Devotional: By Reason of Use

By Reason of Use

"The natural man 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" (1 Corinthians 2:14).

When believers become a part of the family of God, they are given a new nature. This new nature is found within the believer. Their hair and skin color or features did not change because these are a part of our outward man. When the Bible says, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17), it is referring to the awakening of our spirit that now bears witness with God's Spirit. The natural man is part of the "old" that passed away. In other words, whereas before salvation the natural man ruled everything, now after salvation, the natural man has a new Master, your spirit that bears witness with God's Spirit.

The problem, however, is that part of the natural man is his or her mind, will and emotions which are not automatically renewed to the things of God. This area must be renewed day by day, from faith to faith, with continual feeding and monitoring. "The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God..." If a believer continues to depend upon his or her natural man, then this person is destined to fail at the get-go. Why? Because "...the things of God... are foolishness to him..." If something is considered foolish, it usually insinuates a lack of sense, forethought or caution. It also implies that something is insignificant.

Wouldn't you agree that it is dangerous for the believer to view the things of God as insignificant? It most definitely is! But many people do not label their walk with God as insignificant although their continual dependency on the natural man makes it so. I believe the Body of Christ, for the most part, is a "sense knowledge" group of people who lean more on their understanding and how they feel than their ability to discern the things of the Spirit. This is because we have failed to train our spirits to discern and correctly evaluate our surroundings and circumstances based on the Word of God and His Spirit. The writer of Hebrews says: "For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil" (Hebrews 5:13-14).

This is interesting. Believers receive a new nature upon salvation, but that nature is a baby, regardless of how old the natural man or woman is. To be full grown and "skilled" in righteousness, that believer has to "...by reason of USE..." exercise their senses to discern. Isn't that how natural children do anything in life? It is by reason of "use" that they experiment and grow whether they fail a few times along the way or not. This is same for spiritual things. Every believer has to begin at the new birth to evaluate their understanding and their feelings against their new nature (God's nature in them) in order to grow. Discerning correctly or not, completely dictates the rate of their growth. This is why the Word of God, and the renewing of an individual's mind to the Word, is so important. Paul told Timothy, "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15). The King James Version says, "Study to show thyself approved..." This aspect of a believer's walk with God is vital in their growth because although people can be sincere, they can also be sincerely wrong. "By reason of use" we must correctly analyze the word of truth against our senses (how we feel or what we think we know and understand).

The reward is that when we "lean not on our own understanding, but in all our ways acknowledge God" (Proverbs 3:5-6) we are actually learning to discern the things of God correctly. How wonderful would it be to know every time that you are in God's perfect will? When we train ourselves "by reason of use" to use our new nature and not our old natural nature, the outcome is always favorable! Because if we read our opening scripture in the postive, it is in essence saying: "The NEW MAN does receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are NOT foolishness to him; HE CAN know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Corinthians 2:14, author's interpretation). So listen inwardly and not outwardly - I believe you will be surprised at the outcome!