When the thrill of the experience has waxed cold and the fog lifts and the glow of the ambient light has dimmed in the presence of offending fluorescence, there is a questioning of the longevity of this sacred romance called Christianity. As a Christian, I realize that encounter and experience once took precedence in my life. It was the thrill of God seeming to chase me and give me a word, to have the “man or woman of God” call me out and declare greatness and mighty exploits. Hot tears and those euphoric goosebumps were my litmus test that He had touched me through the years. Is this how many of us have operated with God?
It was not until this year that I came to grips with the truth. I was a starving sheep, feasting on encounter and messages with fillers and lacking true sustenance while snacking on His Word. Yes, I love Jesus Christ and have from the day that He became my Lord and Savior eighteen years ago. But without realizing it, this relationship had become “Jesus plus”. This is where many are in the body of Christ right now if there is brutal honesty. Either the plus is works based to win favor with God, which is not possible, or the plus is the experiences that trigger emotion and excitement. It seems that Jesus is not enough. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the call to be holy and sanctified is not enough. His Word is not enough. It has to be something new and fresh, something that is not even in His God breathed, Holy Spirit inspired Word.
A simple question lurks in the background that beckons to be answered but desperately hides in the recesses of the heart to evade this offensive truth. If you and I never felt tingles or euphoric goosebumps all in the name of the Holy Spirit, would Jesus be enough? If we never received a personal prophetic word, would His Word be enough? If He didn’t answer our prayers the way we expect or command, and yes I said command because supplication is no longer recognized as true prayer, would Jesus be enough to bring contentment? It seems that “our truth” lies dangerously in fleshly manifestations and the words of men rather than the truth of His written Word. There is a wooing, but it is the sound of the Beloved calling us out of spiritual sugar slumber. There are many true sheep waking up right now and they are looking for the meat of the Word. They are tired of fluff and fanfare. When they hear the spiritual circus is in town, they do not run for the meetings, but they run to the place of prayer. They open their Bibles and they feast. There is no famine when the Word of God is present.
Paul said,
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith-that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:8-9, 14 ESV
The upward call is to be with Him and to worship Him. Paul knew that all else paled in comparison to knowing Christ. The gain He had was counted as loss. Beloved church, Jesus is enough. That may sound real simple and trite, but it is true. I encourage you to read the Word of God every day. This is how we build this “sacred romance” with God. We are to know what the Holy Spirit inspired in the writings. We hear the testimony of our Beloved in the pages of the Bible and we see the scarlet thread of the spotless Lamb coursing throughout the Testaments. When is Jesus enough? I will tell you. When you feel nothing and yet you know that you are alive in Him and because of Him. When you long for eternity as a sojourner in the earth and nothing else satisfies or consoles you. When you rejoice in the victory as well as the trial and the suffering. When all else pales in comparison to His majesty and splendor, that is when Jesus is enough. He is not a consolation prize or an extra in the movie of our lives. He is the prize and He is the One we have come to see and to know. May we know Him more fully by His Word and by His Spirit.
Dawn Hill
lovesickscribe.com
