But rather what we are setting forth is a wisdom of God once hidden [from the human understanding] and now revealed to us by God . . . None of the rulers of this age or world perceived and recognized and understood this, for if they had, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. But, on the contrary, as the Scripture says, What eye has not seen and ear has not heard and has not entered into the heart of man, [all that] God has prepared (made and keeps ready) for those who love Him [who hold Him in affectionate reverence, promptly obeying Him and gratefully recognizing the benefits He has bestowed]. Yet to us God has unveiled and revealed them by and through His Spirit.
One thing used to puzzle me very much about the children of
Israel. They saw the miracles Moses performed. They witnessed the ten plagues
that destroyed crops, animals, and firstborn sons and yet never touched any of
them in the land of Goshen. They stood at the Red Sea and watched the waters
part, and later looked back to see the Egyptians drown. They experienced
miracle after miracle for forty years.
I used to ask: Why didn’t they
believe? They personally watched signs and miracles take place, but they
remained unbelievers. Except for Joshua and Caleb, every adult who watched God
at work in Egypt died before the waters parted at the River Jordan.
One day as I read this passage,
the answer became obvious. We don’t understand God through natural eyes or
human reasoning. We understand God only when we’re aided by the Holy Spirit.
Those Israelites in the wilderness saw miracles, but they never experienced God.
They saw the miracles at work, but they never grasped God Himself.
That’s the message Paul
presents to us. He says God has prepared us—those who believe and obey—and He
“unveiled and revealed” (v. 10) spiritual realities through the Holy Spirit.
Another way to say this is that as long as we look only at events and facts but
see nothing behind them, we don’t have eyes to see and ears to hear.
That’s where Satan works best.
He tries to keep us blind and deaf so that we don’t recognize the Spirit of God
at work. For example, in a worship service, someone prays for a woman who is in
great pain and she’s healed. Those with eyes to see and ears to hear,
immediately praise the Lord. Those who are still held by the devil’s cunning
lies say, “Oh, it was all psychosomatic. There was nothing really wrong with
her.”
I learned long ago that it did
no good to argue with the spiritually blind and try to convince them to see God
at work. Until the Holy Spirit enlightens them, they can never grasp the power
of God at work in human lives. Only those who have been enlightened by the
power of the Holy Spirit can truly grasp spiritual realities. To those who love
Him and believe, God reveals spiritual truths. He assures those who have
understanding that the Holy Spirit is at work. As the Spirit works in us, we
gain power over every trick of the devil to blind us again.
From the book Battlefield of the Mind Devotional by Joyce Meyer. Copyright © 2006 by
Joyce Meyer. Published by FaithWords. All rights reserved.
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