When I gave Bible seminars in Budapest, Hungary, I had some excellent translators.
Because they were Hungarian, they knew the Hungarian language and culture. But they also were fluent in English and had a good knowledge of American culture. Most importantly, they were Christians, so they understood the Christian concepts I shared.
Good translation is a complex mixture of culture, grammar, and subject matter. It’s far more than simply knowing vocabulary.
That's why God has given us a Divine Translator.
The Holy Spirit knows our language and God's “language” (1 Corinthians 2:10-16), so He makes Christ's ways known to us in ways we can understand (John 16:13). He counsels us, teaches us, and reminds us of truth (John 14:26).
You see, we’re born “foreigners” to God’s ways because we have a fallen human nature. We need the Spirit to help us become more “fluent” in God's Word.
Enjoy the passage below and thank God for your Divine Translator.
1 Corinthians 2:10-16: "The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For 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. 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. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. 14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, 16 for, 'Who has known the mind of the Lord
so as to instruct him?' But we have the mind of Christ."
If you'd like to study the Holy Spirit a bit more, check out this week's Bite Size Bible Study HERE.
Hi Gail! What an interesting life you have! Wow. Giving conferences in foreign countries, that's incredible. Love the photo of you and your translator.
ReplyDeleteI was actually working on a blog post on this very subject. Thank the Lord for his Spirit, who interprets for us, especially when we don't know what to pray.
Blessings to you, my talented friend!
Ceil