Understanding through Experience

UNDERSTANDING THROUGH EXPERIENCING

 

 

I have a dear friend who trusts me.  But my friend is often very frustrating.  When I offer a bit of insight, the most common response (usually given instantly without even a moments thought) is to say, “I do not understand.”  When my friend reads the Scriptures or hears the voice of God, the most common response is still, “I do not understand this.”

 

Jesus said, “When anyone hears the Word of the Kingdom and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and catches away that which was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown by the wayside.”  (Matthew 13:19).  Sadly, many people having said they do not understand are quite content to walk away and give the matter no more thought or action.

 

In our culture, we define understanding as cognitive reasoning, coming to conclusions, fully comprehending.  But in the Eastern culture, the culture of Jesus’ time, understanding is an experience.  It means engaging in activities that involve our five senses. In fact the Greek word for understanding  in this verse means “learning which takes place through the five senses.”  It means doing, as in practical human experience. The Biblical view of understanding means far more than giving mental ascent,  it means to practice in real life what one has come to know by revelation.

 

When God, by His grace, reveals things to us, we only come to real understanding by putting these things to work. If we don’t take action, we lose the power and opportunity those revealed things offer us.  When a person hears a word from God, but doesn’t pursue it to  understand it the enemy has open access to that seed and can snatch it away.

 

To understand often requires yielding to something before you can explain, define, or describe it.  Biblical understanding far surpasses the intellect. Hebrews 11:3 says,  “By faith we understand that the worlds were formed by the Word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.”  

 

We don’t have faith because we understand, but we understand because we have faith.  In other words, it is imperative to accept and understand things without completely satisfying our intellect.  When I read the Bible, I don’t always understand what I’m reading. Biblical learning takes place in the spirit first, and  as we walk out the leading of the Spirit of God, our spirit communicates to our minds so we begin to intellectually understand.  But understanding is not required for trusting in our relationship with the Father.

 

Any Father who has raised children has instructed his child about not walking in the middle of the street.  The child has no capacity, at first, to understand why.  But no loving Father will permit his child to walk into danger or death just because the child does not understand.  However, as the child walks safely at the edge of the street and sees the traffic streaming past, it takes only a little experience for the child to begin to understand.  Indeed, he will understand far beyond what he is able to put in words.

 

Now we see that a healthy follower of Jesus is one who willingly flows in the revelations and promptings of the Holy Spirit before understanding. Understanding usually unfolds in the experience.  The simplest path to obtain understanding of God’s revelations is to begin to walk in them in the practice of daily living.  Quickly we begin to realize that the Father who tells us that His ways are higher than our ways desires us to be sons who understand Him. (Isaiah 1:3)

 

To illustrate:  A man may hear revelation about feeding the poor.  He may be moved emotionally, but if he does not do something practical — perhaps finding and helping a poor family, or volunteering at a soup kitchen —  then, instead of the Word transforming his heart, it remains vulnerable to the enemy coming to steal away his revelation.   

 

A revelation from God takes us only halfway, experience implementing the revelation leads us all the way.   No matter what we have heard from God, if we do nothing to act upon it, we see that hearing without doing has locked us into a form of godliness without the power of God that transforms us.

 

For many, the mental concept of being a Christian insulates them from the conviction that anything more needs to happen. They develop  anesthesia that deadens their sensitivity to  personal transformation. They are robbed of experience and can only fall back on the principles and philosophy.  It is pure religion in form, but without the godly power of spiritual experience.

 

Jesus said,  “Truly, truly, I say to you, ‘Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”  (John 3:3)  

 

The Kingdom is for us to experience, not so that we have good theology, nor so that our doctrinal statements are accurate and concise. Statements like this are launching pads into encounters where we experience the very things that Jesus has spoken.  God is showing us what is possible to any person that has been cleansed from sin by the sacrificial blood of His Son, Jesus.