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Is your Spirit well fed or is it starving?
Well, there is nowhere in the Bible that says we must read the Bible or go to Church to go to heaven
(we must accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior to be born again), but by not regularly going to church or reading the
Bible, its like going into war without any type of protection, like walking into a mine field not knowing if something is
going to blow up under your feet. God gave us His word to guide us, to lead us, to teach us, to bless us. Knowing and applying
Gods word will enable us to live our lives to the fullest and protect ourselves from the ongoing battles we endeavor while
were here on this earth.
Spiritual nourishment is a must, we must never quench the spirit, never. (1 Thess 5:19) We cannot
let that fire in our spirit go out, we have to fuel the fire for God that we have with faith.
Our faith will grow over time and as Gods word says, Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word
of God.(Romans 10:17) Every little bit of Gods word that we read and get into our hearts, minds, and our spirits is a faith
builder. We may not realize it at the time that were reading it, but Gods word is like calcium. Calcium strengthens our fleshly
bones and Gods word strengthens our spiritual bones. It makes us stronger, it helps us to stand even more firm. The more of
Gods word you know, AND apply to your life, the faster you will grow. It says in James 1:22-25 NIV" Do not merely listen to
the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like
a man who looks at his face in a mirror and after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has
heard, but doing it--he will be blessed in what he does."
Hey, that sounds like a promise to me! Live by Gods word and you will be blessed in what you do! Glory
Hallelujah!
If we read Gods word, it will get into our spirits and do what it supernaturally does... it gets engrafted
in there, but when we APPLY it to our lives, its even better. Thats like someone telling us that if we have a bad habit that
we should stop, and if we just hear what they have to say and acknowledge that they are right and we should stop but we dont;
then how have we benefited from that advice? It has been put into our minds but just sits there waiting to be put into action,
so as Gods word is in our lives. We must put Gods word into action in our own lives. Part of being a Christian is showing
the world that we do live by Gods word and how our lives are blessed with the fact that we obey his commands and study His
word in order to grow into even better Christians.
I believe that some people think of their Bible as a quick fix or they think if I just read one or
two verses a day thats better than nothing. Im not saying that its not better than nothing, but what I am wondering is "Why
would you only take about two minutes to read two verses and then take even longer amount of time choosing what CD to put
into your CD player next?" We owe it to God to put Him first. His word is our spiritual nourishment. So many people will go
on and on about how they do not have to go to church in order for God to know that they love Him. That is true, God knows
if you love Him or not, He knows everything. God has said in Hebrews chapter 10:25 " Let us not give up meeting together,
as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching." The
KJV states it as this " Not forsaking the assembling
of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching."
That sounds pretty much to the point to me. How much more clearly could He have said it? We must go
to church. God has called men and women into the ministry to teach us the Word of God. We must go to church and be active,
fellowship, be there to help a fellow brother or sister in Christ in their time of need. We must pray continually. (1 Thes
5:17)
The biggest step is humbling ourselves before God and accepting Jesus into our hearts. Thats not where
it stops though. I have heard this before and I agree with it... If Gods only purpose in our lives was for us to get saved
so we could go to Heaven, dont you think He would have taken us all to Heaven moments after we were saved? No, He has work
for us to do for Him down here. We must get together and worship and fellowship. Being with a group of Christians is like
a bunch of hot coals in a fire. I heard this somewhere once and I loved it. Each of us as an individual Christian are like
a hot coal. We have that fire inside of us for the Lord. Now, when we get together with other hot coals, we will produce a
big fire! Great how that works isnt it? But heres the flip side to that, a hot coal by itself, I dont care how hot or how
on fire it is, if it never gets around any other hot coals, it will eventually grow cold and the fire will cease.
We must be around other Christians. We must go to church and hear the word of God. I will say again,
quoting Gods Word . Faith cometh by hearing and hearing the word of God. How do we hear Gods word? 1.) Going to Church ..
if youre not going to church, start now 2.) Reading and studying Gods word in our personal time...we have to make time for
God...God should always come first in every aspect of your life, ever single aspect. Its pure joy when we get Gods word into
us then it comes back out of us and ministers to someone. It feels great!
