PUSH BUTTONS
Our Lives in 66 Books
There’s this famous saying in certain Christian circles that we each have a book in heaven, and one of the pathways to the pursuit of purpose is to have access to our 'book', which is assumed to contain everything we’ll ever do on the earth.
That perspective subtly introduces the pressure to look into that book to see the purpose of our lives. So we see people praying for hours on end to get a peep into ‘their’ book in heaven, adopting a prayer posture that earnestly begs God to release the book. And why it may look on the surface as a glowing spiritual activity and exercise, it is a perspective that often threatens true fellowship with the Father and the Word of God, because more often than not, that same level of aggression is not applied to Christian routines like the study of the Word and praying the scriptures.
That popular position draws from the portion of Scripture that says,
Lo... I have come in the volume of books written of me to do your will oh God —Hebrews 10:7.
We see a similar rendition of this scripture in Luke 4:18–20, where Jesus read a portion from the book of Isaiah and then closed it and said,
Now, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing
Juxtaposing these two scriptures, the Volume of Books that Jesus references is the Word of God. That Word of God is God’s breathed instruction to us per time which is the compilation of 66 Books of the Bible brought alive and highlighted per time by the Holy Spirit.
Do you notice how whenever Jesus did something, the disciples always referenced a portion of the Torah that prophesied said action?
The volume of books wasn’t a book that Jesus alone had access to. It was a book that was fully accessible by everyone but which Jesus lived from as inspired by the Holy Spirit per time.
The conclusion of that volume of books is always the same — to do His will. His will is communicated in His Word, and that’s why Paul’s constant prayer for believers is to be filled with the knowledge of God in all wisdom and spiritual understanding so that we live a life that’s worthy of Him; we please Him; we do good works; and we fulfil our calling. Doing His will per time as communicated to us is the fulfilment of purpose. Becoming like Christ is purpose, and making Christ known is purpose.
That book we are looking for is the Word of God, inspired to us by the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, i.e., the Holy Spirit. To assume there’s a book in heaven for you apart from and in addition to the Bible is to cannibalise the essence and relevance of the Bible as scripture in our lives. This gap in spiritual policy is what charlatans leverage to deceive innocent Christians and draw them away from the faith, it’s like selling ice to an Eskimo.
Revelations only references three types of books in heaven; The Book of Scrolls, which holds and ushers the new testament, The Book of Life, which contains the names of the Saints, and the Books of Record, which log the works and deeds of people by which they will be judged. The third book is not for foretelling but for recording deeds done in the flesh in alignment with or in violation of the Word of God.
So we don’t have individual books in heaven, we all have one book, but that book is individualised through the help of the Holy Spirit. The way to get in character is through true fellowship and prayer.
Have a blessed week ahead.
For His glory and His renown,
Olayinka Adebayo
@layinkadebayo
Push Buttons is a weekly devotional of The Powerpoint Tribe.
