Gaining Spiritual Understanding

This is a message on having spiritual understanding in regard to God's methods in dealing with his people, and it's a message that can change your life, friend, in regard to how we understand God's dealings in our life. Our text today is found in the book of Isaiah in chapter 30. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends.

We will be in verses 18 through 23. Here now is the word of God, and may the spirit of the Lord attend the reading of his holy word. And therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you, for the Lord is a God of judgment.

Blessed are all they that wait for him. Let me pause here, friends, to say that word judgment, where it reads, the Lord is a God of judgment. In the original Hebrew, the word for judgment here is method, so it should read, the Lord is a God of method.

This is central to our understanding of this passage today, and our gaining spiritual understanding about how God deals individually with his people. There are several aspects from our passage I want to bring before you today, friends. And the first is, number one, God is a God of method.

And number two, in his process of time, he will perform his work in you, the waiting time that is. Notice in verse 18, he employs the word wait. This waiting time is the process of time that God deals with you to work his work and purpose in and through you.

For the people shall dwell in Zion, at Jerusalem, thou shalt weep no more. He will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry, when he shall hear it, and he will answer thee. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers.

Let me pause here. So the third aspect of gaining spiritual understanding is seen here in verse 20 of the bread and water of adversity and affliction. This deeper work will be a time of purging, as through a refiner's fire, where all dross and impurities are separated from the silver.

If God has you in hot water, friend, it is a sign that he's dealing with you, testing you, trying you, purging you from what is unnecessary, things that stand between you and a holy God. And as a refiner sits over the fire, pressing the silver into the heated flames to purge it from all impurities, bear in mind, friend, that never once does the refiner take his eyes off the silver. God has his eyes upon you through this process of preparing you for deeper usefulness to him.

Now notice our next aspect, as seen in verse 21. And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way. Walk ye in it when ye turn to the right hand and when ye turn to the left.

So our fourth aspect of gaining spiritual understanding is God's way is a way of progression. He acts through the present need until that need is accomplished. Then he moves on to the next level to keep his work progressing.

There are seasons in our walk with God, if I may so speak, when he is nearer than normal, his voice is clearer than normal. This is for our instruction and benefit, but it's a progressive work. God will not give us a thing until we are ready to receive it, ready to bear it.

Now notice verse 22 for a fifth aspect. Ye shall defy also the covering of the graven images of silver and the ornament of the molten images of gold, that thou shalt cast them away as a monstrous cloth. Thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence.

As God deals with us individually on his timetable, meaning the waiting period, he will bring us to the place of deeper revelation based on our receptivity. Have you ever wondered why a Bible verse or truth that you are familiar with will suddenly leap out at you from the page in a fresh way? God will never give you truth you are not ready for. He will prepare you to receive deeper truth in relation to yourself.

A sin area in our life which we now tolerate will become so lonesome to us, so disgusting to us, like a monstrous cloth. We will finally cast it aside with a final, Get thee hence, when we see things from God's perspective, for our understanding has been enlightened about our daily behavior before God, and then we act accordingly with his purpose and power. Now look at verse 23 for our sixth aspect of gaining spiritual understanding.

Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground with all. Let me pause here, friends, to say this next aspect behind his method in dealing with his people is a divine purpose that runs throughout, as reinforced by Romans 8 28. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

His purpose is the supreme truth here, friend, that we need to bear in mind. God is the divine alchemist, so to speak, placing in his mixing bowl a little of this medicine and a little of that to bring about his purpose in our lives for our good and for his glory. And lastly, the seventh aspect of gaining spiritual understanding is seen in the second half of verse 23.

And bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous in that day shall the cattle feed and large pastures. Well, this means that when his work is completed in us, he will stop the process for the time being, and we will enter a period of relief and refreshing and a time of equipping and enlargement will occur for greater usefulness to his kingdom. All the while God has been at work in us, purging us and preparing us for deeper usefulness to him as a means of blessings to others.

It's a process, friend, a progression, all with a divine purpose behind it for God's greater glory. So if you are presently in the fire, friend, view it as a good thing that will eventually bear good results. For God is a God of method.

Let us pray.