Not to mention the fact that our greatest weapon against that ole ugly devil is Gods word. So, if
you dont know the Word and Satan comes against you in some way or another and he will, whatcha gonna do? Ill give you a moment
to ponder on that.
It is important to know Gods word ... Satan hates it when he comes against us and we quote Gods word
and we stand firm on it, he absolutely hates it because Satan knows that Gods word is true, Satan knows that the grass withers
and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever! (Isaiah 40:8) Oh dont ya know that just chaps his hide! haha
When you are strong in Gods word, you have the faith (because faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God) you have
the faith to grab that ole stinker by his tail and tell him Get thee behind me satan! and stand on Gods word and that is your
protection. I will quote what Paul said in ephesians 6 about the importance of putting on our full armor of God. Ephesians
6 10-18 NIV Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his might power. Put on the full armor of god so that you can take your
stand against the devils schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities,
against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the
full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything
, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,
and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield
of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword
of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions and with all kinds of prayers and requests.
With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
Man! I just love those verses! Paul makes it clear how important all those things are in our spiritual
lives! Our belt of truth ..being honest..always..truth is also the word of God, our breastplate of righteousness, (being in
right standing with God, trusting in, believing in, relying on God and none other), fitting our feet with the readiness that
comes from the gospel of peace (need I say more?) We also must take up our shield of Faith! the text that follows that is
what gets me, I love it. So many people out there are knocking the Faith movement.. I believe that some have forgotten just
how important faith is in Christianity. Hebrews 11:1 NIV says "now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of
what we do not see." Faith is so very important. If we didnt have faith that
Gods word is true, then what would we have?
I have heard some people say that well they just know it is and I said well that just know is called faith. Pauls says that
our shield of faith can extinguish ALL the flaming arrows of the evil one. Not some, not most, but ALL! I believe the secular
singer George Michael even said it once in a song "Cause ya gotta have faith , oh ya gotta have faith faith faith!" Im not
sure if Paul would have quoted the words from a George Michael song, but hey, its true! He goes on to say take the helmet
of salvation and sword of the Spirit...let me stop there for a second .. the sword of the spirit.. When I hear the word sword
I think of a weapon. What else is a sword for but to defend oneself or attack someone or something with???? I dont believe
a sword is something thats just supposed to sit there and look pretty. I have a friend who collects swords and hangs them
up on the wall, sure they look neat and everything but they are not doing their original purpose hanging on the wall, just
being looked at. I am making this point for a reason.. Paul says that the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. That is
our weapon, against who? Take a wild guess! Paul made it so incredibly clear of all that we must put on in order to be spiritually
protected against the devils schemes. Our sword of the Spirit is Gods word... think about that and remember what he said earlier
in the chapter .."For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against
the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." So, we have a Sword of the
spirit, to fight our spiritual battles with. That sword is Gods word. Now remember that friend I told you about that liked
to hang the swords up because they looked neat? Well alot of Christians do the same thing with their Bibles. They carry them
to church, they buy neat little covers and bookmarks and have pretty decorative Bibles sitting around the house or whatever
but if they dont use them for what they were truly intended for, being the Sword of the Spirit, then they are useless. Im
not saying that Gods word is useless, please dont take this out of context! What I am saying is that in the event that the
devil comes against you with one of his schemes, the fact that you have a pretty Bible with a pretty cover on it isnt going
to help you. That would be like walking into a raging war, and having the biggest baddest gun there is ... you are treading
along and the enemy jumps in front of you .. you must protect yourself against his attack, but you just hold the gun up and
say, hey! I got a gun! but then you have no idea how to use it! What good does that do you?? You have to have the knowledge
on how to use the weapon before it can be used properly! As with the Bible... You must know whats inside and apply it to your
life! I could go all day long using examples of things that dont work the way they are intended to work if we dont apply them,,
such as shampoo.. our hair wont get clean if we never apply it! Ill stop with that one, haha I hope you get the point. In
order to utilize the Sword of the Spirit, our weapon against the evil one, we must grab a hold of it and use it, apply it
and know it! Praise God for the weapon He has given us to protect ourselves from all the dirty little schemes that satan is
always plotting against us.
In closing.. read the Word, study it, and apply it!
Three simple points! Read, study and apply!
Lets not forget to pray, pray, pray too! I hope this has helped on some way or another! God Bless!
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