You Know the Bible… But Do You Know God?

[David]

Listen, the problem isn’t that we don’t have enough knowledge. The problem is we’ve got a head full of truth and a heart that hasn’t bowed to it. Scripture says, “Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth” ~1 Corinthians 8:1. We’ve learned how to talk about God without actually walking with Him.

Jesus never called people to improve themselves. He called them to die. “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” ~Luke 9:23. That’s not an upgrade to your life. That’s the end of your life as you know it. And most people don’t want that. They want Jesus to help them, not rule them.

So what do we do? We dress it up. We preach benefits without surrender. We talk about peace without repentance. But Jesus made it plain: “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” ~Luke 13:3. That hasn’t changed. You don’t come to Christ on your terms. You come broken, or you don’t come at all.

And here’s where it gets real. We’ve got churches full of activity but empty of power. Why? Because we’ve replaced dependence on God with dependence on systems. But Scripture says, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts” ~Zechariah 4:6. You can have the lights, the words, the structure, and still not have God.

The early believers didn’t have what we have, but they had what we don’t. “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication” ~Acts 1:14. They waited on God. They depended on Him. And when the Spirit moved, everything changed.

So let’s stop playing games. The issue isn’t whether we know the Bible. The issue is whether we know the God of the Bible. Jesus said, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” ~John 17:3.

That’s the line in the sand. Not church attendance. Not theology. Do we actually know Him?

Because when a man or woman truly encounters God, everything changes. The pride breaks. The will bows. And life is no longer about us. It becomes about Him.

If this stirred something in you, don’t ignore it. There’s more here than just words on a page. This is the kind of message that exposes where we really stand before God.

Leonard Ravenhill didn’t play games with this. He pressed hard on prayer, brokenness, and knowing God for real, not just knowing about Him. That’s exactly what the church is missing today.

If you want to go deeper and let this hit where it needs to hit, listen to it here:
The Burdens of Ravenhill - Part 1 (Compilation) by Leonard Ravenhill | SermonIndex

Don’t just read about truth. Let it deal with you.