How
to Activate the Word of God in Your Life
The
Word of God is powerful. It
is full of promises. It has
answers for us. It is life!
It contains promises of joy, victory, and success for YOU!
Listen
to some of God’s Word:
“Never
will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
Hebrews 13:5
“And
my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ
Jesus.” Phil 4:19
“I
can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Phil 4:13
These are wonderful, powerful verses, aren’t they?
The Word of God can profoundly affect our lives.
We should benefit from it.
But
do you know that even though the Word is powerful,
we can go our whole lives without getting any benefit from it?
We
can live and die as though the promises of God were never made.
We
can be brought up in a house of worship, go to a church or synagogue, or
listen to the preacher or rabbi every week.
And still what we hear has little influence on our lives.
At
the end of our lives, all that could be really be said is that we did not
benefit from it; we got no real advantage from it - even though we heard
the Word for so many years.
It
didn’t impact our lives or hearts like it could have. We did not experience the promises, the power, or the
answers.
It
had the power to give us joy, but we were not joyful.
It had the power to give us victory, but we were not victorious.
It had the power to give us success, but we were not successful.
Why
didn’t we experience all of the joy, victory, or success that we could
have?
How
can we go through an entire life of hearing the Word of God
and not benefit from it?
Is
there a magic formula, a missing ingredient, or some special thing that we
need to know about?
We
can get the answer right from the Word of God itself – from the Bible.
In Hebrews 4:2, (The Apostle Paul) says, “The message they heard
was of no value to them, because those who heard it did not combine it
with faith.”
The
Message – the Word of God – was of no value BECAUSE
Those
who heard it DID NOT combine it with faith!
Here
we find the missing ingredient! It
is FAITH!
These
people heard the Word, but did they not mix it with faith.
The
same is true for us now. We
need to receive the Word of God into our hearts by faith.
You
see, the promises of God were given to us so that they could benefit our
lives. They are to help us be
able to live a better life. But
if we do not combine it with faith, we can hear a message and not benefit
from it.
Take
for example a verse we read before:
“My
God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ
Jesus.”
What
benefit does this verse say that we could have?
All
of our needs can be met, right?
What
needs? What kinds of needs to
you have now?
We
all have basic needs like:
Food
Clothes
Shelter
Love
And
then particular, personal needs like:
Transportation
A new washer or dryer
Rent money
Medical supplies
This
verse says that God will supply ALL your needs. Now, what this verse promises can be just words.
Or, on the other hand, what it promises can be activated with faith
to become real in our lives.
Faith
releases the power of the Words in this verse in our lives.
We
need faith in God and His Word for it to do what it was designed to do so
that we can experience the benefit. In
this case, all of our needs being met.
So,
what exactly is Faith? How do
we know if we have it or not?
Noah
Webster defines faith as:
To
trust
To persuade
To believe
To obey
Other
ways to define it are:
Faith
is something like walking over a bridge
you know will hold you up.
Faith
is Dead to doubt, Dumb to discouragement, Blind to impossibilities, and
knows nothing but success in God.
Faith
sees the invisible,
Believes the incredible and
Receives the impossible.
To
have faith is to BELIEVE. To
believe that something is real and ACT AS IF IT WERE TRUE.
This
is an important point. To ACT
AS IF IT WERE TRUE.
Can
you believe in something and then act as if it weren’t true?
No. If you really
believe in something or someone, then you act as if it were true, right?
You don’t doubt it.
Faith
acts this way on all subjects as well as religion.
If
we believe that that there is such a place as London or Calcutta, it leads
us to act AS IF this were so, even though we may have never physically
been there.
If
we believe that we will make money in the stock market, we will ACT AS IF
IT WERE SO and invest in it.
If
we believe that a medicine will help us, we will act AS IF IT were so and
take it.
If
we believe in the honest character of someone, it leads us to ACT AS IF
this were so and we trust them.
As
long as the faith continues, whether it is well founded or not, it gives
all the force of reality to that which is believed. We feel and act JUST AS IF it were so, of AS IF we saw the
object before our eyes.
We
need to be careful what we have our faith in, don’t we?
To
have faith in the Word of God is to believe that it is true and to ACT
accordingly. That is to
Trust
it,
Rely on it,
To love it,
To cast our care upon it.
We
do not see God, or heaven, or the angels, or the redeemed in glory, or the
crowns of victory, or the harps of praise; but we have faith in them, and
this leads us to act AS IF we see them.
