Recently, I have been getting more and more convicted by the holy spirit that people need to be held accountable to bible time and prayer. Especially people in leadership. Especially myself.
Today as I read Proverbs 2 and Hebrews 5 I noticed a common theme; Spiritual Growth and development does NOT happen quickly. Wisdom is NOT gained quickly. In Proverbs 2, I recognize that: in order to understand the Lord, or the fear of the Lord I must:
1. accept the word
2. store up the commands
3. turn my ear to listen
4. apply my heart
5. call out for it
6. look for it
Then, the writer writes: THEN, you will begin to understand the Lord.
After that, he writes that we should:
1. seek blamelessness
2. be faithful
Then, the writer writes: WISDOM will come
In Hebrews 6:14, we are told that spiritual maturity comes from CONSTANT USE of God’s word. By CONSTANT USE, we are trained to distinguish good and evil, this becoming MATURE.
Why then, if we are to work so diligently at all of these things, do we casually and sometimes blatantly BLOW-OFF our responsibility to spend time in God’s word? Why do we blow-off the responsibility to live closely to God and His word?
Why do we try to microwave our faith, when it is very clear that productive growth happens over time, and with constant use?
We MUST stop doing that.
We MUST start pursuing God through His word.
In II Kings 2, Elijah is about to be taken to heaven and he asks Elisha (his pupil/friend/fellow prophet) if there is anything that he can do for him before he leaves. Elisha replies “give me a double portion of your spirit.”
In other words, I want to be TWICE as close to God as you, the MAN OF GOD.
Man, how do our aspirations match up to that?
We say we want to be close to God. We say we want to grow, but so often we are to lazy, or too unwilling to put forth the necessary time, effort or energy to make that happen.
Spiritual growth is clearly needed. Spiritual growth clearly takes time.
An OLD friend, Dave McCants once told me “I am never closer to God that when I am consistently in His word.”
Those words are so true. If you want to be close to God, you gotta spend time with Him.
Please don’t ignore this teaching.
Supernaturally Pure 