My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. 21 Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; 22 For they are life to those who find them and health to all their flesh. 23 Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. Proverbs 4.20-23
'My son.. give attention': God is not a slave driver, He addresses us as His sons and daughters.
As our Father, He appeals to us to pay attention to His Word. He doesn't force us.
To give our full attention to the Word of God, we must turn from other things that seek to distract. This involves what goes in our ears and our eyes.
God invites us to incline our ears towards Him and listen attentively to His Word; and to keep His Word continually before our eyes, in our vision.
But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him." But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. 1 Cor 2:9-10
Pay particular notice to the word 'but' here. The New Testament will often quote Old Testament scripture and here it is quoting Isaiah 64:4.
In the Old Testament it's saying that no one has ever seen, heard or understood what God has prepared for them, except God Himself. Many believers stop here and think they can never really understand what God wants for them because it's a mystery and God does not want them to understand it, He wants them to 'stay humble' and not presume to understand too much or be too high-minded.
Many Christians say things like: 'Well God will do what God will do. You just never can tell what God wants.' Some will even put sickness, disease, suffering and tragedy down to God's mysterious plans and purposes!
For many, going to heaven when you die is about the limit of what they understand of salvation. The word 'salvation' / 'saved' means far more than this! It means to be healed, delivered, set free, restored and prospering in every area of your life!
How can we know that God wants to do all these things for us unless we know His will?
God's Word IS His will.
'Que sera sera, whatever will be will be and that must be God's will' is NOT biblical faith! It is belief in fate! It is ignorance of the Word of God.
Yes, we must surrender and trust in the sovereignty of God, but God has set down His will in His Word. Not everything that happens is His will according as it is stated in His Word! If we get His Word in us and it becomes life to us, then His perfect will begins to manifest in our lives!
What Jesus did in the work of the cross was to provide the full salvation package. To be saved, healed and delivered mentally, emotionally and physically; to have your life restored; to be totally transformed; you must put the Word to work. If you never do that you will never see the reality of it, although it belongs to you. The main way we put it to work is by speaking it! The speaking must come from a place of believing in our heart and not doubting (Mark 11:23) This state of faith comes by continual meditation and feeding on the Word of God until it becomes established in us.
The natural eye/ear cannot comprehend it. The natural man cannot comprehend the things of God.
BUT those who have the new birth, born of the Spirit can receive them. The man or woman born of the Spirit of God can and must comprehend the things of God!
When we, as born-again believers have His Word in our ears and in our vision, it does enter into our heart and we will know what He has prepared for us because we have revelation from the Holy Spirit.
When the New Testament quotes an Old Testament scripture and then says: 'but', then what follows supersedes that Old Testament truth. It does not mean that it's no longer the Word of God but that what's about to be said amplifies it and brings it into full context. And there's a change now: Jesus has been to the cross, rose from the dead and is seated at the right hand of the Father. So we can no longer say as New Testament believers who rely on the blood of Jesus and are not under the old covenant but the new, that we cannot know the will of God!
Biblical meditation will produce supernatural, godly imaginations - images inside of you. It gives you vision, God's imagination! Don't be afraid of using your imagination. God has created it. When the Word of God gets in our ears and in our eyes and into our heart then we start to see by faith.
And faith always sees a solution, it never sees a situation as hopeless.
'The entrance of Word brings light.' Ps 119:130
Keep the Word going in your eyes and ears and it will get down in your spirit. That is how you will continually receive revelation by the Spirit of what God has prepared for you.
'The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord' (Proverbs 20:27) God will use your spirit to bring illumination and revelation to you. It will bring you wisdom, direction and solutions; shedding light on any given situation.
What God has prepared for us is very good!
Oh, how great is Your goodness, Which You have laid up for those who fear You, Which You have prepared for those who trust in You In the presence of the sons of men! Psalm 31:19
Every good thing has already been prepared for you by God! It's not like He's going to do it – it's already done. Yes there's the Kingdom to come, and heaven is going to be a million times better than we could ever imagine, but salvation starts here! Salvation is now, not just in the future. The Kingdom is now, not just in the by and by. There's goodness laid up for us and already prepared for us now. When we see it we can receive it. Meditating the Word of God downloads it into you and it will come to pass.
The words of God are 'life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh.' (Prov 2:22)
The Word of God must be found, it must be discovered. It is hidden for us, not from us. If we seek we will find it!
The word 'health' there is the word 'medicine'. There's a supernatural quality to the Word of God that when a person inclines their ear to it and gives it full attention, when it get in their eyes and in their imagination, when it gets in the core of their being it will produce life and health in their emotions, in their mind and in their physical body.
Man is a 3-part being: spirit, soul and body.
3 John 2 says: 'Beloved, I want you to prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers'.
If we want to see outward change in our life, the inward has to change first. That's why some people struggle to get healed and have breakthrough no matter how hard they try: their heart and mindset is programmed to be oppressed and sick. It takes time to de-programme and become firmly convinced that the Word of God teaches healing and that it is for us.
If you just keep attending to the Word of God , it will get into the core of your being and you'll come to a place where you know that you know that you know that you have exactly what you are believing for from the Word of God.
It's not necessarily easy – Satan wants to steal the Word from you; the pressures and cares of life try to choke it; there's the deceitfulness of riches – this is the human tendency to look to natural solutions and man's resources for your answer. We have to learn and become convinced that the Word is the ONE THING we look to and trust in and live by: 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God'.
The Word of God is supernatural to the point that it can and should be the life of your body – literal medicine to your body. The body is not inconsequential. It is God's will that we are whole – spirit, soul and body.
And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1Thess 5:23
Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. 1 Cor 6:19-20
The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is the life of the body.
'If Christ lives in you, though your [natural] body is dead because of sin, your spirit is alive because of righteousness [which He provides]. 11 And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.' Rom 8:10-11 Amplified
We must guard what goes in our hearts and not only fill our hearts with the Word but ensure that the Word is retained there and goes down deep, so that we will bear much fruit. (Matthew 13:23)
'Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.' Prov 4:23
You must watch over your own heart, with great diligence. The forces and direction of your life issue forth from your heart! Keep, retain the Word of God in your heart. Seek to grasp and comprehend it on a deeper level.
Keeping the Word of God in you is more than mentally knowing scripture. It's where it becomes part of you – affecting every fibre of your being. Then it becomes the very life of your body, soul and spirit.
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