The Spirit-Led Learner

 

“I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  But when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth.”

-          John 16:12-13

 

It is a fascinating thing for me to consider how God has transformed my understanding of things over the years.  As believers we are called to be lovers of Truth (2 Thessalonians 2:10) and in recognition of both the internal and external limits of our understanding we are compelled to embrace our current perspectives with an intellectual humility.  We hold our theology in the confidence of the God who has given us His Inerrant Word and has given us the ability to understand it.  While at the same time acknowledging that we have blind spots (Matthew 7:3-5) that impair our ability to perfectly understand what Scripture is always saying.  We know in part (1 Corinthians 13:12) and as such we recognize the need for humility and the call to be life-long learners.

To make sure I’m not misunderstood I feel it's important to state that this open-mindedness is not one that is open-minded to different religions.  If in fact we are genuine believers, then we have been made that way by God revealing Himself to us (Galatians 1:13-16).  And while our conversion may not be as radical as Saul of Tarsus, we likewise have been brought to a place of belief in Jesus by God Himself.  “You didn’t choose Me, but I chose you” declared Jesus to His disciples in John 15:16 and as such after God showed Himself to us, we committed our lives to Him and in so doing closed ourselves off from any and every other so-called god out there¹.

A Shift in Trust

I wrote a whole book on the God who gives faith to overcome doubt and in it I explain that at times genuine believers will encounter doubts because God has allowed for stumbling blocks to exist in the world (Matthew 18:6-9) but that rather than living on the endless treadmill of thought that requires us to disprove every other ideology to have peace we need to be content to live at times with the mystery of not being able to fully explain everything in the world.  This is ultimately a shift in trust, where we go from finding peace from the process of elimination to instead receiving peace from the Presence of God.

In doing so we find that there is a “Peace that surpasses understanding that guards our hearts and minds” (Philippians 4:7) and that we have the ability in a place of encountering Holy Spirit to know a love that “surpasses knowledge” (Ephesians 3:19).  A love so profound that it “drives out fear” (1 John 4:18).  In other words, Scripture declares that the mind is not the answer to every problem but that there is a greater dimension of healing that is available in the Presence of Holy Spirit.

All Truth is God's Truth

This is obviously a profound call to prayer (I would add fasting to the mix as well) in that it is the recognition that what we truly need in life is found in God Himself.  But I want the reader to understand that while the true medicine for our hearts is found in touching the Lord that it remains true that the Christian Faith is a rational worldview, and that all Truth is God’s Truth.

As such the believer is called to be a Spirit-Led Learner.  An individual who is led by his God-given hunger for understanding into various fields of study so that we can discover the fingerprints of God in the different academic disciplines.  This hunger of course is that which is born from peace and powered by curiosity and not from anxiety driven by fear.  If a certain field of study makes us anxious or would even put a wedge between us and God, then we will find resolve for that anxiety from God Himself in the place of prayer and worship.  We need to watch the motivations of our hearts because Jesus told us that if something causes us to stumble then we should tear it out of our lives (Matthew 18:7-9).  As such we should avoid approaching fields of study out of a place to prove our fears wrong and rather should from a place of peace allow God to lead us into the fields that He would want for us.

It is the Anointing that teaches (1 John 2:27) and it is God who guides us into all Truth (John 16:13).  May You guide us deeper and deeper down Your rabbit hold oh Lord.

Amen.

 

¹I think someone who hasn’t been brought to a place of belief in Jesus probably wouldn’t understand what I mean by this and would likely see this as everything they despise about religion in that they see it as closing people’s minds to new ideas.  But this of course comes from a rationalistic/agnostic perspective that see the world as the product of impersonal forces and therefore committing to a Person seems foolish to them.  But this then shows the contrast in thinking between the 2 camps.  The non-committal agnostic is always free to leave his options open to see wherever the facts that he perceives will take him but the individual who has been touched by God has been opened up to an entirely new dimension of life that transcends comparing worldviews based on ideas and concepts.  He has rather been introduced to a Person and while life circumstances and popular ideologies may go against what he believes now due to this encounter he remains committed saying like Peter says in John 6:68-69 “To whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

His commitment becomes like that of a man to his wife.  He is now close-minded to any woman who may be better for him than his wife.  He is committed to a person and as such his search is over.