How to Find Gold in God’s Word： Reading the Bible with Supernatural Help

Let's pray. Lord, the reason we pray is because we need supernatural help to do anything of lasting value here, and so I ask for help for the hearers and for me. I pray that you would fill me with spiritual wisdom and understanding, and I pray that you would dig an ear for them so that what goes in would go way further in than they might have ever experienced before. We want to see gold and silver and precious stones, and we want to taste honey and be satisfied in our souls with supernatural reality, so come and do these impossible things, I pray in Jesus' name, amen. So one of the most illuminating facts to shed light on what I mean by reading the Bible supernaturally is the fact that Jesus didn't think the Pharisees could read. At least, he didn't think they could read their Old Testament in a way that gets out of it what the authors intended for people to get out of it, but that's what reading is, getting out of a book what authors intend for you to get out. That's what reading is, at least handling those words the way the Bible intends for them to be handled. We'll see how unique the Bible is as we go along. Reading a God-breathed Bible does not mean looking at the words and thinking your own thoughts, looking at the words, feeling your own feelings, looking at the words, doing your own thing. That's not reading. That's what Jesus thought they were doing, or real reading they just couldn't do. So when the Pharisees saw Jesus and his disciples on the Sabbath picking grain, eating it as they walked along, they accused them of lawbreaking. Matthew 12 to look your disciples are doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath. Jesus counteraccuses in verse 7 and says, why do you condemn the guiltless? And then to support this counterclaim, he says, have you never read what David did? Verse 3, verse 5, have you not read in the law? That's got to be infuriating. Like, haven't you Pharisees read your Bible? What a smackdown. It's got to be infuriating, and of course they had read those texts. Way more often than Jesus had. Functionally, Jesus is saying, you haven't read them. In verse 7, he sums up, citing, quoting Hosea 6, verse 6, if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you wouldn't have condemned the innocent. Have you not read? Have you not read? Do you not know what this means? No, they hadn't read that way. They didn't know what Hosea 6, 6 meant. Matthew 19, the Pharisees come and say, what about divorce? Is it lawful to divorce your wife for any reason? Jesus again says, have you not read Genesis 127 and 224? Matthew 21, 15, and 16, the scribes complained that these children are all shouting, Hosanna! Hosanna! They're bent out of shape that Jesus isn't rebuking them, and Jesus says, haven't you read Psalm 8? The Jewish leaders come, he tells them this parable about the tenants, where the tenants kill the son whom the owner sends to collect the harvest and kill him so they can get the farm, and he ends that with, haven't you read Psalm 118? The stone that the builders ejected? One more. Sadducees are mocking the resurrection. Yeah, right. Who's going to be Bill Piper's wife? My dad had two wives because my mom died after 36 years of marriage, and he married another woman, and I did the wedding, and they were married 25 years, and then they're all dead, and the Sadducees are just mocking me. So your dad's a polygamist now, or he will be at the resurrection. To which he said, haven't you read Exodus 3.6? So you read this and you say, what's up with the Pharisees? They can't read. Can you? Something has gone very wrong. Jesus treats them as though they can't read. Why can't they read? He connects their inability to read with their inability to see Jesus for who he is. So here's the key text for that connection. John 5 37. The Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard. Good night. What were they doing with this? His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you. For you do not believe on the one whom he has sent. Oh, there's a connection. You don't have any of this in here, and the reason I know you don't is because you have a clue who I am. Hello! Which means they were really good at using their brains, really good brainpower in there to make good weather reports, but not any good at using these powers for spiritual purposes. Matthew 16 3. You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you can't interpret the signs of the times standing right in front of you. Why? Next verse. They were an evil and adulterous generation. You are very shrewd in using your minds to manage the world for your safety, but you are blind as a bat in spiritual reality that tampers with your adultery. They are spiritually and morally adulterous, and that's why they cannot read. They talk as though God is there all in all, and they have lovers on the side. Luke 16 14, Jesus says, or Luke says, the Pharisees were lovers of money. That's one of their adulterous affairs. They loved money. