Writing, Believing, Speaking!

"It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken." Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak," (2 Corinthians 4:13 NIV)

Sometimes, what we say we believe is not necessarily true. It doesn't become true for us until we see it, in writing so we can analyze what we see, especially when it comes to living The Word. What we see that has been written, we believe and therefore have the courage to speak what we believe and to write even more to expound on that belief.

When we read something for the first time, we may understand the letters on the page, but do we really understand the context and inference those letters are alluding to?

Every time I read a passage of scripture, God reveals something new to me. It wasn't that I didn't understand the words the first time, but the more I read, the more I believe, and the more I speak what I believe, greater revelation comes to me because I am reading even more.

The perfect example to illustrate this is when I read John 17. I had always heard, "The Lord's Prayer" and even sang it on more than one occasion. However, when I read the entire chapter, more than once, I began to realize that what we call His prayer is not and this chapter is. What is amazing to me is that not many people reference this chapter as His prayer, they are not memorizing it, and most don't even realize that in the 20th verse, He's praying for those of us who were not present with Him then, but for those He knew would follow those who taught His Word. How long is going to take for others to get a "revelation" about what is truly His prayer?

I've written about John 17 before and how we have mistakenly, used the model prayer as a foundation for praying. Here's the truth of the matter--if Jesus had meant for us to pray the model prayer at all times, for all things, He would have said the same prayer, when He was in garden, knowing what was about to happen to Him. Our foundation for prayer is simply this: "Whatever we ask of the Father in Jesus' name, He will do." We are limited to a few trite phrases, most of which have already been fulfilled, in order for God to hear us and act on our behalf.

What we read from what is written, we believe and what we believe we speak (or write) to the glory of God so others may also come into knowledge and truth about Our Risen Savior.