The Bible, or any other book for that matter, was never meant to be a substitute for relationship with God. That may come as a shock for many people as most of us in the Christian world have been trained from an early age to sing 'The B-I-B-L-E. Yes, that's the book for me. I stand alone on the Word of God, the B-I-B-L-E.' There is only one small flaw in that song. The B-I-B-L-E is NOT the Word of God. Yes, you heard me right. Just try this little exercise with me for a moment: 'In the beginning was the Bible, and the Bible was with God and the Bible was God.' Or perhaps, 'And the Bible became flesh and dwelt among us.' Something wrong? Please understand, I am not trying to be 'provocative' for the sake of it. I'm just wanting people to stop and think for a minute. We were created to have a relationship with the Author of the book, not the book itself.
Now, before you think I've gone off the deep end, the Holy Spirit didn't actually tell me to stop reading the Bible (I just threw that previous bit in for you to mull over if you hadn't already thought of it.) Instead, He asked me to stop reading about everyone else's understanding of the Bible, or even their understanding on life and how it works. It hasn't been entirely easy for me to stop either as I was in the habit of reading almost daily. If I wasn't reading, then I was listening to some preacher speaking on living a more fulfilled Christian life which isn't wrong in itself either. I still had personal times with God one-on-one, but I saw He wanted to tip the scales even more in favor of the 'one-on-one' time and less in favor of the 'everyone else's opinion' time. I have faced some major life decisions over the past few months and I realized that everyone else's views on life were affecting the 'signal' I was receiving from the Holy Spirit. As I turned the outside voices down, I suddenly became aware of how much I was influenced by other people's thoughts. I would've considered myself fairly 'attuned' to the sound of God's voice anyway, but when I turned my attention from the voices of other people talking ABOUT God to hearing Him for myself in this new way, I suddenly experienced a whole new desire to hear God, know God, experience God directly - face to face.
Christianity - in the New Covenant - was never meant to be a vicarious experience. We aren't meant to relate to God primarily through a prophet or 'man' of God. Sure, in the Old Testament, that's all people had. If we're not aware of what the terms of the New Covenant are, though, we will continue to believe that we need to hear God through someone else. One of my favorite scriptures in the New Testament has actually been quoted from the Old Testament and it's found in Hebrews chapters 8 and 10 and it says this (I'll quote from chapter 8:10-11):
10This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after that time, declares the Lord.
I will put my laws in their minds
and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
11No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
What this scripture says to me is that I am able to know God personally, for myself. In fact, I should know God personally because He's said I would know Him and that He would guide me internally rather than externally. Will I benefit from the other members of His Body? Absolutely. Will I be able to draw from other people's relationships with Him and apply what they've seen in Him to my life? I certainly hope so. I'm not advocating shutting out other people. I'm just saying that other people's experiences with God shouldn't be the defining points for MY relationship with Him.
I will admit, it took a few weeks to get used to not turning to a book or CD when I had a few spare minutes because that was what I was accustomed to doing. However, I also developed this hunger to know God on an even deeper level than before. I don't want to leave this earth only to discover when I get to heaven that I had lived my life through other people's lenses and not through direct encounters with my heavenly Father that were custom-designed for ME.
Will I read books again? Yes. In fact, I'm reading one now. However, in the past I would've unconsciously tended to exalt this person's experience over my own because after all, they are a 'published author' whereas now, I tend to read with an attitude of 'What do You want to say to me through this, Holy Spirit?' I am finding the answer to be varied. Sometimes it's much of what I'm reading, Other times it's only a sentence or two.
Bottom line, for me, was that I needed a paradigm adjustment, as we all do from time to time. The books were necessary for a time but there came a point where the things that used to 'help' me became the very hindrance to the relationship I was seeking. I don't know if I'll ever view books the same way I used to. Perhaps I will. Perhaps I won't. It doesn't really matter, to be honest. Sometimes you have to let go of the former things to have the new thing and from where it stands right now, this has been a decision that I think I will look back on as a significant one, even a turning point in my life. Ask me in a few years and I'll let you know. :)