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you clean the outside of the cup and plate, but inside you are full of greed and self-indulgence. Matthew 23 25. For all their outward religiosity, for all their outward religiosity, the hearts of the Pharisees were in love with this world big-time, and one of their adulterous lovers was money. Here's another one. Oh, how they loved the praise of men and recognition in the power that comes with it. Matthew 23 5. They do all their deeds to be seen by others, for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces, being called Rabbi by others. What happens to your spiritual capacities to discern what this book is about? What happens to your spiritual capacities to see truth, to see beauty, to see divine glory, when you are a lover of money and a lover of the praise of man? And I'll read you what happens. This is Mark chapter 5 verse 40, not Mark, John chapter 5 verse 44. It's a rhetorical question. You supply the answer. How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and don't seek the glory that comes from God? What's the answer to that question? You can't. Isn't that the meaning? How can you believe when you're a lover? You're an adulterer. You say he's your husband, praise is your husband. You want to be noticed. That's your God. And so you can't believe. Why? Because Jesus and everything he is, everything he stands for, everything he's done undermines that. You don't want to get near to anything that undermines your adulterous affair. It's fun, it feels so good to be in bed with the praise of man. I'm just not going there. If you undermine my adulterous affair with the praise of man, I'm not going there. So I can't see you and I can't see your book. I'm blind because I love money and I love the praise of man. So the problem here is not a lack of light, it's a love of the dark. Let me read that to you. John 3 19. This is the judgment that light has come into the world. It came into the world on sun-eye, and then the real light, the whole light, came into the world with Jesus. This is a judgment. Light has come into the world, and people loved. They loved. Note the word love. They loved darkness rather than the light, because the works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light. Love of darkness, hatred of light, and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. So the problem of the Pharisees is not that they don't have light. There's plenty of light here, plenty of light standing in front of them. They love dark, that's why they can't see light. They are going the opposite direction. You turn your back on light because you love dark, you can't see light. This is a love issue. This is an emotion issue. This is a passion issue. This is a gut issue. This is not an intellectual issue. The Apostle John could say in John 114, we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. He's looking at the same Jesus they were looking at, looking at the same miracles, listening to the same Sermon on the Mount, and what does he see? We've seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. What do they see? Trouble, making trouble for my adultery. You can't see Jesus as glorious and supremely satisfying, and you can't see what this book is written to reveal as supremely beautiful and satisfying if you're an adulterer and love money and love the praise of man. Or pick your own idol. Implication. Recognizing Jesus for who he really is and reading the Bible for what it really reveals are supernatural events, or they don't happen. It's not going to happen. You're not going to see Jesus as all-satisfying. You're not going to recognize in the Torah or the Prophets or the Psalms or the Gospels or the Epistles or the Revelation, you're not going to see any of the God-willed truth for your salvation as supremely beautiful and supremely satisfying, unless a miracle happens in your life, a supernatural reading. Peter confessed, you remember, at one point, the truth, you are the Christ, you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. You remember what Jesus said to him? Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you. Flesh and blood, what's that? Brains, eyeballs, seminary, college. Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you. My Father who is in heaven, Matthew 16, 17, it was a miracle. Peter looked at Jesus, same eyes, same eyes, same eyeballs as the Pharisees, and he saw God, the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and they saw darkness. After the resurrection, the disciples, you remember the story in Luke 24, were so slow and so foolish, those are Luke's words, so slow, actually they were Jesus' words, so slow and so foolish, they couldn't penetrate the Scriptures, they couldn't penetrate the meaning. And Luke says, then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, Luke 24, 45. That's a miracle. Seeing divine glories that are really there, really there, not put there after the fact, really there, can't be seen without a miracle. It's always supernatural. So you can't know Jesus for who he is, and you can't know the Scriptures for what they are, without a gracious, supernatural intervention of God. Now, I used to describe or define meaning, meaning of a text, as the intention of the author communicated through his words, and the aim then, the aim then of reading was to think the author's thoughts after him. So I learned in seminary, I thought that was gold, because, you know, like