Resurrection and the Need for Scripture

[HKHaugan]

Continuing on our needs trip and having seen the need to worship we move on to a companion need and that is filling the half full glass of mind renewal. After Jesus becomes the significant person in our life we discover our lack of knowledge about Him and of Him. So two needs pop up here. The mind’s need to order experience and the heart’s need to fill the interpersonal void that sin has wrought in us. We thirst for knowing Him in our mind and heart just like the Psalmist who cried,
“God—you're my God! I can't get enough of you! I've worked up such hunger and thirst for God, traveling across dry and weary deserts (Ps.63:1 The Message).

God has equipped us with a mind, a heart and a spirit. When sin came they were lost in a sea of confusion. We became like a juggler with them, throwing up one then the other and hoping in some way to control when and how each was used. But you can only do that for so long before you tire and all of them fall. You can only juggle so long. Keeping that juggler in mind, sometimes the mind goes up and we try and control it, then the heart is hurt or happy but the spirit is jostled and the other two go off in different directions. Frustrated we lead out from the heart and act before the mind can think and the spirit retreats in fear. Or we lead from one of the other and still the bottom line is fear until,---until---we allow the Lord to become our balance and let His Spirit guide.

So let’s look at the three---mind, heart and spirit---and how they find real knowledge, true knowledge, knowledge that we can embrace. We can know about Him, of Him and in Him.

First, knowing about Him, who He is, why He came, the events of His life and the principles of His teaching, take place in the mind as we read Scripture. We inform our mind, compare ideas and apply reason and logic as we go.
Scripture stretches our intellect.
“You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you (Is.26:3 NIV).”

Second, knowing of Him takes place in the heart. That’s something more. It is letting the Spirit make Him real in the every next moment experience of trusting Him. It is letting what the mind appropriates from Scripture burrow through the intellectual barriers we have learned from the secular world and let it move into the heart.

Knowledge then, becomes something more than intellectual accumulation of ideas and principles. Knowledge is the experience we accumulate, as we trust Him to use the Word to reshape our heart. This kind of knowing, heart knowing, is personal. It is an internal record of how trust in His presence in our lives has affected us. It is the kind of knowledge that gives you that ‘you-just-know-that-you-know’ experience. This is the meat of our testimony, the kind that none can take away from you regardless of their argument.
Scripture stretches our heart.
“My son, do not forget my teaching. Keep my commands in your heart. They will help you live for many years. They will bring you success. Don't let love and truth ever leave you. Tie them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart (Prov.3:1-3 NIV).”

Third, knowing in Him. Now we are talking about a real relationship, a trust relationship. The more we trust Him the more we know. The more we know the more we trust Him. It is right here that we catch on to the meaning of that oft used phrase, “Let go and let God.” This kind of knowledge demands that we trust God to shape us without really knowing at any moment what He is doing. This is where the Holy Spirit rounds out our knowledge. He is the One who processes the Scripture to transform the mind, renew the heart and energize our spirit and inspires it to become the stimulant for the mind and heart to blend us into action.

“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come (Jn.16:13 NIV).”
Scripture stretches our spirit.

Therefore mind, heart and spirit move on a whole different level. We are lifted into the spiritual realm to think, trust and have faith the way Jesus, the real Spiritual Person, does. He knows the spiritual dimension backward and forward. This is what the Psalmist sought when He lifted His heart to the Lord,
“I have chosen to be faithful to you. I put my trust in your laws.
Lord, I'm careful to obey your covenant laws.
Don't let me be put to shame.
I am quick to follow your commands, because you have set my heart free (Ps.119:30-32 NIV).”