Heart Affairs II

John 3:⁸ “The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”

In John 8:25, Jesus was saying, ‘Even if I told you again, you would not believe me. Even if I told you what has happened, you still would not believe.’ As you study the Bible, at some point you will have to ask, why doesn’t Jesus just explain to these people plainly? Balaam asked God, ‘Should I go and curse Israel?’, and God told him not to go [Num.22, please read]. Time passed and Balaam went back to ask God again and God said, ‘You are asking again?’ But Balaam persisted and after a while, God told Balaam to go. However, there is a ‘go’ that has God’s blessings and there is a ‘go’ that does not have God’s blessings. When God told Balaam to go, what He was saying essentially was, ‘You can claim you heard ‘go’ and indeed you heard ‘go’. But I will be waiting for you on the road because there is ‘go’ and there is ‘go’. Why does Jesus have to use parables and dark sayings? By God’s grace, we have the answer and it is in Mark 4:^10-12 “When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables. And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables; in order that ‘they may indeed look, but not perceive, and may indeed listen, but not understand; so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.’” (NRSV, emphasis added). May you not be outside. If you are outside, God will draw you in today, in the Name of Jesus. I read this scripture and I say to God, is that not too hard? But the key thing is, Jesus understands that, belief based on exhaustive explanation is as fickle as belief that is based on signs and wonders.

Jesus knows that it is not by power to believe. It is not by an intellectual capacity to grasp what God is saying. If you have to have an exhaustive concordance, exposition from the Greek, and have to understand everything before you believe, there is a problem. Coming to faith in Christ is not based on accepting logical propositions, it is much deeper and much more mysterious than that. Coming to faith in Christ is totally mysterious and unexplainable. Coming to faith in Christ is as mysterious as, how a virgin can conceive and have a child. That is how mysterious coming to faith in Christ is. While we explain, while we teach, while we preach, while we pray that people understand, it cannot be purely based on the eloquence of man’s wisdom or explanation. Coming to faith in Christ involves the Father and the Spirit speaking to the hearts of people.

Jesus puts it this way in John 6:⁴⁴ “For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me...”. You cannot come to God mainly because your father is a Bishop. If God does not draw you, it is not going to happen. I pray that God will draw you. Even for those of us that know Him, I pray that He will draw us even higher still in the Name of Jesus.

Prayer [hymn]: I am Thine, O Lord, I have heard Thy voice, and it told Thy love to me. But I long to rise in the arms of faith and be closer drawn to Thee. Draw me nearer… Amen!