Spiritual Language
Art Nelson
One of the things
that has always amazed me is how easily it seems that truth and revelation from
God can be twisted and misapplied. It seems that the moment we begin to
understand some truth of the Lord we begin to take it to an extreme. Watchman
Nee once said, “any truth taken to an extreme becomes a heresy.” So, we receive
truth and then apply it in an erroneous manner.
I am not talking
about the perversion of the Word that comes from the unbelievers such as Elymas,
the magician, that Paul dealt with in Acts when he said to him:
. . ."You who are full of all
deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you
not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord?
(Acts 13:10 NASB)
That is what
unbelievers do. They make the straight ways of the Lord crooked. They pervert
the Word. However, that is not our real problem. We can usually recognize when
the way of the Lord is make crooked or perverted.
Our real problem is
when believers, our brothers and sisters in the Lord, apply the Word in a manner
that is inconsistent with the Lord's intentions. Why does this happen so easily?
It is the Lord's
intention that we know and understand His Word and His ways. He has given us the
Spirit of Truth so that this will be accomplished.
"But when He, the Spirit
of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on
His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose
to you what is to come. (John 16:13 NASB)
The Holy Spirit is
to guide us into ALL truth, not just some. He is the administrator of all that
belongs to Jesus, which is all things, and He will disclose it to us.
"All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said
that He takes of Mine and will disclose it
to you. (John 16:15 NASB)
So, we have an active Helper in our lives given
to us by Jesus to reveal to us the things of Jesus. However, this is not an
automatic process or Paul would not have prayed for it for the Ephesians. Paul
prayed, “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.”
(Ephesians 1:17 NASB)
Therefore, it is
clear from the Scriptures that wisdom and revelation knowledge come to us
through the Holy Spirit. Sometimes we forget this and begin to think that we
intellectually comprehend the things of God and this is where our troubles
begin.
Now we have
received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that
we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak,
not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit,
combining spiritual thoughts
with spiritual words.
(1 Corinthians
2:12-13 NASB)
We have received
the Holy Spirit SO THAT WE MAY KNOW
the things given to us by God. The Holy Spirit is our only source of this
type of knowledge.
There are two
aspects of this process of receiving from the Holy Spirit: 1) knowing the things
of God, and 2) communicating or teaching the things of God to others. Just as
the Holy Spirit is the only source for knowing, He is also the only source for
proper communication of what He has revealed. We communicate spiritual truth
with spiritual words, both of which are taught to us by the Holy Spirit.
Now, what happens
if we try to communicate spiritual truth without using spiritual words, that is,
spiritual language, taught to us by the Holy Spirit? We begin to apply
spiritual revelation by natural or soulish means and this is the
source of our problem.
But a natural man
does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to
him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
(1 Corinthians 2:14 NASB)
The Greek word for
“natural” in this verse is “psuchikos”
which is the adjective version of the word that is used for “soul”. So, the
meaning is of a man that operates or functions from the soul rather than the
spirit. In previous Present Truth issues we have discussed how, at the fall, Man
had something activated in his soul that was previously inactive and something
in his spirit was deactivated and man's “eyes were opened”. Man began to process
reality through his soul rather than his spirit, which changed the way that man
perceived reality. This has been the case ever since. So the natural, soulish
man operates from the mind (a part of the soul) rather than the spirit. [For
further study of this: “With
Open Eyes”, Sept. Issue 9 Present Truth Volume 4.]
So, we see
from this verse that the things revealed by the Spirit of God are not accepted
by the natural, soulish person because he cannot understand them. Not
that they are hard to understand but he cannot; he is unable, incapable of
understanding them spiritually. Therefore, any understanding is determined by
reason and logic rather than revelation. Therefore, any application of this
understanding is by reason and logic, strengthened by the flesh and the
operation of the tree of knowledge of good and evil rather than spiritual
application taught by the Holy Spirit.
This is why
believers twist and misapply the Scriptures. They are operating from a carnal
mind. A carnal mind is a mind that has not been renewed by still thinks from a
natural, soulish perspective. Paul defines a carnal mind for us.
I fed you with milk
and not with solid food; for until now you were not able
to receive it, and even now you
are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where
there are
envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like
mere
men? (1
Corinthians 3:2-3 NKJV)
As long as we act,
behave, like mere men rather than as children of God, who have been conformed to
the image of Christ, we are carnal. We are not just immature; we are still
babies.
We have neglected
the importance of being “transformed by the renewing of your mind” [Romans 12:2]
This is a process that takes time and not an instant event. Only a renewed mind
can communicate with spiritual language taught by the Holy Spirit. The carnal
mind can only speak “baby talk”, and, like a baby is selfish and self centered.
This is why the
Shepherding Movement could hear a true word from the Lord about the need for
true shepherds among God's people and yet apply this word by the arm of the
flesh creating a man made hierarchy that dissipated the anointing of the Holy
Spirit. This is why the Apostolic Movement could hear a true word from the Lord
about the need of the functions of the five fold ministry and the bringing forth
of apostles and prophets today and yet apply this word by carnal understanding
creating extra biblical networks and hierarchal structures that are man made
substitutes for Kingdom ministry functions.
If we don't yield
ourselves to the Lord for the teaching of the Holy Spirit we will repeat the
same fleshly process that has continued to occur throughout church history. Our
minds must be renewed. We must be taught spiritual words,
spiritual language to communicate and explain spiritual revelation truth or we
will repeat the soulish process and dissipate the move of the Spirit.
We are divided by
denominational lines, doctrinal lines, worship styles, meeting places, and other
carnal applications—for this is what Paul said in the verses listed above. I
believe that the next major move of the Holy Spirit will deal with unity. I am
expecting revelation knowledge from the Holy Spirit to come forth about true
unity. This is desperately needed among God's people. Let's not settle for the
carnal counterfeit of uniformity. Let's learn to speak of unity with
spiritual words taught to us by the Holy Spirit.
©
2003-2008 by Art Nelson and
Lifestream Teaching
Ministries
Previous issues of Present Truth are on the website: www.Lifestreamteaching.com
For comments or questions contact Art Nelson at this address:
artnelson@lifestreamteaching.com
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