This past Sunday was Easter/Resurrection Sunday. I have taught you several messages about the importance of the Resurrection already. Today I will continue to build upon what I have shared thus far.
So what does this mean for you today? A few things.
1. God wrote a book.
a) You probably know of people you admire so much that you have thought to yourself, “He/she should write a book. If he/she wrote a book, I would buy it and read it. I would love to get that information out of their heads and onto paper.” While this line of thinking makes sense, many people fail to approach the Bible the same way. God wrote a book! Think about that for a minute. The God who sits on the circle of the earth, who created all things (including YOU), took the time to write a book. Shouldn’t you want to read it? Furthermore, if you are Born-Again, the author of God’s book lives IN you. So as you read God’s book, you can actually sit down with the author and ask him what He meant as He wrote the chapters. Isn’t that amazing? The Holy Spirit, who is the actual author of the book, will give you a divine understanding of what He said, what He meant, and how it applies to your life today.
b) God gave you His Spirit so that you would know, comprehend, and spiritually understand the things He has freely given you. This includes an understanding of the scriptures.
c) I already shared with you that the Bible never made sense to me before I was Born-again. I tried to read it, but I could not understand it. However, once you are Born-Again and you get to the point where you are in tune with the Holy Spirit, you open up your Bible, and it is like the words jump off the pages and get down in your heart. The Holy Spirit can give you insight, clarity, and understanding that far exceeds human ability. This is not reading the Word of God with your head. This is receiving from God’s Word in your heart.
2. God is a spirit, and He can give you spiritual understanding.
In the parable of the sower, Jesus mentioned four types of soil. The first type is the soil along the path. This soil represents the people who hear the Word of God but do not understand it. Because their understanding is unfruitful, satan comes immediately and snatches the Word from their hearts.
Let’s see how Matthew put it. In Matthew’s account, Jesus explained, “This is why I speak to them in parables: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving”… But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.” (Matthew 13:13, 14 & 16).
Let’s glean some things from this:
a) The Father can give us a spiritual understanding of His Word. But to those who are not sensitive to receiving that understanding, the Word of God makes no sense.
b) The Word of God is alive. The Bible is a spiritual book designed to speak to your spirit, not your senses. This is why the Bible does not have to make sense. You cannot validate the teachings of the Bible with sense-realm evidence.
c) Some portions of scripture require faith to believe. Healing does not make sense. Tithing does not make sense. A virgin birth does not make sense. The resurrection of the dead does not make sense. But faith perceives and believes God’s words to be true even without sense-realm evidence to validate them.
d) If you have the faith to see the Word, hear the Word, and understand the Word of God, your life will be changed forever.
e) You must approach the Word of God with spiritual eyes and ears. If you do, the Holy Spirit will give your spirit divine understanding.
f) If it is true that satan can (and will) come immediately to snatch the Word away from those who do not understand what God was saying, then it is also true that he cannot snatch the Word from you when you have divine understanding. When you comprehend the Word of God with a spiritual comprehension that can only come by God’s Spirit, you are in a position to retain that Word. That Word then becomes spiritual seed, sown down in your heart, that will produce a harvest in your life.
g) Spiritual understanding is critical because you will never maximize what you do not understand.
h) The only way to understand spiritual things is with God’s Spirit. This is one of the reasons why Jesus came, died, and rose from the dead. He wanted to restore the Holy Spirit to mankind. Adam had God’s Spirit inside of Him 24x7x365. But he lost the Holy Spirit when he sinned. Under the Old Covenant, the Holy Spirit lived inside of the temple, above the Ark of the Covenant, and only one person (the High Priest) was allowed to visit the Holy Spirit once a year. The High priest had to visit what Adam had inside of Him. Jesus came to get us back to that place. Because of Jesus, we are now the temple of God, and the Holy Spirit lives inside of us (1 Corinthians 3:16).
3. God gave you His Spirit so that you can understand spiritual things.
In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul explained part of the role of the Holy Spirit. He said, “The prophet said, “No one has ever seen, no one has ever heard, no one has ever imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” But God has shown us these things through the Spirit. The Spirit knows all things. The Spirit even knows the deep secrets of God… No one knows God’s thoughts except God’s Spirit.. We received God’s Spirit so that we can know all that God has given us.” (1 Cor 2:9-12).
We can glean a few things from this:
a) While the Word of God is extremely powerful, God’s Word will not benefit you if you do not understand it. Further, any Word you fail to understand can be snatched away from you by the enemy. Satan wants to get the Word from you before you attempt to understand it.
b) If you are Born-Again, the author of God’s book lives IN you. He is more than capable of giving you a divine understanding of the Word He wrote.
c) God gave you His Spirit so that you would know, comprehend, and spiritually understand the things He has freely given you; this includes an understanding of the scriptures. In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul also explained how those without the Spirit of God cannot understand the things of God. Paul taught us that spiritual things sound “foolish” to those without God’s Spirit. Before you were Born-Again, you did not have God’s Spirit in you, and the Bible seemed foolish to you back then too. Please remember this when you are talking to someone who is NOT Born-Again. Don’t discuss or argue spiritual things with non-spiritual people. It is a waste of time.
d) Say this to yourself and meditate on this thought: “God gave me His Spirit so I can know!” Know what? You may ask. Know everything… everything God planned for you.
— God made plans for you before you were born.
— You were born ignorant of those plans, so you made plans on your own, based on your own desires, intellect, and experiences.
— Once you are Born again, the Holy Spirit begins to reveal TO You the things that were prepared FOR you but concealed FROM you! It’s like God gives you glimpses of your future. Think of watching a movie trailer. The trailer is advertised as “a coming attraction,” and it is “coming soon.” That’s what the Holy Spirit does. Not only does He enable you to understand spiritual things, like the Word of God, but He also reveals things to you that are tailor-made for you that are not in the Bible.
— Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit every day. The disciples were amazed that He always knew what to say, where to go, and what to do when He got there. When Jesus needed a donkey, He told the disciples where to go get it. When He needed to pay taxes, He told the disciples where to find the money. Jesus led the disciples on countless trips between Capernaum and Jerusalem, but one day, He said, “Hey guys, today we have to go home a different route. We MUST go through Samaria.” Why? Becuase the Father had an appointment for Jesus with a woman at a well. How did Jesus know that He needed to go a different route that day? The answer is the Holy Spirit!
— God gave you His Spirit so you can KNOW. The Holy Spirit will unpack, unfold, reveal, and explain the scriptures to you. But His role is not limited to what God SAID (past tense) in the book. The Holy Spirit will also reveal what God is SAYING (present tense) to you right now! Jesus died and rose from the dead to restore our access to the Holy Spirit.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, I thank You for teaching me about the role of the Holy Spirit in my life. Jesus died to restore our access to Him. Becuase of Jesus, when I was Born-Again, Your Spirit came, and He now lives INSIDE of me. Your book is a spiritual book. I tried to read it before I was Born-Again, and it did not make sense. But now, since I have Your Spirit, and He is the author of the book, He teaches me how to understand and apply what You wrote in Your Word. Furthermore, He reveals things to me that You prepared for me that are not written in the Bible. This divine revelation is tailor-made for me. So I have the Bible, I have Your Spirit, and I am growing more and more sensitive to the divine impulses of the Holy Spirit. Living this way, I know GREATER IS COMING FOR ME! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
