“Obtaining riches from God’s Word”



“Obtaining riches from God’s Word”

II

J.W. Sims

The first thing we need to understand when it comes to obtaining riches from God’s Word, is that it is not a matter of a method but a matter of the man.

The first thing we need to concern ourselves with is the man – that is the man’s personal condition. If I am not right spiritually, no matter what method I choose I will receive nothing if I am not right.

The man must be born again to understand and obtain spiritual riches from God’s Word. God does not give spiritual truth, riches or understanding to people who are not His children. You must be a child of God if you are going to know and receive from His Word. It does not even matter if you are in a spiritual position, such as a teacher, elder or pastor, if you do not know Him you will not know His Word. Therefore, you will not be able to break forth the Word for yourself or for others. That is why though there are many leaders and teachers there is still a real absence of the Word. As a true child of the Lord you will always be able to discern whether you are being given the true Word or simply just a message from man.

As we read in I Corinthians 2:14 “The 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.”

Herein we are given why so many cannot pick up the Word of God and begin to understand it, especially its deep and rich truths. This man is a natural man, a man who is yet flesh and who has not yet become spiritual. Therefore, he does not accept spiritual things and if he tried to read and study the Bible he would not be able to understand the Bible because your spirit can only understand the Bible.

What happens so much in our world is that men who have not been born of the Spirit pick up the Bible to read it, study it and to share it with others when they have no spiritual capacity to do so. How do they do this? They do not use their spirits but they use their minds. Thus they obtain the intellectual words, letters and phrases of the Bible without ever getting to the rich, deep, spirit of the Bible. Thus they take intellectual things of the Bible and give out intellectual things of the Bible that merely touch the minds of men and do nothing for their spirits. This is a real problem today.

In John 4:24 we read: “God is spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit.” If a man does not come to God through his spirit to worship God he cannot touch God, man cannot touch God with his flesh, with his emotion or his mind, if he is going to meet with God if he is going to know Him and be able to render true worship unto Him it will have to be by use of his spirit.

In John 6:63 Christ said: “The words that I have spoken are spirit.” Now we know that God is Spirit and that the Word of God is Spirit. If I am to touch God and know His presence I must do so by use of my spirit, and now I know that if I am to touch the Word of God and experience the deepness and richness of God’s Word I also must use my spirit. This is why when we become a Christian it so important to be spiritual, for the less fleshy I am and the more spiritual I become the greater riches from the Word will I be able to know, understand and enjoy. As Paul expresses in I Corinthians 3:1-3 the more spiritual I become the greater amount of the meat of the Word will I be able to know and enjoy. Thus we begin to realize that education is not the key to knowing and being able to open the Word to others, it is not a matter of where we went to school it is a matter of whether our spirits have been made alive and we have learned how to depend upon them rather than our minds. This seems easy but it is most difficult and the more intellectually inclined we are the more difficult it is, for the new man in Christ has to learn how not to use his mind but rather how to allow the Spirit of God to pour rich truth right out into his spirit. As Christians it is essential that we understand this for otherwise we will forever continue to study and study the Word using our minds and even becoming proud of what we are able to learn, for as the scripture says: “Knowledge puffeth up but love buildeth up”

Thus when a Christian grows only in his mind he easily becomes proud or as the scripture reads puffed up.

Let us continue these thoughts by turning to I Corinthians 2:9-13 “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.”

Here again knowing the spiritual riches that God has for us cannot be known by our eyes, by our ears, or by our minds, they can only be known as they are revealed by His Spirit, and when that comes God only gives that directly into our spirits.

“The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? The Holy Spirit is the key for obtaining the riches or the deep things of God. Why even in a man if you truly want to know his thoughts you must know his spirit. It is the Holy Spirit alone who knows the deep things of God and therefore we will have to connect to Him in our spirits. For as the passage continues: “In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Therefore, if you and I are going to know deepness we must use our spirits and not our minds, or emotions.

“We 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.” The spirit of the world is what the natural, fleshy non-believer has and to try to understand the Word of God with only having the spirit of the world will never be adequate, you will never get it.

“This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing or interpreting spiritual things to spiritual men.”

When we gather together to hear the Word in our devotions or from someone who is ministering the Word, being taught by human wisdom will not accomplish a thing, in fact it will bore us and probably bring more death than life. What we need to get from the Word ourselves and what we need to transfer to others is spiritual food from the Word, not intellectual food. Please note that communicating spiritual things to spiritual men can only be done as the Holy Spirit teaches us.

As Christians if we do not realize the value and importance of the Spirit of God in our spirits we will suffer real loss when it comes to getting behind the words of the Bible into the deep rich message.

Now telling you, you need to do this and teaching you how to do it is a very difficult thing to do. I have learned how to enjoy this for myself and believe it is the only way of reading the Word and being able to give it out to others but how to explain to someone how to do it must be, I believe the work of the Holy Spirit.

To begin with I would suggest to you that you realize that you need to depend, not upon your mind but upon your spirit when it comes to receiving spiritual light, truth and richness from God’s Word. Therefore, before you begin to read and study ask the Father to allow the Holy Spirit to move upon your spirit and teach you how to obtain truth by your spirit rather than your mind.

(The reader should be informed as to the proper use of the mind when it comes to the Word and not feel that the mind is not needed. To think that would be most dangerous for after light and richness is given to the spirit you will need a God controlled mind to interpret and share with others. Therefore, do not think that I am suggesting you not use your mind, for a renewed mind is most valuable in the study of the Word. It is simply that the depth of God’s Word must first be founded by use of the spirit.) Those who have no born again spirit will not touch the riches of God’s Word. Our minds are never enough, they will never be adequate without our spirits.

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