My niece and I were taking a walk in our neighborhood and I was passionately sharing some thoughts and advice for awhile. I believe that what I was saying to her were not only my words, but Holy Spirit was speaking to her. At the conclusion she said that she ‘will have to really think about all this’.
In that moment I believe Holy Spirit spoke to me and reminded me that spiritual things cannot be understood and cannot be first processed by our mind. 1 Corinthians 2:14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
It is not the right approach to hear something in a sermon or read in the Bible or hear a prophecy over our lives or anything similar, and then sit down or go on a long walk, and just think about it and weigh things and analyze. That is us trying to receive and process a spiritual thing by our mind (provided that what we heard was a spiritual thing), and it will lead us to overthinking. What we heard and received by our mind may not fit properly, nor will it seem to make sense in all respects, it will seem like an object that sort of fits but doesn’t fully, and after musing over it we may get more confused, and in the end we may even discard it. No matter how you try, your mind is logical and skeptical and will bring in past experiences and hurts and as a result, you may reject a Word from God!
What do you do then?
What I think is the right approach is to let your spirit receive the information and then you’d let your spirit communicate and even convince your mind, and in the process you will get peace that surpasses all understanding.
For me practically that could be taking a walk or pace in an empty room, but rather than trying to understand and analyze the thing I heard, I would pray in the spirit (speaking in tongues) and ask God to bring me peace about the information and to let me receive it on the level of the spirit and just calm my mind and not let mind race all over the place. I would pray in tongues for some time, and then, little by little, allow my mind to bring up what I heard, let it wanter a little around the subject, and whenever I see that my mind is racing about or objecting and fighting the Word, I take thoughts captive, the ones that go against the Bible, the ones that bring doubt, the ones that unreasonably argue, the ones that are restless, I think we know what those throughs are, or will learn to identify them with experience.
This doest mean that I’m just blindly shutting my mind out and I don’t test the new information, I just take it slower and just rest in God and don’t rush into analyzing what I heard, but abide in God and in prayer, and I allow my spirit to speak mysteries, which are addressed to God’s Spirit (1 Corinthians 14:2 For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit.) and I believe in the process God’s Spirit communicates back to my spirit, which edifies me and builds my faith and increases rest in God. All this is not by my mind, but to my mind: my spirit is influencing my mind, and not the other way around.
The effect is this: even if I don’t understand something or something doesn’t fit, because this was done in the right environment, because this is done under Holy Spirit’s guidance and not just my will and emotion, because I allow God’s Spirit to work on my spirit, because I trust that God took care of the information and He will finish this process – peace comes. I trust God. I trust that 1 John 2:20 … you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I trust that 1 John 2:27 …the anointing that you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in Him.
If in this prayer I increasingly get restless and my spirit doesn’t want to take the information that was given, I again give it to God and tell him that this doesn’t seem right and just don’t accept the information. I believe that if I am right to reject it, then it will be gone from me and out of my mind and it will not effect me nor confuse me, but if I’m wrong to reject it, God will speak to me again about the same thing in a different way. Holy Spirit is very, though gently, persistent when it comes to delivering a message and working on our heart and mind and character, that is one of His goals here on earth.
SUMMARY. After hearing a Word that comes from God, instead of just trying to receive and analyze and apply with my mind, I pray and give it to God and ask Him for peace and understanding. I don’t race around in my mind and try to make things fit properly by the effort of my mind, but I ask God for peace, and I allow my spirit to communicate the understanding to my mind. With time, the mind understands what was meant and applies to life, and I’m at peace and keep trusting God even more. If the information that came was not from God, in prayer I will know that it doesn’t agree with my spirit, and is not of God’s Spirit, and I will reject it, and I will have peace nonetheless.