THE BIBLE OR THE LORD

THE BIBLE OR THE LORD

Sometimes in life, we are faced with a bit of a dilemma. We want to do God’s will, but our routines can get in the way. And that even happens when we need to choose between our “go-to” scriptures and the words given to us through the personal revelations or urgings of God or our Lord Jesus Christ. We’ve all had certain Bible scriptures that work for us most of the time, or at least they’ve been powerful in application in the past, but what about when they don’t work?

 

We can’t allow ourselves to fall into the trap of expecting our Lord to always work in the same way with us. We know that in the natural realm if we expect change, we can’t keep doing things the same way. To get a different outcome, we need to do something different toward what we desire. It works similarly with God. Even though the written Bible is the living word of God, it’s only living when the Spirit of God is right there activating it for us. God tells us Himself that even the devil can quote scripture. When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness this happened: “Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, ‘If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee’” (Matt. 4:5-6).

 

Jesus fulfilled the instructions Moses gave in every way, but a greater way was to listen to his father God and do precisely what He said in the moment. When it came to healing, Mosaic law forbid healing on the Sabbath, but on several occasions, Jesus got the revelation from God to go ahead and do a healing. Each time Jesus healed someone, it was as the Spirit of God instructed. Just look at the many different ways he healed: by making mud to put on a man’s eyes, by speaking a truth, by first teaching the truth and then doing a healing or deliverance, by responding to the faith of the person who needed the healing, by sending a person to another place to be healed (i.e. a public pool). How did Jesus know what to do each time? He walked by the spirit and always did what God instructed.

 

The written Word of God was inspired by God and there’s no doubt of that: “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Peter 1:21). But if God, or the Lord Jesus, gives us a direct instruction, we can’t afford to argue, or make excuses, no matter how awkward, outrageous, our illogical it may seem! Maybe the Lord will just want us to look at a different scripture. Or maybe it’ something else.

 

We often don’t know exactly what God wants us to get from each instruction He gives! I’ve found that lots of times, He has the most amazing surprises! And many times, the instruction He gives looks like it has nothing to do with what we’ve asked for. God does that on purpose to train us in the supernatural!

 

One great thing about living in Las Vegas is that there is an atmosphere of “Take a chance.” It may sound silly, but that’s exactly what God wants us to do with what He tells us: Take a chance. (Of course, with God, there’s always a safety net that the devil does NOT provide with his idea of taking a chance). But we need to risk following the holy spirit through to the details so that the Lord can trust us to serve him. We say we trust him, but if we’re not hearing and following through on his specific instructions, isn’t our trust a bit shallow?

 

But if we’re brave enough to just jump into what we think the Lord is saying, well, if it doesn’t turn out, okay, we’ve learned what His voice is not, and we have at least taken a huge step in finding out what His voice really sounds like.

 

We can get better and better at recognizing the in-the-moment urging of the Lord and become even faster and braver at jumping at every instruction! This is the way Jesus lived and the most exciting, wonderful way we can live too.

 

Love, Carolyn

 

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