Know God: Through His Word
Often things are very simple and clear, yet we try to make them complex and complicated. For example, if you want to be a healthy person, in general you can be by eating well & exercising regularly.
It is the same with growing spiritually, or in the language we have been using, KNOWING GOD. Jeremy taught Sunday night that we Know God through “general revelation” (creation & conscience) and more specifically through “Special Revelation” (Scripture & His Son-Jesus).
So if we want to grow in our Knowledge of God, the primary avenue we have to do that is through His Word, the Scriptures. It really is simple.
But like eating well and exercise we will never do it unless we are motivated to do it. The promise that we can KNOW GOD – (experience the creator and sustainer of the universe) and be transformed into his image (that we can actually change) -should be motivation enough!
The excerpt below is from “The Gospel Driven Church” and expounds the point that the #1 means we have for changing the human heart is the Word of God.
Recover the Supernaturality of Scripture
“When Willow Creek examined the results of its REVEAL study, diagnosing the spiritual life of their congregation, they found that fewer people were maturing than they expected. Among the community members who had identified as “growing in their faith”, they wanted to dig further to know what was making the difference. Do you know what they discovered? The number one catalyst for spiritual growth was Bible study.
Nothing else even comes close to having the same impact as the Bible when it comes to spiritual growth. For those in the Close to Christ and Christ-Centered stages, reflection on Scripture is twice as impactful as any other catalyst. The key difference in the impact of reflection on Scripture across the spiritual continuum is frequency. For someone in the Exploring Christ stage, shifting from reflecting on Scripture rarely (a few times per year) to frequently (several times per week) speeds the movement to the Growing in Christ stage. For the later movements, increasing from frequent to daily reflection on Scripture plays a significant role in spiritual growth.
The American Bible Society has done their own surveys and found the same results: the number one predictor of spiritual growth is “engaging Scripture.” Numerous other researchers and studies have found the same thing. If we are looking for the one thing that effects change in the human heart, nothing compares to the Word of God. This shouldn’t surprise us. The Bible claims as much about itself: “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of should and spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12).”
One avenue we have set up this year to help you engage the word of God is by going through “Opportunity Jesus”. Each week we are reading one chapter which walks us through God’s word and allows us to KNOW GOD through seeing Jesus – as we gaze upon him, we will become like Him.
If you have drifted from the reading, it’s a perfect time to jump back in – this week we are on Chapter 33 (Forgiveness).