit. Man's spirit as well as God's Spirit apprehend things directly, not by deducing or searching. They perceive through the faculty of intuition. Since the Holy Spirit alone knows the things of God, we must receive the Holy Spirit if we also would know those things. The spirit of the world is cut off from communication with God. It is a dead spirit: it cannot effect communion
with Him. The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, comprehends the things of God; therefore, by receiving in our intuition what the Holy Spirit knows, we too shall understand the realities of God.
"We have received . . . the Spirit which is from God, that we might
understand the gifts bestowed on us by God."
How then do we know? Verse 11 tells us man knows by his spirit. The Holy Spirit unfolds to our spirit what He knows intuitively so that we too may know intuitively. When the Holy Spirit discloses the matters pertaining to God He does so not to our mind nor to any other organ but to our spirit. God knows this is the sole place in man which can apprehend man's things as well as His things. The mind is not the place for knowing these things. While it is true that the mind can think and conceive many matters, it nonetheless cannot know them.
From this we can appreciate how highly God esteems the regenerated spirit of man. Before new birth man's spirit was dead. God had no way of unfolding His mind to such a man. The cleverest brain fails to know the mind of God. Both God's fellowship with man and man's worship of God are contingent upon the regenerated spirit of man. Without this revitalized component God and man are hopelessly separated - neither can come or go to the other. The first step towards communion between God and man must be this quickening of man's spirit.
Comment: Because we enjoy a free will we have authority to decide our own matters. That explains why we continue to encounter many temptations following our new birth. Due to our foolishness or perhaps our prejudices, we may not yield the rightful position to our spirit and our intuition. God accepts [only] our spirit as the one place where He will commune with us and us with Him.
But believers still walk by their minds or emotions. How many times they completely ignore the voice of intuition. Their principle of living is to adhere to what they themselves consider reasonable, beautiful, delightful, or interesting. Even should they have a heart to do God's will, they usually will take either an impulsive idea or a more logical thought as the mind of God, not realizing that what they ought to follow is the thought expressed by the Holy Spirit in their intuition. They sometimes may be willing to hear the voice of intuition, but failing to keep their feelings quiet they find that voice blurred and confused. Walking after the spirit consequently becomes an occasional affair instead of forming a daily continuous experience in the Christian's life.
If the initial knowing of God's will is so difficult, who can wonder at the lack of further and more profound revelation? How then can we ever truly know in our spirit God's plan for the end of this age, the reality of spiritual warfare, and the deeper truths of the Bible? For our worship merely corresponds to what we think is best or what we feel on the spur of the moment. And to commune with the Lord in our intuition naturally becomes an unheard of phenomenon.
A believer must recognize that the Holy Spirit alone comprehends the things of God - and that intuitively. He is the one Person Who can convey this knowledge to man. But for anyone to obtain such knowledge he must appropriate it through the proper means; namely, he must receive with his intuition what the Holy Spirit intuitively knows. The conjunction of these two intuitions enables man to apprehend the mind of God.
"And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit,
interpreting spiritual truths to those who possess the Spirit" (v.13).
How are we going to impart to others the things of God which we have discerned in our spirit's intuition? Having come to know the realities of God, our responsibility now is to proclaim them. The Apostle Paul declares he does not transmit them in terms taught by human wisdom. That wisdom belongs to a man's mind and is the product of man's brain. Paul categorically asserts that he does not employ the words which come from the mind to communicate what his spirit knows concerning the things of God. Paul in himself possesses great wisdom. He is perfectly able to formulate many new and wonderful phrases and to deliver his message eloquently with good organization and illustrative parables. He knows how to make his audience understand what he means to say. He nevertheless refuses to use the terminology taught by human wisdom. This declaration and attitude of the Apostle Paul indicate that man's mind is not only useless in knowingthe things of God but is also secondary in imparting spiritual knowledge.
Let's take a breather and absorb "what the Spirit has to say to the Church"...
We'll pick this up again next time >>>
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