All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16-17
The first person you must train is yourself. You, and you alone, are responsible for choosing to engage “Christ in you” so that the tutor may tutor you in the ways of God. No one can train your spiritual senses but the Holy Spirit, yet your participation is required. Have you ever been filled with knowledge on a subject yet still lacked the power to transform or break through? It’s been said that the Bible is the only book written that requires the Author to be present when you read it. Without the writer, the reader can partake in a history lesson with good moral teaching but will lack the power that is alive and active, able to transform the person for this life and the life to come. Without an awareness of the Writer’s presence (the Holy Spirit), it is possible to read what God wrote but not experience the illumination of what He is saying to you.
Truth and Training + Frequency = Transformation. Where results are lacking, there is a disconnect between my life and the life God wants to bring from Heaven to Earth through me. Am I getting results in my life? If not, I must evaluate what I might be doing that is limiting the power of “Christ in me” to have a transformative impact on my life. God welcomes a desire by us to confront the gaps between what we read and what we experience in Scripture. If there is a disconnect, I must search it out. Here are a few questions I use to challenge the results in my life:
- Am I using His truth to tutor and transform me or picking and choosing what I like to hear?
- Am I using His truth to move His call on my life forward or using Him to advance my priorities?
- Am I acting on what I have learned or accumulating information, being filled with knowledge but not power?
- Is there evidence of “Christ’s power” working in me or only His name in my life?
- Is His Word pruning me, or am I pruning the conviction out of His Word?
REFLECT TO CONNECT
- Do you use God, or do you allow Him to use you?
- Is there only knowledge, or is there also evidence of power in your life?
- What truth is God seeding into your spirit today?
You can change without the Tutor of Truth, but you cannot transform.
