We have been talking about Drilling Down in God’s word. This is a way to actually to see our self more clearly as well as our creator’s perspective on His creation.
Our physical faculty to understand truth, however, is limited by our natural nature. We are created within the realm of natural things like universes and subatomic matter. God, on the other hand, is “super” natural. He is a Spirit, not confined to the limits of our creation. As creator, He is both inside and outside the realm of His creation. Our capacity to enter into His realm is only by His permission and authority.
God has provided, however, three doors of access to know God. The writer to the Hebrews suggests our physically created universe is a pattern of reality outside of our physical senses. This is where God dwells. We experience a physical reality which shadows an absolute eternal reality. We refer to this as heaven or eternity. Our “natural” world opens a door to reveal something about God, His power and His attributes.
A similar method of revelation is in our Bible. God uses the Word to illustrate different qualities of Himself. The Hebrew word used for God as creator is Elohim. We find this word in the Genesis account of creation. When God enters into our personal life, “Jehovah” is used in English for the Hebrew word Yahwey. There are other Hebrew names for God also.
This personal interjection leads us through a second door to know God. In the Old Testament God shows up as a person. God has a will, He has emotion and He has intellect. We are created in His image!
Remember the extraordinary dialogue Moses had with God about leading Israel our of Egyptian bondage in Exodus 3 and 4.
“Whom shall I say sent me?”, Moses asks God.
“I Am Who I Am”, God replies.
This is translated “LORD” in the Old Testament, all in caps! Here we have it! God’s inherent purpose for creating man is to love and enjoy him.
The same purpose carries into the New Testament. Jesus appears as God manifested in the flesh as both deity and humanity. We need not document the proofs of Jesus’ deity but site the obvious, Jesus conquered death with His resurrection and … God’s personal testimony in front of Peter, James and John on the Mount of Transfiguration, Mark 9:2-10.
The third door opened to us revelation itself. When we are born again, regenerated, we are given an additional sense or organ. It is a spiritual capacity Adam had before he sinned. When the scripture says we are dead in sin, it is because this spiritual organ died. We are made alive in Christ by being “born again” which includes a new spiritual capacity to both receive and commune spiritually with God Himself. There are two passages where this spiritual sense or organ is used in the Greek and translated as “discernment”, Hebrews 5:14 and Philippians 1:9.
We have three ways to interact with our creator.
(1.) We have exposure to God’s nature and power through what is created, both life itself and things defining our world.
(2.) We have the personal interjection of God into our living experience, Jesus manifested in flesh.
(3.) We have living grace and truth in the person of God’s Spirit witnessing to our own spirit that we are in Christ, if we have been born again.
It is only God’s grace that allows us, people who are dead in our sin, to be able to actually participate in God’s plan and purposes. One of the best authors dealing with this whole area is A.W. Tozer. A number of his books are well worth our time to explore dealing with God, such as, The Root of Righteousness, The Pursuit of God, Man: The Dwelling Place of God, The Divine Conquest, The Knowledge of the Holy and others.
God’s nature is totally outside the realm of our knowledge and capability. His great love is the singular reason we are brought into His grace allowing us both exposure and access to who He is.
The best commentary I know is in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians:
“But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages of our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written,
‘What no eye hath seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him’
These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” 1Corinthians 2:7-14
It is not enough that we learn scriptural text. It is the inward guidance of God’s own Spirit unlocking the power and meaning of the scriptural text. It is like cracking the shell of a walnut in order to get the meat.
God has exposed the greatness of His person by creating a universe of things which man’s intellect is still discovering. God has interjected His own life into our equation and offered a salvation that will lift us up into an eternal realm we are incapable of imagining. On top of all this, He has given us a personal mentor, His own Spirit, to unlock the mysteries of not only our lives, but also the mysteries of a dimension yet to be revealed.
Drilling Down is just part one of getting rooted and grounded.
(1.) We have to enter into His creation and provisions.
(2.) We have to accept His provision of life into our own experience.
(3.) We have to discipline ourselves spiritually to grow in grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
“But we have the mind of Christ.” - 1Corinthians 2:16b