A Must-Read

Coming Alive

You can be in the church world all your life and still not understand the Bible.  This is what happened to me.  I went to church from baby-hood, memorized Scriptures, attended Bible Camp every summer, youth rallies, youth night, church twice on Sunday and so on.  Yet, as a teenager, my life went all hay-wire and I got so involved in the things of the world and the satanic world of drugs and cults that I nearly literally died.  I didn’t really understand the Bible although I had memorized many of the verses and passages of Scripture in it.  How can this be? 

I really can’t blame the church or anyone else for the wrong choices I made as a teenager.  Something in my heart was attracted to sin and so I followed that path rather than follow Jesus.  And it wasn’t long before I regretted that decision.  So the time came when I wanted out of this hopeless lifestyle that started out as fun and I started to cry out to God to help me get back to Him.  He didn’t answer me right away, but waited.  And in the mean time I came to the very end of myself with no one but God to turn to. 

I ended up enrolling in a very good Bible-based Bible School and started having to read the Bible in order to pass my courses.  Gradually things started happening and I found my life changing even though I was resisting it.  Once you get into an engrained pattern of sin, it is very difficult to get out of it.  But the Bible, I was discovering, is packed with POWER for living.  But I wasn’t just sitting up in my dorm room reading the Bible after classes.  I was out and about, walking, going downtown, going for coffee and so on.  And while I went for my walks, another strange thing happened.  The Lord Jesus began speaking to my heart; I mean really speaking to me and telling me things about myself and my past that only He could know.  Then I would go back to my dorm and check out the Bible and would find the exact verses to verify what the Lord Jesus had been speaking to me about earlier.  So I was getting to know the God of the Bible as well as getting to know the Bible.  I could now begin to understand the Bible because I was beginning to get to know Jesus personally.  So I learned that God will always confirm His Word (when He speaks to you) with His Word.   

Now after a few months of being immersed in the Bible, and most of that was of my own interest and no longer because I had to in order to pass my courses, my life had completely changed from the inside out.  I’m sorry folks, but little vacations to the ocean and the spa will never transform you like Jesus and the Bible can.  You can read all the self-help books you want and attend self-help groups, but the changes will only be temporary.  I know because I’ve also done this.  And good works?  That won’t change you either and it certainly won’t get you into heaven.  And even a knowledge of the Bible won’t change you.  I have a friend who read through the Bible three times and none of it made sense until he accepted Jesus into his heart and life. (Would you like to accept Jesus into your heart and life?  Find out how by following this link: http://www.creativefocus.ca/TheWayofSalvation.html).

A Living Word 

So what it is about the Bible along with a personal relationship with Jesus that changes a life? 

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul and spirit, joints and marrow, as it judges the thoughts and purposes of the heart.  Hebrews 4:12    

It is LIVING.  It is ACTIVE.  It is SHARP.  It PIERCES.  The Bible is living and active.  This is why when you proclaim it things start to happen.  I have had the Bible proclaimed over me for healing and have been healed many times.  I have proclaimed verses in the Bible to overcome sickness and fear and they have both left me.  When I have been tempted to stray outside Biblical boundaries, however innocently, the Word of God has given me discernment, dividing the soul and spirit, joints and marrow, warning me that I am about to enter into an area of darkness and this will either invite demonic activity into my world or enslave me in the sins of the flesh or both.

When we pray according to God’s Word, it is activated and will create change: 

As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,  so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it  Isaiah 55:10-11

Just think of it, God created everything by speaking to it … And God said … and it was so (see Genesis 1).  Speaking His Word makes things happen. 

Finally, another important verse about the Bible: 

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.  Romans 12:2 NIV 

In yesterday’s blog we talked briefly about the world.  I believe the above verse refers to the world in terms of its anti-godly philosophies and anything that opposes God and His Word.  Wow, that covers a lot of things, doesn’t it?  Look at what they’ve done to our school system, not allowing us to even mention God.  And look at some of the moral issues, like legalized abortion and euthanasia, not to mention our justice system.  The divorce rate doesn’t even faze us any more.  We applaud couples that are “still” married.  The list goes on and on.  Only by immersing ourselves in God’s Word can we discern what is of the world (mainly anti-godly) and what is of God, so that we may know God’s good, pleasing and perfect will. 

As you can see, the discussion about the power of God and His Word and also the world (system) that is opposed to God is pretty much endless.  I spent over 20 years researching the “world system” from a Biblical perspective and had to narrow it down for my book Victory Over Backsliding, or it would have been a few hundred pages long.  Suffice it to say, once you start reading the Bible and seek God for relationship and understanding of His Word, your life will change. 

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day!