Wisdom from the Spirit

Thursday evening, I was on my way from here to there, running late as usual. I usually alternate between a classic rock station and a Christian rock station in what I listen to while driving around. At that moment, both were in the middle of commercial breaks, so I switched to the other preset button I have programmed on my radio, which happens to be a Christian radio station that plays traditional worship music between various different sermons, teachings, and studies. A woman was in the middle of a message about heaven. My trip was pretty short, so I only heard a portion of her message. She quoted dozens of Scripture references to support how wonderful heaven is, but only one jumped out at me:

“No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him”

1 Corinthians 2:9

It is wonderful to see God’s Holy Spirit at work in so many ways. The woman gave 1 Corinthians 2:9 as a Scripture reference, and for some reason the verse stuck in my mind; especially the part about “…no mind has conceived what God has prepared…” My mind kept coming back to that verse, as I thought about all the changes in scientific thought and theory over the years. I thought a good picture to highlight that concept would be one of the Deep Field pictures from the Hubble telescope. For the Deep Field study, they aimed the Hubble telescope at a rather dark area at the edge of the universe. What they found was not a few rogue stars, but thousands upon thousands of GALAXIES… each with millions of stars of their own!

While searching for a good picture of all those galaxies, I stumbled upon another object that was studied by the Hubble astronomers, namely Hoag's Object (the picture, above). It had to be a sign! LOL!!! Hoag’s object is a non-typical galaxy of the type known as a ring galaxy. The galaxy was discovered in 1950 by astronomer Arthur Allen Hoag (I kid you not; look it up) who identified it as either a planetary nebula or a peculiar galaxy.

A nearly perfect ring of young hot blue stars circle the older yellow nucleus of this ring galaxy. It’s slightly larger than our own Milky Way Galaxy. The gap separating the two stellar populations may contain some star clusters that are almost too faint to see. As rare as this type of galaxy is, oddly another more distant ring galaxy can be seen, between the nucleus and the outer ring at the one o'clock position.

“No mind has conceived…” Scientists do not understand how such a galaxy could have formed. Thankfully, the universe does not rely on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power! Can any of us imagine what the sky looks like from different points in that galaxy? From the nucleus? From the outer ring? And that’s just one galaxy. It would seem that galaxies are as numerous as the sands on the beach!

Getting back to the Scripture verse… when I read the verse in the context of chapter 2 of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians I found Paul to be communicating not about heaven, but about us receiving wisdom from God’s Spirit.

The following is ALL of chapter 2 of 1 Corinthians (it’s only 16 verses):

1 Corinthians 2

1When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, 5so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.

Wisdom From the Spirit

6We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9However, as it is written:

"No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him" -

10but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. 14The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment:

16"For who has known the mind of the Lord
that he may instruct him?"

But we have the mind of Christ.

Now, as we gather for our annual Congregational Meeting, I pray that we come together in the mind of Christ. Let us express ourselves, not in words of human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit. Let us open our hearts to God’s Spirit, so that we may discern and make judgments with God’s wisdom. Let us love one another, seek to serve rather than be served, and remember that Christ has promised to be where 2 or more are gathered together… in agreement.

What have our minds not conceived about our fellowship? Let’s be of one mind… with God!

Your brother in Christ,

Dave Hoag