God Speaks Through His Holy Spirit

1 Corinthians 2:6–16

LifeWay Point: The Holy Spirit guides us in knowing His will.

How many voices get a vote?

Before breakfast tomorrow morning, how many voices can get a vote in one decision? Your feelings. Your fear. A group text. Yesterday’s mistake. A headline. An expert. Somebody you love. Somebody you are mad at. And your own gut, which usually has an opinion before you have all the facts.

None of those voices is automatically evil. Some of them are useful. But here is the question: when all of them are talking at once, how do you know which one deserves to lead?

Last Sunday we said the Book has your name on it. This Sunday Paul shows us something even better. The Author did not leave you alone with the letter. Open to First Corinthians chapter two.

In Focus: Word and Spirit

The Holy Spirit guides us in knowing God’s will. But keep Word and Spirit together. The Spirit never needs to contradict the Word He inspired in order to guide the people He indwells.

That matters because a strong feeling can feel spiritual and still be ours. Paul’s answer is not “trust the strongest feeling.” His answer is that God has revealed, God has given His Spirit, and God has made Christ known.

Reader One: 1 Corinthians 2:6–8

The city that knew how to glorify rulers

Paul says there is a wisdom of this age and a wisdom of God. Then he gives the rulers of the age a devastating test: they had enough power to crucify Jesus and not enough wisdom to recognize the Lord of glory.

Do not miss the reversal. Marble, titles, courts, status, empire, all of it looked permanent. Paul says the rulers are passing away. The One they crucified is the Lord of glory.

That is not anti-education and it is not anti-expert. It is a warning that confidence is not the same thing as truth.

Monday Test 1

Tomorrow, before a voice gets to lead you, ask two questions. Where did it come from? Does it agree with what God has said?

Reader Two: 1 Corinthians 2:9–11

The secret did not stay secret

Verse 9 gets lifted out by itself all the time. “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard.” We hear it and jump straight to heaven. Heaven is real. But in this paragraph, read the next words. Verse 10: “these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit.”

Revealed. That is the turn. The surprise is not merely that God knows things you cannot know. The surprise is that He told.

And then Paul gives his own illustration. You can watch another person all day. You can know the coffee order, the habits, the face, the routines. But the thought that has never been spoken is still inside that person. Observation can give you clues. It cannot give you disclosure.

Paul says the Spirit knows the depths of God. So God did not leave His people outside trying to reverse-engineer His mind from hints.

Anonymous Poll

When a hard decision hits, where do you usually go first?

Monday Test 2

When you do not know what to do, more voices can feel like more wisdom. Sometimes they are just more noise.

Ask God first, then test what you hear against what He has already said.

Reader Three: 1 Corinthians 2:12–16

Received, not achieved

Listen to the gift language in verse 12. “We have received.” “The Spirit who is from God.” “The things freely given us by God.” Before Paul says anything about understanding, he says gift, gift, gift.

That matters when you get to verse 14. This is not Paul dividing the room into smart people and dumb people. His contrast is not high IQ and low IQ. It is life with the Spirit and life without the Spirit.

And it keeps us humble. The Christian does not get to stand over somebody else and say, “I figured out what you could not.” The whole paragraph says the opposite. If you understand, you received help.

We never graduate beyond dependence on the Spirit. We keep receiving, understanding, and responding to what God gives.

One honest question

Think about one real decision you are carrying into this week. Not somebody else’s problem. Yours.

Monday Test 3

One decision. Open the Word. Ask the Spirit for understanding. And do not ask God to guide you while secretly reserving the right to ignore the answer.

Be willing for the answer to be yes, no, or wait.

The mind of Christ

Paul ends by reaching back to Isaiah 40:13. Isaiah asks the kind of question that leaves every human hand down: who has ever been God’s counselor? Who has shown Him what to do?

The expected answer is nobody. Then Paul says something astonishing: “But we have the mind of Christ.” He is not saying we became omniscient. He is not saying every hunch we have is now revelation. He is saying God has made Christ known to His people by His Spirit.

So guidance is not a scavenger hunt for a secret message. It is a real decision brought under God’s Word, with the Spirit’s help, and with our answer surrendered before we ask.

Thirty seconds

Nobody look up. Nobody talk. One question between you and God.

Obey: ask Him first

Some of you may remember where we landed the last time we were in this passage back on July 26: Ask Him first. We are landing there again, but for a different reason. This time Paul is showing us why. God did not leave us with a better guess. He gave us His Spirit.

One thing. Not five. Take the decision you just named. Open the Word. Ask the Spirit for help. And surrender the answer before you get it.

Pray it plain: “God, show me what is true, and help me obey even if Your answer is not the one I wanted.”

Let us pray

Father, thank You that You did not leave us guessing. Thank You for Your Son, Your Word, and Your Spirit. Make us humble enough to receive what You reveal and surrendered enough to obey it. For the decision each of us carried into this room, keep us from baptizing our own preference and calling it Your voice. Give us wisdom that agrees with Your Word and makes much of Christ. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Learn. Love. Live.

LEARN: At the Julian Basilica we saw Corinth honor rulers, and in verses 9–11 we saw why human wisdom cannot discover God unless He reveals.

LOVE: At Isaiah’s question and Paul’s answer, we saw the God who needs no counselor choose to make Christ known to us by His Spirit.

There is a chair. Bring somebody next Sunday.

Before you leave the room