Leaving Beyond – Grounded In Scripture

Written by: April J. Buchanan

Turn your eyes upon Jesus. How we come to see Him more and more through the unfolding riches by which He has revealed Himself in His Word. Day by day the longing to know Him grows as His Word is opened before us. There He works in our hearts by the Spirit, bringing truth that becomes not only heard but known.

It is an experiential knowledge of Him, though not in the way many pursue fleeting emotional experiences and call them encounters with God. No. Not so. He is far more wonderful than that.

The truth hidden in the heart day by day is never wasted, nor is it a treasure unknown to our own souls. When God so chooses, those riches hidden within the heart, meditated on in the mind, treasured and studied rightly, become more than truths we believe, profess, or contemplate. They become truths known.

Some chase experience at the cost of truth that must first be treasured and, in God’s time, revealed to the heart. Others chase truth only for the academic excitement of being known for their intellect. Neither knows the truth experientially, for only God can take the riches hidden in the heart, meditated on in the mind, and transform the one who delights in Him.

Some want to know about God. Some want to experience God. Few want to know God and be changed by Him.

Scripture reading is not the means to satisfy selfish attempts to accumulate knowledge about God, nor is it a tool for chasing experiences so one might feel close to Him. It is not given so men may gain wealth or obtain whatever they desire from God.

Many come to Scripture without the desire to know God and truly hear Him. They already know what they want Him to say. Others come to learn so they may boast in their knowledge. Yet Scripture makes clear that it is few who come to hear God, to sit at His feet, to listen, to abide, to meditate upon His Word, and to desire that His Word do its work within them.

That truth is humbling. Many do not want it. Some come looking for something quick. Others may spend great amounts of time studying the Bible, yet it never penetrates the heart because their heart was never in it. They devote themselves to study in order to acquire knowledge about God, yet they seek the praise of men rather than the transformation of their own souls.

Many claim to know God. Many say they love God. Many faithfully attend to Scripture reading, prayer, the gathering of the saints, and service. Many have experiences. Many have debates. Few truly know Him.

Debates are not inherently wrong. To love God with the mind is good and must not be neglected. The scholar is not in opposition to God merely because he is a scholar. My words carry no such criticism.

The one who is broken and has been promised a nearness from God formed out of bad theology has their pain exploited. When they have an emotional experience that they now equate with God, they are set on a course to pursue that feeling because they do not want to lose it. They have been deceived and robbed of the true love of God that comes from His Word rightly taught, believed, and worked in the heart by the Spirit in a way no fleeting experience can compare.

Take my words as they are meant and do not read into them subjectively what I have not said.

There is an experiential knowledge of God that may only be known as His Word is rightly taught and as the Spirit works through it in regeneration and sanctification. It is not the foolishness seen in many churches today that draws attention to those who are deceived and makes a mockery of the true work of the Spirit.

His work in the inward man is far more beautiful and far more powerful.

Grace and peace.
Soli Deo Gloria.