A GOD WHO AFFIRMS
Jeremiah 1:12 Then the LORD said to me, “You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.”
Jeremiah, young and inexperienced, was seeing what God was showing. God was not only concerned with Jeremiah hearing, He wanted His eyes looking for spiritual understanding. He wanted a man who could not merely spout doctrine and concepts, but one who could see and understand Him with the eyes of His heart (Eph 1:18). It is not that hard to study scripture, learn doctrine, and then teach those doctrines, even a non Christian can do that, and many do, but God wants more. He wants us to see. He wants us to have living understanding where we increase in the knowledge of God (Eph 1:17). The pharisees in Jesus’ day knew doctrine, or at least, their version of it, but were dead on the inside - whitewashed tombs, Jesus called them (Matt 23:27). They were scholars of their Bibles, but infants in the knowledge of God. Many today carry their religious DNA – riddled with rules, but empty of peace, touting theology, yet bereft of the Spirit, viciously waving the flag of dead orthodoxy. But Jeremiah shows us a different path.
“You have seen well….” God was affirming, “You’re doing it, Jeremiah! You’re seeing with your eyes what I’m showing you. I’m so proud of you!” The responsibility for getting revelation (illumination) from God lies not only on God showing, but on us seeing, and this requires that our hearts be in tune with Him, which happens when we sit before Him, gaze upon Him, and inquire of Him (Ps 27:4). The educated Christian tends to lose their spiritual life in concepts, rules, and ideas. Fascinated with the academics of scripture, they get trapped in the natural mindset (1 Cor 2:14). The busy Christian fares no better. They are concerned about ministry, serving, doing, volunteering, and tend to lose their spiritual life in the busyness of the kingdom. Certainly God wants us to grow the mind, and He wants us to be involved in His kingdom activity, but most of all He wants us to SEE. He wants us to get spiritual understanding and have LIFE on the inside. Knowing doctrine and being busy for the kingdom means nothing if we are not seeing well. Are you taking time to sit before Him and look? Keep looking and you will see things. Be careful, you might just hear God encourage you too, “You’re doing it, your are seeing what I’m showing you, my child.”
