08 May 2022
So, here's the deal: The Holy Spirit dwelling in communion with your resurrected spirit does not speak to your mind. He speaks to your heart. Obviously, you need to get used to the idea of letting your heart rule over your head. The issue is moral truth, not the facts. Frankly, the Lord can adjust the facts to His liking, and I will testify that He does so quite often. This so-called "reality" in which we live is highly variable and frankly cannot be trusted. What you can trust is the moral truth of who you are in Christ.
The mind does not like this situation. It rebels until it has spent enough time under the control of the heart to get used to what's coming. Your intellect serves only one valid purpose -- to organize and implement what the heart demands. So, the single biggest problem we have is that our minds are so used to the world of mankind, and is totally befuddled by the proper approach God revealed in His Word.
You see, the Hebrew people disobeyed an awful lot, but at least they had one thing: It was inherent in their culture that they were supposed to listen to their hearts. They knew that, and seldom commented on it, because it was just taken for granted. Theirs was part of the wider Ancient Near Eastern mysticism, and this mysticism is what God Himself built up quite intentionally as the proper atmosphere for revelation. And the core of revelation is God revealing Himself, His divine moral character. The whole point is that this messy, fuzzy and confusing system of Covenant operations is the way He wants us to be. That's where we find Him.
All the cool precision and clarity of western thinking is a mirage; it's fake. It's the result of flesh unrestrained by God's revelation of Himself. It does not take into account the way God portrays Himself. Instead, western thinking assigns God the place it wants Him to have. Good luck with that. But having been so thoroughly conditioned by this bogus approach to reality, our western minds are just not ready for the ultimate reality God has created. And we are most certainly not ready for His revelation of Himself.
This business of "rightly dividing the Word" aims at teaching the mind the proper frame of reference for making sense of the Spirit's Presence in your soul. It's all about teaching the mind what is actually normal from God's point of view. You'll spend the rest of your life here in this world becoming more and more spiritually minded, and less worldly. This process is the glory of God. It's your witness.
Yes, early on when the Spirit begins to speak in your heart, you'll struggle with making sense of it. Your mind will not be ready for what the Lord has to say in your life. You may think you know what it means, but chances are you won't for a long time. You'll do your best, I presume, but you'll get a lot of wrong answers. You'll come to false conclusions about the meaning of some moral truth, because your brain is simply too deeply pickled in the wrong orientation. Your western assumptions about what morality means are all wrong. Not so much in the content, but in ways that cannot be put into words.
But the Lord is patient and kind about it. He gives you clues along the path. Your are supposed to recognize that you have a long way to go, that you'll make mistakes, and that the whole point is getting and keeping your fleshly nature under the thumb. The change is your witness. You'll know you are on the right path when you begin to experience a flaming desire for the Lord. Just being in His company will become your greatest desire. You'll find yourself internally talking to Him all the time. That's the objective. Your performance is not the issue and it never will be. It's your passion for Him that matters above all else.
So, it's very important that you study the Hebrew way of looking at things. At first, you'll tend to ape what you find God required of the people of Israel. That's okay. Eventually you'll get to the point you don't feel bound by their regimen. Your mind will begin to see the subtle cues about how to make yourself fit God's pattern, because you'll realize it's not an intellectual question, but a moral question. You'll learn that God has already written your character into your soul, and you'll learn how to read your own convictions.
Feeling alienated from the rest of humanity is one of the best indicators that you are on the right path. You'll sorrow at how people you know wallow in the failures of the flesh. Yes, it's a very lonely existence, but your only true friends will be those few who operate on that same high moral level. You'll long for the company of those who live for the Covenant. And you won't find too many. For long stretches, you may not find any at all.
God is your only real friend. All your best human friends come from Him.
Get used to the feeling that things are fuzzy. They are; this world is inherently dubious. Get used to flaming passionate feelings deep in your soul that don't make sense to your mind. Get used to a strong impression of a moral imperative that has no clear expression in concrete terms. Get used to a potent sense of heaviness in your soul. Right now, as the world is sliding off into apocalypse, that's pretty much what you should be feeling. You can sense it coming even when you can't see it. This is what Christian Mysticism is all about -- it's living in two worlds at once. This is what we are designed for.
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