Years ago I had a vision where I saw myself in a cave. I was sitting on a bench next to a table. There was a Bible, a note pad, a pen and candle. God was telling me that He wanted me to understand that pursuing Him was not a function of intense academic study with twelve translations, Greek and Hebrew word studies and all sorts of other books (not there is anything wrong with that, they have their place). Rather it was a matter of me sitting in His presence, getting quiet and letting Him speak to me.

Today, I’m sitting here with my laptop open and I’m reading the Word using Logos Bible Software. I have the ESV, NASB, NET Bible in separate tabs. I have the Bible Knowledge Commentary in a window along with the information window which displays all sorts of things and the ESV Study Bible. They are all conveniently here, just a click away. This is amazing.

And yet, with all this wonderful stuff, I feel like the Holy Spirit whispered to me, “Not exactly the low tech cave.”

There is nothing wrong with all of this but there is this continual sense I get that what He really wants is our focus. He want us to sit at His feet and listen, transfixed at what He is saying. If Jesus was physically in the room talking to us, what would our posture be? Would we be stopping Him to look up the Hebrew and the Greek? I don’t think so. Would we be furiously taking notes? Perhaps, but I tend to think we would be so overwhelmed with His Presence that we would be afraid to move a finger lest we disrupt the sacredness of the moment.

As I’m writing this, I’m watching iBethel.tv worship and Kris Vallotton is speaking about rhythms, that there is a time to work and a time to rest. Many people are worn out not because they are doing something wrong but they are doing it out of rhythm. Years ago, God spoke to me and told me there was a rhythm to the Spirit, that we needed to be in step with Him.

We need to learn to trust His leadership, His guidance. We need to have enough confidence in His leading that We pursue Him in the way He wants us to pursue Him even if it looks different from what everyone else is doing. That is the only way we will find our rhythm. We can’t walk according to someone else’s cadence. That will result in burnout. Each of us have to walk our walk, at our pace, trusting Him to lead us and guide us. We have to have more confidence in the Holy Spirit inside of us than in what someone else is hearing for themselves.

Much of this comes down to trusting Him that He is actually leading and guiding us. It is a departure from a flowchart based Christianity to a living, breathing conversation. It is daily, moment by moment communion with Him, knowing that He will never lead us astray. The lie is that “we can’t hear from God.” The fear is “what if I miss God.” The truth is, He’s better than that. We need to stop relying on our ability to hear and start relying on His ability to speak. God is fully committed to our spiritual development. He has no problem assuming responsibility for a life totally yielded to Him.