most people, I'm just kind of growing up, whatever I feel or think when I read a text must be useful. And to suddenly be taught, no, they had intentions, they may not be yours, take some work here to see them, take some prayer to see them, take a miracle to see them, right, I don't take back any of that. That's right. It's just way too limited, way too limited. It's like saying the aim of marriage is mutual understanding, okay? And then you get married to be an understander, understand her. Well, that's good. Marriage is also about mutual affection, sexual intimacy, procreation of children, replication of a covenant, keeping love between Christ and the church, mutually strengthen each other for ministry, and on, and on, and on. Marriage is a big thing, so is the Bible. And therefore the thought that the reading of Scripture has as its goal the thinking of the thoughts of the author is true and so terribly limiting. Now I say, and I still don't think I have the best way of saying it because I'm always tweaking it. It's a bad thing when you write books, you get stuck with what you've said. What I say now is that the meaning of a biblical text is what the author intends by his words, or, I put little red parentheses around because those two guys back there are looking at my manuscript, what the author intends to communicate. I'm just not sure what that connotes to people. I get it from Edwards, so it connotes a lot to me, but what the author — I'm just gonna leave it like this — the meaning of a text is what the author intends by his words, and the aim of reading, hear this, is to handle those words in such a way as to conform to what he intends. I'll only use that definition of reading for the Bible, no other text on the planet, because all the other texts have to be sifted. You may want to conform, you may not. You don't ever have to worry about the Bible, which means if he intends for his words, or by his words, that I think a certain way, I read in order to think that way. If he intends for me to feel a certain way, I read in order to feel that way. If he intends for me to do a certain thing, I read in order to do it. See how much bigger that is than the aim of reading, is to think an author's thoughts after him. I don't think that I'm stretching the word meaning too far when I broaden it out like that, because I think the biblical authors would be very happy to hear me say that, because I think they would say, many times I mean for you to think something, and many times I mean for you to feel something, and many times I mean for you to do something. So you're not reading me rightly unless you are pursuing that thinking, that feeling, and that doing. Because that's what I mean for you to do. I mean for you to go there through my words, thoughts, affections, actions. And the reason that the Bible read that way has to be a supernatural event is because all thinking, all feeling, and all acting that the biblical writers intend cannot be thought, or felt, or acted apart from the grace of supernatural work of God through the Word. Hmm, not so sure of that, you're saying. Well, the simplest sentence to make that point would be, whatever you think, whatever you feel, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 1st Corinthians 1031, which means any thinking that is not to the glory of God, any feeling that is not to the glory of God, any doing that is not to the glory of God, is not what they mean! They're not blowing smoke. I don't care whether you do and feel and think as natural men or spiritual men, I don't care. The thoughts, the feelings, the doings, they're all the same, whether you're born again or not, they're not. God holds his nose at the same deed done by an unbeliever that a believer does to his glory. You can't respond as the biblical authors intend without a miracle. Nobody pursues the glory of God without a work of God in their heart, and everything must be pursued to the glory of God, or it's sin. That's the point of Romans 1. What you think, what you feel, what you do, do all to the glory of God. Such reading must be supernatural. Everything God requires of us, everything that is pleasing in his sight is an outgrowth of a new life in Christ called the new birth, and with that new birth comes a new way of seeing, a new way of believing, a new way of tasting spiritually, and that's where I want to go next as the last half of, last part of this message. So let's talk about life, new life, then we talk about new seeing, then we talk about new believing and new tasting, and wrap it up. Biblical authors intend, that is they mean, that through their words, through these words, we experience the miracle of supernatural spiritual life. These words are written for life. Here's the text. There are more than one, but this one is, I think, straight to the point. This is 1st Peter 1.23. You have been born again. Oh, that's true of you. You have been born again. That is, you have life, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and abiding Word of God. For all flesh is like grass, and all its flower, all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, the flower falls, but the Word of the Lord remains forever, and that Word is the gospel that was preached to you. How does the miracle