How You See It

"Are you stuck on how you see it? Or is what God sees what's of value?"

THREE TIMES recently, I’ve heard a story from God’s Word told from the speaker’s own mind. In short, they added, between the lines, thoughts and feelings that aren’t in the Bible telling of that moment in time. God gives revelation of what’s in His Word. But that’s the point, He gives it. Many people take what they read and interpret it with their own knowledge. I recall a bestselling book I read years ago, written at a location that the author had never visited. Many writers do this. I’ve done it. But I chose to limit myself to obvious information and not write about what I had never seen. This author did it so well people couldn’t believe she’d described it as she had. I don’t know if this was unusual numbers-wise, but applying it to the stories in the Word, we’re constantly searching for more Truth in them and are inclined to ad-lib.

This goes to the meaning of what we read in God’s Word as well. We can’t take random passages and turn them into prophecies. Our foundation must always be the Spirit and the nature and character of God. We must also know the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is about the Jews, over thousands of years of time. We cannot make the Gospel stories, for instance, having happened yesterday on Main Street in middle America. Or England. Or Australia. Or anywhere but Israel.

Pete and Repete get us in trouble. We take what others say and repeat it without, again, asking the Spirit. One man’s inaccuracy soon becomes ours. If that bestselling author had flubbed details of her story’s location on the globe, she would have gotten blasted for it. Yet somehow, because “all these Bible characters” are dead, it’s okay to speculate. Jesus is alive. What does He think? I ask this a lot about what I say and what I write. I listen to His Voice, and the more I’ve learned to hear Him, the more amazing things He tells me about His Word that I never knew and that, often, someone said differently. Said wrong. Why would He share such Truth with me? Because I treasure it and because it matters to me.

I’m bothered by people who don’t care. Give yourself an inch, you’ll soon take a mile. It becomes easier and easier to just say things and not pray about them first. I’m asking you to pray about them. To pray about what you hear in the pulpit, as well. To pray about what’s said in the Word. There are things which apply only historically, to that author’s location and lifetime. For instance, the Israel of Jesus’ lifetime, the generation who hung Him on the cross, is not the Israel of today. The Pharisees He spoke sharply to are not today’s Synagogue rebbes. Not at all. Jesus has shown this to me, time and time again, and how much it has altered my point-of-view. It comes down to that.

Are you stuck on how you see it? Or is what God sees what’s of value? You have to lay down your vision in order to see His. He asks complete surrender. But to see where you were and where you are now, to see Him better is worth it. Trust me.


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com