In a recent episode of The Power of Intimacy With Christ on the Charisma Podcast Network, Dr. Sharon Mancha shares how some Christians struggle to really ground their belief in the Bible as relevant to the issues they face in life.
She says:
I have received questions about why people don’t experience what is stated in biblical text or they wrestle with believing the Word is current in terms of its full-proof dependability to their success in life. I must first say that learning to trust the Holy Bible as absolute truth is learned and not automatic. We must work to build a relationship with God through His Word, which is the Spirit of Christ—who was, according to John 1, the Word made flesh.
A few things are essential to affirming the relevance of God’s Word in the life of the believer. First, you must understand that you cannot really embrace God’s Word as absolute truth without the born-again experience. The born-again experience situates us in position to receive the Word by faith. We are given of God a measure of faith to even believe in God, but in coming to God we must believe that God is.
Hebrews 11:6 shows that this is the measure of faith, a gift from God, and it grows by nurturing the reality of God through reading the Bible as necessary to the process of growing our faith and relationship with God.
Faith-growth happens when we believe and apply the Word to our daily lives. However, the foundation of this process is to read the Scripture daily, even if it is just a verse and meditating on it and then practicing actualizing it in your life. If we do not believe what we read enough to employ it in our lives, we will never experience the power of its presence in our hearts and minds to witness to its relevance in our daily lives. Believing the Word is only real when we apply it, and this is why the Scripture says we are to be doers and not hearers only (see James 1:22-25). If we do not ‘do’ the Word, we will lack the ability to see and experience the transformation power of God’s Word and its relevance. It is foolish to expect actualization without the employment of what is expected.
The Word of God was written by men inspired of the Holy Spirit to write. It is not just a book or a story of ‘the beginning.’ It is the holy Scriptures, written for man to perceive and understand God’s engagement, intervention, relationship with and expectation of human beings in relationship with God and His creation, our world. Embracing the witness of God through men is at the core of our faith. The Bible teaches us that God chooses to use man for His will and we are in response to this big picture in God’s plan. We are to believe God is present with us and cares about our lives. Having faith in this reality is foundation to building a Bible-based faith for living the victorious life of faith that is only possible in relationship with God and His Word.
The believer who seeks to experience the God of the Bible and His reality of presence must practice forming an intimate relationship with God through His Word and a life of prayer. Devotions that are Bible-centered and not cultural or self-centered will also produce a deepened faith in God. Our faith must be founded on biblical text in order to expect a return from God. God and His Word are one, and we are one in Him through Christ. So to experience the fullness of a spiritually successful life demands an authentic relationship with God centered on God’s Word.
Training your spirit and mind to lean on and use the Word in your life as a compass is necessary to experiencing the truth and power of the Bible coming alive in you. However it is essential to understand that God uses time for our benefit and to bring us and the things concerning us to an expected end. This means that in every situation, answered prayer or promise of the Scriptures does not manifest in the moment we think it should, but in the fullness of the will of God for maximum spiritual growth in us and His will for His world. God knows when and how to grow us in Christ so we will experience the ultimate abundant life promised in the Bible. Wait on God’s promises, live in God through His Word and reap the abundant riches of His presence and realness in your life.
Learning to stand on the Bible as absolute truth is a commitment to the faith and will produce fruit and victory, rich with testimonies of the hand of God in your and our lives as we embrace the truth of the Scriptures in full assurance of our faith in the God of the Bible.
For more on how you can make the Word of God come alive in your life, listen to the full podcast episode here. {eoa}
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