Because God wills for you to be a doer of His Word, you may be confident that He wants you to find an application whenever you come to the Scriptures. For the same reason you may believe that the Holy Spirit is willing to help you discern how to flesh out your insights.

A few years later, a girl a couple grades below me mentioned that first lesson and said it had influenced her. No one ever remarked on my “clever” lesson. That moment convinced me that expounding God’s Word impacts people most—far more than human cleverness, humor, and creativity.

The Spirit requires us to admit that our rationality isn’t enough. We can’t just think our way to spiritual growth and missional impact. We must rely on the Spirit, and that means taking seriously Paul’s commands for believers to “earnestly desire” the spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12:31), especially the gift of prophecy (14:1).