And they said to one another, "Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?" —Luke 24:32
"It is one thing," said Henry Suso, "to hear for oneself a sweet lute, sweetly played, and quite another thing merely to hear about it."
And it is one thing, we may add, to hear truth inwardly for one's very self, and quite another thing merely to hear about it...
We are turning out from the Bible schools of this country year after year young men and women who know the theory of the Spirit-filled life but do not enjoy the experience. These go out into the churches to create in turn a generation of Christians who have never felt the power of the Spirit and who know nothing personally about the inner fire. The next generation will drop even the theory. That is actually the course some groups have taken over the past years.
One word from the lips of the man who has actually heard the lute play will have more effect than a score of sermons by the man who has only heard that it was played. An acquaintance is always better than hearsay
"Lord, as I wait upon You this morning I want to hear afresh the real sound of the lute. Deliver me from second-hand preaching and teaching. Fill me with first-hand knowledge of You, so that my message might always be that of an alert eyewitness. Amen."
Replies
This is so true, it’s is truly something to hear something first hand than hearsay, with hearsay something very important will be left out of the conversation. And it may cause you to lose something or miss something that is truly significant and/or an encounter to build your relationship with God, it may cause you your life. My God, Just as in Genesis 2:16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” This was a conversation with man and God; Here in Genesis 3 comes the “Hearsay”-deception. Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”
2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. 4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Eve she heard second hand about the fruit of the tree, because she was not created yet, when God and man had that conversation. Now the no-name has twisted the very words that came from the mouth of God. We must be careful.