READ: 1 Corinthians 2:6-13
“Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them...” – Nehemiah 9:20
We know very little about God. God cannot be seen but the evidence that He exists is all around us. Your knowledge of God is deepened in a very real way by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the key to your knowledge of God. You cannot know God through processes of logic or reasoning. You will know God through the help of the Holy Spirit. You cannot know anything about God unless He helps you.
That is why you must pray for the Holy Spirit’s influence every time you read the Bible or listen to a message. Without the influence of the Holy Spirit you will not understand most of the things in the Bible. Do you remember when Jesus asked Peter, “Who do men say that I am?” He then asked Peter, “Who do you say that I am?” When Peter said that Jesus was the Christ, Jesus recognized that the invisible Spirit of God had revealed something special to Peter. He went on to develop a closer relationship with Peter because He recognized that God had been at work in Peter, giving him the kind of knowledge and understanding he had.
Have you noticed how some pastors’ children hear the teaching of God’s Word for years but grow up disbelieving God? It is not the constant teaching and preaching of truth that converts a person. It is the powerful influence of the Holy Spirit that softens the heart of a child and turns him towards God. This is why we pray for the Holy Spirit to move, to influence and to affect our children.