When I was in South Africa a year and a half ago, I was asking the Lord what I should do in life. Out of my own selfish desires, the thought of Seminary came to mind. I wanted to gain head knowledge of the Bible and know it inside and out. I had heard from so many that Seminary was the way to go.
The more and more that I began to seek the Lord I began to see that He didn’t want me to go down that path. The Lord was pushing me into the mission field and that is when I was exposed to The World Race.
This past week the thought of seminary came to mind once again. What would have happened if I would have gone off to seminary? I know that I would be filled with all sorts of head knowledge and would be able to refute anyone in the theology that I had learned.
Now I do not want to go into this blog with an attack message on Seminary. I believe that some are called to go to some very respectable seminaries in the world but I do believe that so many are led in the path that kills their faith. I believe that some go into seminary on fire for the Lord and on the back end they come out full of facts and head knowledge. The true relationship is diminished to the mind, the one thing that brought the fall of man, when Eve wanted the knowledge of God and wanted to know everything. We need to be very careful with our motives here.
My question is when is it ever going to be enough for some people? When are we going to realize that it is not about the brain but about the heart? Where in the bible does it say to go to a four year Seminary, doesn’t it say to disciple the twelve and actually live the life that we preach about.
The reason that I bring this up is because the Lord has revealed my seminary to me. He has shown me that The Counselor “The Holy Spirit” and spiritual mentors have been placed into my life to show me the bible up close and personal. So up close and personal that I am able to develop my own stories that will change my life forever.
I was sitting in the church that we were staying in and I was thinking about my seminary and the seminary that I would have gone to at a four year university. Would I have been able to literally take an existing church and run it for nearly three weeks? Would I have been able to speak every Sunday, delegate youth groups, Wednesday night services, two cell groups a week and numerous outreach projects? Would I have been able to start church’s from the ground up and actually see with my eyes how the church is built? My answer is no.
Again I do not want to attack the quality seminaries that are out there because I believe that some are called to that path in life. I just want us to look at what the bible speaks about and that is to live the life and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It says to go into all the Nations baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It says to repeat what Jesus did on earth.
We have a generation that needs to get their heads out of books created by men and dive into the Living Word of God. Application is the key to everything. We need to not only talk the talk but we need to walk the walk. We need to live what we are learning and the only way to do that is to look around you and realize that the entire world is a mission field. The calling of God is to live the life of Jesus Christ where He has placed you in life. The Holy Spirit will guide you in life if you are willing to cry out to Him and ask for your life to be changed.
Let’s live life to the fullest, act on the call from God and reach out to a world that is crying out for the salvation of Jesus Christ.
I am a changed man for what the Lord has revealed to me in Mexico. I am now on my way to Guatemala and Nicaragua.
God Bless.
