I still believe

I hear a lot of learned men saying a lot of thing about my God, my Bible, my Spirit. They tell me how I am supposed to believe. They tell me how far away I am supposed to believe God is. They tell me how I am supposed to read, understand and apply His Word. They tell me how I am supposed to understand the stories of His Holy Spirit. The whole time I hear logic, learning, studying.

I am reminded of the movie Dead Poet Society. In it, English professor John Keaning begins his study of poetry by opening to the first chapter of the text on how to interpret poetry. He instructs the students to tear it out. He says that the mechanical, scientific method of rating poetry robbed it of its power, its humanity, and its ability to move the soul.

How are we reading our bibles? How are we looking at them? Is God a powerful Being that revealed amazing things two thousand years ago and now we dissect and analyze the footprint of that revelation? Was the Bible written for that audience alone? Or is God just as active today. Does His truth not ring just as true TODAY? When He revealed the Word, did He not see us and weave into the passages messages for us? Does the Holy Spirit not make it real to us each day? Or are we only left to study someone else's revelation?

Are there miracles today? Can we still lay on hands and have amazing things happen in Jesus' name? Or are our only weapon words? Is our only miracle leading someone else to Christ? Was the Holy Spirit poured out to the witnesses of the Crucifixion and now is tame and mild... Are miracles gone? I tell you friends; I don't even know if I recognize their faith!

I still believe in a living, loving God. I believe He is just as powerful, just as awesome, just as miraculous today as He has ever been. I believe in His life altering Word. Not in its distant truth across some bridge, but in its living power! I don't buy into the notion that we have to trust in our own scientific study of the text. Let the Spirit make it real in our hearts. And most of all, I know my Holy Spirit. I know the miracles that He can perform TODAY. I have seen the damaged made whole. I have seen the demon-possessed set free. I have seen the crippled straightened. I have felt the power of the Spirit wash over me and erase all of my broken, nasty parts. I have prayed in ways that only my Father can understand. I have sung with a richness of the Spirit. I have experienced things that aren't gone with an age past. The Spirit is alive and waiting to be poured out.

Some say I am a mystic, an emotionalist, a charismatic, a holy roller. True, true, true and true. But I would rather be a mystic than a dried-up logical scientist any day.

I still believe in Your Holy Word! -Jeremy Camp