Eternal Approach

Every one of us is searching for something.

We each want to be happy and fulfilled.

We each want to have peace in our souls and minds.

But finding these very basic things is not easy. And most people miss the boat entirely. Slowly watching as their lives drift toward the treacherous reefs of spiritual destruction.

So, what is the answer? Where can one find the solution?

The answer is in a Person. 

Exclusively in Christ. And specifically, as He is revealed in the written words of God. The Bible. 

However, one may claim to be a Christian, having studied theology, having taught and preached to others, and having built a large ministry with countless people praising his influence and life, while still not knowing the Person of Christ. 

Even remaining lost and unsaved. Even while others are looking to that person for guidance, for salvation, and for discipleship. 

The Thing We Seek After 

As we look across the vast landscape of the Evangelical and Charismatic worlds, this is a common tragedy. It is way too common. 

The problem is that people are seeking a Thing instead of Christ. 

And that Thing can be an ecstatic experience, a supernatural manifestation, a miracle, or some other feeling that will give a person the sense that they are saved or, as believers, are in proper fellowship with the Lord. 

Most of these Things are related to a belief that the Holy Spirit is the One that will supply this experience. And that people just need to believe enough and to be open enough to His provision and ability to Do these things.

That they just must be open to and believe in these modern-day “signs and wonders”. 

To be open to whatever the Holy Spirit might do. “To believe in the impossible.”

That is the language of many of today’s “ministers”.

The Lord is that Spirit 

The point here is that the Lord’s Spirit cannot be separated from Christ Himself. Which is one of the grave errors within the Charismatic movement. 

They focus on the Spirit instead of Christ Himself. Which is something the Spirit of God never does. 

In the word of God, the Spirit’s purpose is to reveal and glorify Jesus Christ. Which demands our seeking the Lord Himself versus some other Spirit that will somehow provide for us a Thing. 

“Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.” (John 16:10-16)

However, neither the Lord Jesus Christ nor His Spirit are a Thing. Each is a Person. Each is co-equal in the Godhead with the Father. With Christ having the preeminence in our lives as our Only Mediator. As the only One we should be talking to or opening ourselves up to. 

And all of this according to His word. His written word. 

If someone says something “in the Spirit” that is not according to the word of God, they are speaking by another spirit, another lord, another christ. 

Our First Love 

The “sword of the Spirit is the word of God“. That word is His method for bringing us closer to Himself. And, if we faithfully seek Him in His word, then He will reveal Himself to us by His Spirit who dwells within us. 

But we must seek Christ first. He must be our First love. 

Our searching for an experience, or a manifestation, or a “deep, heavy glory of God”, or a miracle, or some huge ministry “victory”, or multitudes coming forward “to make a decision for Christ”, are not to be our goal. 

The Lord Himself wants to be our “all in all“. Our blessing as well as the preparation for the blessing (as AB Simpson said in his sermon entitled, “Himself”).

Christ is to be our Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, and Redemption. 

The good life we seek to live “for Him”, the consistent living in holiness and purity, or a life of obedience and boldness in Him, is ALL only found in “Himself”. 

It is not found through following some “Spiritual Disciplines” or “Contemplative Spirituality”, or some other means we are supposed to employ to get “closer to Him”. Or to “go deeper with God”. 

These are man’s methods. These are the religious elements of the world that the church is increasingly dabbling in. 

These methods and philosophies are leading well-meaning people into something else. Opening them up to someone else. 

Even as a person is “opened up” to spiritual influence or oppression by demonic entities through Tarot, or Ouija, or Eastern mysticism, or Catholic mysticism. By messing around with means of “reaching God” that have nothing to do with biblical truth or the ministry of the Holy Spirit. 

We must reach the end of these things and cast them off so that the Lord can reveal Himself to us.

When we reach the end of our “best Christian selves” and realize that Christ alone, in Himself, is both the beginning, middle, and end of all that we seek.

That everything is within His own Person where “all fullness dwells“.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay