KNOWING WHAT HAS BEEN FREELY GIVEN TO US

Today’s devotion is from 1 Corinthians 2:12-14

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit Who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

The Holy Spirit is actively involved in helping you discern who you are and what you have in Christ. We cannot discern these things with the mind of the flesh because the natural man does not and cannot receive or comprehend the things of the Holy Spirit because they are spiritually discerned. 

The good news is that we can KNOW the things that have been freely given to us by God. Those of us who know how to walk in the Spirit and how to receive from the realm of the Spirit are able to discern spiritual realities. 

Fleshly, carnal believers do not know what has been given to them in the New Covenant, they do not know who they are in Christ and they do not know what Jesus can do through them by the power of the Spirit. They can be taught all day long and still will not get it. The true riches of God are spiritually discerned and are more caught than taught. As teachers and ministers of the Word we have to realize that no matter how skilled or anointed you are in imparting the realities of the New Covenant in Christ, that some may never get what you are teaching because ‘these things we speak, cannot be fully conveyed in words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.’

As you ask the Holy Spirit to teach you concerning spiritual things and the realm of the Spirit, the first thing that He will lead you to do is to spend more time meditating on the Word. The Word feeds your spirit and without enough Word, you will be spiritually starved. A spiritually starved believer is a fleshly believer who cannot comprehend spiritual things. He will also lead you to pray in tongues for many hours… this is how the Lord builds your spirit man into an edifice.

Feeding on the Word, worshipping the Father in Spirit, praying in the Spirit and pressing into the realms of God are all aspects of walking in the Spirit and understanding and experiencing spiritual things. The Holy Spirit will coach any hungry, yielded believer in the things of the Spirit. The more you grow spiritually, the more you will KNOW the things that have been freely given to us by God. 

The more you KNOW the things that have been freely given you by God, the more effective you will be in your calling. The Lord set things up in such a way that to receive the most important things from Him require relationship, intimacy and hunger for more of Him. Those closest to His heart have access to all that He has. 

‘I pray that the Father of glory, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, would impart to you the riches of the Spirit of wisdom and the Spirit of revelation to know Him through your deepening intimacy with Him.’ (Ephesians 1:17 - TPT)