Job 32:8 “But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.

… I’ve been thinking about the word “inspiration” recently. At the start of the new year, are you needing some inspiration?

It’s a big year ahead to tackle if you’re not inspired about anything!

On my Facebook feed recently as I scrolled past, I saw a news article supposedly about some artist that had given up making her new album citing a lack of inspiration.

Without inspiration this world becomes pretty dull, drab and monotone pretty quickly.

We all need inspiration, every person does, but particularly our generation of Christians!

The Christians in my country, including me, are so uninspired and uninspiring… and that’s why Christianity is so empty and dead.

And this is why modern Christians are flocking to new forms of worship, such as all this cool supposedly Christian music and tv shows… because it’s a substitute for the inspiration that is missing.

Why do they go for the modern Christian music? Because it’s exciting, it moves them, it’s inspiring to them. And in some ways I can’t blame them.

Because we need inspiration and if we’re not getting it someplace, we’ll go to where we do. There’s nothing wrong with wanting inspiration, because life without inspiration is a chore drudge and drear “this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith.”

So in this blog I’m not saying wanting inspiration is wrong, because we all need it… it’s more a case of where we are deriving it from, particularly Christians… because this is actually quite a crucial issue.

If you think about someone who is “depressed” or unexcited about life… what do you see that they are truly lacking? Inspiration.

A bit of inspiration can transform your whole world.

With inspiration, your whole outlook on life can change dramatically, where life is suddenly actually worth living “this is living!”

When the Bible says Isaac died “being old and full of days” what does that mean? It means there’s living… and then there’s living.

Isaac had an inspired life. His birth was inspired, his marriage was inspired, the promises of God he had were inspired, the place he lived was by inspiration, his walk with God and journey of life was inspired.

It didn’t mean he didn’t face trials and troubles… but his life did not lack inspiration.

Would you like his life? Would you like a life full of days?

Maybe you’re needing some inspiration for your next step in life… maybe you’re just needing some inspiration to keep sticking at what you are doing…

… Maybe you don’t know what “inspiration” means!

Well, I looked up “inspire” and “inspiration” in the Webster’s dictionary.

“Inspire” means “to breathe” and “to breathe into”.

I immediately thought of “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

And I also thought of “And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:”

All the clues are there straight away.

And “inspiration” is just an extension of the same word… it is “the act of breathing into anything”.

We are getting inspired every time we take a breath. Try holding your breath and see how long you make it… yeah not very long. So that’s how critical inspiration is.

We need inspiration to stay alive, and this is true not just in the physical sense but also the spiritual sense “the body without the spirit is dead”. And that’s really what I’m more focusing on today in relation to Christians.

Recently the women’s soccer team in my country “inspired” the next generation of football players with their heroics (even though they didn’t win the world cup). But that’s how their performance as a team was described in the press.

How do politicians get popular and voted in? They inspire people. And the best at this, particularly the best talkers, inspire and move people (to vote for them and to soon inevitably disappoint them!).

But just think of inspirational figures in history, who were able to impart a breath of life into a nation that was floundering in depression and despair.

And so inspiration is a bit of an “intangible”… because you cannot see inspiration itself, you can only see it’s effects! But you sure can see what it does and what it produces!

When I talk about the lack of it in Christianity, the presence or lack of it is being evidenced in the manner and “spirit” with which Christians conduct themselves.

And so now the word “spirit” is introduced to the thought of today, because notice how the word “spirit” is in the word “inspire”?!

Know that inspiration is very much a spiritual issue, and there are some very fundamental issues in what is inspiring modern Christianity… and the spirit that is behind it.

Note: as already stated, there is nothing wrong with inspiration, we NEED inspiration… but we need the real thing from God… not Satanic substitutes.

Be real sure that Satan will attack in this area… because as we think about “breath” and “breathing”… remember!! Satan is called “the prince of the power of the air” in Ephesians 2, that’s definitely worth keeping in mind when considering what is being infused into the airways of your life.

Many Christians have become fair game and easy work for Satan, because as Christianity in modern times has become so uninspired (starting with a departure from inspired words of faith to the “critical text” of doubt and dispute)… Christians have gone wandering from the fold and the flock to find inspiration for living.

And then they find it in other sources, areas, places, through other mediums. I know Christians who have even gone to eastern religion for instance looking for inspiration for their life. Obviously they weren’t actually ever really saved… but point is, many are leaving not because of the truth, but because absence of it! As soon as the church ceased to become the pillar and ground of truth, it’s function and usefulness was lost also.

I was thinking of Jeremiah’s linen girdle recently, and the picture of taking it off and hiding it in the earth, where it became useless. Think about it, the girdle was made for the man, not man for the girdle, and like Israel ceased to have function and purpose without God, so a church that has departed from the Bible has ceased to have purpose, function or relevance in this world.

I don’t necessarily blame someone for leaving a place that has no inspiration. In these times, we definitely need it, but let the lack of it drive you to where it is truly found, where God told you it was all along.

If you’re a Christian, are you looking for inspiration from God? Do you want the real thing? Or will you settle for less?

I’ve always envied (for want of a better word) Phillip’s walk with God and how God inspired him to go down to Gaza where he would meet the Ethiopian eunuch and open God’s word to him. It’s an amazing story and really what Christianity is meant to be. Not “building a church” because that’s Christ job, but caring for others, and being able to open the book to someone as God opened it to you.

