THE ENTRANCE OF GOD'S WORDS
“THE ENTRANCE OF YOUR WORDS GIVES LIGHT; it gives UNDERSTANDING to the simple.”
Psalm 119:130 (NKJV)
You cannot understand God without His Word (Psalm 19:8). Believers get to know God and be intimate with Him, through the knowledge of His Word (Psalm 119:104).
Many want to receive blessings from God, yet they do not want to know Him and understand Him.
If you do not understand God, how can you relate intimately with Him and how can you receive a blessing from Him?
If your knowledge of God is shallow, your relationship with Him would be shallow as well; thus, receiving a blessing from Him would be a mirage, or an illusion.
Until you know God intimately, you may not be able to receive the best of Him (Psalm 119:2).
Many relate with God peripherally, their relationship with Him is not deep and sound, yet they want Him to bless them. It could be seen that they lack depth in Him (Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:37).
God is not a thing, He is a Supreme Being. You do not use God and dump Him, and come back later when you need Him. God wants relationship and fellowship, that is, intimacy!
To flow with Him, and to keep abreast of His move and blessings in your life, you need to pay attention to your fellowship with Him.
You short-circuit God’s move and the flow of His blessings in your life when your fellowship with Him is truncated.
Although you can receive a help from God through His servant, under which you are, who has good covenant relationship with Him. God can bless on the platform of the covenant He made with His servants (2 Chronicles 20:20).
However, God would want you to grow in your relationship with Him that your depth in Him might be increased and you become a vessel to be used to bless other people (2 Corinthians 1:4; Hebrews 5:12).
If you refused to grow, after a while, you may not be able to receive answers to your prayers on the platform of the covenant God made with His servant who is taking spiritual oversight of your life. God would want you also to grow to the point of cutting a covenant with Him, as an individual believer.
Many want to remain a baby Christian for the rest of their lives (1 Corinthians 3:1-3; Hebrews 5:12-14).
God wants you to grow to maturity– perfection: “SO LET US STOP GOING OVER THE BASIC TEACHINGS ABOUT CHRIST AGAIN AND AGAIN. LET US GO ON INSTEAD AND BECOME MATURE IN OUR UNDERSTANDING . . . ” (Hebrews 6:1 NLT).
When you study the Bible, you will understand God (Psalm 119:105).
You cannot understand God without the knowledge of His Word.
Believers attend church meetings to learn how to relate or walk with God; not to collect prayers from the pastors.
A number of people nowadays go to church to collect prayers and visions from pastors and prophets.
The primary assignment of those in ministry offices is to equip the saints and edify them:
11 AND HE HIMSELF GAVE SOME TO BE APOSTLES, SOME PROPHETS, SOME EVANGELISTS, AND SOME PASTORS AND TEACHERS, 12 FOR THE EQUIPPING OF THE SAINTS FOR THE WORK OF MINISTRY, FOR THE EDIFYING OF THE BODY OF CHRIST, 13 TILL WE ALL COME TO THE UNITY OF THE FAITH AND OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SON OF GOD, TO A PERFECT MAN, TO THE MEASURE OF THE STATURE OF THE FULLNESS OF CHRIST; 14 THAT WE SHOULD NO LONGER BE CHILDREN, TOSSED TO AND FRO AND CARRIED ABOUT WITH EVERY WIND OF DOCTRINE, BY THE TRICKERY OF MEN, IN THE CUNNING CRAFTINESS OF DECEITFUL PLOTTING” (Ephesians 4:11-14 NKJV).
Some so-called ministers of God are not helping the matter, they only gather people to tell them visions and prophecies.
If you as a minister does not feed the people under your leadership with the Word of God, you have forsaken your primary assignment.
Ministry is not about telling people visions and prophecies that you can collect money from them. If that is what you do, then it means you are making merchandize of the people. The people of God under your leadership have become a business through which you make money.
If at all you are called a prophet, and prophetic gift is operational in your life and ministry; the gift is not for money making but for the edification of the people of God (1 Corinthians 14:3).
I am not against the people giving their prophets material things; however, a prophet should not milk the cow he has not fed (1 Corinthians 9:13,14).
You feed them with the Word of God before you have the right to collect material things from them: “AND I [God] WILL GIVE YOU SHEPHERDS ACCORDING TO MY HEART, WHO WILL FEED YOU WITH KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING" (Jeremiah 3:15 NKJV).
It is after you might have fed them or sown spiritual things to their lives that you have the moral right to collect material things from them: “IF WE HAVE SOWN SPIRITUAL THINGS FOR YOU, IS IT A GREAT THING IF WE REAP YOUR MATERIAL THINGS?" (1 Corinthians 9:11 NKJV).
Spiritual things first before the material things!
Some ministers have not sown anything to the lives of the people and they want to reap material things!
Many people are victims of fake ministers because they are desperate and gullible, they want quick results or solutions to their problems (2 Timothy 3:5,6).
Every minister who makes merchandise of the people of God should remember they will give account of their stewardship, when the Chief Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, comes:
2 SHEPHERD THE FLOCK OF GOD WHICH IS AMONG YOU, SERVING AS OVERSEERS, NOT BY COMPULSION BUT WILLINGLY, NOT FOR DISHONEST GAIN BUT EAGERLY; 3 NOR HAS BEING LORDS OVER THOSE ENTRUSTED TO YOU, BUT BEING EXAMPLES TO THE FLOCK; 4 AND WHEN THE CHIEF SHEPHERD APPEARS YOU WILL RECEIVE THE CROWN OF GLORY THAT DOES NOT FADE AWAY” (1 Peter 5:2-4 NKJV).
However, every minister who feeds God's people with His Word and taking oversight of them in prayer will not lose his or her reward both here on earth and the eternity (1 Timothy 4:15,16).
That said, God has no problem in blessing His people, but His primary concern is having their heart (Matthew 6:33).
If you can give your heart, your attention and whole being to God, that age long problem would be attended to:
“AND NOT ONLY AS WE HAD HOPED, BUT THEY FIRST GAVE THEMSELVES TO THE LORD, AND THEN TO US BY THE WILL OF GOD" (2 Corinthians 8:5 NKJV).
You cannot obey God without understanding His Word, and without obedience you cannot eat the good of the land (Isaiah 1:19).
In every land of inheritance that God has apportioned every individual believer, there are good in it. However, it is your willingness to walk with God steadfastly and in obedience to His Word that will make you eat the good He has for you in the land: “IF YOU ARE WILLING AND OBEDIENT, YOU SHALL EAT THE GOOD OF THE LAND" (Isaiah 1:19 NKJV).
Note:
To understand God’s Word, pray the Pauline prayer in Ephesians 1:17-21 consistently.
If you personalize the prayer, you pray it consistently for a couple of days, or weeks, or months; you will discover that your eyes of understanding has been enlightened. That is, your level of understanding of the Scriptures has changed and increased as well as your depths in God.
Where ‘you’ is mentioned in the prayer you put ‘me’. You personalize the prayer.
An Example:
“THAT THE GOD OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, THE FATHER OF GLORY, MAY GIVE TO YOU [put me] THE SPIRIT OF WISDOM . . . ” (Ephesians 1:17 NKJV).
You will not fail in Jesus’ name. Peace!