Don’t let the Bible’s thief into your life

“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”

I have read John 10:10 so often that after a while, it became nothing more than ink on paper to me. Thank God for the Holy Spirit and the revelation that we can discern from scripture through him. It is one thing to read the scripture, know that it is true and be vigilant as to the obvious schemes of the enemy. It is something else entirely to understand that in order for Satan to kill and destroy, he has to be allowed to steal first.

What does the enemy want to steal from us? We can all probably name a few of the obvious; our health, finances, peace, love, faith and so on. The accuser of the brethren is no fool. If he wants to rob us of all of the above, and much more, he only has to steal one thing — the word.

The Bible is the inspired word of God. Period. If you have been robbed of that truth, then you cannot get any revelation from the Bible. You can study it until the cows come home, debate it with the most talented of scholars and read the research of every theologian on the planet. Education is not revelation. Revelation comes by the Holy Spirit. Knowledge comes by the intellect that God gave us. Education is great. We were designed to use much more of our brains then we actually do. It is a good thing to study the word and get what we can from it with our intelligence. Revelation is how we understand the mysteries, how we grasp the deeper meaning of the Bible and utilize it to overcome the things that are not seen. Without it, we will not grow spiritually, nor can we become more intimate with our father.

To know God and his character, we really need to understand the word. In order to understand it and discern the value and truth in it, we need revelation from the Holy Spirit. We can comprehend a lot with our head knowledge; so can the enemy. Can you see how short-changing the written word of God is such a clever scheme on the enemies’ part? With the theft of that one truth, we get robbed of absolutely everything.

Our salvation is by faith through grace. Without faith it is impossible to please God. How can so many people who have faith enough to receive salvation pick out the parts of the Bible that suit them and wipe their noses with the rest? Simple human logic can even be used to establish the sheer ridiculousness of this deception. The Bible is either true or it is a lie. God is not schizophrenic, bipolar or menopausal. He doesn’t have mood swings. Either everything he says is true all the time, no matter if we like it or not, or it’s all bogus. The question is, if you don’t believe the word of God and do not desire to get revelation from it, why even bother with the whole God, Jesus, Holy Spirit thing?

The answer is simple: fire insurance. Going to hell for all eternity is not a risk most folks want to take. The selling point of the deception is that you can live for Jesus and still be politically correct, not offensive and friends with the world. The beauty and appeal of the lie is that you can be a follower of Christ and partake of the works of the flesh at the same time. That is not living according to the word. It’s a deadly elixir of fear and pride in equal parts, doing just enough to get by and feeling all warm and fuzzy in the process.

Theft by deception is a great scheme and has been pretty effective in the body of Christ today. Most Christians have no problem believing that the Bible is true. The deception is that only certain parts are relevant, true or mean what God said they mean. Compromise is how we get robbed. The arguments are always the same: “This conflicts with this, we live in a different era, this verse over-rides that verse, that doesn’t really mean that.” If all those excuses were met with revelation knowledge instead of head knowledge, there would be no room for deception.

Renewing our minds by reading the word and prayer is what sustains us. If the only thing we get out of the renewal process is what our brains tell us or what we desire to get out of it, we aren’t actually being renewed. The word of God (the Bible) and the Holy Spirit are a check and balance system. God is no fool. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He gave us the word and the spirit of truth. If we are all Holy Spirit and no word or if we are all word and no Holy Spirit, we are getting robbed. We need balance between the two in order to prevent massive theft.

With that balance, we are more readily able to realize what the word says about joy, finances, unity, love, health, peace and how we are to live our lives as followers of Christ. I mention those particular things specifically because they, too, are being stolen from believers every day. There is more to it than just stealing this or that; there is a bigger picture that we need to look at in order to prevent it from happening. We also need to understand the impact that it has on us individually and corporately. By taking a look at each of these areas in depth and why stealing them is a priority for the enemy, we can avoid the deception and really change our lives.

The next topicof this series will be on faith. Be blessed and don’t get robbed!

Angela Kutzner is director of Children’s Ministries at Abundant Life Church in Wasilla.

Opinions expressed on the Faith page are the author’s and are not necessarily those of the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman, its staff or its parent company, Wick Communications Co. To submit a column or other news for the Faith page, send email to news@frontiersman.com, or call 352-2268.