Meditate on the Word

Have you ever planned a long trip or vacation and discovered you had not filled up with gas or found you needed an oil change? Perhaps the tire pressure was low on your tires? Failing to prepare adequately for a long trip can be costly. 

A few years ago, my wife and I, with one of our sons and his family, planned a winter vacation together at a ski resort in northern Colorado. We decided to take our SUV because it could seat seven, allowing both our families to ride together. 

The week we were on vacation was one of the coldest in recent Colorado history. The temperatures were as low as minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit and never got above seven degrees during the daytime. Skiing was miserable. We spent most of our time inside in front of the fireplace, drinking coffee and hot chocolate, instead of out on the slopes as we had planned. 

On the way home, we drove in blizzard-like conditions, and my washer fluid froze up. I’d failed to change out the normal fluid for the kind that could handle sub-zero temperatures. We had to make a dozen stops on the way home just to clear the windshield from all the built-up ice, and though we had fun together, I was not adequately prepared for a trip in those conditions. 

Each of our lives, no matter the specific longevity, is like a long trip (in sometimes adverse conditions) that only the Word of God can sufficiently prepare us for. God’s Word gives us wisdom for living.

“Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom” (Psalm 51:6).

God desires to find truth deposited in your heart that He can use to impart His wisdom to you. The more of His Word you have taken time to meditate on and plant in your soul—your mind, will, and emotions—the more of His mind in your spirit will be accessible and released to you. Make no mistake about it: God’s Word is the source of wisdom!

“Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom” (Colossians 3:16).

“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).

The Word of God is the only thing that can divide and distinguish the soul from the spirit. It reveals the things that are of the flesh (which includes the soul) and the things that are of the spirit.

Let me share a couple of examples of how this has worked in my wife’s life and in mine. Until I was filled with the Spirit, the Bible was a dark book to me. I did not understand it. After being filled with the Spirit, I had an insatiable desire to know and understand God’s Word. Proverbs chapter 1 bears this truth out: 

“Surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you” (Proverbs 1:23).

After I graduated Bible college, my wife and I planted a church in Houston, Texas. We served as pastors there for over three years and later merged that church with another in the area at the Lord’s direction. Eighteen months later, a church in North Texas reached out to us. They asked us to move there and pastor. I prayed about it and believed we were to move and take that church. When I shared the direction I was sensing from the Lord with my wife, she said she also needed to hear from God before making such a major move. I was fine with that and prayed that if taking that church was God’s will, He would confirm it to her. A couple of days later, she came to me with the following Scripture verses that God used to speak to her about our moving to take this church. 

“He takes away the first that He may establish the second” (Hebrews 10:9).

“…That ye should be married to another…that we should bring forth fruit unto God” (Romans 7:4, KJV).

Though the context for each of these verses has to do with the new covenant superseding the old covenant, the Lord used them to speak to my wife about moving and pastoring our second church. The verses confirmed to her that God was moving us from one body of believers to another and that He would establish the second church as greater than the first, allowing us to bear much fruit. 

Another application of Hebrews 4:12 and the Word imparting wisdom to us often manifests as a supernatural “knowing.” There have been times I have been seeking God about His will or wisdom in a certain situation and, while reading the Word, I just know what to do. I didn’t know what to do previously, and the context of what I’m reading may not have anything to do with my situation, but all of a sudden, I know. Somehow, God just downloads the answer when I’m focused on Him. 

One instance when this occurred was in 2008 just before the housing market crashed. We had just sold our home without listing it and were looking for a replacement home. All the houses we liked were priced higher than the house we had just sold yet had the same amount of square footage. We found one house we liked that was similar to the size of our previous home but was selling for a higher price than what we sold our home for. Another we really liked seemed to be a good price for the neighborhood but was over 1,000 square feet larger than our previous home and cost $100,000 more. Then we found another home that cost less but also had less square footage. With the closing of our previous home less than a month away, we didn’t have much time to make a decision. I was leaning toward buying the larger home, but my wife felt we should purchase the smaller home. While reading the Word one day, I suddenly knew she was right. The smaller home was the one for us. 

Not long after this, the housing market crashed. When we sold that home in Texas in preparation for our move to Colorado in 2011, we only lost $7,500. Had we purchased the larger house I had been leaning toward, we would have lost $75,000! Even more amazing, when we purchased a home in Colorado, we gained significantly more equity than the $7,500 we lost on the sale of our house in Texas! It is amazing how the living Word of God can bring wisdom to us, save us money, and even help us make money! This reminds me of a verse in Psalm 103: 

“He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel” (Psalm 103:7).

Whenever I am sensing a leading from the Lord—whether through an impression in my mind or heart, the Scriptures coming alive to me, or any other means—I take the time to check out how that leading lines up with the following passages of Scripture: 

“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).

If what I think I am hearing fails to line up with these passages of Scripture on love and the fruit of the Spirit, I refuse to act on it. At a minimum, I seek counsel about what I’m hearing and do not attempt to push it through in my own strength. Remember Abraham’s mistake of attempting to force God’s promise of a son through Hagar rather than Sarah. That mistake resulted in Ishmael and is still causing problems for Isaac’s seed today. 

There are far too many “Ishmaels” being birthed outside of God’s wisdom in the church today, all because we don’t know God’s Word and haven’t learned God’s ways. We forsake the wisdom of God when we place a greater value on the supernatural way God speaks than on His written Word. Always remember that “Thus saith the Lord” never trumps “It is written.” Peter, by inspiration of the Spirit, confirms this in the following passage: 

“And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. We have also a more sure word of prophecy [more sure than the audible voice of God]; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts,” (2 Peter 1:18-19, KJV).

Peter was recounting hearing the audible voice of God on the Mount of Transfiguration where he met with Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. Yet he declares in this passage of Scripture that we have a “more sure word of prophecy” than the audible voice of God. We have the written Word of God. This is wisdom, friends. God’s written Word is surer than His audible voice or any other supernatural means of communication. Because I have spent time reading, studying, and meditating on God’s Word, when certain thoughts surface in my mind, I don’t need to pray about them. I know the Word, and I can judge whether or not that thought is wisdom. Five things I know are never from God are: 

1. Fear 
2. Doubt 
3. Confusion 
4. Discouragement 
5. Guilt/Condemnation 

Whenever these thoughts or emotions attack my mind, I know immediately it is the devil and not God. I cast that thought or emotion down with the Word, saying, “It is written”: 

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Tim. 1:7). 

“But let him ask in faith, with no doubting” (James 1:6). 

“For God is not the author of confusion but of peace” ( 1 Cor. 14:33). 

“Be strong and of good courage” (Josh. 1:6). 

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). 

Anytime the enemy comes to us with thoughts or emotions of fear, doubt, confusion, discouragement, or guilt and condemnation, we must realize that he is a thief and a liar. He comes to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). The very fact that he has come to steal something from you proves you’ve already got it! Let wisdom and faith rise in your hearts, my brothers and sisters. Fill your hearts and mind with the Word of God, and you will walk in a greater measure of wisdom, access the mind of Christ, and make good decisions in life. 

Adapted from Greg Mohr’s Book, Walking in Wisdom