November 04, 2013
Mind Reader
In preparation for getting married, selling her
condo, and moving to the Front Range, our daughter and her dog, Charlie, lived
with us for four months. For weeks I’d been trying to read Charlie’s mind as he
demanded my attention by sitting at my feet and staring up at me with big brown
eyes. Does he need to go for a walk, is he hungry, does he want to play, or is
he asking for a treat? I have to admit that lately I’ve been more attentive to
Charlie’s nuances than to those in the family. Thinking of this on a spiritual
level, I’m now questioning my attentiveness to the Spirit. I stay active in the
Word, so I’m not neglecting the Lord; however, I’m wondering if I should be
looking for ways to be more sensitive to the Spirit. “However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind
has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”- but
God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even
the deep things of God. For who among men knows the
thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one
knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.” (1 Cor 2:9-11 NIV)
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Gail;
-----I would like to say that I would have no interest in God if His substance was nothing other than this physical stuff of which we are. Then we could see His shapes and colors and hear His tones and pitches and smell Him and feel Him, and I don’t know, I guess if we were to lick His hands like the dogs we are, we could even taste Him. He would be so nothing more, so boring.
-----I thank Him big time for making this physical universe to be the mite on His pillow. He is so everything else. Then He remains infinitely exciting, interesting, and eternally the adventure for us, since He will never run out of completely unheard of realities given to our exploration. Having been created in bodies of this mite with only the abilities to taste, touch, smell, hear, and see it, when Adam and Eve died at the tree, our ability to also sense directly His spiritual realities died.
-----Take note, though, eyesight is simply the detection of electromagnetic patterns by receptor nerves. Hearing is a different set of nerves detecting differing patterns in compressions and rarefactions. Touch is yet a different set of nerves detecting patterns of pressures as well as infrared electromagnetic patterns and other patterns of molecular excitement or calm, to boot. Smell is a nerve set detecting patterns of molecular shapes, which combine with another set of nerves detecting a much narrower spectrum of molecular shapes registering the resultant combination in the mind as taste. Our minds are so bounded by the necessity of being touched by some physical phenomenon.
-----You have no sixth sense by which you can just know His thoughts by touch like you can see, hear, smell, touch, and taste other patterns in things. Yet the mind is a receptor of patterns in conclusions drawn from observations and thoughts. Charlie sits and stares. When? What are the circumstances of the situations in which he does this? What was he doing immediately before? What were you doing? Get a clipboard. Log the observations of every aspect of everything you can think of, both during and directly before he does this every time he does it. Then look for what pattern emerges from the data. When you have found it, you will have read his mind.
-----In like manner, the mind is a set of nerves for sensing what amount of His Holy Spirit He opens to such reception. He has even given us a tiny portion of His patterns that, to us, is a huge volume priming our minds for such reception. We call it the Bible. And in it He has even given clues for how to use the mind to sense His Spirit through the patterns of His actions upon the doings of people nearby and in peoples’ histories which you come to know.
-----A few of the clues I use: 1) Desire only what is right and true as God defines, 2) Receive what God gives, amongst which is the Word foremost, 3) Ponder these in the gravity of your desire, 4) Do only what you ponder, 5) Take note of how your doing effects other people and things, 6) Ponder the patterns discernable within the effects by light of the Word, 7) Adjust yourself accordingly. The more your wisdom, insight, and knowledge grow from such processes to better and better reflect the Word the more your senses about being alive will include a sense of the Holy Spirit. So take heart. You’ve already proceeded far down that track of sensing the Spirit without even realizing it.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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