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2 "I am an intellectual." I used to wear that label with a sense of pride.
I suppose I still do on some level, but now I see it for what it is. It is a
gift from God that many other people have as well. It is not my identity,
nor should it be. But it was.
I would try to wow people with my ability to reason about God, good and
evil, Creation vs. Evolution, and so on. I was a Christian, but I was an
intellectual first and a child of God second. That was wrong. I didn't
realize it however.
When I would "witness" to people, I would discuss my ability to
believe that Jesus died for my sins, but I would never tell my friend that
Jesus died for his sins, too. I wasn't sharing the gospel. I wasn't
witnessing. I was showing off. It was brain candy. God gave me a gift to
understand things in a way that many others do not and I was simply using it
for my own enjoyment. I wasn't right with God and didn't realize it, until
someone pointed out 1 Corinthians 2:11a, "For what man knows the things of a
man except the spirit of the man which is in him?" I didn't understand the
point at first. A careful reading of the verse revealed the operative word
to be "spirit", as opposed to "mind". I was taken aback. It meant that when
I felt dual minded, wanting to do things I knew were wrong for example, the
thoughts from my spirit were my real thoughts, as opposed to the thoughts
from my intellect. Paul reaffirmed this in Romans 7:21 when he wrote, "I
find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do
good." The part of me that had always defined my identity had been my
intellect, and scripture was saying that my intellect didn't really know me;
the real me was my spirit.
When I went home, I thought about it and read 1Corinthians 13:8 - 10,
"…if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are
tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For
we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the
partial will be done away." In other words, the only reason spiritual gifts
are necessary is because in our flesh, we cannot know everything; we can
only know what God reveals to us through the abilities we have as humans.
When Christ comes for us, and brings us to Heaven, we will no longer be
limited by our humanity, but will still have our spirit, which will discern
completely all there is for us to know. The brain I have will be gone. The
intellect I use for expanding my knowledge will stop limiting my ability to
grasp what my spirit already knows, because my spirit will be free.
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