Quick Understanding

The Bible is not that difficult to understand.  I used to think that trying to grasp its great nuggets of truth was a monumental task. Like the Ethiopian in Acts 8 in responding to Phillip"s question on whether he understood what he was reading in the book of Isaiah, I echoed "How can I, except some man should guide me!" The ethiopian needed to find out about the son of God and who and why he existed. The same is true of us today. Once we understand ramifications of the lordship of Jesus Christ, that God infused power in his physical body to raise him from the dead and that spiritual power is now available to us, we can truly live.

Isaiah 11:2-3 And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear (respect and awe) of the LORD; And shall make him of quick understanding (ruach- Hebrew for wind, spirit) in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears:

The same spirit can come to rest in our hearts. As we trust God, we develop the same respect and awe of the reality of our access to God. God is real and we find Him when we look for Him and he doesn't hide. The 'quick understanding' is the delightful waft of God's communication to us because he has made His spirit also available to us. It is the same spirit working in Paul when he wrote to the Colossians.

Colossians 2:5-7 For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see (vivid mental picture) how disciplined you are and how firm your faith in Christ is. So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. (NIV).

 The spirit of God is what makes the Word of God different from any other book ever written. Just as God  had his Words recorded, he can impress our lives in the same way with His love. We become 'living epistles to be known and read' by others not by quoting the Bible and memorizing every verse but by living its vitality and benefitting from ‘quick understanding’ (ruach).