Mental Knowledge vs Spiritual Revelation

We all want to know God, for

John 17:3  . . . this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

Most of us have read innumerable books, listened to countless tapes and gone to seminar after seminar and Bible study after Bible study —not to mention reading the Bible through at least once, and sometimes many times— in our quest to know God. And some of us, like myself, have attended one or more Bible colleges.

Paul did all these things too in his attempt to satisfy his hunger to know God. Did any of this help him? No, he ended up arresting and killing those who did know God.

The Bible itself tells us (warns us?) that the accumulated knowledge of the best minds of man concerning scriptural interpretation cannot possibly be accurate because the wisdom of man is foolishness to God (1Corinthians 3:19). Jesus said as much to and about the scribes, Pharisees and doctors of the law —who were the best minds of man and who spent their entire lives and all their brainpower studying and interpreting Scripture.

Conversely, the best minds of man cannot accept what the Scriptures are actually teaching because the wisdom of God is foolishness to man (1Corinthians 2:14) and God has chosen what man considers base, ignoble and foolish to confound what man considers wise (1Corinthians 1:27-28). God repeatedly warns us about being wise in our own eyes (Proverbs 3:7; Isaiah 5:21) rather than being wise in the eyes of God, and reminds us that the letter (literal reading of —and debating about— Scripture) kills, but the Spirit (revelation coming through being still, taking no thought and listening) gives life (2Corinthians 3:6).

Jesus chose as His disciples, who were to carry His message to the world, men whom that world considered unlearned and ignorant (Acts 4:13). But Paul, you say, was extremely educated, having been trained under the best educated men of his day. Yes, he was. But the Light of true understanding had to come and blind him from all his education had taught him that he might truly see (Acts 9). After spending at least 14 years (Galatians 2:1) getting man’s wisdom out and God’s wisdom in, Paul tells us that he counts everything he ever learned as dung compared to what God has revealed to him in the silence when knowing God became his only desire (Philippians 3:8).

He says it best in

1Corinthians 2:1-16  And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. 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. 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. 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. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

All of man’s reasoning powers can never come to understand and accept what eye has not seen and ear has not heard and which has never entered into the heart of man, the things that God has prepared for those who love Him (not those who are attempting to explain Him and protect His reputation).

God cannot be known by the human mind, however earnest one may be. It is only by submitting to the Spirit of Truth (John 15:26) that we can ever come into a knowledge of the Truth. We could be able to quote the Bible in its entirety and still have no knowledge of God because

2Corinthians 3:6  … the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

Jesus Himself said that we search the Scriptures, thinking to find eternal life, but that the Scriptures can only send us to the One who is Life (John 5:39).

Paul tells us that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God (1Corinthians 15:50) while Jesus says that we cannot put new wine into old bottles (Matthew 9:17), that we must be born again of the Spirit (John 3:3,5) and become as little children (Matthew 18:3; Mark 10:14-15) to enter His rest. We must get beyond our reasoning, thought-taking minds which are screaming to us that we cannot possibly do those things which Jesus did and experience being one with our Father as He did. We do this only by letting the mind which was in Christ Jesus be also in us. That mind thought it not robbery to be equal to God (heresy and blasphemy to the human mind) but made himself (His flesh and blood self which of itself could do nothing and which cannot enter the kingdom of heaven) of no reputation (Philippians 2:5-7). That flesh and blood self is the old bottle into which the revelation of Jesus Christ (that we came from the Father and are one with Him, that it is not I who live, but Christ lives as me) cannot be poured. We must lose that flesh and blood life to find eternal life. We do that by recognition and acceptance, not by figuring out how it is done.

That’s what got us into trouble way back in the Garden of Eden where we were conscious only of God and where we lived as the creation that was very good —where we had no knowledge of evil whatsoever. We could not just accept our good without trying to figure it out. We wanted to become wise like God (Genesis 3:5-6); we couldn’t just accept that we were the wisdom of God in expression and just enjoy the state of perfection that we were living in.

In that thought (how can I become like God?), the carnal mind (called the Satan in Scripture) began to operate. We no longer experienced oneness with the Father as Jesus did. We had a sense of separation. As we began to reason (take thought) about ourselves and how we might get back what we thought we had lost, the law (which kills) was birthed in us. See One with God..

That law has been responsible for all religion–all the rules and regulations invented by man to close the imagined gap between God and man.

Ecclesiastes 7:29  Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.

It is time we let go of those inventions and recognize that God hath made man upright —and he still is. But we must accept it to experience it. We must stop depending upon our mental capacities and begin letting the Spirit reveal to us as it did to Jesus, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Matthew 3:17). Then, and only then, will we experience the fulfillment of no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly (Psalms 84:11). For we cannot walk uprightly until we know that God hath made man upright. And we can know this not by word studies and thinking, but only when it is revealed to us by the Spirit as we become quiet and listen to the still small voice inside.