Seeing into the Future

“However, as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him"—” (1 Corinthians 2:9)

Why do you suppose the verse of the day was taken from Corinthians instead of Isaiah, where we find this quote originally? I figured there must be a reason, so I looked into the context of 1 Corinthians. Why did they need to be reminded of what it said back in Isaiah?

Apparently there were some questions amongst the Corinthians regarding true wisdom. It sounds to me like there might have been some inadequacy issues among the believers regarding sharing the truth of Jesus within their communities. They seemed to believe, based on the encouragement of Paul's words in Ch. 2 that they lacked the wisdom needed to successfully evangelize or disciple new believers.

So Paul goes into this really encouraging speech about wisdom - how he totally lacks it and how weak he himself is and how he can do nothing without God's Spirit. Therefore, it has nothing to do with the ability of the vessel, but everything to do with what you put in it.

Then he goes into talking about how they need to redefine wisdom. That the wisdom we gain as believers is not the wisdom of this world, but a wisdom which actually involves the very same Spirit which lives in God. Thus, we can know the things of God in the same way our own spirits know the things of ourselves, because the Spirit knows God with the same intimacy our own spirits know ourselves.

Therefore, while "no eye has seen, no ear has heard, [and] no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him," with the Spirit in us, God can reveal these things to us.

Woah. Is that saying what I think it is saying? I think it can be taken one (or both) of two ways. Either we can be shown by the Spirit our earthly future - what God has prepared for us in this life, His plan for our hope and our future; or we can be shown our heavenly future - having knowledge of what God prepares in heaven for us.

Either way, that's pretty cool and hard to imagine. I am tempted to lean toward the first option, simply because it makes sense to me that, in being filled with the Spirit, we would have wisdom to know the path our lives should take. Considering this is one of my hang-ups, I may be gravitating to it for that reason, too.

See, every big decision I make (my mom can so attest to this) I AGONIZE over whether it is "God's will and plan for my life." I end up all in a tizzy wishing God would send me a telegram or something REALLY obvious so I would have confidence I was walking the path He has laid out for me, not veering to the left or to the right. I look forward to the day when God grants me, through my humble submission to Him and the abundant indwelling of His Spirit, the kind of confidence and wisdom this verse suggests. With a glance at my post-it attached to my computer screen, I pray, "Lord, fill me with your Spirit and give me wisdom for this day. Amen."