"I thank Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes.” Matt. xi. 25; Luke x. 21
The wise and prudent are the men who are conscious and confident of their power of mind and reason to aid them in their pursuit of Divine Knowledge. The babes are those whose chief work is not the mind and its power, but the heart and its disposition. Ignorance, helplessness, dependence, meekness, teachableness, trust and love ”” these are the tempers God seeks in those whom He teaches. (Ps. xxv. 9, 12, 14, 17, 20.)
One of the most important parts of our devotions is the study of God’s Word. Of what deep importance that we should ever receive the Word in the Spirit that waits for the Father to reveal its truth in us. And of what importance that we should have the child-like, yea the babe-like disposition to which the Father loves to impart the secrets of His love. With the wise and prudent head-knowledge is the first thing; from them God hides the spiritual meaning of the very thing they think they understand. With the babes, not the head and its knowledge but the heart and feeling, the sense of humility, love and trust, is the first thing, and to them God reveals, in their inner life and experience, the very thing they know they cannot understand.
Education tells us that there are two styles of teaching. The ordinary teacher makes the communication of knowledge his chief object, and cultivates the powers of the child as far as they help him to attain his object. The true teacher considers the amount of knowledge a secondary thing. His first aim is to develop the power of mind and spirit, and to aid the pupil, both mentally and morally, in using his powers aright in the pursuit and the application of knowledge. Even so there are two classes of preachers. Some pour forth instruction and argument and appeal unceasingly, leaving it to the hearers to make the best use they can of what is brought them. The true preacher knows how much depends upon the state of heart, and seeks, even as our Lord Jesus did, to subordinate the teaching of objective truth or doctrine to the cultivation of those dispositions without which teaching profits little. A hundred sermons, eloquent and earnest, to the wise and prudent, to Christians who listen with the thought that they can understand, and that what they hear will somehow profit them, will bring less real blessing, than one sermon to hearers in whom the preacher has awakened a consciousness of spiritual ignorance, a babe-like docile spirit that waits for and depends on, that truly accepts and obeys, the Father’s teaching.
In the secret chamber every man is, as far as human aid is concerned, his own teacher and preacher. He is to train himself in the blessed habit of babe-like simplicity and teachableness. Remembering that it was not only needful that Divine Truth should be revealed in the world, but that there must be an individual revelation to each, by the Holy Spirit, his first care is to wait on the Father to reveal to him, and within him, the hidden mystery in its power in the inner life. In this posture he exercises the babe-like spirit, and receives the Kingdom as a little child. All Evangelical Christians believe in regeneration. How few believe that when a man is born of God, a babe-like dependence on God for all teaching and strength ought to be his chief characteristic. It was the one thing our Lord Jesus insisted on above all. When He pronounced the poor in heart, the meek, the hungry, "blessed,” when He called men to learn of Him that He was meek and lowly in heart, when He spoke so often of our humbling ourselves and becoming as little children, it was because the first and chief mark of being a child of God, of being like Jesus Christ, is an absolute dependence upon God for every blessing, and specially for any real knowledge of spiritual things. Let each ask himself: Have I counted the babe-like spirit the first essential in my Bible study? Of what use is Bible study without the babe-like spirit? It is the real and only key to God’s school. Would it not be well to set aside everything to secure this? Then alone will God reveal His hidden wisdom.
The new birth, being begotten of God, by which we become God’s children, is meant to make us babes. It will give us the child-spirit as well as the child-teaching. It cannot do the second without the first. Let us believe and yield ourselves to the new life in us, to the leading of the Spirit; He will breathe in us the spirit of little children. The first object of Bible study is to learn the hidden wisdom of God. The first condition of obtaining this knowledge is to accept the fact that God Himself reveals it to us.
The first disposition needed for receiving that revelation is a babe-like spirit. We all know how the first thing a wise workman does is to see that he has the proper tools, and that they are in proper order. He does not count it lost time to stop his work and sharpen the tools. It is not lost time to let the Bible study wait, till you see whether you are in the right position ”” waiting for the Father’s revelation in the meek and babe-like spirit. If you feel that you have not read your Bible in this spirit, confess and forsake at once the self-confident spirit of the wise and prudent. Not only pray for the babe-like spirit, but believe for it. It is in you, though neglected and suppressed; you may begin at once as a child of God to experience it.
Seek not by reflection or argument to bring this babe-like spirit into your heart. Work from within outwards. It is in you, as a seed, in the new life, born of the Spirit. It must rise and grow in you as a birth of the indwelling Spirit. In this faith you must not only pray, but pray also very specially for this grace of the Spirit, and exercise it. Live as a babe before God. As a new born babe desire the milk of the Word.
And beware of trying to assume this state of mind only when you want to study Scripture. It must be the permanent habit of your mind, the state of your heart. Then alone can you enjoy the continual guidance of the Holy Spirit.
From "The Inner Chamber and the Inner Life" by Andrew Murray