God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
Summary: Paul’s claim about God testifying for him sounds a bit crazy at first, but the more we think about it and study what God is able to do, the more sense it makes.
If you needed someone to testify about what you were thinking at a certain place and time, who would you go to?
Sometimes we say things like, “I know what you’re thinking!” but we don’t. Nobody knows what you are thinking except you and God.
Wait a minute … God knows our thoughts?
Yes, God knows what you are thinking — all the time (Ezekiel 11:5)!
Oops!
If God knows our thoughts, we must be careful what thoughts we allow in our minds!
This is why Paul writes, “… we [meaning people who love God above all else (Matt 22:37)] take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Paul is careful about what he thinks!
He also understands that his thoughts are just thoughts. Others can’t “see” what he is thinking. The Philippians can’t “know” how Paul feels about them. Paul can say, “I long for all of you with the affection of Jesus Christ,” but people don’t have to believe Paul’s words.
So what does Paul do?
He adds four little words: “God can testify how…”
God knows everything! (1 John 3:20)
One might think that Paul is just making a wild claim, but there is more here than meets the eye.
To the unbeliever, Paul’s claim about God testifying for him is nonsense. They don’t believe in God, so the idea of God testifying for Paul makes no sense.
To the believer, Paul’s claim makes a lot of sense.
God gives us who believe in Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit. The Bible says that God’s Holy Spirit testifies about him (John 15:26). Therefore, if God knows Paul’s thoughts, and you and I as believers have the Holy Spirit, we have a way of hearing from God his testimony about Paul’s thinking.
Application: Let the Holy Spirit guide you in whom to listen to and what to believe.
Food for Thought: How do we know when we are hearing from the Holy Spirit?
How do we know when we are hearing from the Holy Spirit?
Gods words are spoken to our hearts, not our ears, human mind. His words will always be consistent with His written words.
2 Timothy 3:16, All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
John 16:13, When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
John 10:27, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
Ron
Thank you!
Our heard definitely uses a different kind of hearing! Well said!
Good devotion this morning, and Ron I could not have said that any better.
I read something once that changed my “attitude” toward understanding the Bible. “If we rely on other people to tell us what to believe, and do not search the Word of God to find the voice of the Holy Spirit, we will struggle to recognize His voice when He speaks to us.”
Hebrews 5:12-14 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
Isaiah 28:9 “To whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, those taken from the breast?
This does mean we will need to “chew” on things, wrestle with them, digest them, base our beliefs on who God is, and not on what we have “heard” about Him. Allow the Holy Spirit to reveal what His Word means for our lives. But this is a part of the transformation of our mind, a “rewiring” to receive the voice of the Holy Spirit. As Ron said, he will never tell us to do something outside of God’s Will. And as we learn the truths of God’s Word, we will recognize the Will of God. It is not a secret code, or an impossible puzzle, hidden from us, it is easily discernible if we seek it out, and are open to receiving it.
Personally, there are moments when it seems like there is a storm blowing in my thoughts and heart, and I feel tossed back and forth between pride and hopelessness, and when I call upon the Holy Spirit, I am reminded of certain passages, verses, concepts, details of others in the Bible, that bring a calming, peaceful feeling. But it is more than a “quiet place,” there is a presence there that feels like meeting up with a longtime friend who I adore, and I say “thank you for being here.” And then there are times at am already at peace in the Spirit, and I hear Him whisper “go this way” “do this” and there is a hope behind the whisper, I can envision the outcome, and that outcome aligns with the promises that God has spoken in His Word.
Thank you, Chris!
Beautifully said!!