The Purpose Driven Life, Chapter Twenty Four
Transformed By Truth
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Spiritual truth is the process of replacing lies with truth. The Spirit of God uses the Word of God to make us like the Son of God. To become like Jesus, we must fill our lives with His Word.
God's Word generates life, creates faith, produces change, frightens the Devil, causes miracles, heals hurts, builds character, transforms circumstances, imparts joy, overcomes adversity, defeats temptation, infuses hope, releases power, cleanses our minds, brings things into being and guarantees our futre forever.
To be a healthy disciple of Jesus, feeding on God's Word must be your first priority. Jesus called it "abiding". In day to day living, abiding in God's Word includes three activities:
I MUST ACCEPT ITS AUTHORITY
The Bible must become the authoritative standard for my life: the compass I rely on for my direction, the counsel I listen to for making wise decisions, and the benchmark I use for evaluating everything. The Bible must always have the first and last word in my life.
I must decide that regardless of culture, tradition, reason or emotion, I choose the Bible as my final authority. I must determine to first ask "What does the Bible say?" when making decisions. I must resolve that when God says to do something, I will trust God's Word and do it whether or not it makes sense to me or I feel like doing it.
I MUST ASSIMILATE ITS TRUTH
It is not enough just to believe the Bible; I must fill my mind with it so that the Holy Spirit can transform me with the truth. There are five ways to do this: you can receive it, read it, research it, remember it and reflect on it.
First, you receive God's Word when you listen and accept it with an open, receptive attitude. Any time you feel you are not learning anything from a sermon or a Bible teacher, you should check your attitude, especially for pride, because God can speak through even the most boring teacher when you are humble and receptive.
Second, for most of the 2000 year history of the church, only priests got to personally read the Bible, but now billions of us have access to it. If you will read the Bible just fifteen minutes a day, you will read completely through it once a year. Daily Bible reading will kee you in range of God's voice.
Third, researching, or studying, the Bible is another practical way to abide in the Word. The difference between reading and studying the Bible involves two additional activities: asking questions of the text and writing down your insights.
The fourth way to abide in God's Word is by remembering it. Your capacity to remember is a God-given gift. If God's Word is important, you will take the time to remember it.
The fifth way to abide in God's Word is to reflect on it, which the Bible calls meditation. If you know how to worry, you already know how to meditate. Worry is focused thinking on something negative. Meditation is doing the same thing, only focusing on God's Word instead of your problem.
I MUST APPLY ITS PRINCIPLES
Receiving, reading, researching, remembering and reflecting on the Word are all useless if we fail to put them into practice. We fool ourselves when we assume that just because we have heard or read or studied a truth, we have internalized it. Without implementation, all of our Bible studies are worthless. The best way to become a "doer of the Word" is to always write out an action step as a result of your reading or studying or reflecting on God's Word. Develop the habit of writing down exactly what you intend to do. This action step should be personal (involving you), practical (something you can do), and provable (with a deadline to do it).
God's Word generates life, creates faith, produces change, frightens the Devil, causes miracles, heals hurts, builds character, transforms circumstances, imparts joy, overcomes adversity, defeats temptation, infuses hope, releases power, cleanses our minds, brings things into being and guarantees our futre forever.
To be a healthy disciple of Jesus, feeding on God's Word must be your first priority. Jesus called it "abiding". In day to day living, abiding in God's Word includes three activities:
I MUST ACCEPT ITS AUTHORITY
The Bible must become the authoritative standard for my life: the compass I rely on for my direction, the counsel I listen to for making wise decisions, and the benchmark I use for evaluating everything. The Bible must always have the first and last word in my life.
I must decide that regardless of culture, tradition, reason or emotion, I choose the Bible as my final authority. I must determine to first ask "What does the Bible say?" when making decisions. I must resolve that when God says to do something, I will trust God's Word and do it whether or not it makes sense to me or I feel like doing it.
I MUST ASSIMILATE ITS TRUTH
It is not enough just to believe the Bible; I must fill my mind with it so that the Holy Spirit can transform me with the truth. There are five ways to do this: you can receive it, read it, research it, remember it and reflect on it.
First, you receive God's Word when you listen and accept it with an open, receptive attitude. Any time you feel you are not learning anything from a sermon or a Bible teacher, you should check your attitude, especially for pride, because God can speak through even the most boring teacher when you are humble and receptive.
Second, for most of the 2000 year history of the church, only priests got to personally read the Bible, but now billions of us have access to it. If you will read the Bible just fifteen minutes a day, you will read completely through it once a year. Daily Bible reading will kee you in range of God's voice.
Third, researching, or studying, the Bible is another practical way to abide in the Word. The difference between reading and studying the Bible involves two additional activities: asking questions of the text and writing down your insights.
The fourth way to abide in God's Word is by remembering it. Your capacity to remember is a God-given gift. If God's Word is important, you will take the time to remember it.
The fifth way to abide in God's Word is to reflect on it, which the Bible calls meditation. If you know how to worry, you already know how to meditate. Worry is focused thinking on something negative. Meditation is doing the same thing, only focusing on God's Word instead of your problem.
I MUST APPLY ITS PRINCIPLES
Receiving, reading, researching, remembering and reflecting on the Word are all useless if we fail to put them into practice. We fool ourselves when we assume that just because we have heard or read or studied a truth, we have internalized it. Without implementation, all of our Bible studies are worthless. The best way to become a "doer of the Word" is to always write out an action step as a result of your reading or studying or reflecting on God's Word. Develop the habit of writing down exactly what you intend to do. This action step should be personal (involving you), practical (something you can do), and provable (with a deadline to do it).
