The Rule of the Heavens (continued)
Sovereignty (continued)
The Nature and Power of Spiritual Knowledge
Take the matter of knowledge. Men say that "knowledge is power," but they mean natural knowledge. They mean intellectual knowledge. Among men it may be power, but there is a spiritual knowledge which is far more mighty than natural knowledge, and Paul says again that the wisdom of this world is so foolish that it crucified the Lord of Live. That is wisdom at its highest development in this world; the rulers did it, the wise people did it. "We speak a wisdom ... of God" (1 Corinthians 2:1-8). Spiritual knowledge is a tremendous thing. It is the rule of the heavens. The knowledge of the Lord Himself is the most mighty thing that has ever been given to men - true, personal, inward knowledge of the Lord.
Ultimately it is going to be spiritual understanding that counts. Men are going to be at their wits ends, and they are fast approaching it. They do not know how to solve the problems of this world, they do not know how to cope with this world's situation. And when that day comes, when men have been utterly defeated in the matter of the wise government of this world, then it will be those who know the Lord who will be strong, who will be at rest. They will be the ones that count. And when men's hearts fail them for fear, it will be those who know the Lord to whom they will turn.
But do you see that the whole universe is going to be governed by spiritual understanding and knowledge? If the heavens do rule now, how do they rule? How do angels and archangels know the will of God and run to do His bidding? We see them cooperating with God in the government of this world. They do not know because they are told, and they do not know because they sit down and reason it out. They know intuitively. Intuition is a faculty of the spirit, not of the soul. They know the same as you would know if you had lived with a person and come to perfect understanding of that person. You would be one with them by long living with them, and you would not need to be told what to do, and it would not be necessary for you to sit down and puzzle it out. You would intuitively know what their mind about a thing was. If God is going to govern the universe through the church, it will be through the intuitive knowledge of His Will. We will know what He wants done next. This is the outcome of a close spiritual walk and fellowship with the Lord.
Are we not coming under the hand of God in His dealing with us? Are we not coming in a minor way to sense what the Lord would have done at a certain time? You know in your hearts what the Lord wants and what He does not want; and you know when the Lord wants it. It has come to you by the Spirit. It is spiritual discernment, spirituality which is spiritual knowledge. But we will get these heads of ours into things and try to bring Divine knowledge down to human understanding, and the Lord has to bewilder us and stun us and bring us to the place where we are in a fog because we try to deal with spiritual things by natural equipment. He wants us to come where He is able to bear witness in us of His will.
"The Word of God must dwell in us richly in all wisdom and spiritual understanding" (Colossians 3:16; 1:9).
This reaches out to a large number of other things. The world thinks of force as power, the Lord thinks of love and meekness as power. It is love that has conquered; faith that overcomes. It is meekness that has brought God's great victory again and again. And God would develop those. One of the mightiest forces in this universe is holiness. The Lord will go on to add spirituality if we will go on, but His trouble with us is that we do not go on. We still walk in and cling to the flesh and try to bring over all this natural equipment of ours to do spiritual things. We have thought that our zeal and our passion and our energy and our thinking out of all this thing was counting for God. Whatever has been accomplished by that has got to stand the test of the fire yet. What abides for eternity is that which is done by the Holy Spirit, and only that. Only the Holy Spirit can do God's work and unless the Holy Spirit is doing God's work through us, all that we are doing for God is going to be in vain.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 32)
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