Spirit to spirit

My heart is broken within me;

all my bones tremble.

I am like a drunken man,

like a man overcome by wine,

because of the Lord

and his holy words.

The land is full of adulterers;

because of the curse, the land lies parched

and the pastures in the desert are withered....

[False prophets] keep saying: 'You will have peace,'

and 'No harm will come to you.'

But which of them has stood in the council of the Lord

to see or to hear his word?

Who has listened and heard his word?....

...if they had stood in my council,

they would have proclaimed my words to my people

and would have turned them from their evil ways (Jer. 23:9-10; 18 & 22).

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The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God....no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God....we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. 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 (I Cor. 2:10-14).

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When Paul traveled to Greece, he found there a culture of debate and argument, following a long history of philosophers and statesmen whose entertainment (no television) was to sit in public forums listening to "wise men" speak and declaim earthly wisdom.  Those who had the best argument, based on human reason, "won."  Sometimes I think our televised political debates follow the tradition of the Greeks. 

I can no longer listen to them; they are all speaking empty words.  Whoever the candidate, his spirit does not speak to my spirit, so his words no longer matter to me.  I am not being negative; I still plan to vote for the man (or woman) who seems to be the best leader for our troubled nation.  All I am saying is that human wisdom is no longer enough to save us as a nation.  Unless we can find leaders who "stand in the council of the Lord" to hear His words, we are certainly lost.  And of course, I realize that living in the public eye, moving along the campaign trail, and trying to please all of the people all of the time leaves no time for prayer and listening to the Spirit of God speaking to our own spirit.

As a nation, as a church, as a people, as individuals --- we all need Divine Wisdom to carry out the tasks we have been given.  It is not about being popular, being liked, being admired -- as the prophet Jeremiah discovered.  No one really wants to listen to God or to the directions of the Holy Spirit, for that means giving up our own agendas, opinions, and ways.  All of us want to go our own way and "do our own thing." 

None of us want to wait upon the Lord, to be still and to hear His direction.  It is too hard; it demands too much.  It is easier for us to stand in the marketplace, raise our fists, and demand to be heard.  It is easier for us to impose our own will on others than to listen to the Lord's will for us.

Moses had a passion to free his people from slavery to unjust rulers.  He first tried his way -- violence--but found that did not work.  Forty years later, after retreating to the desert, he was finally able to "stand in the council of the Lord" and to listen to God's way: not by power, not by might, but by my Spirit, says the Lord.  Following the counsel of the Lord, he led the people to the Red Sea and said, "The Lord will fight for you; you need only be still."

Unless Moses had listened, he could never have known the mind and the plans of God -- His mind and His plans for us are spiritually discerned.  The man without the spirit does not understand or accept the things of God, for they are foolishness to him.....But we have the mind of Christ.

If we want the mind of Christ, if we want to understand God's plans to deliver us from evil, we must listen to Him.  We must stand in the council of the Lord.  If we fail to do this, nothing else matters -- not political debates, not promises, not the words of any false prophet.