I Corinthians 2:9-13

Because of the action God took upon the sin of Adam and Eve—Adam and Eve being cut off from the Holy Spirit—all of the cultures of mankind have been built on reasoning that is apart from God's Holy Spirit. You might say that man has been doomed to produce those kinds of cultures that are based on his own reasoning, because access to the Holy Spirit was cut off, and therefore there was a dimension missing in mankind's reasoning processes.

Therefore, the separation can only get wider, unless God acts to heal the breach. Unless God bridges the gap, mankind is unable to do it because (as we just read in I Corinthians 2) spiritual things are not physically discerned; eyes, ears, nose, mouth—they do not discern spiritual things. So mankind is trapped—he is doomed in that regard. Even though mankind was created with a spiritual capacity, it is so limited that it cannot find the true things of God, and therefore man is very easily overpowered by Satan.

I Corinthians 2:9-14

Words are the verbal communication of thoughts, and since God designed His truth to be accurately expressed in human language, He inspired the words used in Scripture which are contained in both the Old and New Testaments. He was meticulous and detailed in His inspiration of the words so they would accurately express the laws and principles He intended to communicate. Paul knew that the human spirit could only understand the things of the natural world. But once God gives the Spirit of understanding, spiritual things become very clear. So although the world can read the Bible and get some good qualities out of it, even if they, on the surface, keep the Ten Commandments (or most of them), they are going to be blessed for it, but they cannot understand the depth of it without God's Spirit.

I Corinthians 2:9-12

Here is what begins to happen: God begins to call you and He begins to show you things. Maybe, at first, you start to notice that this world is not running right and this is not the right way to live. You are not happy. "Something is wrong with my marriage, something is wrong with my life," and you start to think and look, and all of a sudden God begins to get your attention. Very slowly He brings us to the point where we begin to see things. We are being guided by God the Father, by His Spirit. We are called and we are baptized, and from that time on God's Spirit takes over.