The Written Word vs The Word - Jesus; Is There A Difference?

Recently I posted a question on my wall in Facebook - "How does one get to be a false prophet and/or a false teacher?" After much discussion - all good points - a picture began to emerge in my mind. Some based their understanding as money/ego driven. Some posted that they twist the bible to their own agendas. One said "fake I.D.'s" (I liked that one). The discussion is still ongoing, but the conversation has evolved to the subject of how do we know the Truth. Some say by the bible, some say by Jesus. Some say both...... like I said, the discussion is still going on. As I was reading the comments this morning (I love hearing thoughts in words - they are very revealing) a light came on and I saw very clearly. The following I also posted in my comments on my FB page, but I had this nagging sense that I needed to also include it as a blog post for those who are not my "Facebook Friends". I hope you find it as revealing as I did when it came to me. Here it is in its' entirety:


Galatians 4:21 "Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says?" . Verses 21-31 contain Paul's lesson on the origins of law and grace. I don't think very many people have ever read what the law says - here's a link to all 613 commandments so that everybody knows what the law really says http://www.aish.com/jl/m/m/48945081.html

These commandments, which make up the law, are summed up in the 10 we are familiar with, of which only 2, Jesus said, summed it all up. That being said - if you know what the law (which really should be translated as Torah, meaning God's guidelines or teachings) really says, you will see that there is a divine plan. There are 248 positive (the do's)- corresponding to the number of bones and vital organs in the human body; there are 365 negative ones (the don'ts)- corresponding to both the sinews and blood system in the body, but also to the number of days in a solar year = light. Of the 10 we know most, there are 5 positive and 5 negative; the first 5 concerning our relationship with God and His order and the last 5 pertaining to our relationship with man. These "guidelines" - all 613 of them - pertain to everything! Farming, business, relationships, husbandry, government, the earth - everything!

At Sinai, when God spoke, His words came out from the mountain as tongues of fire landing on the people. He only got the first two commandments spoken before the people begged Moses to not let Him speak anymore - they were terrified. The remaining 8 that make up the 10 were written down, including the 1st 2. My point here is that when God speaks, it is distinctly recognizable that it's Him....... when He has spoken to me, I know it's His voice by the "fire in my belly" and I tremble. There is no discounting that I have heard his voice. Other times, it's like a light comes on deep within me and "I see"; I understand. Some call that intuition, sense, feeling. But to me, it is the still small voice. At Sinai, the people received both spoken and written words. I think there is a lesson in that pertinent to this discussion.

God has always had a plan - He is the Master Architect, Builder, Author and Finisher. Everyone knows that a well planned building is based on a concept - the architect begins with an idea and from the idea the plan emerges. The intricacies of construction may involve scores of contractors, hundreds of suppliers, thousands of workers, millions of tools and parts and nails and screws. There may be piping enough to stretch for miles, wiring enough to span a continent, but everything unfolds from the architect's original concept / design. Discerning critics will look for the soul that is sheathed in steel, masonry, and glass. There could be thousands of pages of blueprints from which a single unifying concept grew - but any intelligent layman knows that there is a purpose behind the volumes of plans. That is how God works.

I see the bible this way - as pages of a set of blueprints revealing the master plan - from beginning to end. It took multiples of writers, teachers, prophets, evangelists, laymen, etc., each of which had an understanding of the finished product, that when read together, like the pages of a set blueprints, it gives us a complete picture of the finished building - Jesus and His church (and it doesn't resemble anything to the one on the corner). To throw out any one of the pages of the blueprints, we get a lopsided building. The bible we have is not all there is - there are pages of blueprints missing. I don't know where we ever got that the bible was and is the infallible, inerrant word of God (if it's written in the bible somewhere, I can't recall where it is). What 99.9% of Christians have is man-made translations of ancient languages (with the exception of the scrolls the Jews have secured. The Jews have maintained the Hebrew language and the Aramaic and Greek, so they would be the only ones I know of truly qualified to translate the ancient languages in their original intent of understanding.) Plus the bible we have, for the most part, was compiled by people who considered themselves pious and authorities of what man needed. Because they couldn't verify some of the writings - they threw them out of the canonized version we have and put them in other books (apocrypha, Septuagint, pseudo-graph, etc). (Side bar question. How do you verify the authenticity of writings centuries old?) Some of the writings are still yet to be translated and sitting in vaults somewhere. So while I read and study what I have - I also read a lot of the other writings too. My goal? To get somehow the whole picture - you know the one that is the first and last page of the set of blueprints? The one that shows what the house looks like when it's finished? The artist's concept. There is a drive in me to know what He said and revealed to man - all of it - that He wanted them to document. That being said - we have the Master Architect himself living in us, so when we read the blueprints we do have, He's standing over our shoulder and pointing out to us the different pages of it. This is faith. Before we can understand anything, we must have the Master explaining it - this is the reason why we must have both - The Word Himself and the words he spoke to man, to properly build the house - HIS BODY, HIS CHURCH, HIS BRIDE.

"His word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path". What is a lamp but something that holds the light. I can't see myself walking a dark path with a flashlight that has no batteries. I wouldn't make it 2 steps in the dark (just ask Bill). The batteries are the energy that provides the light. Likewise, I can't imagine reading or studying the bible blindfolded. What good is that? Unless I have one written in Braille, which is just another form of darkness, it does me no good.

This is the condition of the body of Christ, as I see it. One side adheres to the written word as the ONLY way to God and understand Him. The other side adheres to the Word of God, Jesus, as the only way to know what we're supposed to do and understand. If that were the plan of God, then the Word would not have had to become flesh and dwell among men - to bring the light. The result of centuries without God speaking as He did the ancient times, got the people to the condition they were in when The Word became flesh. It took Jesus 3 years of intense training of his 12 - and the 70 - to get them to understand the blueprints, and even then it wasn't until the day of Pentecost that they did understand, when the tongues of fire - God speaking once again - landed AND DWELLED in them, and gave them power and boldness. It was not until after that moment that Peter was able to stand and speak it out - the whole picture - the Good News.

Now here we are - 2,000 years later, facing the same problems. We have man's interpretation and doctrines. We have doctrines of demons. We have New Age and Mysticism influencing the charismatics and Pentecostals (back then it was Jewish Mysticism - Cabala. In the middle ages and other times it was Shamans, Seers, etc). We have the fundamentalists who won't read anything but the King James authentic version. We have false teachers and false prophets who are in it entirely for the money and twist and turn every word to fit their agenda - and they are the richest of all, by the way. Then we have those, like us, who have awakened from a deep slumber, looked around at the landscape and wonder where in the world we are! How do we find our way home.... We follow the map and the writer/author of the map. We search, we seek, we pray, we knock, we believe, we follow the Light of the World. We take this imperfect book, this imperfect system, we take our lamps out and put bulbs in them and we walk forward - one step at a time. We lean not to our own understanding - but we bind ourselves by faith to the Word Himself. We come to know Him, walk with Him, listen to Him, read as He explains what we read, we hope, and we bear with one another; love one another; take care of one another, seeing that no one has a need of ANY kind; we die to ourselves and live in Him. Only by taking / yoking ourselves with him, in real relationship, can we find rest for our souls and our weariness. We set aside vain arguments and judgments. We set aside our viewpoints and come together in one mind and one accord with one agenda - to know Him and the power of His Might!