“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe.”
John 6:63-64
The word of God is a life given tool to as many people that believes in it. When you see a life that has been shattered and battered by the devil, the word of God is the only needed tool to restructure it, and put such a life back in shape. To restructure simply means to organize differently for effectiveness.
The word of God has both reformative and transformative capacities to change people completely, setting them on a new path entirely different from their initial negative experiences. 1 Thessalonians 2:13 tells us “For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.”
Now, if we examine verse 64 of our opening Scripture, it tells us that not believing the word of God will not produce any results in a man’s life. When the word of God came to Paul of Tarsus on his way to Damascus in Acts 9, he didn’t argue. What simply came of his mouth was “Lord, what do you want me to do?” This should be our attitude to the word.
Avenues Through Which the Word of God Restructures Our Lives
1. Through Reading It
Knowing the word of God starts from reading it. For example, you cannot know the content of a book until you have opened it to find out what the content says. If someone says to you “take this book, read it; it will change your life forever if you do.” If you take the book and use it as pillow for the rest of your life, the content of it will not jump into your brain. If you take the book, cut it into pieces and then swallow it, the content still won’t be known to you. The same thing is applicable to the word of God. The word of God that has the capacity of changing any one’s life is the one that is known to the person.
Reading the word of God simply means paying attention to it. Proverbs 4:20-22 tells us “My son, give attention to my words, incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh.”
Solomon admonished to keep the word of God in the midst of our heart. Why did he say so? Psalms 119:11 tells us “your words I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against you” Many people are there struggling with the hold of sin today, struggling from one form of addiction to the other; trying to break free from them. See, you don’t need to struggle any longer. The solution to your challenge is in reading the word of God. Also, in Nehemiah 8:3, the Bible says “Then he read from it in the open square that was in front of the water gate from morning until midday, before the men and women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the books of the law.” So, reading the word of God simply means paying attention to it. This is the beginning if we want the word of God to restructure our lives.
2. Through Meditation
Now, it is not enough to read the word of God. That is the starting point. One must graduate from reading the word of God to meditating on what has been read. It is in the place of meditation that the Holy Spirit interprets what has been read to you. You know, theologians have classified the word of God into what we know as “Logos and Rhema.” The Logos they say, is the entire word of God has documented and contained in the Bible. In other words, the logos is the written word of God. The Rhema on the other hand refers to the spoken word of God. For example, each time you read the Scriptures and the Holy Spirits speaks to your heart from it, that becomes rhema!
Remember the story of the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8:26-40, the Bible says he was in his chariot reading the book of prophet Isaiah, but didn’t understand what the prophet was saying; and the Spirit of God instructed Philip to go near his chariot and help him out. Now, what the eunuch was reading is the logos, but when Philip interpreted the Scripture to him by the Spirit of God, that interpretation becomes left the realm of logos to becoming rhema to the eunuch.
Listen to Podcast: Understanding How The Word of God Can Restructure A Life
This is the point I am trying to make here. When you read the word of God, and you meditate on it; that word you have read leaves the realm of logos, and becomes rhema to you, and this is where the transformation starts from. Meditation brings you to the point where the word of God becomes so real to you, and not some abstract thing that does not make sense. The word of God does make sense all the time, both physical sense and spiritual sense. Psalm 119:15-16 tells us “I will meditate on your precepts, and contemplate your ways. I will delight myself in your statutes; I will not forget your word.” When you meditate on God’s word, it brings you to a place where you don’t forget what you have read. Other Scriptures on the effects of meditation are: Joshua 1:8, Psalms 1:1-3, 2 Corinthians 2:18
3. Acting on The Word
After reading and meditating on the word of God, the next action is to act on the said word of God. It is believed that during meditation, certain instructions must have been released to you. Deuteronomy 29:29 tells us that “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” It is now your responsibility to rise and put into practice the instructions that has come. It is in the place of acting on the word of God that the blessings and the transformation lies. If the word of God tells me “don’t do this and that”, and I have not yet put it into practice, then I wouldn’t be able to tell or understand the reason why He said so, until I have tried it out.
In John 13:17, Jesus said “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” Acting on the word of God is our responsibility and not God’s. To truly enjoy the true transformation, each and every one of us have our parts to play. God has played His own part by giving us His word, our own part is to read the word, meditate upon what we have read and then act on them. In Matthew 7:24-25, Jesus said “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.”
To simply enjoy a restructured and transformed life, acting on the word of God is of the uttermost. James 1: 25 tells us “But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”
I believe you have been blessed!
[Centre for New Dimension Leadership]
