Heart Tracks - Unleashed

"Your problem is that you don't know the Scriptures, and you don't know the power of God....."What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is He? They replied, 'He is the Son of David.' " Matthew 22:29,42....."Nobody wants God in a box. Just in a book. Especially one bound in leather with gilt edges." Unknown....."This is the penalty we pay for making the Word of God conform to our experience instead of bringing our experience up to the Word of God." A.W. Tozer

Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees when He said the above, and if there was anyone among His listeners who would know the Scriptures, it would be them. Indeed, they could recite chapter and verse better than anyone. They knew what Scripture said, but they never seemed to know what the Father was saying. How like them might we be today?

Most every professing believer and their family have a Bible somewhere in their home. More than likely a number of them. Some even read them....a lot. We have all types of Scripture memorization programs and the like in the Church, and these are good things. There are many going about who are modern day Pharisees in that they are "experts" on doctrine, theology, and even the authority of Scripture. Yet the working of that Scripture, that Word of God in their everyday lives is so often minimal, even non-existent. When faced with the reality of life lived out in a fallen world, they seem no better equipped to overcome than those who make no profession at all. They resort to the natural as a means of coping, rather than the supernatural as a means of living the life that makes one "more than a conqueror." The Living Word was directly in front of the Pharisees, but they didn't see or recognize Him. He who is the Living Word is directly before us as well, but we so often do no better than the Pharisees in our recognition. The result is that we walk about in near or complete powerlessness. The Word of God is carried about in our Bibles and even in our memories, but it has yet to be unleashed in our lives. Has it been unleashed in yours and mine?

Throughout what we like to call "Third World Countries," believers who are mostly uneducated, unsophisticated, and living at a material level light years below most of us in the west, are experiencing regular visitations of the miraculous in their lives. The Word of God is alive among and in them. They do not seek to be doctrinal experts, or enter into long winded debates about what the Word says. They simply believe what it says. In childlike faith. We used to say here in the west that "God said, I believe it, that settles it for me." Now we're more likely to state, "Did God say that? Well let's debate it. It may settle it for you, but not necessarily for me." We need correct doctrine for sure. We need to have a Scriptural theology as well. But we seem to spend far more time discussing His Word than seeing it work in and with power in all of our life situations. As Tozer said decades ago, we are trying to make His Word conform to our experience, instead of allowing His Word to take us into the experience of life He has promised us. We confine His Word to His Book. It has never truly been unleashed in our lives.

In a world and culture where chaos gains more ground by the day, the need for a people who walk and live in the power of His Living Word grows greater by the moment. We need to do more than toss Scripture promises at people. We need to live out the fulfillment of those promises before them. His Word and Life need to be unleashed in their midst through His people who are also in their midst. I want to be one of them. Do you? Where and how is His Word and Power being unleashed in and through us? In and through you....and me?

Blessings,
Pastor O