The bible is a fantastic tool, but I dont like it being used to suffocate the people it was written to help.

God you might as well drag me outside and shoot me now! If you keep saying that kind of thing and expecting me to write it down I’m always going to have someone on my back. I’m sick of it God! I’d just like a quiet life, I’m over being a trouble maker. But it’s as though you purposely want to annoy people. Almost like you’re trying to pick a fight God?!?

You know what God!?! You’re like that annoying cousin that your mum makes drag along with you, but you just know they’re going to say something embarrassing and make you wish you didn’t take them. Sometimes hanging out with you is just a pain God, it really is. A lot of the time I don’t want to ask you questions because you say things that get me offside with people.

What if I do want to annoy people Mark?

Well you could at least use someone else to do it! Why pick me?

Because you keep asking me questions Mark and expecting an answer.

So?

Anyone who expects answers from me is going to get them Mark.

Matt 7:7 ‘Ask and keep on asking’.
Luke 11:9 ‘Ask and it will be given to you.’

But let me ask you a question Mark. What do you think I’m about to say to you?

I don’t know God? But did you say yes I do?

No.

So I don’t know what you’re about to say right now?

No. Not really. And I want you to realise that – not knowing what I’m saying encourages conversation Mark. It’s the same in any relationship. Conversation comes from a desire to know what the other is thinking and the realisation that you don’t. Unfortunately you Christians think you already know what I’m saying. You think if you hear my words from the bible (what I have said in the past) you’ll know what I am saying now.

Is that a mistake? Oh oh I wish I hadn’t even asked that God!! Even just asking you that will get me in hot water – and I daren’t even think what your answer will be. I’m pretty sure whatever it is people will tell me I’m deceived, they’ll say you wouldn’t possibly say whatever it is you say, and then it will end up being me who’s in trouble, not you. You’ll say something, but I’ll be the one who ends up in trouble for what you’ve said and you’ll get off scott-free.

On the contrary Mark – if you’re in trouble I’ve got your back and if they want to stab you in the back they’ll be running that knife through me.  So let’s continue. The answer is yes Mark. Yes it’s a mistake to think that if you read what I’ve said in the past that you’ll know what I am saying now.

Those words were written by people who could hear what I was saying then. Reading them gives insight to what I’m like. I haven’t changed. But I am talking today too. I have never stopped talking.

JOHN 16:12-13 ‘There is so much more I want to tell you, but you can’t bear it now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.’
 

So Mark answer me this question; which is better, to know what I said back then, or to know what I am saying now?

PSALM 32:8 ‘I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.’

IS 30:21 ‘a voice will say, "This is the way you should go," whether to the right or to the left.’

I refuse to answer God on the grounds that I might incriminate myself!

Yes, good advice Mark. I’ll answer it then.

No don’t please God! I get the message, and whatever your answer I have to write it down, and the religious will just think I’ve made it up and am deceived.

The answer is critically important Mark and those who are able to discern my words need to hear it.

Ok then, go ahead if you must God.

Mark if you have to choose it is better to hear what I am saying now. What I said in the past is a benchmark. It enables you to judge what I am saying now against it. But it is not crucial. The men and women who wrote the bible were average men and women just like you. They were able to hear me just as any man or woman today is able to hear me.

It is great to have a benchmark, but not crucial. There have been many nations where persecution prevented people having access to the bible and yet the church boomed. The early church had no bible. And Mark living in the past is a danger. To make real progress in any relationship you need to be living in the ‘now’ of that relationship. It is no different with me. If you want a proper, real-live, happening-now relationship with God and not this religious diatribe that has been sold to you Christians then you need to hear me now.

Can you see the cunning of your enemy? He uses the very things that I really did say to others in the past to build a list of imaginary rules that keep you from hearing what I am saying to you personally right now. The Pharisees did the same, they used the words I had said to prevent people getting in to the kingdom of God.

MATT 23:13 ‘What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people's faces. You won't go in yourselves, and you don't let others enter either.’

I want a relationship with you personally. I want it with every single person alive but the enemy is teaching you all to have that relationship through the relationships that others had with me thousands of years ago. The bible is a great tool but not when it used to suffocate the life out of the people it was designed to help. And Mark the word of God that is sharper than any two edged sword is the word that proceeds from my lips, not things written in the past.

I am God. I am not confined to speaking from any book. Yes I can speak to you from those written words but I can also speak direct to your heart and that is how I prefer to speak for the most part. Paul made that abundantly clear and he copied me.

The bible is fantastic Mark. It is the words I spoke but it is not and never will be a substitute for a conversation direct with me. The teachers of the law are terrified that if you listen to me direct you may mishear me. And of course they’re right. Learning to hear me takes time and practise, but that’s exactly what I want.

1 JOHN 2:27 ‘so you don't need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true--it is not a lie’.

And the teachers of the law forget one thing; it is just as easy to mishear me when you read scripture. The Pharisees who crucified me and Paul on his journey to Damascus received their ‘guidance’ from scripture. The word that was a lamp to David’s feet was the words I spoke direct into his heart. Look up the original if you’re not sure.

PRAISE FOR THE FREEDOM DIARIES

The Freedom Diaries will stretch you. It describes Mark’s real life struggle with Doubt as he discovered that he could hear God’s voice every day.Dr Mark Virkler. Author of 4 Keys to hearing God’s Voice. Buffalo. New York.

Like a child on Christmas morning, I was delighted to discover how simple yet wonderful it is to place my hand into the hand of God and listen to his whispers and enjoy his affection.  I could only ask why no one had ever told me he was this good and this close.  I wish I had read this book a long, long time ago.  Daniel Walker. Founder and Executive Director of Nvader. Author of God in a brothel.

This is new and exciting. It’s not the idea of hearing from God that’s new, it’s having conversations back and forth, question and answers. That’s new for most of us. Now I am enjoying my own conversations with God, which always leave me with hope. David Garratt of Scripture in Song. Hawaii.