TEACHING INTO AN ENCOUNTER part 2

Continuing on in this book by Bill Johnson called "WHEN HEAVEN INVADES EARTH", I wanted to just say a little bit more about chapter 8. It is so rich with God's practical truths.

"... the culture," says Bill Johnson, "which values ideas above experience, has shaped most of our Bible schools, seminaries, and denominations. Many present day movements have made a virtue out of staying the course without a God experience... To make matters worse, those who speak subjectively of an experience are often considered suspect, and even dangerous. But God cannot be known apart from experience... He is a person, not a philosophy or a concept."

HOW TRUE! It seems like God is using "Internship" more these days than "Bible school" per se. With an internship you get some bible teaching, but a lot of hands on experience. I went to college for 6 years to get my Masters degree. I received very little hands on during that time. When I finished, I could "compose", orchestrate, transcribe, transpose, conduct, play instruments, etc., etc., but what good was it without the practicality of "getting a job"!

[By the way, Love Aflame! Worldwide is starting an intern program in the fall of 2006. If you're interested you can look into it at www.loveaflame.net]

The Holy Spirit is a person. We need to work on our relationship with Him. Just as in a marriage, "relationship" doesn't just happen -- I must take time for my wife or our relationship will not grow and will probably even eventually die.

If I only work, work, work and never take time to be with her -- to talk with her -- to listen to her heart -- to be intimate, we will slowly drift apart. If we don't "experience" each other I could write her all the letters she could handle, and fill a room with books about my love for her, but she will never know the reality of an experience with me... a live person, her husband.

So it is with the Holy Spirit. He is alive! The Bible is written about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, but, if we never have an experience with the Living God we will only know the God of the book. The God who was, but not the One who is and is to come.

"God is bigger than His book," Pastor Johnson says. "The Bible is the absolute Word of God. It reveals God; the obvious, the unexplainable, the mysterious, and sometimes offensive. It all reveals the greatness of our God. Yet it does not contain Him."

Oh Holy Spirit... teach us not to try to control you. Can we control the wind? Help us Lord. Your church is in need of You Jesus, and sometimes we don't even realize what that means.

Next time I will write a little about chapter 9, "The Works of the Father".

I would highly recommend this book. I believe this book will impact your life. You can find "WHEN HEAVEN INVADES EARTH" for a 21% discount in our bookstore at www.loveandfire.net (then click on the menu item "Music and Bookstore").