Even in the very limited capacity in which I am writer, I find it incredibly frustrating how difficult it is to communicate ideas effectively. Often I long for the ability to represent with greater clarity the thoughts God has laid on my heart. Author Annie Dillard says, “The written word is weak. Many people prefer life to it. Life gets your blood going…Writing is mere writing…It appeals only to the subtlest senses- the imagination’s vision, the imagination’s hearing- and the moral sense, and the intellect. The writing that you do…is barely audible to anyone else.” [1]
It is like a two year old attempting to describe the magnitude of Niagara Falls, or an artist who can never quite reveal visibly the image that rests in her imagination. If only I could say it like I feel it, or better yet sit down with you and explain what I mean. Even then, I fear the words to illustrate the intricacies of the message would fail me. What I can give is only a pale fragment, like a corner torn from one of the multitudinous journals I have scribbled in for a lifetime.
Since the notes that I pass on are filtered through such a limited scribe, let me recommend that you go to the source yourself. John 16:13-14 (ESV) states,
13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
Henry Blackaby describes it as follows:
Because you have the Holy Spirit, He guides you into all truth and teaches you all things. You understand spiritual truth because the Holy Spirit works in your life. You cannot understand God’s Word unless the Spirit of God teaches you. When you read the Word, the Author Himself is present to instruct you. Truth is never discovered, truth is revealed. When the Holy Spirit reveals truth to you, He is not leading you to an encounter with God. That is the encounter with God![2]
How incredible it is to have the Author present to instruct you! He sits down with you to explain what you need to know about God. What is wrong if that is not our experience that when we read the Scriptures? Perhaps we have never turned from our sins and invited the Holy Spirit to dwell within and guide us.
1 Corinthians 2:14-15 states, “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
Maybe you need to meet the author…
Hebrews 5:9 Amplified Bible
9 And,
[His completed experience] making Him perfectly [equipped], He became the
Author and Source of eternal salvation to all those who give heed and
obey Him,
Dillard, Annie. The Writing Life. New York: Harper Perennial, 1989.
Blackaby, Henry, Richard Blackaby and Claude King. Experiencing God. Nashville: Lifeway Press, 2007.