“Spiritual Things Are Spiritually Understood”

I Corinthians 2:12-16

12) Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

13) Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

14) But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

15) But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.

16) For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ.

M

uch of the problem in the church world is caused by the fact that Man will do that which is easiest for his natural life and inconveniences him the least. The individual ends up the most harmed, because when the Word is presented, he attempts to understand it with his natural understanding.

We should be beyond becoming offended when we speak with the unsaved and are not received. We seem to have an inbred response to feelings of being ignored or the perception that someone is just being stubborn toward us and is unwilling to change. It ought not to be so hard for us to be tolerant. After all, before salvation, we neither understood nor were particularly interested in listening to spiritual things, were we? And, all too often, we commit the same offenses with the Holy Ghost.

If one wants to keep one’s health, well-being, peace and sanity he will accept that the unsaved and or unspiritual simply do not and cannot understand spiritual things—period. You see, understanding God’s Word is not the same as understanding His concept. One will not and cannot understand the point of scripture without the Holy Ghost.

Believe it or not, we frequently confuse those without the Holy Spirit when we speak of spiritual things. However, this is not to discourage anyone from talking to the unsaved. But, our primary conversation should be to let him know that he needs to be saved. We need to reach as many people as possible.

Many saints have yet to learn that the intellect is not equivalent to spiritual understanding. The Holy Ghost being the great equalizer that He is, even a genius has no advantage over a saint of God. We are all brought to the same requirement of faith, trust and selflessness. Meeting these requirements is the only way that the Word of God is made open to the individual.

Another major problem in the lives of the people of God, today, is the inability to understand that though we occupy a body of flesh, because we are spiritual, all that involves us is spiritual. Keeping us from accepting this is a great deception being played out by the devil. You see, one who is saved, yet does not recognize that his life experiences after salvation have a completely different meaning than the exact same experience before salvation lies always in a state of semi-misery. Anyone who cannot count his life improved upon salvation will be doomed to a life of discouragement.

Counting all things the same is largely what leads saved man to feel that he must defend himself when he is confronted. Many people who are like this mean well and want to be spiritual, but are unable to relinquish control of all aspects of themselves to God.

Men, today, are very confident in themselves, particularly those professing a relationship with Christ. It is popular to study scripture—and the issue of truth is not the greatest concern. The closer one can sound to the philosophy, psychology, and rhetoric of the rest of the world, the more likely he is to be respected, revered—and heeded. As we know, true spirituality gets low “marks” from many because any attention it gathers flows straight back to God. Try as many might to prove otherwise, the Holy Spirit is simply not the same as the spirit of the world.

In that the Lord knows that only those who are spiritual will inherit His promise, He has done all that He could to ensure that we have all that is possible in order for us to be spiritual. Since it is His plan, He decided that spiritual things would be revealed to us through the power of the Holy Ghost. He also ensured that we are taught (through the Word, Himself and the Holy Ghost) by seeing spiritual things compared with spiritual. All of this is so that we would have no way out of being spiritual—provided, of course, we are interested in being “right.”

One of the keys to “understanding” is that it must be based on “reality.” Many saints, in particular, are confused by this, because what they see with their natural eye and what presents itself as true is what is accepted as truth. This cannot be. No matter how a situation appears, what we must accept of it is that what the Lord says is true. We must learn to see things through His eyes. Accepting His reasons and explanations for things would make our job a lot easier.

Rather than spending hours attempting to convince a sinner of spiritual things, we need to persuade them to church. That way, they can acquire the Holy Ghost, the only sure way to understanding.