Man, when he is born, is born with five senses having only body and soul, and so he will be subject to all the problems that naturally come in the senses world. Man is born into this world with just his senses to guide him; however, man’s mind was originally made to be God-minded. In Genesis 1:27, it says that God made Adam and Eve in His own image, and that is spirit. (John 4:24 – “God is a spirit”).
Man was made to communicate with God and to fellowship with Him, but over the years, as men have interpreted the Bible in so many different ways, that truth has become muddied. And so it’s become very easy for man to doubt that the answers to life abide in the Bible. Man has also compounded the problem for years by making up things as he sees fit when it comes to the things of God.
It’s been very easy to adopt the opinion that the Bible was written by many different people, and that they had “free reign” to just write whatever they wished. The problem is that man has no issue acknowledging the existence of the Bible, but he has a major problem with it being written by holy men of God as they were “moved by the holy spirit.” This is the position that man, in general, has held for a long time and it has really held him back in all aspects of life, regardless of how financially prosperous he might be.
It has been suggested that the greatest of man’s problems is in not acknowledging the integrity of God’s Word. 2 Peter 1:20,21 tells us: “Knowing this first that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
For those of us who love God and love His Word, we do not want the integrity of God’s Word to be a great problem for us. 2 Peter 1:20,21 explains it very clearly. God did then and can today, work with His spirit in any born again believer to proclaim His word. He put spirit on some people in the Old Testament times, and we’ve got spirit within us with the new birth spoken of in Acts 2:1ff and in Romans 10:9, 10.
The man of the senses, called the “natural man” in 1 Corinthians 2:14, has always had a problem with God, because it is not within him to receive God’s Word. He knows there’s something out there but he can’t come to grips with the truth of God, the Creator. The man of the senses will always have a problem with any aspect of the working of the Spirit of God within a believer: especially when it comes to rightly dividing God’s Word. 1 Corinthians 2:14 “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” This is pretty simple: It’s always been this way and it will be this way until the return of Christ.
In Matthew 4:4, Jesus told the Devil, “But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Spoken very clearly and wonderfully after forty days of physical deprivation, Jesus spoke forth the truth that man cannot make it truly happen in his life without God’s Word living and real for him.
In Deuteronomy 6:5, God tells Moses: “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” What a wonderful statement! Jesus follows it up in Matthew 22:37, 38: “And Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.”
How simple! Nothing has changed since the days of Adam and Eve. It was God’s desire for Adam to love Him with all his heart, soul and mind. Adam must have loved God that way, but eventually doubt crept in. The doubt that crept into Adam in Genesis 3:7 and preceding was the questioning of the integrity of God’s Word. What a terrible time in his life! At that point it was all over, and all anybody could do from that time on, was wait until the coming of the Christ, and the culmination of Christ’s work in Acts 2:1ff. But it was worth waiting for, because now we have seed in us, irrevocable, and we can speak in tongues. What a work!
Jesus Christ believed that the Word of God was the will of God. In one of the prayers to his Father in John 17:14 he says “I have given them thy word …” referring to his disciples and apostles. Again, in verse 17, he says, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” The Bible is the revealed Word and will of God. If you want to live a life that’s more than abundant: physically, mentally and spiritually, you will really have to take the first commandment seriously: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” This is my goal because I want God’s Word to be the pinnacle in my life and I’m sure you do too.
Funglimpses and all that… Thanks for reading. Respectfully submitted, Will Grove