Reading the "written down word" didn't work for the Pharisees. Jesu showed up in front of them and had to explain that; His words were spirit.
Jn 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the word that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.
He was talking to them in sound waves at that time, and they had studied the "written word" which by the way is called "Scripture" in your Bible. Yet, they couldn't understand what He was saying. That happened then, and there is nothing new under the Sun.
Jn 8:43 Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word.
Of course He was talking to them in the flesh with sounds waves, and they heard those words, and those words were recorded so you can read them. You can even say them one to another, but those words, though from the Lord, did not save them then, and reading them now will not save you either, because it is the Spirit who gives life, just like He explained and is recorded in your Bible.
So why do you not understand this today. Is it not exactly like is recorded in the Bible. You keep thinking the reading the Scriptures, like the Pharisees did, is going to save you. You think you are faithful to God because you read your Bible. But being faithful to the Lord means listening to Him, and doing what He personally tells you. Did you not read "I have spoken to you".
He stands at the door and knocks and if anyone hears His voice and opens up to Him, He will come into them and eat with them, and them with Him. (Rev 3:20)
I hear His voice, we walk, we talk, I will sit down at the local fast food restaurant and have a conversation with Him. So I can tell you many many things He told me and we talked about. Now the first words He told me were "Read Your bible", but even by me hearing those first words from Him it showed that He was not the Bible, and that His words spoken to me were not those of the Bible. Those words He spoke to others. You did not have those words spoken to you! They had those words spoken to them! You must hear from Him yourself!
He has not changed. He had stood at the door and had spoken spiritual words to the Pharisees, but they rejected the Spirit of God, and they worked to get Jesus Christ hung on a few pieces of wood. And it is not different today. They still say Jesus is hanging on the pieces of wood made into paper and written on in ink. But He is a person and He is alive. He is the King of kings and so has a throne in the Kingdom of God, and that Kingdom is in your midst, but they reject it today. With their spiritual eyes they do not see, with their spiritual ears they do not hear. So they call the Scriptures (the graphe in Greek) the Word of God and put their faith in the graphe/Scriptures, thinking the 'written word' will save them. They call the line upon line of text the Word of God, because they will not listen to the Lord of Lord.
… but they would not listen. So the word of the Lord to them will be, 'Order on order, order on order, line on line, line on line, a little hear, a little there,' that they may go stumble backward, be broken, snared, and taken captive. (Is 28:13)
It has all been explained to them. It was all written down. So they have not excuse for not seeking Jesus Christ and listening to Him as the Word of God. But they won't listen. They just couldn't grasp that Jesus Christ is alive and you hear His words via the Spirit of God, and it is that hearing with your spiritual ears, and that believing has always been counted as righteousness. They Scriptures explain this, but they don't even believe the Scriptures that they put their faith in. If they had believed they would seek the Lord and find Him.
Gen 15:1 After these things the word of the Lord [that is the Christ not the book] came to Abram in a vision, saying "...."
The Christ as the Word of God came to Abram and spoke with Him in a vision - which sounds a whole lot like what Rick Joyner was telling about in his books. But sound nothing like what I have been reading on much of this thread.
Gen 15:6 Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.
Abram did not read the Scriptures, but he heard from the Lord in a vision and believed. That belief was counted as righteousness to him. And the real off spring of Abraham do what Abraham did. They hear from the Lord, in visions, in dreams, with their spirit from His Spirit, and they believe it is the Lord. And still today, that belief is counted to them as righteousness. This is all explain in the Scriptures, so again, why don't you understand what I am saying? Is it "because you cannot hear" (Jn 8:43) His words??
My friends - Jesus Christ cared for the Pharisees. He took on flesh, came to earth and into this world we are in, and spoke to them and tried to explain the problem they had and the mistake they were making, but they would not even listen to Him then. They reject what He was telling them. They reject the same message today. If you know the Lord, and He is a person, then you hear the words He "has spoken to you" personally. And you will know Him and Him you. You will know that those words He personally speaks to you are spirit and are life. The words written in the Bible are good for reading, study, reproof, training, and more, but they don't give life. They are not the words personally spoken to you! Searching the Scriptures will not save you.
I rejoice in people like Rick Joyner, who hear the word of the Lord spoken to them. He is by no means along, nor do we follow Rick. We follow the One who personally speaks to us and who we hear from. He is awesome. We can tell people things He personally told us. He once told me:
"Karl, you didn't make me and awesome God, but you can make me an awesome God"
You can tell people about Him, and thus make Him and awesome God --- so awesome that He will personall talk to you, a speck of dust on a speck of dust, going around a speck of dust in a galaxy that is like a speck to Him. Yet He will still talk to you like a friend if you care to believe in Him!
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