In 1 Corinthians 2:14, the Apostle Paul defines “the things of the Spirit of God” as what “eye has not seen, ear has not heard, neither has entered into the heart of man”. Although they were “behind in no gift” the believers in the church at Corinth had problems common to converts in cultures steeped in idolatry.
If we desire to fully understand the wisdom that Paul describes as invisible, inaudible and inconceivable, we need to read Job 28:7. “There is a path that no bird knows, and which the vulture’s eye has not seen. The lion’s whelps have not trodden it, nor has the fierce lion used it.”
Job is speaking of a path of wisdom that the keenest eye cannot see and the proud have not accessed. Job likens that hidden path to a secret vein of silver and a hidden lode of gold. He speaks of iron ore and copper, both of which were as valuable in antiquity as they are today, and his words tell us how miners of his time extracted these precious metals from the earth. For clarity I’ll quote from the New Living Translation. (Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.)
“People know how to mine silver and refine gold. They know how to dig iron from the earth and smelt copper from stone. They know how to put light into darkness and explore the farthest, darkest regions of the earth as they search for ore. They sink a mine shaft into the earth far from where anyone lives. They descend on ropes, swinging back and forth. Bread comes from the earth, but below the surface the earth is melted as by fire.
“People know how to find sapphires and gold dust – treasures that no bird of prey can see, no falcon’s eye observes – for they are deep within the mines. No wild animal has ever walked upon these treasures; no lion has set his paw there. “People know how to tear apart flinty rocks and overturn the roots of mountains. They cut tunnels in the rocks and uncover precious stones. They dam up the trickling streams and bring to light the hidden treasures. But do people know where to find wisdom? Where can they find understanding? No one knows where to find it.”
At this point, we need to remember that the wisdom that Job speaks of — wisdom that’s invisible to the sharpest eye and is never trodden on by the proud — is the same wisdom Paul writes of in 1 Corinthians, chapters 1 & 2. The ancient Greeks prized worldly wisdom (Greek: “Sophia”) above all else, but saw the gospel preached by Paul as laughable because it lacked sophistication.
“For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness; but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the [supposed] foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the [supposed] weakness of God is stronger than men.” (1 Corinthians 1:22-25)
Paul’s determination “not to know anything among you, except Jesus Christ, and him crucified” made him weak, afraid and very shaky, but enabled him to demonstrate the power of the Spirit of God. This rather than the “enticing words of man’s wisdom” so beloved of the Greeks, would be the solid foundation of their faith (1 Corinthians 2:2-5).
In refusing the signs Jews required and the wisdom Greeks prized, Paul chose a way that pleased neither! He put his witness on the line! Life on the line is about choice: whether you and I have the courage to choose to do as Paul did by putting ourselves ‘at risk’ in situations where we are so dependent on God that we find ourselves praying, “Lord, if you don’t turn up, I’m sunk!” This is both daring and dangerous! (The one proviso is that we are where the Lord has led us, not just where we went of our own will.)
It helps us to know that the Apostle Paul did it “in weakness, in fear, and in trembling” (the Greek word translated “fear” is “phobos”, from which we get the English word “phobia”). If you don’t feel it before you preach, then maybe you are preaching what people want instead of what they need. We should never allow the expectations of people to determine the content of our message or the way we minister.
Once, when beginning a weekend of meetings in Cornwall, I discerned that some of the people present had come to “see what I could do”, so I chose to preach a message that was unlikely to meet their expectations. It was based on Solomon’s 300 shields of gold, that were replaced after his death by his son Rehoboam with 300 shields of brass.
The theme of my message was: Don’t replace real faith with substitutes. Those people were noticeably absent the following evening, and when I preached, the Spirit powerfully touched those who had come for the right reason, which was to be healed and that Jesus would be exalted.
There is a place where we are at our weakest and God is at His strongest, and it is where we are fearful that we might fail God, and are physically shaken by the spiritual choices we make publicly. God does not anoint our strengths but our weaknesses, so paradoxically when we are at our weakest we are at our strongest (2 Corinthians 12:9). The strength comes when “the power of Christ” rests on us. Or, as NT Greek puts it, “comes upon us as a tent”. I like to think of it as a canopy that encloses my life.
When this takes place, weakness, fear and anxiety vanish and we preach “as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men,” as Richard Baxter once put it. In the anointing of the Spirit of God you will do things you would never dream of doing in yourself!
I can recall being so energized by the Spirit of God while preaching at a conference in Kinmel Hall, North Wales, that I leapt twice over a large, studded, leather sofa! “And the Spirit of the Lord shall come upon you, and you … shall be turned into another man.” (1 Samuel 10:6) A bold man! A man who would prophesy with prophets! Some of us have an innate conservatism that restrains us from acting without conscious forethought when the situation so demands. You can only be as free in the Spirit of God as you are in our own spirit.
I am not referring to demonic bondage but to inherited or acquired inhibitions that make us think twice instead of acting on what the Lord has put in our heart to do. First thoughts from the Lord are bold but our second thoughts are dangerous; they cancel them out, and we are left wondering what might have happened had we moved as the Spirit moved.
It takes courage to do what the Lord says rather than what the mind thinks, but if you desire to experience the power that will establish you in the faith, you must be prepared to put yourself at risk. Are you willing to risk everything by trusting God as Paul did when, despite being conscious of his human weakness, he took a stand for the truth and preached a message which he knew people would not like to hear?
Are you willing to walk the hidden path of God’s wisdom by allowing Him to work in power when you are at your weakest? You are? Then good for you! May boldness be your friend, and may the Lord Jesus confirm the words you preach!