Lukewarm Ain't Hot Enough For Me Part 10

Grace to you and peace from our Father dear brethren. Today we will look at another believer category that is in the world today -the intellectual believer. This is the kind of believer who has to measure belief on the scales of logic and rationale. For this believer, whatever God "is saying" has to make sense in their minds first before it earns a place in their Spirit. The problem with this kind of believer is that as they spend time trying to understand God and His workings, they are often where He was when He needs them to be where He is! They spend countless hours analyzing the revelation of yesterday that they are lost to the revelation of today and now. For this believer, the Gospel cannot be simple and they only feel comfortable about a gospel ministered from an intellectual point of view. They are sticklers for messages that meet the threshold of structure, form and content as per their "how to prepare a sermon" manual.

In the 1st letter of Paul to the church at Corinth, he says: 'And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God [2:4-5] (NKJV)'. Earlier on in chapter 1 verse 17 of the same letter, he proclaims that the danger oval message preached with human wisdom is that it empties the cross of its power. Brethren, the Gospel is as simple as John 3:16-17 and that is what the intellectual believer will keep questioning. This kind of lukewarm dictates that there has to be something that man does to earn God's grace and favour. This believer is pro-works and he keeps looking for ways through which he can work his way into grace (and when God moves in their lives, they attribute it to the countless hours they spent in prayer and fasting, and abstaining from sin). The intellectual believer is only at peace when it appears their activities are offering productivity, but as soon as they are waiting on God for too long, then frustration sets in and they begin to have a mental breakdown; was it my praying that was not adequate? They ask. It must have been that day I did not do my devotion; maybe it's because am developing feelings for sister X or brother y; it must be because I did not fast for this programme. This believer has to come up with a logical inference for everything that happens to them.

The Bible in Romans 11:34a asks us 'For who has known the mind of the Lord? (NKJV)'. The intellectual believer needs to understand that the workings of the Lord are as per His good pleasure, and He alone knows the entire bigger picture. There should be an understanding that God has 'chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence (NKJV)'.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus I surrender myself to you. Where logic and rationale have taken precedence, and where I have constantly pursued an understanding of You, I repent. Have mercy on me today and reestablish a foundation in You that is based on trust. Open my mind to the least of things, that I may not miss out on You. Amen.