of life happen? By the Spirit, through the Word. When it hits you, that through the Word, everlasting life happens. It makes you tremble. It makes you want to kiss this. We're not bibliologists. I remember a professor who was trying to make that point. He threw the Bible into the garbage can in seminary class, nine hours. I would never do that, but I got the point. I get the point. Here's James 1.18 version of that point. Of His own will, He brought us forth by the Word of truth that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. How did you get to be a new creation in Christ? He brought you forth by the Word. Tremblingly glorious that the Word is the instrument of the miracle of everlasting life. So, the new birth, the beginning of the entire Christian life is a miracle of the Word. The writers intend that their words would be a means to that miracle of new life, so it's not surprising then that if the lifelong drama of the Christian life began by the Word with the miracle of life, everything else, everything else that pleases God and counts for eternity comes by the Word through that supernatural work, because you're alive. You're the one doing it, and you're a new person. The fruit of this new life is supernatural, just like the life itself is, and it comes by the Word, and I want to mention three of them, three of these fruits. One, seeing, believing, tasting. So, let's take those one at a time. Supernatural seeing. These are the most important things that happen in the reading of the Bible. Supernatural seeing. The biblical authors intend, that is, they mean for us to see the glory of Christ through what they write. The glory of Christ. What John said in John 114, we have seen his glory. The Pharisees couldn't. They mean for you to see it. See it. Here's the text, several texts. 2nd Corinthians 318, we all with unveiled face, beholding, seeing the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. This comes the Lord who is the Spirit. In other words, it's supernatural. So, the process of transformation, sanctification in the Christian life is described here as we're seeing Christ as glorious, as supremely beautiful, as all-satisfying. We're seeing him that way because the Spirit is doing it as we read our Bibles. But it doesn't say that. You just added that. Bibles. There's nothing about Bibles in verse 18. Verse 18 doesn't have a word about where to see it. So where are you getting this idea that verse 18 happens in the Bible? I'm getting it by just getting rid of the chapter division and looking three verses later, chapter 4, verse 4, where it goes like this, the God of this world had blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. Where's the light shine? The light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. The gospel is the Word, and the rest of the Word is undergirding gospel, spinning out implications from the gospel, applying gospel. There's no doubt where the glory of Christ is seen. It's seen preeminently in the narrative of God's work in the world. He is limited to the gospel. That's just what he mentions here. That can't happen without a miracle. You can't see glory in the Word without a miracle because of what verse 6 of 2nd Corinthians 4 says. God who said, let light shine out of darkness, has shown, God, the creator of light, has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. Light of knowledge, of glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. How does your heart in reading this word see glory? God shines through the Word in your heart. Such seeing is not a seeing with the eyes of the head, but with the eyes of the heart, which is not a poetic expression that I made up. It's taken out of Ephesians 1.18, which goes like this, I pray that the eyes of your hearts, that's Paul's apostolic phrase, so if you don't know what that is, you need to spend your life figuring that out because this is important, that the eyes of your hearts be enlightened that you may know, and that knowing, I almost added the word knowing, I mean I had ten, I had ten things that go out of life and I'm only giving you three. Knowing would be one of those ten. A new kind of knowing. There's knowing and then there's knowing, and this knowing is the knowing of what the heart does when the heart's eyes see. The eyes of your heart are enlightened that you may know what is the hope to which he's called you. What are the riches of the glorious inheritance? What is the immeasurable greatness of his power? You feel it, right? You're just sitting there with your Bible in your hand and you're saying, I don't, I don't. I know I'm supposed to and I don't. I don't see how big this hope is. I don't see how great the inheritance is. I don't feel how immeasurable the power is. God, help me! That's all, that's all I do when I go to the Bible. God, help me, I'm so blank. Oh, for heaven, when you would be done with so much drag. I mean, isn't it amazing that Jesus would use the words slow, heavy, sluggish. Here's the Apostles on the road to Emmaus, and he's just picturing them as dragging themselves along after the resurrection, utterly unable to see anything glorious. And that's you and me, apart from a miracle. It's called revival if it happens to a lot of people at one time. Number two, supernatural believing. That was seeing, now supernatural believing. The Bible authors intend, they mean for us to experience the miracle of faith through what they write. The new birth is the miracle of God that gives rise to supernatural faith. Listen to 1st John 5 1, everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. Has been, not will be, has been. Faith is an evidence, a fruit, a confirmation that you're alive. You've been born, which means it's it's a miracle. It's part of the miraculous life. But it comes through the Word, right? Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ. Romans 10 17 or John 20 31, these things are written that you may believe. It comes through the Word, through the written Word, and yet is a miracle. And what is this Word-created miraculous faith? It's not what demons do who affirm Orthodox truth. Demons believe and tremble. They know, they have faith. That is, they believe facts, and those facts scare the out of them. You wish. What is faith, then, if it's not that? John 6 35, whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst, which I take to mean that faith is a coming to Christ so as to have my soul hunger and my soul thirst satisfied in him. Or, this is what I've been thinking about most in my preparation, but can save discussion for this later, maybe. Hebrews 11 1, faith is the substance. Translated in the ESV, assurance of salvation, assurance of things hoped for. Hupostasis, used one other time, chapter 1 verse 3, essence, substance. Faith is the substance, which I take to mean faith is a substantial foretaste of the promised banquet. And the reason I use that language is because as I read, and I read it again this morning, as I read right through Hebrews 11, by faith, Abraham, by faith, Moses, by faith, Sarah, by faith, by faith, by faith, that works! That works! It works especially with Moses. By faith, Moses considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. By faith, he counted reproach as wealth, because faith was looking so to the reward that he could taste it, and it was so good it made Egypt look ridiculously lousy. It's the way Paul talks, right? I count everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Jesus. That's faith! That's a miracle. Wouldn't you all love to be like Paul? Look at everything in this world, and then look at Jesus and say, you are truly, I'm not blowing it off so that BCS will be impressed, you are more precious to me, Jesus, than everything. He who loves mother or father more than me is not worthy of me. He who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. You either treasure Jesus above all, or you're not saved, you don't have saving faith, which means the supernatural business of reading the Bible is very, very important. Let's go one more time. Supernatural tasting. I know that I just used the word taste. A substantial taste of a future-promised banquet is what faith is. Faith can taste it. It gets a down payment in the soul of the joy of the banquet, such that the substance of the thing promised is already in measure being enjoyed here, which makes the assurance unbreakable. Now, I know I just used the word taste that way, but tasting is so important. I'm going to give it its own subheading here, and here it is, number three. This is the last one. Supernatural tasting. The biblical authors intend, they mean for us to experience the miracle of a soul tasting, a supernatural tasting of the goodness of God through what they write. Where do I get that? I get it from 1 Peter 1 and 2, so in chapter 1, verse 23 to 25, to the end of the chapter, we have just been born again through the living and abiding word of God, which is the gospel. Take away the chapter break again, not helpful. Put away all slander and all envy and hypocrisy, and like newborn babies, he's picking up on, you just got born, so verse 2 of chapter 2, like newborn babies desire the pure milk, meaning the word, not distinguishing it from meat at all. That's not what's going on here. This is just to get at it. How do babies want the Bible? Bleh, bleh, bleh, bleh. God is crazy. Shut up. No, feed him. Feed him. That's the point. These babies won't, they won't shut up. They're hungry. So, like that, like that, desire the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation. And then he adds this if clause, which has always blown me away. Peter, why'd you add this next clause? Verse 3 of 1 Peter 2. So, earnestly desire the pure spiritual milk, which I think is the word that by which we were born again, so you're conceived by the word, you're gonna grow by the word. Desire the word that you may grow into salvation if you have tasted that the Lord is good, or the goodness, the kindness of the Lord. What do you mean, if? What's that? That is, if you've never tasted in and through the word the precious kindness of the Lord to you, then you're not going to come like this. You're not going to come. I'm saying come. Come drink. Come drink. And if you haven't tasted, you'll come to church. Friends at church, good reputation in the community. You're not coming to him. You're not drinking. You're not eating, because you've never tasted. This taste is everything. This is what the new birth gives you, a new taste. Natural