Being someone whose lamp has enough oil

I used to study the Greek and Hebrew and commentaries and everything else around the Bible.  Then one day I was reading the parable of the Sower in Matthew 13 and I realized that all my study of what everyone else thought about the scripture and the definitions of words was pretty much a waste of time.  I realized that the reason I had to study was because I was not depending on God, rather I depended on my own understanding of what God had written, and this was a huge mistake that Christ warns us about.

"For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them."

Being saved I had become one of those who had a lamp and could await Christ, but, because I depended on my own understanding and the understanding of other people I was not one of those who would accompany Christ.  (This "not enough oil" reference is from Matthew 25, the parable of 10 Virgins with lamps waiting on the Bridegroom.  5 have enough oil and five think they are ready and are not.)

I started studying the Bible and praying and a whole new world opened up, a world of scripture that most people didn't see and couldn't hear.

I realized there were many more Apostles at the time of Christ than just the 12, I realized that in the parable of the Sower I was dirt with tares that required tilling and I had to allow God to till me to become good soil, I realized so many things, most of all I realized how people kept rejecting Christ and God's Prophets even though they studied the scripture constantly and lived according to their understanding of God's laws, I realized what the Bible meant when even the 12 did not understand the parable of the Sower and over the years I have heard so many people tell it wrong, even after Christ explains it.

One day in a Bible Study with people who had been studying the Bible for years, many who had studied it far longer than I had, I asked what people were in the parable of the Sower.  I was told people are the Sower and the Seed even though Christ explains quite well that we are the soil, the dirt.  People can read, listen and hear and never understand unless they open their heart to God and God opens their heart to God's Word.

For over 20 years now I have been telling people not to listen to me, or any other person, but, to listen to God and only God.  No one is perfect, but, we can focus on listening to God and learning from God or we can focus on listening to people and learning from people.  Do we seek the things of people or the things of God?  (John 5:44, Galatians 1:10, Colossians 3:1, Hebrew 11:6)

Romans 3 is popular, There is none righteous, it also tells us that there is none that understandeth and none that seeketh after God.  While we quote "there is none righteous" often, we rarely accept that God (through Paul) was talking about us as well when he wrote, "There is none that understands, none that seek God."

Truly no one seeks God perfectly, no one understands perfectly just as no one is perfectly righteous (save Christ).  So, do we depend on each other for understanding?  Do we depend on a sheep to lead sheep?  that depends on where someone places their Faith, in people (other sheep) or the Shepherd, Christ.

9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;
10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
15 Their feet are swift to shed blood:
16 Destruction and misery are in their ways:
17 And the way of peace have they not known:
18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.

These days I use Greek and Hebrew and other definitions of people to get people to think and, hopefully pray.  What usually happens is a person will go ask another person because their faith is in people and that is sad, but, come End Days Christ will be able to give people examples in their own lives about how they chose people over God.

Every once in a long while I am not ridiculed and a person will actually pray and begin to listen to God and that is a blessing.