Have you ever been glad that no one can read your thoughts? I know I have. We all hold those thoughts inside us that we know would scare other people away or hurt them deeply. Sometimes they even hurt us deeply.
A few days ago, my transforming verse of the day was 1 Corinthians 2:11-12. The first part of verse 11 goes like this:
1 Corinthians 2:11a: For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them?
No one knows my thoughts except for me, and no one knows your thoughts except for you. God is the same way. No one knows God’s thoughts except for God.
1 Corinthians 2:11b: In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
In fact, the Bible tells us that God’s thoughts are so much higher than our thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8-9: 8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
But then I read the rest of the verse for the day.
1 Corinthians 2:12: What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.
Wait a minute. What’s that? We have been given God’s Spirit—the one who knows the thoughts of God—specifically so that we can understand God’s gift to us.
At that point in my reading, I thought maybe it would be a good idea to read the whole passage in context.
1 Corinthians 2:6-16: 6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 However, as it is written:
“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”—
the things God has prepared for those who love him—10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. 14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, 16 for,
“Who has known the mind of the Lord
so as to instruct him?”But we have the mind of Christ.
Look at verse 7. God’s wisdom is a mystery that has been hidden. Verse 9 says that no human mind has conceived the things God has prepared for those who love him. But when we receive the Spirit of God, we can understand the things of God and teach those things to other people (verse 13). In fact, God has specifically destined to reveal these hidden mysteries to his people (verse 7).
Without God’s Spirit, anything that comes from God seems like foolishness (verse 14). But when we have the Spirit, we have the mind of Christ (verse 16). All those things that were mysteries before, those things that were hidden in God’s thoughts, can now be revealed to us and understood by us through God’s Spirit.
Do you know how amazing it is that God gave us a gift that would allow us to understand his thoughts? We have the Bible, but without the Spirit, God’s words and thoughts in the Bible seem like foolishness. The Spirit allows us to understand God’s thoughts as revealed to us in the Bible. The Spirit allows us to hear directly from God when we remain in him. We can know and understand God deeply because we have the gift of the Spirit.
I don’t know about you, but I’m blown away. Just the idea that we can see into the mind of God is crazy. But this passage spells it out clearly. God’s thoughts that are so much higher than ours can now be revealed to us through his Spirit. What an amazing gift.
Dwell on this thought today. What does it mean to you that you have the mind of Christ? What does it mean to you that you have the Spirit of God that allows you to know and understand God’s hidden mysteries? It changes my whole perspective on knowing God.
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