The Spirit is an awesome gift giver. And that, my friend, is what the Holy Spirit of knowledge gives you. The context makes this pretty clear. The spiritual man appraises all things, but is himself appraised by no one." . In either case, the word of the Commander will not be obeyed and the war effort will languish and the cause of the enemy will go unchecked. Not because he doesn't understand its meaning, but because he loves the praise of men. If you advise me not to spank my sons when they disobey me, I say (perhaps to myself) that's foolish because I value the wisdom of Proverbs and the good effects of loving discipline. When the natural man hears that, he says that's foolish. Holy Spirit imparts Understanding The Bible does not insist that an unbeliever is incapable of understanding any of its basic grammatical or historical content. Romans 8:14 says “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” The illuminating and leading work of the Holy Spirit in our lives is a confirmation that we are indeed children of God. In my view, the Spirit does not help the believer understand the meaning of Scripture. Take the phrase, "He is not able to understand them," that is, the natural man is not able to understand the things of the Spirit of God. Why? These are two aspects of the Holy Spirit’s revelation; 1. the spirit gives the gifts to each person as he wills .but sometimes I don,t understand why people beleave that the Holy Spirit still gives the other gifts to people but they have a hard time beleaving that he give tongues to people today . That's why he can't understand "the things of the Spirit of God.". . The Holy Spirit enlightens a person, not by giving an added content of knowledge, but by mysteriously operating on his heart so that he can see the revelation already … The NASB gives a more literal rendering when it says, "A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God." Isaiah 11:2. It is He who wills them to be manifested in each individual. (John 5:44). In other words, He "turns on the lights for us." The Holy Spirit “comes upon” or “falls on”. He indwells believers and seals them until the day of redemption—this indicates that the Holy Spirit’s presence in the believer is irreversible. —Psalm 104:30; 139:7. What we seeare the works that the Spirit produces when it flows into individuals who are receptive to it through faith. We have begun to view and assess things the way Christ does. The Spirit itself is not part of these words of wisdom, but the Spirit is working with the speaker's mind, and the person himself speaks the words. The same thing in verses 23–24: "We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." Now let's go back to where we began. The Bereans "received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so" (Acts 17:10-11). They say a picture is worth a thousand words.The Holy Spirit loves to communicate knowledge by way of these visions or mental pictures in your mind’s eyes. Chapter 1, verse 18 shows us what this is: "The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." So what Paul means in verse 14 when he says that the natural man "is not able to understand" is that he is not able to understand the things of the Spirit as valuable. Gibberish is a description of sounds that are unintelligible. But now we can see more clearly what this work of the Spirit is and what it isn't. For those who have made the New Covenant with God, it is the Holy Spirit that teaches and brings to remembrance—not the ceremonial law! It gives you X-ray spiritual insight into the “whys” of life. The work of the Holy Spirit is to make us say from the heart as we take up the manual, "Far be it from me that I should glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world was crucified to me, and I to the world." 1. Now with these definitions let's see if we can restate the situation described in verse 14. They are simply ordinary people whose hearts and minds are not touched with the renewing work of the Holy Spirit. A view of reality which aims to take away every ground of boasting from in man and put it all in Christ crucified is foolishness to humans in their natural state apart from the Holy Spirit. Does it mean that the natural man does not have access to sufficient information? First, the Holy Spirit does many things in the lives of believers. We see things such as sermons given and articles written. The word of the cross is a message about my crucifixion, not just Christ's. When we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit we receive the gift and the giver, because the gift is the giver. The problem is described in 1 Corinthians 2:14. Why? God gives His Spirit to a person, and out of his mouth flow words of wisdom. All of these are manifestations of God's Spirit. the Spirit which is from God that we might know the things given to us by God." When Jesus met two disciples on the Emmaus Road, “He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27). Tragically, this represents a misunderstanding of the Spirit’s role in understanding the Scriptures. 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. I want to talk about that problem today and how God works by his Holy Spirit to overcome it. The reason this is important is that if we misunderstand the problem Paul raises in verse 14, we will almost certainly misunderstand the work of the Spirit in solving the problem and may well look to the Spirit for a work he was never intended to perform. . Paul said in Galatians 6:14, "Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Therefore, when Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:14 that "the things of the Spirit of God" are folly to the natural man, he means that the gospel of Christ crucified and all its devastating implications for natural human pride are simply foolishness to the natural man. We’re on a mission to change that. See what over 145,000 subscribers are already receiving each day. We begin to see and appraise things with the eyes of Christ. Let him who boasts boast in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:27–31; cf. What we pray is that he would make us humble enough to welcome the truth. The Holy Spirit can also give you “inner visions” or “mental pictures” in your mind’s eyes when He is trying to communicate knowledge to you on something specific. We see whatever the Spirit inspires people to do for the good of the church, to further people's understanding, and to prepare them for the Kingdom of God. Instead, they believe that the Holy Spirit will simply make known the meaning of a text if implored to do so. 1 Corinthians 2:8. Remember that Isaiah 11:1-2 says: There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots. I thought the Bible was like any other book/novel. It says, "He cannot understand [the things of the Spirit] because they are spiritually appraised. The desire for credit is too great. Therefore they are without excuse." If the Bible reveals the "things of God" and the natural man is not able to understand them because they are spiritually appraised, then how will this book ever be able to win anyone over to God's side? This is what verses 15 and 16 are getting at. In verse 12 Paul is able to understand them because he has received the Spirit. In verse 14 the "natural man" cannot understand the "things of the Spirit of God" because they are "spiritually discerned." 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. The word of the cross is a radical indictment of human pride. That we must determine by a disciplined study of the text. The Christian manual of operation is unique because it reveals "the things of the Spirit of God"—things from God that man can't find out on his own, things that are often very foreign to our way of thinking. 1 Corinthians 2:12 confirms this. 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