Isaiah 64:4 (NIV)
4 Since ancient times no one has heard,
no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.
1 Corinthians 2:9-12 (NIV)
“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.
On the basis of these scriptures, we can discern and expect to discern certain things:
• We can come to God and expect Him to hear our prayers and act on our behalf. God is good, and he is the Rewarder of those who seek Him. Hebrews 11 tells us that this is the basis of faith, and of pleasing God.
• We can expect to have our spiritual eyes opened and see spiritual things so we are useful to God and rewarded by Him, now and eternally.
You remember Paul, or Saul as he was known at the time, thinking he was doing the will of God by going after Christians and persecuting them for their faith. God got hold of him, though. First, He knocked him off his horse, and blinded him. In that condition, Saul was finally in a place to ask the question, “Who are You, Lord?” In other words, God got his attention so he could get him moving in a different direction, and God was then able to use him mightily, including writing the verses we just read from 1 Corinthians.
That’s not the way God prefers to work with us though. Let’s read the last verse again:
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.
Here’s another verse from Paul (quoting Isaiah 40:13) that emphasizes the way God wants to communicate with us (1 Corinthians 2:16):
16 For, "Who can know the LORD's thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?" But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.
Note that God had freely given us His Spirit, and freely given us access to Him to develop a relationship with Him. Through that relationship, we begin to experience life in a whole different way than others who don’t have that relationship, because while we all see circumstances and experience hardship, those having the Holy Spirit can have spiritual discernment:
• We can see clearly that God is for us and not against us.
• We can see ourselves as truly loved by God.
• We know that we will be rewarded, now and eternally.
• We can use this understanding to encourage ourselves when times are tough.
• We can bask in a peace God gives – a peace that actually passes our understanding!
• We can encourage others to let them know that, what we now see for ourselves is available to other people as well.
Have you put on the mind of Christ? (Are you keeping it on, by spending time, both with Him and in His Word?)
Are you fully awake to God’s Spirit today?
Do you really believe that God is for you and not against you?
Do you truly know the love of God because of the relationship you have with Him?
Come -- press into Him! Today -- and on a continuous basis!
