“God-given intuition”

Summary of sermon by Erlo Stegen, 15 February 2015

1John 5:20
20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

The word understanding means sense in the Greek. A human being has 5 senses. But a child of God has a sixth sense. A child of the Lord has that understanding to know Him who is true. Lydia the first believer in Europe heard what Paul was preaching and the Lord opened her heart (Acts 16:14).

Matt 22:37

37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’.

We must love Him with everything we have.

Eph 4:17 – 18

17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart;

We see here that the understanding of an unbeliever is darkened, they do not have God’s understanding about a matter.

Hebrews 8:10 – 11

10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 11 None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.

You do not have to go around telling people to do this and not that for if they’re truly saved they will know the Lord and do the right for He writes His law in the heart of His children.

We read in Acts how the early Christians were all of one heart and mind (Acts 4:32). If you have this sixth sense you cannot fight among yourselves but are one with God’s children. You feel the same about different matters. You will even see things in the same way. But it’s a pity that very often among Christians there is disunity because some are still holding on to their sin and own way. Sin darkens your understanding. God gives this sixth sense to His children that they aim at the same thing, they see things in the same way.

We read in Genesis when Adam knew his wife she conceived. This word to know has a deep meaning. To know is to have the most intimate relationship.

God said of Abraham that I know Abraham that he will command his family to keep My ways.

Gen 18:19

19 For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.”

That is why his household followed the Lord for he had divine authority. In Christ there is no black or white, Jew or Greek. They feel the same for they know Him who unites them and gives them His mind.

When Abraham was old he sent his servant to go find a wife for his master’s son (Gen 24). When the servant came to the well he prayed that God would lead him. Abraham didn’t tell him how to do it but he knew Abraham’s God and had the same mind. And God lead him as he prayed and he took Rebecca and she was the right one for Isaac.

If there’s disunity and friction it’s a sign that God hasn’t implanted His sixth sense into your life.

We read in Acts how the disciples continued in unity and the apostles’ teaching. Ananias and Sapphira tried to join themselves to the disciples but was dishonest. God’s sixth sense wasn’t written in their hearts.

Those without God’s sixth sense slander and gossip about others.

But John says we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding.

If you haven’t received it from Christ then even if you try to force this unity it won’t work. We can only truly be one in Christ. You can try and speak to someone and explain things to him but it wouldn’t help unless God has written that in his heart. But the one with this sixth sense doesn’t need to be told what to do and not to do, because he will know what to do and what to avoid, being taught of God.