Superficial vs. Spiritual Wisdom...Continued from page 8

There are those of us who need someone who can sit down and explain how to do a particular math problem or someone who can explain to you the mystery of aerodynamics.

God has given you a tutor. If you have received Jesus Christ as Savior, you have the Holy Spirit in your life. He is the very essence of God himself, who has been given to you by God to impart not human wisdom, but spiritual truth. The Holy Spirit is not going to supernaturally teach me Latin, German, Greek, Hebrew without my effort. Nor is the Holy Spirit going to do your physics for you or write your English literature paper or even fill out your annual tax forms. The Holy Spirit will give you wisdom that will help you use your time more wisely and maximize the intellectual gifts that are yours. He will help clear your mind, so that you can study. But the Holy Spirit's primary function is to interpret spiritual truth, so that you can come to Jesus Christ, grow in Jesus Christ, be enabled by Jesus Christ to face temptation, to be gifted in Jesus Christ and used by Jesus Christ in a way that validates your very creation.

Assertion Six: The unspiritual person does not receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

The unspiritual person does not receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit for they are foolishness to him. That person is not able to understand them, because they are "spiritually discerned" (1 Corinthians 2:14).

Why is this? The unspiritual person lives only in the temporal. The Kingdom of God understandings are moronic or idiotic to him or her. The spiritual person lives with a sensitivity to the eternal.

For example, when I teach from God's Word, if a person receives Jesus Christ as Savior, it will have a tremendous impact on how that person uses their money, sexuality and power; a nonbeliever becomes threatened. An unspiritual person rejects that. They accuse me of going from preaching to meddling. It's their own business what they do with their money, their sex life and their power. They don't realize that every good and perfect gift they have comes from the Lord, and He owns it all, and He can take it back at any moment. They won't let go. It's theirs. They don't understand the joy of liberality, that sees one's self only as a temporary recipient and steward of what God has given. The concept of tithing is absurd. The fact that one could experience joy in giving himself or herself to the Lord and to others doesn't make any sense. The flip side is that the nonspiritual person doesn't understand why unlimited money, unlimited sex and unlimited power doesn't satisfy them.

Assertion Seven: The spiritual person has the very mind of Christ.

Paul concludes the progression of his argument to this point by declaring that a person who is spiritually alive has the Holy Spirit operative in his or her life to the point that you actually have the mind of Christ. He warns, as we will discover when we get into chapter 3, that we who are believers in Jesus can quench the Holy Spirit. We can revert back to a previous stage in our spiritual development in which we function as infants, as babies, not ready for the deeper things of God's Word. But the exciting fact is that you and I are capable, as we are enabled by the Holy Spirit, to have the very mind of Christ, wisdom going beyond the wisdom of the most brilliant person on the face of this earth, because ours in the wisdom of God himself. I may be able to understand the Theory of Relativity or even the physics involved in aerodynamics; but because I am Christ's and my life is open to Him, I have an understanding that goes beyond the wisdom of this world. And you, too, are entitled to it. You could call it a "spiritual depth perception"-a special capacity to probe the depths of spiritual truth aided by the Holy Spirit.

You see, do you not, we're talking about the economy of an "upside down kingdom." God's kingdom is different than the kingdom of this world. His wisdom is of an eternal nature. The wisdom of this world is temporal.

I invite you today, if you have never received Jesus Christ as Savior, to open your life to Him; acknowledge your need of His forgiveness, His healing, His wisdom, letting go of that false pride, that arrogance which demands that you have your way as one living in the economy of this world's kingdom. Or if you have received Him but have smothered the Holy Spirit with a blanket of self-interest, elitism, arrogance, pride, doubt, party spirit, admit it for what it is. Stop looking back to a better day spiritually. Repent! Welcome the Lord once again into the very center of your life. Acknowledge how much He loves you and wants you to reciprocate that love. And live with the wisdom which comes from the Holy Spirit! May these words of the hymn writer Kate B. Wilkinson by your prayer and mine:

May the mind of Christ my Savior
live in me from day to day,
by his love and power controlling
all I do and say.

May the Word of God dwell richly
in my heart from hour to hour,
so that all may see I triumph
only through his power.

May the peace of God my Father
rule my life in everything,
that I may be calm to comfort
sick and sorrowing.

May I run the race before me,
strong and brave to face the foe,
looking only unto Jesus
as I onward go.

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John A Huffman, Jr. is Senior Pastor of St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach, CA.