What is Involved in Knowing the Word

What is Involved in Knowing the Word

As we turn our minds to God’s Word we might start with David’s lengthy but complete discussion of the Word in the . We see details of some of the attitudes as to why David was called the man after God’s own heart. ()

Foremost to knowing God’s Word is to read it. Just reading it with some regularity will stimulate your spirit to have initiative to study it. The only resources you need to complete a study in Scriptures are a heart and mind open to the Holy Spirit, a prayerful attitude, and a pencil and a Bible.

Bible study revolves around four basic steps: observation, interpretation, correlation, and application. Observation answers the question, “What does the text say?” Interpretation deals with, “What does the text mean?” — Not just what it means to you or me, but what it meant to its original readers. () Correlation asks, “What light do other Scripture passages shed on this text?” (A Thompson Chain Reference Bible guide can be a great tool.) Application, the goal of Bible study, poses the question, “How should my life change in response to the Holy Spirit’s teaching of this text?” (;)

Through Bible reading, we grow in our understanding of the Lord, His kingdom and our place in it, and those things essential. But we need more. We need to rely on the Holy Spirit to guide our study and our application of Bible truths. Jesus promised in .

NAS "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. 16 "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; 17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you.

NAS "He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will disclose Myself to him."

26 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

By itself, Bible reading can transform your life.

So shall My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.

But, it must be read with malleability. It will not give you power, peace, joy, comfort, hope, and the great number of other gifts God longs for us to enjoy without our unfettered openness to what God says in His Word. That is, we must approach our reading with the intention to be changed by His revelations. To just read God’s Word is not really to know His Word.

NAS "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. 10 "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth, And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; 11 So shall My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. 12 "For you will go out with joy, And be led forth with peace; The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, And all the trees of the field will clap their hands. 13 "Instead of the thorn bush the cypress will come up; And instead of the nettle the myrtle will come up; And it will be a memorial to the LORD, For an everlasting sign which will not be cut off."

To just read God’s Word is not really to know His Word. To know His Word is to lovingly obey His commands; to know Christ’s commands requires both things — to study them and as well to do them. Explore God’s Word for living His way; the Holy Spirit will fill you with the joy, and the power God longs to give all His children. Be diligent, read on, stay open and submissive to Him. If we are having trouble, or stumbling in our Bible study we may need to reflect on:

NAS Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God, 13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

KJV For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

To accidentally perform the elemental commands of Christ is not the same as an attitude of submissive obedience. It may accomplish the same results when observed by others, but others can do good works also. It is the attitude of the heart that is the real element of significance. Knowing God’s Word is not singularly raw obedience (although mandatory); knowing God’s Word requires a condition of the heart that has been changed by the Holy Spirit to desire to submit to God and the Lordship of Christ. ()

Moses and the prophets used the term circumcised as a symbol for purity of heart and readiness to hear and obey God. Through Moses the Lord challenged the Israelites to submit to “circumcision of the heart,” a reference to their need for repentance.

“If their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they accept their guilt,” God declared, “then I will remember My covenant”. ()

The radical change necessary in Judah’s inhabitants is illustrated by the call to circumcision of the heart, a radical change in the total inner being. ()()

Circumcision is used metaphorically to stress our need is to cut away any affections for the world attractions that would interrupt complete obedience in love for the Lord. Circumcision of the heart would not be an outward sign, but an inward attitude that will manifest itself outwardly in our actions. A circumcised heart is open, sensitive, and responsive to the commands of our Lord.[1] (“Have this attitude in you which is in Christ”) Our choice then,

NAS "Circumcise then your heart, and stiffen your neck no more.

An uncircumcised heart is one that is closed to God, lacking committed allegiance to His presence or Word. If we will allow Him to cut away by faith filled submission that which hinders our open allegiance to God, then our heart can and will become pliable to the direction of God. Without a circumcision of the heart, there can be no true reverence and love of God.[2] But notice the element present in God’s part,

NAS "Moreover the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may live.

We must come to our Bible study with our ”fleshly” selves circumcised, peeled away.

NAS For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, 10 and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; 11 and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; 12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

Real baptism corresponds to circumcision of the heart; just ritual baptism corresponds to circumcision with hands. Circumcision under the Old Covenant, and Baptism under the New Covenant, is the seal of the Abrahamic Covenant, associated with the Promise.

NAS For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. 29 But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.

Ray Stedman defines the flesh used in a morally negative sense as “the urge to self-centeredness within us, that distortion of human nature which makes us want to be our own god—that proud ego, that un-crucified self which is the seat of willful defiance and rebellion against authority.” A crucified self () denies our self (), a circumcised heart, and other phrases lead to the same thing Stedman is referring to

NAS I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Our mind is renewed by studying His word, to know the Word of God and study to show ourselves approved to handle rightly the Word of God (), to grow in our love and understanding of God and Christ, and serve others, we must place ourselves in the presence of God through Christ to leadership of Holy Spirit with a submissive and obedient heart and life, circumcised to the affections of the world.

NAS But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. 17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. 19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, 21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you just as I have forewarned you that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

NAS And so, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. 14 And beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

READ < HOLY SPIRIT < MALIABLE < MOTIVATION < OBEY < CIRCUMCISION

Loving God by His definition, is to keep His commandments:

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NAS Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. 3 For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousals, drinking parties and abominable idolatries. 4 And in all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excess of dissipation, and they malign you; 5 but they shall give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God.

NAS For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so; 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

[1]Thomas Nelson, Inc: Woman's Study Bible . Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1995, S.

[2] Spirit Filled Life Study Bible. electronic ed. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1991