On the Day of Pentecost, seven weeks after Jesus Christ rose from the dead, the disciples were meeting together in one place.  Suddenly a sound from heaven, like a rushing mighty wind, filled the whole house where they were sitting.  Tongues of fire appeared on each of them and God gave His Holy Spirit to the disciples.  The same Holy Spirit is in true Christians today.  The Holy Spirit is vital to us.  It is how God lives in us. 

The question I want to address here is, how does the Holy Spirit impart understanding?

When Jesus was living on the earth He talked about sending the Holy Spirit to teach us all things. 

John 14:26  “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

The Holy Spirit teaches us all things.  The Holy Spirit is not a person, so it can’t literally teach us, but God teaches us through His Holy Spirit.  Just to be clear on that, turn to John 6:44.  Here Jesus is talking about the Father drawing or calling people.

John 6:44  “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.
John 6:45  “It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.

Putting these two Scriptures together, we see that the Father calls (or draws) us.  He opens our mind and teaches us all things through His Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit reveals the things of God – or put another way, it imparts understanding. 

1 Cor 2:9  But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
1 Cor 2:10  But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

God reveals the things of God through His Spirit.  The apostle Paul explains further in the next verse:

1 Cor 2:11  For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? ….

It is the spirit in man which enables us to understand the things of man.  What sort of things?  The spirit in man enables us – for example — to enjoy music and dancing; to read and write; to build cities; and the more mundane things such as going shopping or cooking dinner.  It’s what makes us different to the animals.  It imparts human intellect.  The spirit in man gives us intelligence which is not in an animal brain.  The spirit in man gives us the ability to understand the physical world.  

Let’s consider for a moment, a cow.  Imagine you could talk to this cow.  What could you meaningfully talk about to the cow?  The grass, eating, sleeping, maybe the weather. That’s probably about it.  She couldn’t understand the everyday things we do, such as: getting dressed in the morning; going to work or school; having coffee with a friend; going shopping; cooking dinner.  These are the things of man, the things which the spirit in man enables us to understand.  A cow does not have the spirit of man and cannot understand these things.  Which is why if you could talk to a cow, you couldn’t talk to it about your day at work or what your friend told you or what you had for dinner.  This is what the apostle Paul meant when he wrote: “what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him”.

Now let’s read the last part of verse 11. 

1 Cor 2:11  …Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.

So, just as the spirit in man enables us to understand the things of man, so the Spirit of God enables us to understand the things of God.  In other words, just as a cow hasn’t a hope of understanding the things of man, so man hasn’t a hope of understanding the things of God – without the Spirit of God.

We learn about the physical world through our physical senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell.  We cannot understand spiritual things through our physical senses.  We need the Holy Spirit to open our eyes – so to speak – so we can understand spiritual things.  A person without the Holy Spirit is limited to knowing only things about the physical world.  This is what the apostle Paul meant when he wrote: “no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God”.

Continuing in v12.

1 Cor 2:12  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, [that is the Holy Spirit] that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

We receive the Holy Spirit that we might know and understand spiritual things.

1 Cor 2:13  These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

The NASB reads more easily, it says:

1 Cor 2:13  which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. NASB

1 Cor 2:14  But the natural man [that is someone who does not have the Holy Spirit] does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

The last part of verse 14 says the things of the Spirit of God are spiritually discerned.  In other words, the things of God cannot be understood by the physical senses, by seeing or hearing.  It doesn’t matter how intelligent someone is, he cannot understand the things of God except through the Holy Spirit.  For as we read in v10, “But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit…”

You might be wondering, what sort of spiritual things does the Holy Spirit reveal?  There are lots of things of course, but here are a few examples.

1) The Holy Spirit enables us to see the need for repentance.  In 2 Tim 2:25, Paul is instructing Timothy.  He says:

2 Tim 2:25  in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth,

The Holy Spirit reveals to us that we have to change our nature from carnal to Godlike.  People without the Holy Spirit may understand they shouldn’t murder.  But it takes the Holy Spirit to understand we shouldn’t hate anyone; that we are to love everyone, even our enemies.  This understanding is spiritually discerned.

2) A second example of what the Holy Spirit reveals is that it enables us to see the way of life that leads to peace.  Mankind does not know how to have peace.  As HWA explained so simply yet profoundly, there are two ways of life.  One is out flowing love for God and others (which is the Law of God), which leads to peace and happiness.  This is the “Give” way.  The other way is selfishness, greed, vanity, lust and every evil thing, which leads to misery and pain and ultimately death.  This is the “Get” way.  Put simply, there are just two ways of living, “Give” or “Get”.  Yet this understanding is spiritually discerned.  The world does not understand that the “Give” way is the way to peace. 

3) A third example of what the Holy Spirit reveals is that it enables us to see the wonderful future that lies ahead for us.

1 Cor 2:9  But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
1 Cor 2:10  But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit….

What has God revealed?  That we can have eternal life as members of the family of God.  This understanding is spiritually discerned.

We have seen that one vital aspect of the Holy Spirit is that it imparts understanding of spiritual things.