Mark's head is shrinking

heard something years ago that I have repeated many times now over the years, so my apologies to former students of mine who have heard this before!

In some circles, it is not uncommon for people to use metaphors like “I have been feasting on the Word” and/or “I just had a good meal” when talking about reading the Bible.  Now, I know what they mean and appreciate the concept, but when I heard John Wimber talk about a good while back it ruined this metaphor for me.  Jesus said “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me.”  It’s funny, because we rarely think of obedience as a form of feeding on God’s Word, but Jesus teaches us that by being obedient to what His Father has said (as revealed in Scripture (logos) or to our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Rema) or both!) we are actually being fed.

In the Western world, there is a huge emphasis on learning and on mental ascent.  Obviously, this isn’t a bad thing by itself except when it infringes on the actual practice of what we say we believe.  It is not uncommon for people to read the Bible, extract key truths, and then utterly fail to walk them out. It dawns on me that when I do this, I may be a “student” of Jesus, but I am not being a follower.

So what did John Wimber say?  He said, “You haven’t been feasting on the Word, you have been reading the menu, if you want to feast go and DO what you have read!”  (paraphrase).  So a good question to ask ourselves is: “What has God revealed about His will in this passage and how can I be obedient TODAY?”

Are you a follower of Jesus or just one of his students?