REVELATIONS THROUGH THE WORD:

This is the surest, the most important and the most reliable means of hearing God speaks. God speaks through His Word and His Word alone irrespective of the method or channel He used. All saints of old, prophets and Apostles were moved and powered to do great things by the Spirit of God through the agency of His Word. In it is direction, the power for the life of faith is therein enshrined. You can’t please God without the Word. All authority in heaven and earth, and all that make God to be God is all vested in His Word.

All methods and ways by which God will ever use or that has been used to speak to men and women of faith is all about the Word. In the Word is Life, and the Life is the light to our paths. Psalms 119:105 “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path”. The worlds are in place because of the Word. Nothing was made without Him.

John 1:1; 3-4 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.”

The power and grace for graceful living is in His Word. Psalms 119:11 “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” Every other ways God speak must be conform to His Word. You can’t understand God, you can’t please God, you can’t hear God speak clearly, and you can’t grow and mature in spiritual things unless you are a person of the Word. Psalms 119:140 “Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it.” To enjoy divine leading on any aspect of life, you must rejoice and love the reading and studying of the Word. Psalms 119:162 “I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil.”

As sweet as this may sound, not many Christians rejoices at the Word or love to read the Word. They love the blessings but hate its rebuke. To them it’s alright to say “God bless you” but not “Thou shalt not” .Everything is subject to change and modernization but not the Word and the world become confused trying to interpret an “old book” in the light of the “new world”.

Have you noticed when you try read the Bible you sleep off? When you try meditate, your mind readily wonder off. You read few lines and its so boring and difficult to understand, so you get pissed off and you drop the old manual. You can stay awake and alert for hours unending gisting, chatting, watching movies and TV programs but a quarter of the time on the Bible is way off the line and you soon get tired and bore. Once you drop the Bible and get off, you get revitalize and back to your old self again.

Christian men and women, young and old want to hear God speak but not through the pages of His Word, yet He will say nothing except through His Word. We can fast for days and spend little next to no time without the Word, you can pray for hours, all manner of prayers, as long as they are not Word based. Once the Word is involved, it become tiring and boring and yet the power for true Christian experience is in the Word.

The church is becoming bigger and crowd filled than it has ever been in 2000 years, Christian gathering are on the rise, yet the hatred for the Word is on the increase even among church people. We loved the Word, but not in the reading. We loved the Word but not in the studying. We want to hear God speak but not by knowing Him first through His Word. There is deep seated hatred and disdain for the Word in many hearts, yet they know it not.

You can never and you will never understand the move of God, you can’t know His voice nor His pattern of speaking, whichever means or method He uses unless you are a person of the Word. John 10:27 “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:” “And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers” – John 10:5. You will confuse the voice of the enemy with the voice of the Good Shepherd unless you key into the Word. By their fruit you will know them, the fruit of grace and the fruit of evil sometimes look very familiar, especially when it comes to marriage, only through strong adherent to the Word can you know the thin line that separate error from the truth.

There are so many marriages in the church but very few blissful homes, so many weddings takes place but few Christian homes are established even by popular and committed church members because many are committed to church but not to the studying of the Word.

This is not about Christian activities, you can be committed to the church, sing beautifully, dance like David, so generous in giving thousand offerings like Solomon and yet be empty inside. A wordless believer is an empty Christian. Christian activities and graceful living are two different things, the two can only fused together for greater impact when the Word is rich in your heart. We can’t really be discussing direction in marital matters for Christian unless Christians return to the Bible. In it is life and light for our paths.

There cannot be Will of God, there cannot be God speaking to me, there cannot be the leading and witnessing of the Holy Spirit, their cannot be God inspired dreams, there cannot be any basis for true compatibility tests, there cannot be Christian courtship, there cannot be Christian marriage, there cannot be Christian parenting, nothing meaningful can be derived from the Christian life without The Word. Simply put, God cannot talk or speak without His Word.

If you say God is leading you and you are a novice in the Word of God, then wherever means He is speaking to you, call for real evaluation again and again. God will say nothing except through His Word. Don’t be the first to hear Him outside His Word, that’s a perilous and soul damaging route, don’t follow it. Everything and anything “God” says to you, whoever He leads you to, all must conform to His Word. Any voice or direction outside His Word is not of Him.

1. Why do people get bore and even sleep off when reading the Bible?
2. Why do I find it difficult to concentrate or understand the Bible?
3. Why do people get bore and even sleep off when reading the Bible?

The Bible is a spiritual Book, written by inspired spiritually matured men, moved by The Spirit of Christ that was in them, and written to men who aspire to a higher spiritual walk with God.

Psalms 42:1 As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

The Bible is written for true seekers, those who won’t get satisfy with ordinary water, unless the washing by water of the Word. Only those who are thirsty will be filled. If you don’t have that innate desire and love for the Word, you wont get excited reading it.

So therefore, because the Bible is a spiritual book, it can only connect with the spirit of man, the flesh cannot and will not relate with the Word. Humans are spiritual beings living in a physical body, and while we are in that body, it tries to take over our attentions and its demands are always against the spirit, the real man, that is locked within the body. So because your flesh is not born again and it cannot, it find it difficult operating in spiritual things and reading the Bible is a spiritual exercise.

