12 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.
We need God’s Spirit in order to understand the full work of God in our lives. Without God we can’t understand what God has done on our behalf. Even miraculous signs are nothing more than anomalies to the mind that is not enlightened by the Spirit. Another way to say this is that it is impossible for someone to understand God’s gracious work without the work of God graciously working in them helping them to understand. This is not an intellectual exercise. It takes more than intellect to understand God. It takes more than our emotions to understand God. It takes more than our wills. God must be involved or all our pursuits will come to nothing. They will hit a dead end. But when God is working by His Spirit, then our spiritual eyes will be opened and we will be able to see clearly and make the choice to accept or reject His Truth. So, when we are sharing the message of the Gospel it is vitally important that we listen to the Spirit’s prompting. If we get ahead or behind the Spirit’s timing, there will be a mismatch between the message and the working of the Spirit. We will be out of sync with the work of God. It is like a drummer in an orchestra not following the conductor. They might be playing exactly what the music says he is to be playing, but it will be out of sync with what the rest of the orchestra is doing. It is only when we are following the beat of the conductor that the music sounds as it was written to sound. Keep in step with God’s Spirit.
The Arnold Journey 