“But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.” I John 2:27 (NKJV)
I was a church kid. I grew up going to church and youth group and Christian festivals. I wore my Jesus t-shirt proudly in my public high school. I wrote and delivered my first sermon for “youth Sunday” at my church when I was around thirteen.
When I was eighteen, I walked away from the church. I didn’t know how to abide in Jesus, so I made some decisions that I knew God wouldn’t approve of. Since I didn’t want to confront my sin, I spent the remainder of my teen years and most of my twenties ignoring the pull of the Holy Spirit on my heart.
I made a mess of my life, and I felt lonely. Like a failure.
Thank God, He got my attention and drew me back into the flock. I remember those first days vividly. I was so in love with Jesus, and I was so grateful for what He had done for me. I would talk about the Gospel with anyone who would listen to me. I had so much joy in my heart. I desired to read His Word, and I accepted each new thing the Holy Spirit taught me with gladness.
I’m very thankful for the churches that I had in those early days. They taught me to read the Bible and pray in a way I hadn’t learned growing up. I had learned to rely on my pastors to hear God, The result was, I walked away when confronted with my sin because I didn’t have the kind of relationship with God that was built on my knowing Him personally.
I knew the truth of the Gospel in my head. I just didn’t know Jesus in my heart.
In my quest to know Jesus more, I went out of my way to attend classes and listen to podcasts and watch programs. I did everything I could to consume the Word, and I had a voracious appetite. Unfortunately, the spiritual food I was feeding on was incomplete. I didn’t know it, but I was feeding myself a diet that lacked some of the nourishment that was required to sustain my faith walk.
I spent more time listening to other voices than I listened to the Word.
Messages on healing, prosperity, and blessings are good, but they aren’t all the Bible teaches us. The Bible teaches us that we are to abide in Jesus and listen to Him. Yes, teachers and books can give us insight, but our main source should be the Bible so we can discern the truthfulness of what those voices are saying.
I walked through some very difficult times, some of which came from being obedient to God. First, we adopted three extra needs children, then we lost a child, and then I went through some major health crises. Unfortunately, I hadn’t prepared for the spiritual fallout. I tried to not be angry with God, but as I spent time in counseling with my pastor, she pointed out I was angry because I knew God could deliver me from all of the heartache I was experiencing, but He didn’t.
Recently, I made a conscious decision to start seeking God again. In my pain and disappointment, I knew that I needed God, but I refused to allow myself to trust Him. After all, I had so much spiritual armor, yet my life was a failure. In His infinite grace and mercy, He started showing me things I had not seen before as soon as I started seeking reconciliation with Him. He hasn’t waited for me to get my thinking straightened out.
As I have sought to abide in Jesus these past months, He has shown me that all of the listening and doing and checklists and “should bes” that I was feeling I needed to do while apart from Him were not what I actually needed. We don’t need podcasts and classes and events, although sometimes those can be good things.
We need Jesus.
In 2 Corinthians 11:3, Paul writes, “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” (NKJV) When I think back on the time when I first returned to Jesus, it was very simple. He saved me. Allowing all of the teachings to warp my thinking on how God “should” treat me caused my disillusionment. Just as Eve in the garden of Eden, I felt God was withholding good things from me. This caused me to sin.
I’m not advocating for the believer to walk their spiritual walk alone. There are dangers and pitfalls in that as well. It is actually unbiblical. Hebrews 10:24-25 encourages us: “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another…” (NKJV) We need others, especially leaders, to help keep us from getting off track. However, we must be careful.
We mustn’t allow others to replace the Word as our ultimate source.
Jesus told his disciples, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” John 15:4 (NKJV) I withered because I wasn’t connected to the true vine. I was connected to teachers, podcasts, and ideas that didn’t come from Jesus. Jesus said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” Luke 9:23 (NKJV) Taking up a cross insinuates suffering. Jesus never told us that we would live an easy life if we followed Him. He said we would live a fruitful life.
Our walk should be all about Jesus.
Not what He can do for us, but how we can serve Him for what He already did for us. We can only do this when we remember that anointing which resides in us is because we abide in Him.
