Communion with God---Head or Heart?

Great scholars, great theologians even, are not necessarily communing with God, but rather thinking thoughts about God.  In the garden of Eden, Adam exchanged "walking with God in the cool of the evening" with a desire "to be like God, knowing good and evil."  The thoughts of his mind (or Eve's) became the direction for his life.

All of us will ultimately be either mind-directed or spirit-directed, relying on "what we know," or on the Spirit of Truth. 

If we choose to live through reliance on reason, we will have the following mind-set:
1.  True reality is in the physical world
2.  Reality is perceived through the mind.
3.  My goal is to develop my mind.
4.  I live out of what my mind is telling me.
5.  My mind directs me through calculated, meditated, and premeditated thoughts.

Although it is good to use our minds---in fact, we were created to think and be thinking animals--- I Cor. tells us that "eye has not seen; ear has not heard, what God had prepared for those who love Him.  But it has been revealed to us by the Spirit of God, Who searches all things, even the depths of God" (I Cor. 2:9-10). 

So the point is that we cannot "think" our way into Communion with God.  In fact, we learn in Is. 55 that God says, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are my ways your ways."    So if we are to commune with God, we cannot be directed by our minds, but rather by the Spirit of Truth, Whose role it is to direct our thoughts and ways according to the thoughts and ways of God.  So we don't have to put our minds "on hold," but rather we have to allow our minds to be directed by the Spirit.  If we are controlled, or directed, by the Spirit of God, this will be our way of thinking:

1. True reality is in the spiritual world
2. Reality is perceived through the spirit
3. My goal is to develop my spirit
4. I live out of what my spirit is telling me
5. My spirit directs me through spontaneous, unmeditated thoughts that are placed in it by the Spirit of God.

God is not calling us to use the mind OR the Spirit, but the mind AND the spirit.  The people of the Bible experienced direct communication with God, through spiritual experiences (the burning bush, for example), through angels, dreams, visions, or the gifts of the Holy Spirit (wisdom, for example).  It is good to study about God (theology), but it is even better to walk with God in the cool of the evening and allow Him to teach us Spirit to spirit.