The season of Lent presents an opportunity to tighten up on our spiritual disciplines. Today let’s look at how to correctly handle the Word of God. I’d like to give you ‘Five Principles for Handling the Word of God’.
If you want to get a good grip on something you need to hold on with all five fingers. I want to liken these five principles to grasping something using all the fingers of your hand.
Firstly, we must...
Hear the Word
Deu 6:4-5 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
We know that Jesus said that this was the greatest commandment and that all others hang on it and the second great command, but our keeping this commandment all begins firstly with hearing it.
Jesus often said, “He that has ears to hear, let him hear...” We need to hear the Word of God. The human spirit responds to the liberating sound of God's Word.
Rom 10:17 tells us that, “...faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” Of course you need to listen with the inner ears of the spirit – you can listen and still not hear…
When counselling I’ve had some people say, “It’s alright for you, you have faith, but I don’t”, as if God graciously gives to one and overlooks the next. But, Rom 12:3 says ...God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. We’ve all got a measure, but some have cultivated theirs by hearing the Word and responding to it.
But now I’ve got some bad news… We retain less than 1% of what we hear. So, merely going to church and listening to the preacher is not enough.
Secondly, we must also…
Read the Word
If we are going to retain it, we must also use the eye gate.
Rev 1:3 Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near. So there’s a need to both read and hear the Word!
God anticipated that Israel would desire to have a king so He made certain regulations beforehand that kings rarely kept. Moses wrote down in Deut 17:18-19 the following stipulations… When he [the king] takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests, who are Levites. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees.
There are many injunctions in this book calling and urging for it to be read. For instance, in 1 Tim 4:13 Paul says to Timothy, Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.
Why the public reading? Well the people didn’t have their own copies of the Scripture; cumbersome parchment scrolls were kept in the synagogues. However, we do! We have access to a myriad of Bible translations even on our cell phones.
We need to read large portions of Scripture in order to expose ourselves to what Paul called ‘the whole counsel of God’. A verse a day from the Daily Light is not enough for one who wants to ‘live by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God’.
What about using a Bible reading program like ‘the One Year Bible’ as a way of exposing yourself to the whole counsel of God annually!? I have read through the entire Bible every year for the past 40 years using the One Year Bible as a guideline and have benefited greatly from this discipline.
So we’ve looked at hearing and reading the Word. The third finger that will give us a better grasp on God’s Word is to…
Study the Word of God
The noble Berean Christians were involved in study. It says, in Acts 17:11 that they "...examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true."
To examine means to look closely at, to study. If you study a Scripture you will look at every Word carefully.
As a Practical Exercise let’s study one verse of Scripture which has bearing on our topic for today - 1 Pet 2:2.
1Pe 2:2 NLT Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk (KJV of the Word) so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment…
We are to be like newborn babies. What is a priority for a baby? It lives to feed! I see here an attitude we should have toward the Word – we should live for it; we should love it! (Unfortunately, some see going to church to hear the Word preached like having their weekly dose of castor oil – their attitude is wrong!)
A newborn baby has an appetite for milk. The word ‘crave’ is used in this translation. Other words could be used like ‘hunger’, ‘thirst’, ‘desire’ even ‘lust’. When babies are hungry you can do what you like – they will cry the house down until they are fed. This is the kind of appetite we should have for God’s Word.
As I reflected further I saw something that would result. I saw accomplishment – I saw growth resulting. If you consistently do your own, original investigation into the Scripture and apply it, growth will result. You will “…grow into a full experience of salvation”.
So the third finger is study. What does the fourth finger represent?
We must also Memorize the Word
We must hide the Word in our hearts. Deu 6:6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. (Another way of saying it would be – these commandments you should know by heart).
The verses that follow go on to say… Deu 6:7-9 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
Jesus also said in Joh 15:7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.
Knowing and retaining the Word of God in your heart is a key to answered prayer. It’s much more effective to pray the Word than it is to pray the problem. Jesus, when tempted, didn’t say to the Devil, “Hold on a bit…” and go paging through the scrolls to find the relevant verse. He said, “it is written…”
Many of us were taught the armour of God in Sunday School or Children’s Church. But did you realize that the only offensive weapon we have is the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God? All the other armour is protective.
Eph 6:17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (It could also read, ‘...the sword which the Spirit wields, which is the Word of God’)
In a conflict situation, the Spirit of God draws upon the deposit of Word which you have in you. He reminds you of an appropriate Scripture that ‘fits the fight’. Unfortunately, many of us only know John 3:16 and Jer 29:11 which may not be appropriate ‘Word weapons’ for the particular battle we’re in.
Sadly, some of us only have a pocket knife instead of a sword because we have only memorized a few verses of Scripture. So let’s get to memorizing Scripture and enlarge the deposit of truth in us so that the Holy Spirit has much to draw upon!
A classic scene from the movie “Crocodile Dundee” is when he goes to New York with his Sheila (his girl) and they are confronted with a knife wielding would-be mugger. The girl says, “Give him the money, he’s got a knife!” To which Dundee says, “That’s not a knife, here’s a knife,” and then proceeds to carve up the muggers nice red jacket with the foot-long knife he uses to kill and skin crocodiles.
Finally, the last finger is…
We must Meditate on the Word
Jos 1:8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
The mind is the seat of the personality, the real you. The mind is like an iceberg. You have a conscious mind which is like the part of the iceberg which is visible and above the sea. But, the subconscious mind is like the much larger invisible part underwater.
It’s in the heart, the subconscious mind, that the Word must take root and grow. This is where our values and underlying belief systems are located. It takes time for them to be re-programmed, but if true transformation has to take place our minds have to be renewed by the Word of God. This happens when we meditate on the Word day and night – when we mutter it to ourselves. It becomes a part of us, part of our core being.
Rom 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will...
This renewing or re-programming of the mind does not take place by a single exposure to the Word, but by repeated exposure to and reflection on the Word. There’s another scripture about the mind…
Eph 4:22-24 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
We are required to do the first part – to ‘put off the old self’ and we have to do the third part – to ‘put on the new self’. But, a key thing has to happen in between if the process is to be successful – we have to ‘be made new in the attitude of our minds’.
This is written in the passive voice – ‘be made new…’ You see, you can’t make your mind new, but the Scriptures can as you soak your mind with the Word through meditation. I call this ‘being made new in the attitude of your mind’ or ‘being transformed by the renewing your mind’ ‘the meat in the sandwich’.
In Conclusion, What I Want Is This…
I don’t know about you, but I want to have a good grip on God’s Word
I want to hear the Word.
I want to read the Word – the whole Bible.
I want to study the Word of God.
To have memorized significant portions of it.
To have meditated upon it.
And above all to have lived it!
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