Bible Study Sunday | Being Formed by God’s Word

Friend, I believe you and I live in an age far more concerned with new revelation than with the actual reception of God’s Word.

Hanging around in Christian circles, you’ve likely heard someone say, “I received a revelation,” as if they had some special connection to God unavailable to you.

The primary purpose of reading and studying God’s Word isn’t discovering some previously unknown revelation, but learning scriptural truth. We must learn God’s Word if we are going to live it.

What does God’s Word say?

There is a subtle shift that happens when Scripture becomes something we primarily want to experience rather than something we are called to receive.

Revelation is not the problem. I can assure you that our God still speaks, still convicts, and still illuminates. However, when gaining new revelation becomes the objective of our time with God and His Word rather than obedience and faithfulness, spiritual formation quickly gets replaced with fascination and fantasy.

It is possible to love the idea of God speaking, while neglecting the slower, quieter work of listening well enough to actually become what we read and hear.

The work of Scripture is not merely illumination, but incarnation through the life of the believer. As James writes, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” (James 1:22 ESV)

Reception without reproduction leads to spiritual illusion and a sense of growth without the substance of it.

Jesus frames it even more sharply in the parable of the soils. The seed is always the same; the difference is not in the message, but in the soil. Some receive with joy but do not endure. Others are choked by worries, distractions, or shallow roots. Only one kind of soil bears fruit (read Matthew 13:1–23).

It’s not a question of whether God is revealing truth. He is. The real question is what we are doing with what has already been given to us by God as revelation who He is and His will. Before you and I go looking for new revelation, we should focus living according to existing revelation.

If we aren’t careful, revelation leads to a kind of spiritual consumption that is always seeking the next new insight, the next fresh word, or the next great moment of clarity. Our Christian life is not sustained by constant novelty. It is fueled by faithful reception and steady application producing Christlikeness in us. Truth taken in leads to truth lived out. At least it should…

The Apostle Paul describes this movement in simple terms:

What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Philippians‬ ‭4‬:‭9‬ ‭ESV‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/59/php.4.9.ESV

Notice the rhythm Paul describes: learned, received, heard, seen and then practiced. We are not meant to stop at awareness. God’s Word is something we are called to apply to our daily life.

Maybe the deeper invitation is not to for us to ask, “What is God revealing to me today?” but, “What has the Lord already revealed that I have not yet obeyed?”

Because in the Kingdom of God, revelation is always a seed meant to bear fruit.

Be salty, stay lit.

Rainer Bantau —The Devotional Guy™

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