ACADEMIC
KNOWLEDGE VS. THE TRUTH – Part 4
John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing:
the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
In the first three lessons to this
series we have discussed the need to connect with the Holy Spirit when we read
the Scriptures, otherwise all we will glean is the academic understanding of
the words printed on the page. Without
the Holy Spirit, we reduce the Scriptures to equality with any novel. Any person can read the Scriptures and tell
you what it says; but without spiritual revelation, they will be incapable of
telling you what it means.
Let there be no misunderstanding. It is imperative that we diligently pursue an
academic grasp of the Scriptures. We
must feed ourselves with the Scriptures in order to give the Holy Spirit the “raw
material” with which to reveal Truth to our hearts.
John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father
will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things
to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
(I have been mentoring a young believer this past year;
and one of my most repeated instructions to him is to keep reading. I explained to him that the more of the
Scripture he reads, the more the Holy Spirit has to work with to bring him an
understanding of Truth. If he has read 2/3 of the Old Testament and 1/3 of the
New Testament, the Holy Spirit does not have 1/3 of the Old Testament or 2/3 of
the New Testament to use to teach him, and certainly not to bring anything he
has not read to his remembrance. If a
critical element of a Truth is contained in the Book of Malachi, then that
revelation will be postponed until Malachi has been read. I explained that he will discover his
understanding of spiritual truths will be enlarged in direct proportion to the
amount of the Scripture he absorbs.
Just, this week, he came to me laughing that he had listened to a sermon
preached by someone online and he found himself disagreeing with something the preacher
said. While listening to the message, the
Holy Spirit brought to his mind a number of verses, woven together from various
books of the Scripture, and the cohesion of these verses resulted in a different
understanding than the preacher was presenting.
He was laughing because this was the first demonstration of what I had
been teaching him; that one day, the Holy Spirit would begin piecing the
various books of the Scripture together to form Truth for him.)
There are obstacles to our receiving
the Truth of the Scriptures. So far, we
have discussed four of them.
1.
Human intellect.
2.
Not DOING what the Scriptures tell us to
do.
3.
A carnal/natural mind.
4.
Not relying/depending on the Holy
Spirit.
Today, we will look at three more
obstacles to revelation knowledge…or what we call, receiving “Aha!” moments---those
moments in time when the Holy Spirit breathes life into something we have read
in the Scriptures, and all of a sudden we get it! It transitions from academic information into
life-giving reality.
5. Lack of understanding righteousness / dullness
of hearing.
Hebrews 5:8 Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things
which he suffered;
9 And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal
salvation unto all them that obey him;
10 Called of Elohim an high priest after the order of Melchisedec.
11 Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye
are dull of hearing.
12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that
one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of IAUE; and
are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
13 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even
those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and
evil.
Notice that the writer would like to
have developed this subject matter further; but his readership was not
qualified to hear it. It would have been like casting pearls before swine. They were “dull of hearing.” Specifically, they were unskillful in the
word of righteousness. That is what
produced their dullness of hearing. (I covered this subject in the two posts just prior to
beginning this current series of lessons. I want, at this time, to look at it
from a different perspective.)
Acts 28:27 For
the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing,
and their eyes have they closed;
lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand
with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. (See also, Matthew 13:15)
In this passage, the audience was dull
of hearing because they had hardened their hearts. They had positioned their lives NOT to seek
the Truth. They were content with what
they knew already. Their academic
knowledge, void of spiritual revelation of the underlying Truth, was enough to accommodate
the kind of lives they wanted to live.
They were not interested in righteousness.
Matthew 5:6 Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
This is the kind of purpose of heart
that Messiah encouraged…and sought for in men:
People who longed for purity of life and the ability to walk in a manner
pleasing to IAUE at all times.
Matthew 6:33 But
seek ye first the kingdom of IAUE, and his righteousness; and all
these things shall be added unto you.
Righteousness is a quality that finds
nothing desirable in what the world offers.
It cannot be enticed by the world’s goods, by position, or by honor, or
riches, or things. It only wants to know
IAUE and to become as much like Him as possible. If that is not our heart’s objective, we
become dull of hearing---our hearts become hardened to the voice of the Holy
Spirit. We don’t want to hear what He
will say because it might interfere with our own objectives or purposes.
If we do not hunger for righteousness,
we might consider reevaluating if we are even a disciple of Messiah. If we
expect Him to teach us, our ears have to be open to hearing what
6. Doublemindedness.
James 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of IAUE, that giveth to
all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it
shall be given him.
6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth
is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
7 For let not that man
think that he shall receive any thing of IAUE.
8 A double minded man is
unstable in all his ways.
In this passage we see with clarity
that IAUE is prepared to give wisdom (spiritual revelation and understanding)
freely and liberally. He is not
withholding anything from us. He is not
picking and choosing who gets to know things.
He WANTS to freely give us all things.
1 Corinthians 2:12 Now we have received,
not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of IAUE; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of IAUE.
IAUE is, however, unable to pour out
His wisdom into a doubleminded man. A
man of faith is singularly purposed to do the Father’s will.
Hebrews 11:6 But
without faith it is impossible to please him…
A double-minded man, however, is not a
man of faith. He is a man of two
minds. I often speak of believers who
need to make a choice, some kind of decision, and there are options available;
so they pray to see what IAUE wants them to do.
When He tells them what His will is in the matter, they evaluate HIS choice
alongside the other options; then they choose what is right in their own eyes (See Proverbs 14:12, 16:25). At that point, even if they choose what the Holy Spirit
has told them is the correct choice; they cannot proceed there in faith;
because faith is not what brought them there.
The natural/carnal mind made the ultimate decision. If we want spiritual revelation, we must
relegate our entire life to it. We
cannot maintain worldly options. It must be the exclusive course of action for
our lives. The more we demonstrate that
we are so inclined to follow His will whenever He reveals it to us, because our
lives belong to Him only, we will discover those “Aha!” moments become regular
features of our day to day living.
7. Not being purposed of heart to cleave to Yahushua.
Acts 11:22 Then tidings of these
things came unto the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem: and they sent
forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch.
23 Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of IAUE, was glad, and
exhorted them all, that with purpose
of heart they would cleave unto the Master.
Throughout the Scriptures, this last
obstacle to revelation may be the most obvious.
It is related to being double-minded; for when our consecration to the
Master wanes and we begin preferring ourselves over serving Him, it hardens our
heart to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Paul told us in Romans 12:1-2, to offer our
bodies a living sacrifice that the Master may have freedom to live His life
through ours. We must remain yielded to
that purpose. We cannot waver from it. If we hold fast our dedication to being His
disciples, there is no limit to what the Holy Spirit can reveal to us. If and when we waiver on this purpose of
heart, we become the doubleminded man who can expect to receive no spiritual
insight or revelation at all from IAUE.
This kind of consecration of our life to Messiah is the most basic object
of the gospel. If we are not willing to forfeit all to Him, we are not worthy
to be called His disciple (see Luke 14:26-35).
If we purpose in our heart to cleave to our Master, then we are going to
live the most exciting and rewarding life possible to man.
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