Theme: Eating the word of God!
Memory Verse: Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts ( Jer 15:16).
Beloved
Welcome to the year of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, 2013. Truly, we have entered the year of unimaginable miracles, signs and wonders. A year that many believers and unbelievers alike, would say, as with one voice: Only God could have done this!
Happy New Year!
The year 2013, is loaded with divine assignments, divine promises, and divine expectations etc. The Lord is asking His children to be spiritually aggressive this year. The Lord wants his children to be spiritually violent. The Lord is reminding His children that life is essentially a battle field. Whether, you are a believer in our Lord Jesus Christ or not, everyone fights the battles of life.
If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, then you are likely to fight the life battles with spiritual understanding. I say likely, because, there are many believers in Jesus, within the Church (the body of Christ), who are living in significant ignorance, hence they are not fighting their life battles with understanding. Prophet Hosea puts this succinctly: My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children (Hosea 4:6). Prophet Isaiah saw it as a form of bondage or captivity: Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst (Isaiah 5:13).
As a believer, to win your life battles, you need the knowledge & the understanding that you require LIGHT and JOY in the word of God, in your spirit man. These are weapons that your enemies cannot withstand.
When our Lord and Savior Himself was timely tempted by the devil, he responded: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God (Matt 4:4). After Jesus had worked so hard and his disciples were encouraging him to eat something, Jesus responded: I have meat to eat that ye know not of (John 4:32); He then added: My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work (John 4:34).
The Scripture says many of Jesus� disciples left him (John 6:66) out of ignorance when he said they have no life unless they eat his flesh and drink his blood: Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you (John 6:53).
We know from the Scriptures that JESUS is the Word of God (John 1:1). We also know from the Scriptures that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all (1John 1:5).
Our memory verse above says, eating the word of God produces so much JOY. I go further to say that in addition to joy, eating the word of God produces what the bible describes as the fruit of the Spirit: love, peace, goodness, gentleness, longsuffering, faith etc (Gal 5:22).This reveals the character of the believer.
Eating the word of God produces FIRE & LIGHT in our spirit man. This is the understanding that every believer needs to have when fighting their life battles.
How do we eat the word of God?
When Joshua was called, God charged him: This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success (Joshua 1:8).
Meditating on the word of God involves focusing on the word, occupying your mind with the word, dwelling on the word ‘eating’, digesting the word, absorbing the word, assimilating the word into your heart, blood, and spirit man. In other words, the word of God is moved from the level of your head & mind, into your inward being (heart, blood, spirit), hence becoming inseparable from you. Since the word of God is Fire (Jer 23:29) and Light, eating the word of God will produce fire and light in your spirit man. The devil and his agent are spirits of darkness, hence can never withstand a believer whose spirit has fire & light in the word of God. Indeed, evil spirits will see you and run away!
I have been asked a few times, how I manage to remember the words of God so vividly when I am communicating. The answer lies in meditating on the word of God. Jesus says: out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh (Matt 12:34). He also says where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matt 6:21). Henceforth, learn to treasure the word of God. Spend time with the word of God. Fill your heart with the words of God, and when you open your mouth, only the words of God will come out and things will begin to happen around you. The Centurion said: Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed (Matt 8:8).
Every true believer, needs to spend time with the Word of God, in order to nourish, sharpen, and lighten his spirit for the LORD to see & act through: The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly (Prove 20:27). The word of God is the only source of light to our spirit man. The Psalmist says: The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple (Ps 119:130).
To have increasing spiritual knowledge, requires total fear of God, and spiritual training in the word of God: ”Train yourself to be godly”(1Tim 4:7-8 NIV).
PRAYER: There is someone reading this message , may you receive the grace to eat the word of God daily in Jesus name, Amen!
In the Ministry Of the Word (MOW)-Acts 6:4, we primarily encourage and empower believers to be rich in the words of God: ‘let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom'(Col 3:16). The entrance of the WORD is the true source of LIGHT in a dark world(Ps 119:130). We also encourage believers to speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs(Eph 5:19). We encourage everyone to: seek first the kingdom of God & his righteousness(Matt 6:33). Righteousness exalts (Prov 14:34). We emphasize that pure Christianity is about True Spirituality in Christ Jesus. We emphasize that the POWER in the blood of Jesus has set us FREE from bondage, and that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2Cor 3:17). ‘Jesus is the Truth'(John 14:6). The words of God are spirit & are Life(John 6:63). We allow the Scriptures to answer all questions. We create the awareness that Jesus has made all true believer’ kings and priests unto God and his Father…'(Rev 1:6). In addition, as a spiritual body, we also empower unbelievers, using the principles of our Lord Jesus Christ with the understanding that when they witness the power of the living God, they will exalt his holy name (Psalm 46:10). One major objective of MOW is to increasingly improve everyone’s spiritual understanding! Spiritual ignorance is a major cause of human destruction(Hosea 4:6). Indeed, many children of God have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge (Isa 5:13). Please note that the MOW is an initiative and the spiritual arm of Abasi Health Foundation (AHF). AHF is a registered NGO in Nigeria , with the primary objective of empowering all groups of people to optimize their health. It is aimed at encouraging everyone to have increasing awareness of three broad levels of health: Physical, Mental and Spiritual. May God give you the grace of increasing understanding in Jesus Name. Amen. Websites: http//www.ministryoftheword.org; http//www.abasihealthfoundation.org
Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you (John 6:53).
All scriptures from KJV unless otherwise specified