people don't want to read their Bibles. Spiritual people with a new taste want to read their Bibles, because they love Christ, they love the kindness of the Lord. They get up in the morning and they need to feel the kindness of God. They can't live without the kindness of Almighty God on them, and it's draining out like a leaky bucket, and so this is the only place I can taste that he might be for me today. I have to be told again by an authority above me that he's for me again today. That's the way spiritual people live, by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. It's like honey, and Edwards has been so moving to me here. Let me read one quote to help you see what I'm trying to say. This is a quote from Religious Affections. Edwards says, something is perceived by a true saint, something is perceived by a true saint in spiritual and divine things as entirely different from anything perceived by natural men, as the sweet taste of honey is different from the ideas of men that they get from only looking at it or feeling it. So if you look at a jar of brown viscous fluid, you look at it, it looks like honey. That sure feels like honey. You're not yet saved. You can go to church and sing about how brown it is and how sticky it is forever. There is a infinite qualitative difference between knowing by inference that's sweet. It's honey. Honey is sweet. Logic. The devil knows that. But you do this on the tongue of your newborn soul, your spiritual eyes glisten, that's what I was made for. Then you're born again. You know you're born again. So let me sum up. I'm going to skip my summary, in fact, because we have time, more time for questions. I'm going to close like this. Let's close with a glimpse of what it might look like if you do it tonight. Let's say tomorrow morning, all right? And I'm going to pretend that you're married, and most of you here aren't, because I'm married and I'm talking out of my experience. And I'm going to pretend you have kids, teenagers in fact, all right? So you make all the necessary changes because it applies in either case. So you just got up early before anybody else is moving around, except you can hear your wife stirring. Teenager's probably not up, but school is coming, so he might be dragging himself out. And you're reading your Bible in your favorite, quiet, secluded place. You're reading about God and about his ways. And then quietly, perhaps unexpectedly, God supernaturally shifts your mindset, and you are no longer merely reading about him. You are quietly aware he is here. The living, risen Christ is in this room, and he is speaking to you through that page. And your soul shifts from thinking about him to speaking to him. Now you are turning the word into statements to him, to the effect that this is who you are. And then, supernaturally, another mindset shifts, and you find yourself not simply speaking to him what you are learning about him from the text, but you find yourself saying, I love you. I love you. I love your patience. I love your mercy. I love your power. I love your wisdom. I love the way you shut down proud people and look tenderly on the broken, which makes me realize, Jesus, how sorry I am for last night's sin. And the word, as you move on, is awakening and informing the ongoing communion with the living God through Christ. And in that communion, you are seeing his glory, how many facets of this diamond there are, and you are tasting his goodness, and you are being drawn to trust his promise, and the anxieties of the day are beginning to fall away with an inexpressible peace. And you get up. You may have been there 15 minutes. You may have been there half an hour. You may have been there an hour. You get up with the promises of God giving you a supernatural peace that passes all understanding, and you go find your wife, and you put her cheeks between your hands, and you look right into her eyes, and you say, you are a precious gift of God to me. Just felt like saying it. And then you go up to your kid's bedroom, and you knock on the door. Yeah, and you open the door, and you say, I just need to say how sorry I am for last night's outburst. It was wrong, and I need you to forgive me before I go to work. And you eat breakfast, and you go out to the garage and get a shovel. You put in the trunk. You head off to work because yesterday, you remember a guy grousing at work about how he's going to have to plant a tall tree tonight in his yard, and he's going to take a really deep hole, and he hates to dig. And after work, you go help him dig, and maybe supernaturally, he says, what's the reason for the hope that is in you? And you tell him what you read in the book in the morning, and maybe by grace, supernaturally, he glorifies God on the day of visitation. That's the aim of reading the Bible supernaturally. So, let's pray, and then we'll make a transition. Lord, I am the most needy person I know when it comes to your help. And so, I pray for myself. I pray for all of us here who are hungry to see Christ, hungry to believe Christ, hungry to taste Christ, hungry to live in a supernatural way and be of use in this world for your great name. So, give us all the help we need through your Word, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.