The Deep Things of God

…as it is written:
“No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him”
—but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. (1 Corinthians 2:9-11)

The other day, I was spending some time singing and meditating on this passage and I was struck with the longing to know the deep things of God. As I searched the scripture to find out what else it said about this subject, I discovered that Jesus was one who felt things very deeply.

He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. (Mark 3:5)

He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means, “Be opened!” ). (Mark 7:34)

He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. (Mark 14:33)

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled…Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. (John 11:33, 38)

…And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ… (Ephesians 3:17, 18)

Over the recent years, I have been learning about the emotions of God, but it never occurred to me that God has deep emotions! We have been made in God’s likeness and image and He created us as emotional creatures, yet I’m sure our emotions are just a faint whisper, a mere echo of the emotions that dwell in the heart of God. I have felt joy, sorrow, anger, love and numerous other emotions, yet I do not think I could even begin to comprehend what God feels when He feels joy or sorrow or love!

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? (Romans 11:33-34)

It’s no wonder that Paul prayed in Ephesians that the Holy Spirit would give us power in our inner man to be able to grasp the depths of the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge! It is not possible to conceive the deep things of God unless the Holy Spirit reveals them to us, as it says in the passage from 1 Corinthians, since only the Holy Spirit can search out the depths of God’s heart and mind. We need an outpouring of the Spirit’s wisdom and revelation to take us into His deep emotions and thoughts so that we “may know him better” (Ephesians 1:17).

And while at times I feel that I am so shallow and lacking in spiritual depth, I believe that God has created deep wells within my soul and spirit, ones that even I have not yet discovered or tapped into and it is those deep emotions and thoughts that cry out with longing and desperation to touch the depths of God. As it says in Psalm 42,

Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers have swept over me. (Psalm 42:7)

The deep places in my spirit call out to the deep places in the Spirit of God and as much as terrifies me, I desire to come under the thundering, pounding roar of His waterfalls and waves. My personal experience of joy is as a small drop in comparison to the Niagara Falls of God’s joy and I don’t think I could even handle the full revelation of His emotions, yet I don’t want that to stop me from asking for it!

What does the roar of God’s deep righteous anger sound like? What do the waves of God’s deep love feel like? What do the breakers of God’s deep sorrow feel like? His deep jealousy? His deep joy? His deep compassion? Is it possible to know and experience God’s deep emotions, His deep thoughts? My mind gets completely overwhelmed at just the thought of trying to tap into the depths of God, yet I pray and cry out for it!

The purposes of a man’s heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out. (Proverbs 20:5)

Oh, that I would be a woman of understanding and somehow, by the Holy Spirit, be given the gift to be able to draw out the deep waters of God’s heart.