Every month when I start this article I think what I am about to write is the most important and meaningful True Believer I have ever written. The only way to explain it is to compare it to eating. I couldn’t begin to count how many times I have finished a great steak and said out loud, “That was the best steak I have ever had.” I believe I say something similar on Thanksgiving.
What I have on my heart is of utmost importance. It is in fact at the very center and purpose of this column, communicating and conversing with God. It’s a subject that supersedes time and space covering the entire gamut of intellectual debate concerning God and man. When discussing such a vast subject I believe it would be best to start with Occam’s Rule or Occam’s razor for a framework. Occam's (or Ockham's) razor is a principle attributed to the 14th century logician and Franciscan friar William of Ockham. Simply put, Occam’s rules states “when you have competing theories the simpler one will always prove the better.” Many scientist and engineers have tried to discover what it was that enabled Leonardo da Vinci to be so creative and practical at the same time? Leonardo attributed his applied guiding systems and engineering principles to Occam's rule. I quote: "When you wish to produce a result do not allow yourself to complicate it by introducing many subsidiary parts, but follow the briefest way possible, and do not act as those who when they do not know better proceed to introduce methods that bring great prolixity and confusion." The modern adaptation would be the acronym KISS. “Keep it simple, stupid” was first coined by Kelly Johnson the lead engineer at Lockheed’s “Skunk Works” creators of the U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird spy planes, among many others.
Let me move right into the thick of things by discussing the Bible. If you have a problem with to Bible you are not alone. It may even comfort you to know that the Bible itself describes Jesus as a stumbling block intentionally: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense,” Romans 9:33. In another place it says of the crucified Jesus, “For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." 1 Corinthians 1:22-24. If Jesus is a stumbling block, offence or foolish, then it would hold true for the Bible as well since Jesus and his words are inexplicitly tied together. For those of you who did not know, the Bible refers to Jesus as the “Living Word” and the Bible as the “Written Word” and they are many times used interchangeably.
John’s Gospel introduces Jesus saying “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shined in darkness.” John’s reference to Jesus as the “Word (that) was God” is a direct link to the first utterance’s in the Bible, “Let there be light’ and there was light,” Genesis 1:3 John is placing Jesus as the other supernatural being in the narration of creation that introduced light and mankind saying, “Let us make man in our image and our likeness,” Genesis 1:26.

The Bible claims that the men associated with it were merely instruments or channels, and that the message it contains is a revelation that has its origin with God Himself. As Derek Prince simply put in his book The Spirit Filled Believers Handbook, keeping with my Occam’s Rule framework we are living in an age when men launch satellites far out into space and then, by means of invisible electronic signals, control the course of these satellites at distances of millions of miles, maintaining communications control over them. More astonishingly, they receive communication back. If we can achieve such results then only blind prejudice from the most unscientific thinking would deny at least the possibility that God could create human beings with mental and spiritual faculties so He could maintain direct communication with them and receive communication back also. The Bible asserts that this is in fact what God has done and still continues to do.
The Bible states plainly that there is one supreme invisible influence by which God did in fact control, direct, and communicate with the spirits and minds of those that wrote it. This invisible influence is the Holy Spirit, God’s own Spirit. For example Paul wrote, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for corrections, for instruction in righteousness,” 2 Timothy 3:16, and Peter states, “For Prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit,” 2 Peter 1:21. In other words just as men today control the course of satellites in space by interplay of radio and electronics, so God controlled the men who wrote the Bible by interplay of His divine Spirit with the spiritual and mental faculties of man. That people find that hard to believe only tells me they don’t know what the Bible actually contains.
It is my intention that God by Holy Spirit still wants to communicate with us today if we can find the channel He is broadcasting on. In the book of Hebrews 4:12, we are told that “The word of God is living and powerful.” Similarly, Jesus Himself said, “The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life,” John 6:63. Most importantly, the apostle Paul tells the Christians in Thessalonica, “When you received the word of God which you heard from us you welcomed it not as the words of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believes.” Thus God’s Word cannot be reduced merely to sounds in the air of marks on a sheet of paper. On the contrary, God’s Word is life, it is Spirit, it is alive, and it is active in those who believe. I believe this active living communication with Jesus through the channel of the Holy Spirit is something that has been lost in the modern church and thus contributes to the apathy in the church in general and directly contributes to the ineffective of its message to those trapped by the power of darkness. A simplest example using language can clarify. How many times have you heard someone say “words could never describe the way I feel,” or “a picture speaks a thousand words?” Likewise God through his Spirit desires to communicate with us on levels that words alone cannot convey. This communication and communion with God is described in the Bible as the food and nourishment for our spirits, souls and bodies.
In Proverbs we find these words; “My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings, do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; For they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh.” This promise of living a healthy physical and spiritual life is all-inclusive. I am told the word in Hebrew the writer of Proverbs uses for “health” is same word used today in Israel for “medicine” - how’s that for being specific? When your doctor prescribes medicine, he normally ensures that the directions for taking it are written clearly on the bottle to insure its effectiveness. God’s instructions are perfectly clear. Give attention to His words, which simply means read the written word, the Bible, and incline your ear to my sayings, which simply means talk to Him and listen for His response. I was so interested in this subject I started making my Bible with a big T in the margins were there was a reference to God talking to us. The margins of my Bible, especially the New Testament, are market with T’s on just about every there page. This two way communication, taking to Jesus and hearing His words of love, comfort, and instruction, is what I have had on my heart all month long.
I talk to Jesus and He talks back; it’s that simple and it’s spectacular. Out of this world, actually. It’s not intended to be unusual. Paul the Apostle wrote, “'No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him, but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit…” 1 Cor. 2:6-10. Communicating with Jesus and God the Father in heaven is an action that language alone cannot always convey, but real, none the less, and reserved for those who love him. For our more religious readers Jesus had you in mind when he gave me this topic. The other night I gave my daughter a ride to the Illinois River Balloon Festival. I took a minute to take in the site before leaving. As I sat there in my van I drifted off into prayer and Jesus began to speak to me in Sprit. “Tom, when you write your story remember many people resist and are fearful of hearing my voice because of abuses in the past. Many people have attributed things to me over the years I had nothing to do with. Tom look at those balloons tethered to the ground floating above the crowds. The stake in the ground is my written word. I gave it to my children to be grounded. I set it in place as my eternal word so you will never have to worry about my intentions. The rope that connects the stake to the balloon is my Holy Spirit and you in prayer. The balloon represents my believers lifted spiritually above the rest of the world being lead and guided by me daily. Write your column and encourage your readers to spend time with me and let me fill them with my Living Word and give them directions they so badly need in this world today.” If that wasn’t enough before I drove off I heard Him say, “One day I am going to cut that rope and you are going to float into my arms for eternity.” With that I was as high as a kite. Then I went to The Crowbar to hear Tahlequah’s own Turnpike Troubadours - what a great show that was! It couldn’t have been a fuller day.