DEEP
Often my own life experiences lead me to ponder the even deeper things of God and His Word. This past week, I got another MRI on my shoulder which I previously had 2 surgeries on a few years ago. As I was lying there, as still as I could, the only thing I knew was that this huge machine was somehow going to produce images of the structures deep inside my shoulder joint. An MRI machine uses strong magnets and radio waves which interact with the water molecules in my body to then generate images on a computer. Magnetic fields and radio waves are invisible to our eyes, but we know that they are working because of the images produced. And it is from those images that the doctor can move forward with treatment.
This situation made me think about 1 Corinthians 2:9-11 which says,
“Things that no eye has seen, or ear heard, or mind imagined, are the things God has prepared for those who love him.” 10 God has revealed these to us by the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who among men knows the things of a man except the man’s spirit within him? So too, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.”
To those of us who are believers in Jesus Christ, God has given us a wonderful gift in the Holy Spirit who searches and helps us to understand the deep things of God. And as the Holy Spirit searches and reveals to us the understanding of God and His Word, what becomes clear to us are the images of the things God has prepared for those of us who love Him. And those things are greater than we could ever imagine. God uses His unseen Holy Spirit to teach us, to train us, and reveal to us what it is God wants us to do so that then we can begin to take action and move forward in obedience to Jesus.
First of all, the passage above says that these things are prepared for those who love him. Do you love God? Do you love Jesus? Jesus himself said that the proof is in the pudding, so to speak. He said, as recorded in John 14:15, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Love for Jesus is shown in our obedience to Him.
Secondly, do you realize that as a Christian, God has given you His Holy Spirit who is longing to reveal the deep things of God and His Word to you? If we all, myself included, recognized that every time we read the Bible or hear it taught to us, the Holy Spirit is working within us and wants us to know what God has prepared for us. Galatians 5:25 instructs us to live by the Spirit and keep in step with the Spirit. This means that we are to rely on the Spirit of God to guide us and show us what steps to take and we are supposed to take them.
And finally, if you read the passage from 1 Corinthians 2:9-11 again, I believe God wants us to begin to think about what He could accomplish and do through us. Have you ever thought about what God might do with you and the people He might want to reach through you? What if we were not simply Sunday Christians for an hour and a half, but really tried to allow God and His Spirit teach us the deeper things of God and clearly reveal to us an image of what he has in store for us?
So just like an MRI machine that has so many things going on that we can’t see to reveal to us things we can see, God uses His Spirit to open a whole new world of understanding and living that we could never imagine.
Take a moment now and ask God to use His Spirit in you in a new way so that you can see things you have never seen before.