Intuition 297
should teach you; as his anointing teaches you about everything, and
is true, and is no lie, just as it has taught you, abide in him” (1 John
2.20, 27). This portion of Scripture informs us quite lucidly where
and how the anointing of the Holy Spirit teaches us.
But before we delve into this passage may we first explain the
meaning of “knowing” and “understanding.” We usually do not
make a distinction between these two words; in spiritual matters,
however, the difference between them is incalculable: the spirit
“knows” while the mind “understands.” A believer “knows” the
things of God by the intuition of his spirit. Strictly speaking, the
mind can merely “understand”; it can never “know.” Knowing is the
work of intuition; understanding, the task of the mind. The Holy
Spirit enables our spirit to know; our spirit instructs the mind to
understand. It may appear difficult to distinguish these two in the
abstract, but they are as disparate as wheat from weed in experience.
So ignorant are modern believers in their quest to know the thought
of the Holy Spirit that they do not even realize how to distinguish
“knowing” from “understanding.”
Is it not true that we frequently experience this indescribable sense
within us which makes us know whether or not to do a certain thing?
We may say we know the mind of the Holy Spirit in our spirit.
Nevertheless our mind may still fail to understand what the meaning
of it all is. In spiritual matters it is possible for us to know without
understanding it. Are there not times when, reaching our wit’s end,
we receive the teaching of the Holy Spirit in our spirit and jubilantly
shout “I know it!”? And are there not times when our mind receives
light and understands what the Holy Spirit has meant long after we
have obeyed and acted on what He has expressed in our intuition?
Do we not at that moment exclaim “Now I understand it”? These
experiences show us that we “know” God’s thought in our spirit’s
intuition but “understand” His guidance in the mind of our soul.