Inspiration

I was attending a church retreat where prior to one of the sessions, I was standing in a group talking. In the course of conversation, that morning’s speaker and I bumped into each other causing me to automatically comment: “Oh Mark, you are always being in the way!” As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I cringed inwardly and berated myself for saying something that sounded so stupid and awkwardly worded. The speaker turned to me with a look of absolute shock and commented that I had no idea how prophetic my statement was, as he walked toward the podium to begin his teaching.

At first I was confused, wondering if I had heard him correctly. I didn’t understand his meaning, as the word “prophetic” would indicate that I had just told the future. As he began to teach, he explained how the Lord confirmed the message he intended to give just moments before he took the stage. He proceeded to confidently present his speech entitled: “Always being in the way”.

Wow. How very strange. How did that happen? At the conclusion of his talk, I determined that the Lord had used me to provide confirmation so that Mark would know he had been lead in the right direction for his teaching. So I felt inspired by the Lord as He chose to speak through me to provide a needed message to one of His followers. And if God can speak through a donkey (Numbers 22:28), He can use me too!

Biblical inspiration is defined as God bringing His message for humanity through man. Many have trouble with Divine inspiration as the origin of the Bible because they feel that man cannot be trusted to bring a message from God without corrupting the information with humanity’s biases. I understand that, for man is corrupt and frankly I have never understood why God chooses to use people for His purposes. But we are chosen to be a part of His plan and share His Truth within our circles of influence.

Many do not believe in the Bible as the inspired Word of God to His people because of inaccuracies. According to AllaboutGod.com, the Bible is a collection of 66 “books”, written by at least 40 different people, was documented in 3 different languages (Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic), and was written across a time span of 1500 years or more. Doubters would wonder how a collection of books with that history could possibly be accurate. I would encourage anyone in doubt to earnestly seek God and study to decide for him or herself as faith in the God of the Bible will require trust in Scriptures as inspired. As the Bible reveals, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful in teaching what is true….” (2 Timothy 3:16 NLT).

Probably the major reason why I believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God is because of Bible prophecy. Prophecy is defined as a predicting of things to come and the Bible is nearly one third prophecy. Within it’s pages is a prediction from thousands of years ago that a nation “would be formed in a day” (Isaiah 66:8), would be formed from people who had been scattered to the four corners of the earth and yet was able to maintain their language, customs, and beliefs. An event that has never happened to any other people group in history. That nation is Israel and that event happened on May 14, 1948.

According to Breaking Israel News, there are many other prophecies that were foretold about the land to which the Jewish people would return. A few examples include the blooming of the desert (Isaiah 35:1) due to streams that would one day be formed (Isaiah 35:6), cities that would be rebuilt with vineyards dripping with wine (Joel 3;18, Amos 9:13), and orchards that would produce an abundance ((Isaiah 27:6). Israel is only roughly the size of New Jersey (www.iris.org) and has in recent times become a leading provider of produce to the whole world (Isaiah 27:6, Wikipedia, Agriculture in Israel). This is significant because the land was once described during a visit by Mark Twain as “desolate” where “Even the olive and the cactus….had almost deserted the country” (from “The Innocents Abroad” by Mark Twain found at jewishvirtuallibrary.org).

Many, many more prophecies have been given about the birth, life, and death of Jesus. For example, a few of the 300 or more prophecies foretold about Jesus include: He would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14), be crucified yet none of His bones would be broken (Numbers 9:12), soldiers would gamble for his clothes (Psalm 22:18), and He would be buried in the tomb of a rich man (Isaiah 53: 9) (Biblical Prophecies Fulfilled by Jesus, CBN.com). Jesus Himself says in John 13:9 when telling His disciples about the one of them who would betray Him, that He tells us the future of what will happen so that we will believe that He is sent from the one True God.

As you can see, I believe that the Bible is indeed the “inspired Word of God”, but I also know that many learned people consider it a book of fairy tales. I would encourage you to seek the Lord and challenge Him to reveal to you His Truth. He tells us in Jeremiah 29:13; “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with your whole heart”.

I hope I have inspired you to seek the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who chose to cloak Himself in humanity through Jesus Christ to lead us into a relationship with Him. As many a Christmas card will state: Wise men (and women) still seek Him.