“I’m not a Bible scholar! I need plain English! I just don’t understand the Bible, i need someone to explain it to me! What qualifies you to teach me about the Bible!?!”
These are all arguments I keep hearing from people and admittedly I used to say most of them! I used to wonder why I would read the Bible and didn’t really get much from it. I wondered why I read the Bible and didn’t understand what I read.
I thought I needed someone else to teach me God’s word so I would read my Bible during my designated “quiet time” in the early morning and then spend the rest of the day looking for people on Facebook, Pinterest or the general web to teach me about the Bible. I read my Bible, prayed and “loved” my God. (First problem…MY god)
I new what the Bible said about seeking and finding God, asking for wisdom and receiving it and only needing the Holy Spirit and the word of God….but I just didn’t see those scriptures holding true in my life. I also knew Paul talked about counting all things as loss for Christ, as dung!
Matthew 7:7
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you: for every one that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened.”
Also Jeremiah 29:13
“And you shall seek Me, and find Me, when you shall search for Me with your whole heart.”
James 1:5-8
“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that gives to all men liberally, and upbraids not; and it shall be given to him. But let him ask in faith, nothing waivering. For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of fhe Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”
1 John 2:27
“But the anointing which you have received of Him abides in you, and you need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, you shall abide in Him.”
Philippians 3 7-8
“But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,”
So I continued….I read my Bible in the morning, read the daily scripture notifications and looked for Bible studies and other people to help me. What I didn’t realize was I was basically called God a liar by not believing those scriptures. By telling myself that I just didn’t understand the Bible and continuing to search for answers from others I was the double minded (wo)man James refers to. I was doubting the power of just reading God’s word without preconceived ideas and the need for a teacher. I didn’t give the Holy Spirit a chance to work in me. I was deceiving myself into believing that I was the exception to all those scriptures and then some. Jesus even warns us not to be deceived,
Luke 21:8
“And He said, ‘Take heed that you be not deceived: for many shall come in My name saying, I am Christ: and the time draws near: go not therefore after them.”
Titus lists being deceived as a sin
Titus 3:3
“For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divrs lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.”
Looking back over my life, I always knew there was more to this life than just going to church and having a “quiet time” and countless times I dropped to my knees, crying out to God to help me understand. Crying out to find Him. Angry because this thing called “following Christ” was so hard for me. I can look back at each of those times and see how HE held true to those promises in small ways, even though it took me so long to get the full concept. Finally, when my family hit rock bottom and I threw everything else out I got it! I allowed God to work through His Word and refused to look for someone else to help me better understand. I stopped making excuses for what scripture said and just let them speak for themselves!!
God’s word is true…God’s promises are true…He will never fail us…He will never turn His back on us…He will provide all we need and His word does not return void……as long as we seek Him with our whole heart!! Not scholars or “preachers” or someone to scratch our itching ears and tell us what we want the word to say. Gods word says what it says and it is up to us, daughters of The King, to let it change us from the inside out.
Daughters, sister….please don’t be deceived into thinking that you need someone to teach you God’s word besides the Holy Spirit!! As TRUE daughters of the one true King, your Father has given you His Holy Spirit to guide you and teach you and lead you into all truth and wisdom!! Don’t let Satan trick you into believing that you are incompetent and weak and can’t know God!!
Trust God’s word, without adding to it. Seek HIM eith your whole heart! Give the word a chance to sprout in your life and watch what God does!!