Prayer Works Morning Devotion July 7, 2026

A Chapter By Chapter Study Of The Epistles:

1 Corinthians Chapter 2

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.

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Good morning, family. Welcome to the Prayer Works Morning Devotion. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

We gather each and every day at this time to give our first fruits to our Father and our Lord, thanking Him for His grace and mercy in our lives and all that He has done and all that He will continue to do in our lives.

We know that we can do much after we pray as believers, but we should do nothing before we pray. So in that vein, let's start each and everything that we do with prayer, even right now. Let's go to the throne of grace.

Heavenly Father, we come before You and give You thanks for this day, thanking You for waking us with this new day full of new grace and new mercies that are sufficient for this day.

We ask Your blessing upon this gathering and this devotion as we bring forth our first fruits for the day. We pray, Father, that You will honor us as we honor You in all that You do for us, Father.

Help us to understand Your word. Help us to get to the crux of what Paul was bringing out to the Corinthians and this church. And we pray, Father, that the same way he touched those in that church that his words will also touch each and every one of us.

We thank You for these epistles Father as we go through them and we pray that You continue to lead us through them and guide us in our thinking and help us along this path of righteousness that You laid out before us.

We thank You for Your grace again and we thank You for Your mercy again and we pray for forgiveness where we fall short Father we ask Your blessing now on this call.

We pray for Your words to descend, Your spirit to descend, and remove me, but just use me in the way that You need to use me, Father. And I thank You for the privilege and honor of serving You.

Now we come before You, and we hand this call over to You, and it's in the mighty name of Jesus that we pray. In Jesus' name, Amen. So, family, good morning once again. We are today in Book Two of First Corinthians.

And yesterday, Pastor Zee had brought out the topics that were concerning Paul in the opening of his letter to them. Today is a continuation of that letter.

Yesterday, he touched on Thanksgiving, he touched on divisions in the church, and he touched on Christ crucified, the power and the wisdom of Christ crucified.

And if you had not attended the call yesterday and you missed it, you can go back and listen to that on the website and just look for devotions, and you will see it by date and yesterday under Pastor Zee.

So, today I won't go over all of the details from yesterday, but since this is a short book, I'm just going to read some of the scriptures. and make the comments as we go along. So, as I said, we start where the Apostle Paul basically founded this church in Corinth.

And the reason he's writing these letters to the church is because a few years after leaving the church, after its creation, he heard some disturbing reports about this church.

Some of the reports basically were like they were full of pride, uh they were excusing sexual immorality. Uh spiritual gifts were being used improperly and there was rampant misunderstanding of key Christian doctrines.

So, the apostle Paul wrote this first letter to the Corinthians in an attempt to restore the Corinthian church to its foundation which is Jesus Christ and so it begins this way in book two, it says in verse one.

And so it was with me, brothers and sisters, when I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom, as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you, except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

I came to you in weakness, with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power.

And that's a mighty description, you know, again, Paul humbly came into Corinth, as it's described in Acts chapter 18. And he came and met a Christian couple named Aquila and Priscilla, who were tent makers by trade, just like Paul.

And he ministered Paul in Corinth for more than a year and a half supporting himself by tent making. So, just in contrast to today's ministerial service throughout the world, there are some pastors that are not supporting themselves by themselves.

But are making all kinds of inordinate sums of money on the ministry. And are living a life that is beyond imagination. So just look at Paul and see the humility in his life and in his heart that he was supporting himself.

Not being supported by any organization or any large group of church members. He was doing this because of his love of God. Paul also had a law background and obviously was a man who could reason and debate persuasively.

But in this letter, he didn't use that approach in preaching the gospel. He made a conscious decision, as it says in verse two, I resolved or I determined to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

So, Paul here, he wasn't selling the gospel as so many today do, but he was truly an ambassador for the gospel. And so, the lesson for us here is that if a preacher, for example, is not careful, he can get in the way of the gospel instead of being a servant of the gospel.

He can obscure himself, or obscure Jesus rather, by his preaching, or either in the presenting of the message itself. Paul here knew that it's the preacher's job to preach, and it's the Holy Spirit's job to demonstrate.

It's for this reason that Paul's preaching may not have been very impressive or pervasive, or persuasive, I should say, on a human level, but on a spiritual level, it had power.

This is why his letters are so powerful even for us today, because they weren't written from human wisdom, but on a spiritual level beyond human wisdom. Preaching strategies centered on wisdom of men around emotion or entertainment for example.

And human personality may yield responses but not results for God's kingdom. If someone has faith in the wisdom of men, and not in the power of God, for example.

If someone can be persuaded into the kingdom by human wisdom, then they can also be persuaded out of the kingdom by this same human wisdom. Verse 6 goes on to say, we do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age.

Or of the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God's wisdom a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.

None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. So Paul is saying here that the mature recognize God's wisdom, but the rulers of this age do not. And who are the mature?

The mature are the believers, those that have come to an understanding, those that the Spirit of God has revealed to them the true nature of God's wisdom and kingdom.

It doesn't matter, however, who the rulers of this age are, but Paul makes it clear here that their defeat is certain, as he states, who are coming to nothing in verse six. Their day is over, and the day of Jesus Christ is here.

The question is then, why do rulers of this age fail to recognize God's wisdom? Because it came in a mystery, a secret, a sacred secret that could only be known by revelation.

It is hidden wisdom that is now revealed by the gospel of Jesus Christ, which Paul preaches. Verse 9 goes on to say, However, as it is written, what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived, the things of God has prepared for those who love Him.

These are the things God has revealed to us by His Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way, rather, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

So here, most people tend to get this wrong. They take the things which God has prepared for those who love Him to mean that the things which are waiting for us in heaven.

