More than religion

John 7:38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

We have started our Experiencing God study; I had forgotten how good it really is. The opening week just speaks so much about the heart that truly seeks God; seeks to know his Will for our lives and how to know when we have joined Him there. A spine of the study is going against what we as Christians tend to do. We tend to pray and ask God to join us where we need help at in our lives. Then we wonder why we haven’t felt right about our relationship with Him; we wonder why we don’t feel his blessing in what we have been doing. Simply put, we asked God to come join us in our work, when we really should be going and joining Him where He is already at work around us. The way to truly know where he is already at work, is a heart that truly desires Him in daily prayer and his Word (Bible). You are NEVER going to find God, much less God’s Will for your life, in just one day a week.

Christ had stood up and made this proclamation at the Feast of Tabernacles; this feast was a Jewish religious festival that was steep in tradition. It was steep in religiosity that many felt themselves to be close to God because they honored and participated in the festival; it was a part of their Sunday or Sabbath system of religion. Christ was challenging their faith right at the pinnacle of the festival; commentaries speak of how when the water was poured to commemorate when the water flowed from the rock in the desert from God, Christ may have made this proclamation. What He was truly proclaiming to them was the gift of the Holy Spirit that would come to those that believed in Him. 39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

You can go to church every Sunday, you can try to read your Bible, you can do many things to feel religious, but you will not find heaven in or through them. You must come to understand that religion is not a key to heaven; only Christ holds that key through a humble repentant heart. Romans 10:8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. When you repent and accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, his gift to you is the Holy Spirit that will reside in your heart. It is the Holy Spirit that teaches you the Word of God, and draws you closer to him. It all begins with a heart that seeks God, more than just religion.