Luke 4:4 “But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’”
Once while in Whangarei, New Zealand, visiting my sister, I was walking around the sports field in Kensington praying, particularly asking the Lord to intervene in my financial situation. Just then I spied on the ground a plastic money pouch that appeared to be full of money of the paper variety. My heart skipped as I quickly dove on it and unzipped the pouch, only to find that it was pages out of the Gideon’s Bible. I was disappointed and threw it aside in disgust only to come under the immediate conviction of the Holy Spirit. The Lord then told me off, saying that His word was far more valuable than silver and gold, and that if I valued it as I did money I would prosper and have good success in life. I apologised to God and picked it up again and went up into the grandstand and read the pages that were in there. They were from the New Testament Epistles of Peter and these particular verses jumped out at me.
1 Peter 2: 1-2 “Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,”
2 Peter 1: 4 “by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
God showed me again how the world has squeezed us into its mold so that we value the transient treasures of this life more than His eternal word. It says in Luke 4:4 that we are to live by His word and not just the carnal things of this life. The word is also likened to honey; in fact it’s even sweeter than honey.
Psalm 19:7 “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; More to be desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them your servant is warned, And in keeping them there is great reward.”
Psalm 119:103 “How sweet are your words to my taste, Sweeter than honey to my mouth”
We are meant to be new creatures in Christ as opposed to the old sinful natures of Adam.
2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”
Some liken our salvation to that of a caterpillar changing into a butterfly. We too have been changed from Sinners to Saints and are to now live different lives. Butterflies don’t eat the same food as caterpillars do anymore; in fact most butterflies suck nectar from flowers which is sweet like honey. The trouble with us ‘new creatures’ is that we have been changed but we still eating caterpillar food, when we are meant to be eating, sleeping and drinking the word of God.
Since this ‘Kairos’ moment with God I have made an effort to eat more butterfly food and always have some verses handy where ever I go. On some of the latest mobile phones you can download several versions of the bible so that not only can you hear from man but God as well. Isn’t it funny that we wouldn’t go anywhere without our mobile phones yet not think twice about leaving our bible behind?
An early American writer once said that when the Settlers opened up the Midwest every home had a Bible in a prominent place along with the works of Shakespeare. If you were to go into the average American home today you’d have a hard time finding Shakespeare let alone a Bible, for most homes are filled with Televisions, Play Stations, gadgets and countless other worldly magazines and books.
Psalm 1:1-3 “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, which brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.”
God says that when we meditate on His word day and night we will prosper and have good success in this life. The word meditation simply means to reflect on; ponder; to engage in contemplation. A graphic illustration of this word is it’s like a cow chewing its cud. It chews it for awhile then swallows. A little bit later, the cow will regurgitate its cud and chew some more, then swallow again. This process continues. So when we are meditating on God’s Word, we "chew" it, so to speak by reading and thinking about it. Then it sinks down into our hearts, as we go about other things; but later that day, we’ll bring it back up again in our mind and dwell on (ponder, reflect on) it some more – and on and on.
I think that we Christians in this generation are trying to fly like butterflies and can’t because we are still eating caterpillar food. In 1 Peter chapter 2 it says;
1 Peter 2: 1-2 “Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,
There are two things that we can note from this verse and that is that if we are not growing as a Christian then it’s most likely it’s because we do not desire God’s word as we should anymore. It also likens the word to milk and we all know that a healthy baby needs lots of it, in fact babies cry out for it morning, noon and night. If this is how we Christians are to be then we are not healthy babies for most of us have a light sprinkling of it on our caterpillar food each day and that’s it, and sometimes we don’t even do that.
Reading a Christian book or watching a religious broadcast isn’t counted as meditating on the word either for even though its good stuff it isn’t personal enough. The trouble is we get lazy and don’t un-wrap the pure word of God for ourselves and always want to be spoon fed a processed word by someone else. God has a special formula just for us personally in His word and it’s a ‘rhema’ word. The trouble is the sermons we hear may be good but are they really giving you the right direction for your life. You can end up having spiritual indigestion with so much information on your plate and it leaves you all confused.
We Pastors should be seeking God for a word for our particular congregation that is unique for us as a people. So many Pastors get lazy and just listen to tapes and DVDs to hear what someone else has heard and then share it, but it’s not from the heart.
John the Baptist was a ‘Voice’ in the wilderness and not an ‘echo’ and so must we be ‘voices’ who have heard first hand from God and not 2nd, 3rd, or 4th hand.
I had a dream once of some beautiful girls that really had a message from God in it for me. In this dream I was in a large house with 2 beautiful girls. I wanted to go out with both of them at once and couldn’t make up my mind as to which was the right one. One of the girls was called Natalie Box, and the other an attractive girl who had suffered from anorexia in the past. In my dilemma I went to the kitchen and spoke to the servant, who happened to be a pastor friend of mine. He looked angrily at me and said.” You can’t go out with either of them as you are married already.” This shocked me into reality. “He’s right; I’m married to my beautiful wife Bernice!” At this point I woke up, and asked God what this all meant.
My impressions of the dream were this; I have been in love with the “BOX” (which was TV - symbolic of Natalie) and starving myself of the word of God (symbolic of the girl with anorexia). The challenge was that I didn’t really realise that I was already married to God (symbolic of Bernice). I had promised when I gave my life to Jesus that I would love Him with all my heart, mind and soul. This dream was a wake up call to give more earnest heed to my relationship with God, and not love the world so much. I was eating caterpillar food all the time and suffering from spiritual anorexia.