Learning styles

Here's what I was reminded of today...Learning ABOUT something and learning FROM something are two very different things. Both will give knowledge of a subject, but the way that the knowledge is acquired and the depth to which it sinks into us are very different with the two. When we learn ABOUT something, it usually implies that we are receiving knowledge through a second party source. Someone tells us the things we need to know and we “learn” through that person. We don’t experience anything first hand, we simply learn what someone else has told us.

Learning FROM something is very different. When you learn from something, it means you have to have been IN something and as you came out FROM it you have acquired new knowledge from the experience or relationship. Knowledge gained by learning FROM something runs much deeper that learning ABOUT something. The lesson becomes part of you rather than just facts you can rattle off.

As we desire to grow in our walks with God and seek to know him more, often we try to look at godly people around us and try to copy and compare ourselves to them. Don’t get me wrong, having mentors and being surrounded by people who can pour into us and we can learn from is absolutely necessary in our walks. What I am saying is this: don't let yourself try to piggy back on other peoples walks with Christ and skirt around making your own. You will never learn anything but facts that way. There is a danger in trying to copy other’s walks because we will inevitably begin to compare ourselves to them and if we feel we’re not “getting it” like they are, we will begin striving. The Lord never wants us to strive. When we begin to strive, it is a sign that we are focusing more on a person or a task rather than on him. Here is what I felt like he said…

“Stop looking around you. Stop striving to be like this picture you’ve created in your mind that you feel you need to be. I create the picture, not you. You are not the creator, I am. You focus on soaking in my love for you and what I speak to you and your beautiful picture will come together. You can’t teach yourself. I have to teach you, so LET me.”

We can read books and listen to sermons all day long, but until we walk in a relationship with Father where we hear HIS voice speak to us, no other voices matter. That may be a good starting point to get us on our feet but there has to come a time in our walk where we are learning directly FROM Father himself, not from what other people say about him. As we experience him for ourselves and allow him to teach us, we will learn FROM him things we could have never learned ABOUT him from someone else. He is a God who loves to reveal himself to us and he wants to teach us! As we learn to hear his voice and let him teach us, we will find ourselves being able to pass what we’ve learned along to someone else who is getting to the point where they are being taken from learning about him to learning from him.

“All your children will by taught by the Lord, and great will be their peace.” – Isaiah 54:13