It therefore take discipline, determination and perseverance to study the Bible and that take time and consistent trying. Many a times we quit too soon, and that’s what the flesh want. The spirit want otherwise but the flesh is weak, and spiritual discipline takes time to get accustom to. The more you try the better. Oh I don’t understand when I read, just keep reading all the same. The more you read the more you get, so keep reading.

The spiritual life will never be easy as long as we are in this body, we keep fighting for it. If you fail, try again and again until you get over and move to the next level in your Christian walk. If anyone tells you that you will one day understand everything you read in the Bible every time you read, it’s all lies. That’s why our fathers in the Lord still have sermons to preach after 30-50 years of preaching, it is because the Word is ever new, new revelations, new inspirations, and new direction with each reading and studying and it gets better the more time you spend communing with God through the pages of the Bible. So the question of reading to understand is solely from God, your part is to read, whether you are getting something or not. It is your desire and thirst for more that God will bless and be rewarded with spiritual understanding, a little at a time.

1. Why do I find it difficult to concentrate or understand the Bible?

The best sleep inducing drug is Bible reading. The devil and your flesh will allow you do every other spiritual activities as long as your spirit man is not fully beneficial but to read or study the Bible which is of utmost importance to your spiritual well-being, expect some hard fights. The flesh is at war with the spirit and your mind is the battle ground and as long as that battle is ongoing, concentrating on the Word while reading will be a life time battle. The more you align with God in your heart, the better it get and the further you are from the Word the more difficult it will be to concentrate on the Word. Once the heart keep wandering there cannot be thorough understanding of the Word being read. It takes the spirit to connect to the Word. And when understanding is almost nonexistent the heart get bore and frustrated.

At that point the battle at that moment is at the peak, whoever you yield to wins for the time. If you yield to the flesh understanding the Bible becomes more difficult but if you stay put, gradually the flesh will give way and the spirit will take over and connect to the Spirit of grace and understanding of the Word will begin, howbeit in little measure. God won’t give you all the understanding at once, you have to grow into it.

Understanding the Word becomes easier when the flesh become subject to the dictates of the spirit. Spirit control Christians are winning Christians and they are the one that God speak to because they can hear and recognize His voice.

It must also be said that you are not the Author of the Bible, God is the Author. You were not there when it was written, you don’t know the contextual understanding of the writers and the intent of the Mind of The Author throughout the periods of writing. The Bible was not your thoughts, they are His. Therefore, you need His guide, the comfort of His Holy Spirit to understand His mind. You can’t read and fathom the depthness of His thoughts in one single glance. It is precept upon precept and line upon line, a little here and a little there at a time as He wills – Isa. 28:10, 13. No one can understand the mind of God except the Spirit of God. It is His Spirit that interpret the Word. Before reading, always in humility ask for His Spirit guide and help. No man can love God or His Word except by His Spirit. God is the Author of the Book and ONLY Him can interpret and give understanding to His Word. Whatever He gives you, a little here and a little there are yours for the moment, the more you trust and thirst for more of Him through the scripture the more of Him you get.

Deuteronomy 29:29 The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

Be contented with whatever He revealed to you per time, acts on them and thirst for more in the spirit of humility. No one will understand all of scriptures all at once, we are all students under His feet and we never graduated until we see Him in glory, so there is no basis of getting discouraged when you don’t have full understanding of whatever part you read from the Bible. Yours is to read, its God to grant understanding and revelations into His Word. Keep doing your part, soon you will find Him faithful in interpreting His Word to you.

If God will lead you into His will in marriage and in any other matter in life, it will be through His Word. A lazy person cannot hear God through the Word and if God did not lead you through the Word, He won’t through any other means. All His methods and style must be in line with His Word, the revealed revelational knowledge of His Son, Jesus Christ. If you don’t have basic understanding of Jesus Christ, how can you then understand or know His voice. My sheep hear my voice and they follow me – John 10:27. No sheep can know the voice of a shepherd they never met or are not familiar with.

If you are His sheep, then be a sheep that knows His voice. If you ask for His help and grace and with a committed heart to know more of Him through the pages of His Word, for sure He will direct your path.

2. How do I know when my spiritual senses are dull?

• When you have very insignificant or almost zero interest in reading or studying the Word.

• When you get bore or frustrated easily with reading the Word. When you can go days or weeks without personal reading of the Word.

• When you enjoy doing other Christian services but no thirst or longing for personal communion with God through the Bible.

• When you can pray, long or short time, with no basic Bible knowledge or reference to back up your prayers.

• When you enjoy church activities, especially on Sunday’s as a replacement for personal, regular Bible study.

• When your understanding of the Bible is too shallow or almost nonexistent.

• If you read articles like this and you never cross checked any one of the Bible references to ascertain its correctness, especially those you are seeing for the first time and those you have long forgotten they are in the Bible. If you don’t cross checked that mean you simply don’t care.

John 5:39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.

2 Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

If we must hear God very clear and without confusion, the Word must be fully part of our lives. Dull spiritual sense is never the Will of God for His children. When you are conversant with the Word, you are less prone to errors, hearing God become easier, and having your “senses discern between good and evil” is much easier as well.

May God give you hearing ears and listening heart in Jesus Name. Amen

Olumofin Kehinde Benjamin writes for Praying Parents Prayer Group Christian Ministry (3pG)