Hear With the Mind of Christ

Have you ever held a conversation with yourself in your head?  Of course you have.  How does that conversation happen without making a sound with your mouth or receiving sound waves in your ears?  You can do it because God made you with a mind that can entertain such.

In chapter 2 of 1 Corinthians, Paul talks about the Holy Spirit language of Wisdom.   He emphasizes that people who have the Holy Spirit hear this kind of language.  Accepting Christ as Lord and Savior and thereby receiving the Holy Spirit is like turning on the higher conversational functionality of the mind.  Verse 16 is a lift from Isaiah 40:13, but he changes it up.  Where Isaiah uses the “Spirit of the Lord,” Paul changes it to “the mind of the Lord”--I think to direct our understanding to a critical aspect of hearing the Holy Spirit.

We have conversations with the Holy Spirit through our thinking mind.  Paul said that we who have the Holy Spirit have the mind of Christ.  We are then able to think things that are communicated to us by the Holy Spirit.  This should not be so surprising; God made our mind and wants to have a conversational relationship with us through it.  So, if God (through Paul) says that you have the mind of Christ, when you converse with Him, needing wisdom, shouldn’t you trust that he is putting commensurate thoughts in your mind?  So what if you don’t hear the booming voice out of the clouds?  You have the mind of Christ for every moment and every thought.

The Holy Spirit Language Is . . .

One of, and I contend the most usual, languages of the Holy Spirit with His humans is “good things,” “wisdom,” or “understanding.”  One aspect alone of understanding this is to look at how the passages in this graphic run parallel in thought:

I brought up Luke 11:13 a few days ago to emphasize God’s unwavering desire to give his Holy Spirit . . . to communicate with us.  You can see that Matthew recounted a sermon of Jesus wherein He just said “good things”.  James pretty much  plagiarized; he used the same idea as “wisdom.”  And I think we can look to the whole of Proverbs 8 to see that this is not new thing in the New Testament.  I have a lot to say about the Matthew and James passages.  A lot that I think will help with understanding how wisdom is a good thing and is a primary Holy Spirit language.  These passages of Scripture help us to understand how to function in the non-stop experience of communication with the Holy Spirit.  But blog-length writing can’t accommodate all of that in this post.  Next time.

Holy Spirit Language

When we talk to somebody and listen to somebody, we have to do so in a language we understand.  For me, that’s English.  I anticipate syllables formed by sounds; words formed by syllables; phrases formed by multiple words; and sentences formed phrases.  Some of us are pickier than others when it comes to grammar and syntax.

Whether or not you speak and comprehend in English, you generally expect people to form their sounds in Human.  What I mean by that is that, no matter what language, humans form their words in combination of labial, dental, and velar sounds.  Try this: Say “B” without bringing your lips together . . . that a labial sound; Say “T” without touching the back of your front teeth with the tip of your tongue . .  that’s a dental sound; Say “R” without using the back of your mouth near your throat . . . that’s velar or guttural.

Here’s my point: The Holy Spirit doesn’t have lips, teeth, a tongue, or a throat yet you may expect Him to speak English . . . or at least Human.  I’m not saying the the Holy Spirit is incapable of speaking English or Human, but you shouldn’t suppose that this would be the normal language system.  You may hear a booming voice from heaven or a whisper after the fire that sounds like English, but, Scripture and my experience (for whatever that’s worth) do not point to these as a norm.

Now you know that the Holy Spirit absolutely does want to speak to you and that you should be open to a different kind of language . . .  that is to say different than Human.  It’s a language that is more integrated with our being than our physiology.  If you’re imposing English or some other human language as the only legitimate language, you’re going to miss out on regular and non stop communication.

“I Don’t Hear the Holy Spirit”

I’ve heard statements like this many times from committed Christians.  I recently sat in the back of an adult Sunday School class, most attendees had been Christians for decades, who one after the other, with angst, expressed concern that the Holy Spirit doesn’t speak to them or that they just don’t hear them.  The Holy Spirit speaks to you whether believer or not.  I intend to address this confusion, one aspect at a time, in short blogs.

The first aspect is this: You should take God at his Word.  

What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:11-13 ESV)

Jesus assured us that the Father wants to give us the Holy Spirit.  He will not fail to do so.  With the above statements Jesus is basically saying that you are a real knothead if you persist in thinking that the Father might not want to give you the Holy Spirit.  He wants so much to give it that I think He will overcome quite a lot of hindrances to do so.  

Are you concerned that you are a believer, but do not hear the Holy Spirit? If so, first, get this into your heart and head . . . take him at his Word: The Father wants to and will give you the Holy Spirit.  This is the Spirit that is relational and communicative.