Here is the revelation that is shaping my life today – is God known by listening to others articulate with wisdom what they have read, or discovered, or is God known only through Spirit revelation? If wisdom comes by Spirit illumination do we invite and encourage, make space and prioritise this, in our leading of others? Or do we just keep on speaking?
1 Corinthians 2:4-5,14 TPT
[4] The message I preached and how I preached it was not an attempt to sway you with persuasive arguments but to prove to you the almighty power of God’s Holy Spirit. [5] For God intended that your faith not be established on man’s wisdom but by trusting in his almighty power. [14] Someone living on an entirely human level rejects the revelations of God’s Spirit, for they make no sense to him. He can’t understand the revelations of the Spirit because they are only discovered by the illumination of the Spirit.
Observation
It seems like we (maybe I) spend so much time listening to ‘wisdom’ as pastors and preachers articulate their current day ‘truth.’ We teach people, by the way we have them sit and learn in church, that God is known by the passing on of wisdom. The medium is a problem. The truth of God is only ever delivered by God to any one of us. “Revelations of the Spirit” is different to intellectual knowing. We, the church, seem to have become reliant on intellectual knowledge passed on through well crafted rhetoric and arguments that try and make sense out of what does not make sense. Am I saying there is no illumination of the spirit in our church gatherings? Well, you tell me, sometimes?! But if from the pulpit we leave the listener believing that they can know God through intellectual understanding then we limit and cripple the life of living with God.
When we trust knowledge, it is usually at the expense of “almighty power.” Almighty power is when my heart, soul and spirit communes intimately with a non physical present God that makes him supernaturally intimately and beautifully present. It is in his presence that we discover “the illumination of the Spirit.” And in these powerful intimate experiences faith is birthed, my passion for God burns and I am enabled to live out to others the revelation I have received. So much of the intellectual passed on knowledge we receive has no lasting impact on my will or any enabling on my action. I sit, listen, leave and my life is unchanged. I often can’t even remember one thing said in the wisdom of man by the time I have coffee in the morning. Is it that we can’t control the power of God that we are afraid to make room for it in our services? Or is it that our personal life as a preacher/teacher has not had often almighty power experiences, so we don’t encourage as normal that which is abnormal for us? When will our talking be nothing more than an invitation for personal discovered illumination in the presence of God? We don’t pass on intellectual knowledge, we are the invitees, the ones who stand and open the door and invite our listeners to go in and experience the almighty in a powerful consciousness of heart, soul and spirit.
Application
I will not preach intellectual knowledge that does not lead and open the door to almighty power experiences. I will not become the one who holds and passes on the truth, I will understand clearly that the truth comes through Spirit revelation. I will not listen to others other than to see them open the door for my personal engagement. I will live life by trusting and inviting his “almighty power” to be my pure and only source of revelation.
Response
Thank you that you do not hand me off into the hands of our wisdom. It only creates sides and arguments. When we believe we have wisdom we become defensive, not curious, we become judgemental not fellow journeyors, we become divided and divisive not unified in oneness. Thank you that you call us to a life with you, you as the one who illuminates me with wisdom. And thank you that you never said use your wisdom to convince others, you clearly said that is not how you are found. Thank you that you want a personal introduction or you remain unknown. Life in you is beautiful and freeing.
Meditation
Meditate – the revelations of the Spirit are only discovered by the illumination of the Spirit.
Consider:
How much am I reliant on man’s wisdom?
How often am I present to the Spirit’s illumination?
JOURNEY DEEPER
