Common sense in the natural man is necessary for daily living. We are careful not to touch hot stoves, knowing the danger of suffering a burn. We take care when crossing a busy road, in order not to collide with motorists. However, in the Spirit realm, sense knowledge has to bow, to allow God to have the final say. Common sense is something we all live by, but it is never final.

Praise God for the medical advancement of our day and for the knowledge and skill of doctors and surgeons. Many people suffer from illnesses and receive the doctors’ report on their condition as final. When given a diagnosis from a doctor, we need to find out what God says about our bodies. The doctors do not have the final word, God does, and His word is creative. Thank God for the doctors. Millions have benefited from modern medicine, but ultimately, our trust must be in the Lord and what He says, not the doctors. Let God have the last word and accept what He says, not the doctors. Sense knowledge has to bow to the word of God.

Proverbs 3:5 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.” My natural understanding cannot be applied to the spirit realm. Here, I discover, it is not to be trusted in. My “feelings” belong to my natural man, not the spirit man. When I apply my natural understanding, my intellect, my knowledge to my circumstances, the devil robs me of what the word of God says. Only what the Lord says is true and final.

Martin Luther said:
“Feelings come and feelings go,
But feelings are deceiving.
My warrant is the word of God,
Nought else is worth believing.”

If I am “in” God, bad news will not rob me of God’s peace. Psalm 112:7 “He shall not be afraid of bad news, his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.”

Reason belongs to the realm of common sense in the natural man, but in the spirit realm it is treason against the Creator!

Exodus 3 records the account of Moses and the burning bush. He saw a phenomenon: the bush was burning and yet was not consumed by the flames. God got Moses’ attention. He turned aside to inspect this strange happening and God spoke to Him from the midst of the bush. He instructed Moses to take his shoes off as it was holy ground. Moses had to take off “the shoes of his understanding” in order to hear what God was saying. Do I see that when I have circumstances that I am questioning and trying to understand, that it is holy ground? The Lord is wanting me to bow my understanding, my reason and listen to what He is saying. Does the Lord have to say to me, “You cannot hear what I am saying for the noise of what you are!?”

There may be times when the only words the Lord may speak to us are, “Trust Me.” They may not be the words we want to hear, but if they are the words God speaks, they are the words I need as I learn to lean on Him and trust Him in the trial of my faith. When viewing my circumstances from God’s perspective I recognise, with the eyes of the Spirit, that this is holy ground where I learn to reverence Him and His word, and bow my understanding. These seasons are precious in God’s sight because they are the places where we prove God is who He says He is: our ever loving Heavenly Father.

Matthew 16 records the account of Jesus warning His disciples about the “leaven of the Pharisees,” (v.6). Leaven is yeast, used as a raising agent in bread making. The disciples misunderstood Jesus and reasoned among themselves why He had said this. They applied their natural understanding and concluded that Jesus was referring to the fact that they had brought no bread with them for their journey, even though they had recently seen the miracles of the loaves and fishes, so that fact should not have been considered. Jesus expounded: the “leaven” He referred to was the pride of the Pharisees’ doctrines of men. Just as leaven (yeast) permeates and transforms the dough, causing it to rise, pride present in our lives causes us to be puffed up and causes God to resist us. (1 Peter 5:5 ….be clothed with humility: for God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

Pride has no place in the spirit realm to understand God. His ways are “higher than ours and past finding out.” I must bow.

Closing Prayer:

Gracious Heavenly Father, the Source of all divine love, joy and peace in our lives through Your beloved Son, Jesus…..You created us in Your image, and there is no disappointment in Your creation! Change the wrong believing in our lives by the power of Your Holy Spirit. Your compassion towards us never fails, though we may fall short and miss the mark, You are never angry with us, You are always there to love and encourage us. Give us an increase of Your presence in our lives, going forward with You and leaving behind situations that we have not welcomed, but that You have used to teach us Your ways and through them and Your abiding presence, we have received another measure of the fullness of Christ. As we bow our understanding, Your revelation comes through Your Holy Spirit. Thank you, our Father, we are eternally grateful for the security of Your steadfast love teaching us, guiding us to live our lives for Your glory.