Phillip was living an inspired life, and that’s what we should be all wanting… and not just an inspired by God life for ourselves, but one that is going to touch other people also, as his did. If you get inspired, someone else is likely too as well.

And people can see if you’re inspired and if you’re not. They know when there’s something “different” about you.

They can see it in your eyes, and face, and words that come out your mouth. It’s amazing how the same face and mouth can convey such a different spirit.

And so now is a time for honest self evaluation. Is there anything inspired about what I’ve got and my life I’m living? Maybe you started inspired and somewhere in there the inspiration has been lost and now it’s religious ritual and repetition. Maybe there’s some stuff that got in your airways that has left you on spiritual life support.

In 2 Kings 4:35, when God by the hand of Elisha raised the Shunamite’s son from the dead, the child sneezed seven times before opening his eyes. Something in his airways needed to be cleared out before he could breathe clearly.

Remember, one of the signs of death is that “you’re not breathing”. Maybe you’re really not breathing at the moment. Or maybe you’ve gone critical. Maybe your breath is very weak.

Maybe you’ve been trying to draw inspiration from all the wrong sources. Maybe you went to Christian music. Maybe you went to books written by other people hoping to draw inspiration from someone else’s insight and walk with God.

We can all be inspiration sponges, we are trying to feed off someone else’s and draw in what they have. That’s not necessarily wrong, but we are encouraged to get it for ourselves. All the emotion moving music, experiences, adventure, countless programs and conferences… none of that will truly inspire you how God wants to… and not in a lasting way.

See, inspiration is not meant to “burn out”. And many Christians get inspired for a time, and even maybe at the start of the year more than usual… but that short breath is exhaled soon after.

Hmm… and so I think the point has been made, so now are you ready for the solution?

At the start, I quoted the first of two mentions of the word “inspiration” in the Bible. There are only two times this word specifically appears. And the first is Elihu as he begins his speech to Job.

Elihu recognizes the spiritual nature of inspiration, and not only the need for inspiration but the source of inspiration… it must come from God.

He’s just seen Job duking it out with his friends as they tackle the big issues of life in the context of Job’s trials and troubles… and he’s seen the need for inspiration and how linked “words” and “spirit” and “inspiration” are.

In thinking a little about my blog, I’ve had the thought that I can inspire people with what I write. Words can move emotions, tug at heart strings, convince someone of truth. Words can make people happy or sad. They can even impart a spirit.

And so I want to give people words that inspire. But what can I give you? What should you be inspired by?

If you take inspiration from me, you will not last. But I’ve got something far more inspirational than my words for you… and it is the word of God! And that’s why my blog has always been about, and I always have wanted to point you to the inspired words of scripture for yourself.

And that’s a good segway to the second mention of “inspiration” found in the Bible… and it’s really where this whole blog and train and thought has been heading, because these verses are mandatory for every Christian….

If you need inspiration for this year… if you’re looking to inspire others… look no further than these wonderful verses in the Bible!

2 Timothy 3:16 “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:”

2 Timothy 3:17 “That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”

Do you want inspiration? Do you need inspiration? Get in God’s word! It’s there that you will find it and be able to draw it from for not just this day, but his week, month, year and life!

Do you know why Christianity is so uninspired? It’s because it’s moved away from the word of God.

They draw inspiration from everything and everyone else other than scripture.

And that’s why its so dead.

I speak to so many Christians who may know what stance to take on certain issues, like abortion is wrong and blah blah… and it is! Desperately wrong!

And yet there is no inspiration in their Christian walk.

We do this. We do this. We don’t do that. We go to church Sunday. Blah blah… it’s all religious and Christian culture… and some of it may even be good and right too! … but no inspiration.

What’s missing is the inspiration that only comes from the word of God. The word of God is divinely inspired. It’s not the word of man. And the Holy Spirit moves upon the pages of scripture.  And that’s what makes Christianity exciting for me. I don’t want to hear endless anecdotes. I don’t want dry opinions. Give me something from God’s word.

My country doesn’t lack for Christianity, but it lacks for Christianity drawing true inspiration from scripture. Most people don’t read their Bible, the stories mean nothing and don’t relate, the Bible is essentially and functionally a closed book for Christian living.

And I believe personally that these new Bibles of the modern era are part of the problem, because they not only leave off “preservation” but they actually have surrendered “inspiration” also in the process. And the results are evident, and how could they not be. As soon as you start editing and revising inspired words, they go from the inspiration of God to the work of man’s hands. They lose their inspiration. And man has quenched the Spirit in these new Bibles just like in the same way the Philistines filled Abraham’s wells with earth “For all the wells which his father’s servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth.”

Yes I know wonderful Christians who don’t use KJV, and that’s between them and God, but I can’t before God recommend it. The Bible is our breath of life as Christians, God breathes through the pages and “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.”

I don’t have much to offer you, but hopefully on this blog I can inspire you to read God’s word for yourself. Draw inspiration from the scriptures, it is such an exciting and open book to the believer.  Did you know that the Bible is fully sufficient for you to be a perfect Christian? “with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.” I hope my blog can help draw out the water for you, and it is my aim to do so, but I encourage you to do it for yourself… there is nothing as exciting as drawing out of God’s word personally for yourself.

The Bible… they are the words that inspire! “For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.” And as Jesus Christ said in John 6:63 “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” I hope they inspire you.

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