And
this is the fact in all who live by faith and who live under its
influence. They believe
God’s Word simply because it is God Who said it!
You
see faith is the activator, the catalyst that makes the promises of God
real in our lives. The power
of God’s Word is released in our lives through faith.
We
have learned about God’s Word and the power it can have,
and about faith that activates this Word, so now how do we combine it?
How do we make it real in our lives?
Again,
Hebrews 4:2, (The Apostle Paul) says, “The message they heard was of no
value to them, because those who heard it did not combine it with
faith.”
What
does it mean to combine the Word of God with faith?
The
word “combine” here refers eating!
The process by which food is made nutritive, by being properly
mixed with the saliva and the gastric juices, and then going into the
digestive system and being changed into blood.
This
is what the apostle meant when he said to combine the word with faith.
If
the Word is mixed, combined, and united with our faith, it becomes the
means of spiritual life and support to us.
It becomes the way for us to experience the joy, victory, and
success that the Word promises.
It’s
like eating a little cup of fruit. You
take a bite of fruit and chew it up.
The saliva mixes with it and it starts breaking down.
You swallow it and it goes into your digestive system where it gets
broken down. It is absorbed
into the blood stream and becomes nourishment to your body.
Just
like this food becomes a part of the body and supports it, the Word of
God, when it is activated by faith becomes a part of our internal and
spiritual man and gives it support and life.
Now,
if you just let that fruit sit in the bowl and didn’t chew it up and get
it into your system, it would be of no value to your body, would it?
It
has to be mixed, mingled.
Like
water and wine.
Faith
has to be combined with the Word so that we can use it.
When
we apply this principle to the Word of God, we read the verse, or we hear
it. Let’s
take the one we went over before:
“And
my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ
Jesus,” Phil 4:19
Then
we add our faith to it by meditating on it; thinking about what it means;
thinking about the power of God. Remembering
that He is good and honest and true.
We
say to ourselves, “God said this. I
believe that God tells me the truth.
I believe this Word applies to me and my situation. Because of this I know that God will meet my need.
I don’t have to worry or fear because God will meet my need.”
This
is how we add our faith. The
Word becomes activated in our lives.
Faith is the activator that makes it real to us; that applies it to
our lives. We believe it
because God said it.
So
then in your daily life, when trials or difficulties come, your faith
rises and instead of worrying, and talking about the problem, you start
saying, “My God IS MEETING All of My Needs.”
You
already built your faith in this promise of God up before and now it is
ready to be powerful in your life when you need it.
You
may not see the answer to your problem right away, but you stand on that
belief, on the Word that says that He WILL MEET ALL OF MY NEEDS.
Soon
you will realize that this is actually happening in your life.
Your realize your needs are being met.
That they are being taken care of.
Each
time God meets your needs, you will be thankful for what God has done in
your life. You see that He
did what he said He would and it increases your faith even more. The next time you have a need, you will remember that God has
met your need before, and you have confidence that He will meet it again.
You will realize how faithful God is to YOU!
When
you ACT faith, God will bring results!
This
is how it is with ALL of God’s promises.
The more your faith grows, the more you will see God’s Word
working in your life. Doing
what it says it will do.
If
He says that He will never leave us or forsake us, you will have faith in
this promise, and know that He is always with you.
If
God’s Word says, “I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens
me,” you add faith your faith and believe that Christ gives you the
strength to do all things and act accordingly.
If
God says, “And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious
riches in Christ Jesus,” you combine it with faith and believe it, and
then you act AS IF it were real and know that God is meeting every need we
have right now.
You
see, God’s Word is meant to be powerful in your life. But it requires something on your part. It requires you to add faith and believe it.
It needs your Faith to be activated.
You
need to:
HEAR
IT!
BELIEVE IT!
ACT IT!
Experience
the power of God’s Word in YOUR life!
Start
combining your faith, your belief, in the Word of God and activate it in
your life today.
This
week, start realizing that the Word of God is real and that it can work in
YOUR life!
When
a difficulty comes along, say to yourself,
“I
believe that My God meets all of my needs.”
“I believe that God will never leave me nor forsake me.”
“I believe that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens
me.”
Start
experiencing Joy, Victory, and Success!
Activate
the Word of God in your life with faith today!
HEAR
IT! BELIEVE IT! ACT IT!
© 2001-2003 Rose Martin Ministries, Inc. |
