Mental or Spiritual - Sparks

Mental or Spiritual
by T. Austin-Sparks

There is a vast amount of intellectual comprehension of truth and doctrine which is not touching the situation, not meeting the need... A person may know Scripture most thoroughly and yet be the most awkward, cantankerous and peevish person in daily life; or go into business relationships, drive a hard bargain and send another man to the wall for his own ends. You may have all knowledge and yet profit nothing. It is the natural man receiving on the plane of the natural man. It is mental apprehension of Divine truth, and it is not alive, it is not the 'water of Life, clear as crystal.'

Services may be very beautiful but dead... You may have very high ideals, sublime thoughts, and yet there may be just something that renders it all ineffective and you get nowhere. The modern pulpit goes as far as it can, with its own human mental outfit. If a man happens to be more scholarly and better educated than another, his interpretation is thought to be nearer the truth than that of anyone else. If he can put a construction upon the Word of God which is fresh, interesting, and fascinating and just satisfies the inquiring minds of his hearers, they go away with the idea that that is truth. That is no argument at all - no criterion whatever. To make the whole thing a matter of scholarship is to get off the road.

Moses was learned in all the knowledge of the Egyptians, and yet he had to have forty years of isolation and discipline. At the end, Moses had to say, 'I cannot,' and then God was able to say 'Now I have got you down to a level where I can say, 'I can.' Before Saul of Tarsus could go anywhere for God, he had to talk like this: 'Sinners, of whom I am chief'; 'I am the least of all the apostles and not meet to be called an apostle'; 'the things that I counted gain, I now count but loss'; 'I received it not from men, it was made known to me by revelation'; 'it pleased God to reveal His Son in me.' That is not objective achievement; that is subjective experience, and between the two there is all the difference that there is between life and death...

The man who brags of scholarships and argues that because he has a higher brow than anybody else and is therefore nearer the truth is probably the most blind of all men... The moment you introduce the element of the natural man into the ministry you kill it. The river of the water of Life clear as crystal will not flow through the channel of the flesh.

What you minister must be born of the Spirit of God in your spirit, and it must not be interfered with by the flesh. God will not let the stream of living ministry flow until the flesh is laid forever in death and it is no longer I but Christ.

First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, May-Jun 1926, Vol 4-3

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Love T.A. Sparks. Great article. Thanks brother.

Do you have any more articles about this intellectualism, I have been struggling greatly with my intellectualism getting in the way of things causing doubt and condemnation. I am trying to understand my identity in Christ and am struggling because I know of Christ love but I dont know if I have ever experienced Christ Love personally. I can read many things about the Love of God but it hasn't yet touched my hard heart and in reaction to this is me trying to read more do more learn more rather than submit which I know is ultimately what I need to do.

Matthew,

Do you have a pastor or elder at your church with whom you can speak about this matter?

I have recently taken this journey as well and want to encourage you in your spiritual pilgrimage that what you are struggling with is not necessarily a problem with being over-intellectual.

As you have found, the read more, study more, pray more, self-exertion exercise is not always the answer. If Christ is, in fact our sanctification (I Cor 1:30), then consider the ministry for which Jesus was anointed in Luke 4:18,19 / Isaiah 61:1.

You may be at a place where you are not dealing with a hard heart, but a broken heart (Psalm 147:3, Psalm 34:18).

Yours in Him,
Matthew

Wow Brother thanks so much! You gave me confirmation as to what I am to do though I see a long hard road ahead I will skip jollying :) I had a dream about helping some Youth people but then at the end of the dream we were all ministering at an Old Folks home and everyone had a story to tell but we all came together for prayer it was awesome because revival was anticipated. I had a message about prayer and that its not the last resort and the elderly were the best equipped for prayer because they have perserverance and long suffering on their side which produces Patience. :) We sang Hymn and songs. And I know for sure that these people are broken hearted because the preacher that use to come has stopped they (the old folks) say that He didn't want them anymore. I just remember these Elderly and that the bible tells us to take care of the elderly I just hope to be obedient.

"Do you have any more articles about this intellectualism, I have been struggling greatly with my intellectualism getting in the way of things causing doubt and condemnation. I am trying to understand my identity in Christ and am struggling because I know of Christ love but I dont know if I have ever experienced Christ Love personally."

Brother,

As men it is very easy for us to deviate from a true faith in the Lord which is of the heart to a intellectual grasping of the truth. We have all of this knowledge of God through mental assent of the truths in the Word, yet we really do not know the One who said "I am the truth."

"And this is life eternal, that they might know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." (John 17:3).

True Christianity is knowing God. It is loving God with all of our being, and by the revelation of the Holy Spirit, seeing Him.

"That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him." (Ephesians 1:17).

The Holy Spirit has been given to us to reveal Jesus to us. It is not just the mental apprehension of laws and precepts but of a experiential knowledge of the Lord, seeing Him as our savior, deliverer, healer, provider, our all in all.

There is a knowledge of God that is higher than an intellectal understanding of the Lord, and that is knowing and experiencing God's love. The great commandment is that we would love the Lord with all of our heart. We can love God because He first loved us, and His love has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

"For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man;
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen."
(Ephesians 3:14-21).

If we are going to come into the knowledge of this love it will not come by more study, but by spending time with God, seeking Him, and abiding in His presence.

"And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29:13).

In the area of faith and trust in the Lord we must become like little children. Men will never apprehend God by their own intellect, but it is in simply believing in God's faithfulness and obeying Him, that the Lord will manifest Himself to us.

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart; and lean not to your own understanding." (Proverbs 3:5).

Mike

Thank You Brother Mike for the words of encouragement, I understand fully what you are saying. I believe at times I get discontent with where I am at in my walk because I really do want to do what the bible says but I find that I fail at all or most areas so when that happens its hard to rest in Christ when I feel like a failure something that I am learning though is found in Song of Songs 1:5-7 Speaks about the Shulamite woman being Dark but Lovely to Solomon and through my study I find that being tan from hard labor in the vineyard is what this woman is talking about but that kind of tan was not very desirable to Royality. But Solomon exclaims "Tell me, O you whom I love"

There is a song I love listening to called Dark But Lovely the chorus goes "Though Im poor you say I am lovely, Though Im dark you say I am beautiful."

I must remember that though at times I feel and look like a total failure but God see my heart striving for Him and finds me lovely and beautiful and deeply loves me. :) Thanks for the encouragement again!

God Bless,
Matthew

There is a vast amount of intellectual comprehension of truth and doctrine which is not touching the situation, not meeting the need.

This sure hits the nail on the proverbial head. It has been my prayer of late that revelation will be made reality in my life.

We have more knowledge of Greek and Hebrew than any generation ever before. We have more CD's and books and conferences than ever before. But people are moving farther away from the heart and mind of God every day. We seem to have little or no influence on our society that is descending quickly into deeper darkness.

I think we fit the description of the Apostle Paul when he described a church that was always learning but never coming to a knowledge of the truth. In other words, never being brought to the place where all that knowledge was supposed to lead.

I hope you will join me in asking God for a perfect heart and a willing mind. Our cry must be for a heart to embrace God's work and for a mind to accept and occupy the place He has given us in His body. His path that He has laid out for us must be sufficient for us. Without a heart for the truth or a mind to be taken where truth leads, we run the risk of becoming spiritually darkened.

In Christ,

Ron

Brother Matthew,

Your heart is to please God and do His will, and that is why failure is so grievious to you. "There is therefore no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1). Remember that all of your struggling and stiving will not give you victory. Christ is your victory. He has already overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil. Keep your eyes on the One who is the author and the finisher of your faith. The one that began a good work in you will finish it.

Mike