Good Monday morning (2.28.11),

One of the things I do every year is read a daily devotional that takes me through the entire Bible in twelve months. I’m constantly amazed at all the passages I know I’ve read many times that seem brand new to me.

This is one of the greatest proofs, to me personally, that the Word is a living thing.

It changes not, and yet it is ever changing because my understanding of it is ever deepening. That’s why a familiar scripture can hit me between the eyes as if I’ve never seen it.

God says that He gives us territory in the same measure that we are able to hold that territory. Applying that to my spiritual understanding — I realize that God gives me rhema, Spirit-driven illumination of His beautiful Word, when He knows I am able to receive it, incorporate it, and apply it. In this way I can successfully be a “doer” of the Word, not just a hearer…because if He was giving me deep understanding of everything I read, every time I read, I could never apply all of that to my walk. I would be standing in the midst of a vast territory of illuminated understanding that I could not manage and then I would not be able to fulfill His directive to “do what I know”.

Isn’t God good?

This week I was reading about the crucifixion. I found myself speeding through the familiar passages like a story in a book. “Stop,” the Holy Spirit said to me. “Pay attention. Walk this walk with Him. Do not take this for granted, do not read it lightly.”

The Bible is not just another book to get through. I have to be reminded over and over again as I get caught up in my agenda instead of His presence.

So I stopped. I meditated. I experienced the event: the betrayal of thousands of voices chanting death; the spatters of mixed blood and sweat running rivulets down torn arms and legs; the thorns penetrating scalp; the rough stones against brutalized feet; the weight of sin and sorrow; the mantle of love and approval and protection dissolving and disappearing. The darkness.

Reading Matthew chapter 27 I am exposed to the pivotal moment in the history of the world! The second that the man Jesus died on the cross was the exact spot in time (how rarely are we able to pinpoint such a historic transmutation?!) that everything changed. The old was finished, the new had begun. Bondage cast down, freedom raised up.

 Death destroyed and life released.

Jesus breathed His last. The earth shook. The heavens darkened. The veil ripped in two. Everything changed.

I am so thankful that He was willing to endure the unendurable so that I could walk in such abundance. He took pain so I could have relief. He became marred so I could be perfected. He laid down love so I could pick it up.

It is appropriate to ask God to increase the eyes of our understanding. He wants to communicate with us. He wants to demonstrate Himself to His children. He desires the exact opposite of blind obedience…that’s why He exhorts us to seek Him and His presence first.

The Word leads us into intimacy. It describes Him, then reveals Him. The Word, as we progressively understand it and then apply it, is like a trail of crumbs that leads us to the cake. It is a path to divine intimacy that will never betray us. If we set our feet upon it we will go places we have never dreamed.

His ways are not our ways. But He beckons us to know Him. Understanding begins with fear and ends with wisdom. The Word points the way.

“Yes, furthermore, I count everything as loss compared to the possession of the priceless privilege (the overwhelming preciousness, the surpassing worth, and supreme advantage) of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord and of progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him (of perceiving and recognizing and understanding Him more fully and clearly). For His sake I have lost everything and consider it all to be mere rubbish, in order that I may win (gain) Christ.” Phil. 3:8 (Amplified)

Laurie Gross