This is an excerpt from Cecil’s 26th book titled: Supernatural Living (4 Steps to Achieving Real Success).
Paul: Know what God’s word says and means and by the understanding and power of the Spirit, apply it in daily living and working. . . . Childlike faith comes by hearing the word revealed by the Spirit.
Jesus: The Holy Spirit will teach and guide you into all truth; you don’t need anyone to mentor you in the word, except him. . . . Great in the kingdom of heaven are those who know, teach, and obey God’s commands.
Making a conscious choice to let the Spirit be your Bible mentor is one of the key personal spiritual disciplines that gives God the opportunity to set your heart for true greatness. As you practice this habit, then extreme, childlike faith and listening for and to the Spirit will become part of the fabric of your inward being, shape your choices, and manifest in your outward lifestyle.
There are many important personal benefits that can be yours if you allow the Spirit to be your Bible mentor. For example, the first half of Deuteronomy chapter 28 sets forth many of the blessings of listening for and to the voice of the Spirit and allowing him to teach us the way of God and empowering us to live it out in our daily activities.
Right up front in blog entry, I want to introduce two of the greatest blessings of allowing the Spirit to be your Bible mentor.
First, as you become more intimately acquainted with Jesus through the Spirit’s Bible mentoring, you’ll come to trust Jesus more and more. The Spirit will cause you to no longer see Jesus as a mere historical figure or a great teacher you’ve read about in the Bible or other books. The Spirit will cause Jesus to come alive to you as the living Word and ever-living God.
Second, the Spirit will convince you that God means what he says in the Bible. In addition to Deuteronomy 28 and all of God’s word being completely trustworthy, when you—and all God’s children—embrace and apply the word to your life, by the power of the Spirit, you’ll be led into lasting personal improvement, Real Success, and a life of genuine excellence.
Examples
If you habitually allow the Spirit to be your Bible mentor, you will come to the place where you so believe God and his promises that you’ll become like Peter and Mary, the mother of Jesus. Their childlike faith in Jesus led them to say, “Lord, to whom else shall we go? You alone have the words of eternal life. We believe and are sure that you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God” and “Be it unto me Lord, even according to thy Word!”
Like many before you, you will become more aware of God’s promises, you’ll agree with and accept them, and you’ll look for how God honors those promises as you walk in obedience by the power of his Spirit. Your deepened relationship with God and the word will continually revive, restore, and enliven zoë (God life) in your new spiritual heart.
You’ll become like Joshua, God’s handpicked successor to Moses. At the beginning of his term of leadership, the Spirit of God told Joshua to be strong and courageous so that he could obey the Law and conquer the Promised Land. The Spirit of the Lord told him not to turn from God’s Law, either to the right or to the left. Staying on the straight path would ensure that Joshua and the people would prosper wherever he’d go and enjoy good success. Joshua did as the Spirit urged, and he lived extraordinarily.
Unlike those who are hasty and take the self-serving and convenient “all truth is relative” approach to living, Joshua, Mary, Peter, and all true Christians believe that the Bible sets forth moral absolutes and life principles that, when practiced, lead to the genuinely better way of living.
I would also point out that Joshua and Mary, and eventually Peter and Paul, understood the value of passivity—of waiting on God. A person who puts off action until he or she hears advice from God . . . like the whole material cosmos . . . will usually hear his directions and unquestioningly obey him. All four were people who allowed God to order their steps . . . literally . . . individuals who are fully persuaded that God can be trusted and that following his unchanging eternal truth will lead to doing what is best.
This post is an excerpt from Cecil’s 26th book titled: Supernatural Living (4 Steps to Achieving Real Success!) Buy it, and Cecil's other books here.