A couple of days ago, we observed that seeing is not always believing and hearing does not always come with understanding. It’s God’s work, and Paul echos this theme at the beginning of his letter to the Corinthians:

I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge—even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 1.4 – 8, ESV)

“Enriched in him”

“The testimony about Christ was confirmed among you”

“Who will sustain you to the end…”

Why, when I speak, do some people embrace the teaching and allow God to use it to transform them in some way while others come up afterward to tell me something that I said was wrong (in their view) or that I left out something important? Maybe that’s one reason seeing is not always believing and hearing is not always understanding: people are in critique mode instead of asking the Spirit to show them something they need to hear. So maybe it’s God’s work, but it’s our work also.

Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. – seven times in Revelation chapters 2 and 3