God's Word Chapter 5

God’s Word Produces Results

“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 will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. Is. 55:10-11

God’s Word always produces God’s results. Isaiah gives the example of rain falling to the earth. It always produces fruit. When we consume God’s Word we will bear fruit. We will bear the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These will be characteristics of our soul when we read God’s word. It is when we neglect His word that these things begin to diminish in our lives.

We also bear fruit by making disciples. When we discover the truths of God’s word, we will share it with others. This will in turn cause them to have a desire to follow Christ. We must be in God’s Word in order to produce results!

God’s Word Carries a Cost

15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. 16 The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; 17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not [a]eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” Gen 2:15-17

Rejecting his Word leads to suffering and death. The rest of the Bible, and all of history, bears witness to this truth.

Blackaby, Henry; Blackaby, Richard. Hearing God's Voice (p. 92). B&H Publishing. Kindle Edition.

When we read God’s Word we must obey God’s Word. When we fail to obey God’s word we can be guaranteed that it will surely bring about death. It was not the fruit that killed Adam and Eve, it was the disobedience to God’s word that cost them their lives.

This holds true in our lives. If we do not place our faith in Jesus Christ, we will die eternally. More tangibly, when we disobey God’s word we face the consequences of doing so.

God’s Word Brings Life

15 “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; 16 in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. 17 But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it. 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, 20 by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.” Deut. 30:15-20

Just as rejecting a word from God inevitably leads to death, accepting and obeying God's Word brings abundant life.

Blackaby, Henry; Blackaby, Richard. Hearing God's Voice (p. 94). B&H Publishing. Kindle Edition.

God’s Word has the solutions to life. If you want to live the abundant life, God’s Word shows you how. Just as God set life & prosperity as well as death and adversity before the nation of Israel, He sets it before us today. We must choose life by ingesting God’s Word and living according to it.

In order to do this, you must know what it has to say. It makes no sense to say I am doing the will of God and don’t have to read His word. It is in His word where we find His will and adjust our lives to it. True life is found in the adjustment.

God’s Word Changes Lives

12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Heb. 4:12

The Holy Spirit cuts through our behaviors and attitudes to expose our motives. As we meditate on the Scriptures, a supernatural process takes place; God peels back our protective layers of hypocrisy until we see what he sees. Then it becomes obvious whether our lives are pleasing to him.

Blackaby, Henry; Blackaby, Richard. Hearing God's Voice (p. 98). B&H Publishing. Kindle Edition.

Adequate reading of the Word produces long lasting change. For example, one person may read the Word of God devotionally and discover that she has been less than truthful with some people and decide that it is not right. She may say I am going to do my best not to tell a lie today. This is the person that has not allowed the Holy Spirit to do the intended work. Another person can read the same passage and be convicted in her soul. It is so troubling that she comes forthright for all those she has deceived. She also recognizes it as a sin that has had dominion in her life. She prays and repents of this sin and asks the Holy Spirit to eradicate this sin from her soul. She allows the Holy Spirit to change her in this regard.

When we allow the Holy Spirit to change our personhood by reading God’s Word, we have read the word adequately.

God’s Word Tests Us

19 Then they said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak [b]to us, or we will die.” 20 Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may [c]remain with you, so that you may not sin.” Ex. 20:19-20

God’s Word will lead us to a crisis of belief. When we read God’s Word and get instruction from it, what we do with it is where we are with our faith

22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his [a]natural face in a mirror; 24 for once he has looked at himself and gone away, [b]he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. 25 But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but [c]an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in [d]what he does. James 1:22-25

If we do what we are instructed to do it demonstrates that our faith is strong!

God’s Word Requires Understanding

26 But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, “Get up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.” ([a]This is a desert road.) 27 So he got up and went; and there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure; and he had come to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and he was returning and sitting in his [b]chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and join this [c]chariot.” 30 Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Acts 8:26-40

There are times where we will need help understanding God’s Word. God has provided Bible teachers, Sunday School Teachers, and Pastors to help people understand Scripture. It is the responsibility of the reader to ask for help when they don’t understand the Bible.

Some of my favorite calls are when someone calls me and ask for understanding of God’s Word. I may not know the answer right then, but it gives me the opportunity to research and discern the meaning of scripture.

God’s Word Contains Promises

3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us [a]by His own glory and [b]excellence. 4 [c]For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. 2 Peter 1:3-4

God’s Word contains promises that enable us to become partakers of the divine nature and escape the corruption of the world.

15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! 16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin [j]resulting in death, or of obedience [k]resulting in righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that [l]though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, [m]resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, [n]resulting in sanctification.

20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 Therefore what [o]benefit were you then [p]deriving [q]from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. 22 But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you [r]derive your [s]benefit, [t]resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:15-23

God’s Word Gives Guidance

19 [a]Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you [b]always, even to the end of the age.” Matt 28:19-20

These are Jesus departing words to us. They are clear. We are to make disciples. No only does God’s word give us this guidance, but also in every aspect of life. He gives us guidance in marriage, parenting, finances, friendships, worship, and the list goes on.

God’s Word Requires Meditation

1. Take your time. You cannot meditate in a hurry!

2. Choose a reasonable amount of Scripture to meditate on at a time so you can devote your full attention to every word.

3. Choose verses as God leads. He may lead you to a particular passage such as Isaiah 53, which vividly portrays the Suffering Servant, or he may draw you to verses that will have particular relevance to your current circumstances.

4. As you read, take time to consider each word. At times the placement of a simple conjunction such as but can have profound implications.

5. As you ponder the passage, consider each phrase. Read it several times. Phrases can be read in various ways with different emphases. At times you can read a familiar passage and immediately conclude you know all there is to know about it. Taking time to meditate on each phrase invites the Spirit to open your understanding to deeper truths in the verse.

6. Carefully consider the context. Examine how the various phrases are connected to one another. If you are studying the life of Jesus, for example, notice how his teaching is connected to the events happening around him.

7. As you meditate, look for two things. First allow the Spirit to help you understand the greater truth of the words you are reading. Second, seek the Spirit's application of this passage for your life. You will emerge from your meditation a changed person.

8. Understand that the Bible is not merely a book to be studied and conquered. God's Word is living. You will never in a lifetime plumb the depths of its riches. To assume you've read it all is to grossly overestimate your capacity to think like God. When

Blackaby, Henry; Blackaby, Richard. Hearing God's Voice (pp. 108-109). B&H Publishing. Kindle Edition.