While it might be true that we cannot comprehend the greatness of heaven, that isn't what Paul means here. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:10 that God has revealed them to us through His Spirit.

So this is a wonderful thing that has been revealed to us by the gospel. And through his Spirit also reminds us that only the Holy Spirit can tell us about God and His wisdom. This knowledge is unattainable by human wisdom or investigation.

Hence, the rulers of this age fail. So, for example, just to give you an idea, if you have a dog, for example, you can guess what your dog is thinking by how he acts when you come around, but you can't really know unless he tells you, so you have to assume.

And even so, we could guess here what God is thinking and about His wisdom, but we could never know unless He tells us. And it's through the Spirit that He does tell us.

Verse 12, What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.

This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with the Spirit taught words. So, again, this wisdom comes by the Spirit who is from God, not the spirit of this world.

Since every believer has received the spirit who is from God, every believer has the access to this spiritual wisdom. This doesn't mean that every believer has equal spiritual wisdom, and it doesn't mean that we will understand all spiritual mysteries.

It does, however, mean that every believer can understand the basics of the Christian message, which is unattainable and undesirable by human wisdom.

Verse 14, the person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, but considers them foolishness, my wife's favorite word, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.

The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments. For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

So in verse 16, Paul quotes Isaiah 40:13. And then makes a statement concerning all believers. He says we have the mind of Christ. Having the mind of Christ means sharing the plan, the purpose and perspective of Christ.

And it is something that all believers possess. Having the mind of Christ means we understand God's plan in the world to bring glory to himself, restore creation, to its original splendor, and provide salvation for sinners.

It means that we identify with Christ's purpose to seek and to save what was lost, as it says in Luke 19:10. It means we share Jesus' perspective of humility and obedience, as it says in Philippians 2:5-8, and compassion in Matthew 9:36.

And prayerful dependence on God, again in Luke 5:16. In the verses leading up to 1 Corinthians 2:16, we note some truths concerning the mind of Christ. The first truth, the mind of Christ stands in sharp contrast to the wisdom of man, verses 5-6.

Second truth, the mind of Christ involves wisdom from God, once hidden but now revealed verse 7. Truth number 3 the mind of Christ is given to believers through the Spirit of God verses 10-12.

Truth 4, the mind of Christ cannot be understood by those without the Spirit. Verse 14. The mind of Christ gives believers discernment in spiritual matters verse 15.

So family, in closing, in order to have the mind of Christ, one must first have saving faith in Christ, which is John 1:12 and 1 John 5:12. This is how, this would state how to have the mind of Christ, that you must first believe in the saving faith and the saving grace of our Lord and Savior.

After salvation, the believer lives a life under God's influence. In other words, you allow God to lead you, as scripture says, order my steps. Allow God to lead you.

Seek God's advice, seek God's direction, if you will, for every decision that you have to make, then the Holy Spirit will indwell and enlighten you as a believer, infusing you with wisdom, which is the mind of Christ.

The believer bears a responsibility to yield to the Spirit's leading, as it says in Ephesians 4:30, and to allow the Spirit to transform and renew his mind. This is the process of being born again.

Family, you must be born again. You must receive the mind of Christ through rebirth in order to have the mind of Christ. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank You for this word.

And I thank You for the Apostle Paul taking time to sit down and write these words all those centuries ago to the Christian Church in Corinth, because these words have been immortalized for us today.

Some thousands of years later, to be able to read, to comprehend as believers, and to apply in our own very lives, even today. Paul makes it clear that the rulers of this age are defeated and that following them, following the wisdom of this world.

We too then become defeated because we know this world is passing away and everything in it, but Your words will never pass away. And so those are what we as believers need to cling to.

We need to cling to our Lord and Savior. We need to cling to the plan that He has, not the plans that we make in this world not the plans that this world throws upon us because again, this world is passing away and so is everything in it.

So I thank You, Father, that You have been so merciful in our lives, so merciful that You lead us along the path of righteousness for Your name's sake, through Your word, and that even as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

You are with us and Your rod and Your staff comforts us. So I thank You, Father, once again for Your grace, and I thank You for this word. And I pray that all who can hear this word, all who will listen to this word.

This word will apply it and accept it and realize that as believers, we have the spirit of the true one living God, and that Jesus is our Lord and Savior, and that He watches over us, and that He protects us because we are His sheep.

We are His flock. I pray for Your Spirit to not only cover us on this call, but cover Your church. Cover Your global church. Cover those that are in the Spirit, in the body, and cause us to speak boldly.

Cause us to move forward because we know faith doesn't move backwards, but moves forwards. And so we are praying to be able to walk by faith and not by sight, to continue to walk in Your marvelous light and be led by You in all things, Father.

Bless Your church. Bless Your people. Bless everyone that's on this call and everyone whose families are represented by those on this call. We ask You to cover them and bless them and give them peace that surpasses all understanding.

Give them health and well-being, Father, especially those that are ailing in their bodies, ailing in their minds, ailing in their needs, Father. We pray that You cover each and every one of Your children that are on this call.

And bless them with Your love and Your goodness and Your grace and again, Your mercy and Your peace. Allow them to see Your mighty hand working in their lives this day and each and every day, Father.

Help them to recognize You in all things. I thank You now asking Your peace as we go our way today. Thank You for being here with us and giving us the opportunity to learn from Your word and to be blessed by Your Holy Spirit this day.

We give You all praise, honor and glory Father and we know that You are with us and we thank You and it's in Jesus name that we pray, Amen. Amen family. Go in peace this day.

Let the light of the Lord shine in you as a beacon of hope for all those that you come in contact with today. And remember, God loves you. We love you. Have a blessed and wonderful day. We'll see you again tomorrow.