"By the aid of the Holy Spirit" boils down to "God told me so." Yes?
Like this:
Ezekiel 37: 11 Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. 12 Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. 13 And ye shall know that I [am] the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, 14 And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken [it], and performed [it], saith the LORD.
The metaphor of Israel = dead gets extended in this passage, to include graves and resurrection. But the definition of that deadness is given here - it occurs when the people of Israel are cut off from their people. When that happens they become "LoAmmi" (not my people), according to the prophet Hosea.
This is what Jesus is referring back to when He says,
Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:60)
Even though this verse doesn't explicitly equate the dead with something else, it's still a metaphor, because it refers back to a metaphor with which it expects the reader/hearer to have familiarity. The dead here are not physically dead, but they are cut off from their people - they're LoAmmi. This is just one example; there are many places in the NT that refer to the dead in this sense.
My fault. I wrote "spiritually" where I meant to question the definition of "dead." The old brain is not brain-a-lating so well.
No problem, I get old brain too, I am not a youngin;
Going back a little, you said,
I have a confession - I don't like the word spiritual.
Which has to do with things of the Spirit, but he also said,
1 Cr 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him:
neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
And so if they could not recieve things of the Spirit then he could not speak unto these as he could those who were able
to receive the same, saying
1 Cr 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ
You responded,
Sure. Now define "spiritually discerned" for us in common English.
And so I posted the following definitions
To discern naturally is
To discern naturally is to see by that, whether its by the eye or by ones understanding. To perceive and/or recognize.
And to discern spiritually is
To discern spiritually is the ability to understand and perceive spiritual things as taught by the Spirit 1 Cr 2:13
And broke up the words
Spiritually,
spiritually: i.e.
by the aid of the Holy Spirit
Discerned,
examine or judge
to investigate, examine, enquire into, scrutinise, sift, question
specifically in a forensic sense of a judge to hold an investigation
to interrogate, examine the accused or witnesses
to judge of, estimate, determine (the excellence or defects of any person or thing)
And an example here
1 Cr 2:15 But
he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
To all of that, you ask,
"
By the aid of the Holy Spirit"
boils down to "God told me so." Yes?
Whereas I would say,
Not really, especially between people, because there is the case that if you might express something you think you know by saying
"God told me so" and I could say the same, or I could say in contrast, I don't believe you, you are lying (
God having also told me so)
when both you and I could be lying and just saying "
God told me so" to express what we each believe naturally so (of our own selves) or even lying to ourselves between one another in the natural man walking by our own spirits (not His Spirit) so no I don't think
it boils down to just that. But it doesn't negate it either.
John writes,
These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.
1 John 2:27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
And Paul writes
1 Cr 2:13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
So He teaches us in comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
You gave another example in deadness that is not naturally speaking, two women can mean more than two women as shown us in
Sarah and Hagar are an example
Gal 4:24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants...
Which are the things Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
Edit: left out a word, "negate"