God is bigger than the Bible. However, I think sometimes we limit God to only the Bible. And by the way, just to avert any misunderstanding whatsoever, I am in no way undervaluing the Scriptures. By placing greater emphasis on God and His bigness, I am not diminishing the place of the Bible in our lives. Scripture is absolutely the authoritative, infallible word of God. However, I’m only suggesting that God Himself and knowing God involves more than just the Bible.
“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.”
John 5:39
Even though eternal life is revealed to us in the Bible, true life does not exist through the Bible itself, but only with Him. And that means, there must be something more than just study of the Bible. We must not be strangers to its author and the voice of the Holy Spirit, who speaks to us daily.
The Holy Spirit
Bill Johnson says this:
“It’s not that complicated. He didn’t say “pray for the sick.” He said, “heal the sick.” So, it’s really bizarre when God commands you to do something you can’t do. It’s a strange moment of awakening when you realize how incapable you are of doing what He said to do. But the real issue is that we think we can do the rest of the Christian life, when the rest of the Christian life is equally impossible. The whole point is, it’s our connection with the Spirit of God that makes it possible. It is difficult to expect the same fruit of the early Church when we value a book they didn’t have more than the Holy Spirit they did have.
It’s not, Father, Son and Holy Bible…[it] is the Word of God, but you’ve got to understand, you approach this book with this reverence: it is the Spirit of God that makes it living.”
Intimacy
Ultimately, all of this is all about intimacy. With God Himself, residing within us, it is about the closeness and the connection we enjoy with Him. The key difference between life as a disciple of Jesus versus every other religion is that we have a relationship. A living, present relationship. Take out that relationship and it’s mere religion. Religion itself is lifeless and meaningless.
With that being said…who do we spend the most time with? If it is not God, then I think something is wrong. Let us not limit ourselves to quick “QTs” that fulfill a quota. If we are truly seeking Him, then we will seek and wait on Him until He speaks. If we long to be in His presence, then our hearts will long to stay in His presence for as long as we possibly can.
Give Him more time. A lot of time. Give your best time. He wants your precious time, not your spare time. And let at least some of it be in the morning…
“Our laziness after God is our crying sin. No man gets God who does not follow hard after him, and no soul follows hard after God who is not after him in early morn.”
E.M. Bounds
It’s not that God is hard to get, like an elusive girl we’re chasing after. But rather, if you are not desperately seeking after Him, sacrificing your own life, your own comfort for Him, then you probably don’t really want Him. He wants you to truly desire Him. He doesn’t want you to simply seek Him when it’s convenient. It shouldn’t be convenient. And so, He will only fully reveal himself and fully pour out his Spirit to those who are willing to take on the cost of knowing him.
Lovers Outwork Workers
Jaeson Ma says this:
“Lovers always outwork workers. We are not workers first. If we see “revival or transformation” as some kind of end vision we must work for, then we have already been deceived by the Devil. We can receive prophecies all day long and chase them for the rest of our lives and not get one step closer to God. The goal is not to get to the prophetic destination, the goal is to enjoy God and one another along the journey to that destination. We must daily learn to rejoice in the here and now, to remember daily the joy of our salvation by meditating on Jesus’ love or us, by always going back to the simple Gospel.
We are lovers first and workers second. Intimacy is the birthplace of miracles. We must pursue love, God is love, we are not to pursue revival or prophetic revelations. When we pursue Christ and live to walk in Christ, revival will automatically flow and be evident to all.
We can’t fulfill the Great Commission, unless we first fulfill the Great Commandment, that is to love God by enjoying Him forever!”