Word of God

John 3: 27 ‘A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven.’ NKJV

Which is more important to you, the head or the heart?

If the gift we receive, for example the gift of wisdom, is coming down from heaven, it is a gift from God. How can we possibly receive something from God with our human intellect?

To use computer software terminology, the gift from God has to be first downloaded then installed. You might think it has to be downloaded through the intellect and then installed in the heart of a man.

But it is more likely the other way around. It is downloaded through the heart and installed in the intellect. We first receive from God intuitively through the operation of our spirit, then think about it, and so install it in our mind or soul.

Nicodemus was a cleric and an intellectual. He could see there was something special about Jesus but was having a hard time with Him. He was trying to crank it all through his superior intellect. He was trying to download from Jesus straight into his head.

It is sad to see intelligent, educated people trip up on things like the baptism in the Spirit, the gifts or charisms of the Spirit, and the charismatic renewal in general. Could it be they are living too much in their head and not enough in their heart? Simpler people on the other hand receive this good news and profit greatly from it and produce fruit in their lives for God’s kingdom.

Our Christian faith is primarily a thing of the spirit and is received by the spirit. All the gifts of God we receive, including gifts of prayer, are all spiritual matters before they are intellectual. We receive these things intuitively into the heart through the operation of our spirit.

Could this be what Jesus meant when He said that unless we become like little children, we should not enter the kingdom of God – which is a thing of the spirit.