A More Beneficial Use of the Word of God

A healer writes words from the Bible on a small piece of paper. Then he burns this piece of paper. He pulverizes the ash. He mixes the pulverized ash with water in a glass. Then he gives the glass to his patient. The patient drinks the water mixed with pulverized ash. The healer tells his patient that he would get cured from his sickness.

Here is another instance. A faith healer holds the Bible over the body of his patient lying on a bed. He prays. Then he opens the Bible. A medicinal capsule is found on the fold where he opens the Bible. He gives the capsule to his patient to drink. The patient drinks it and almost instantaneously she is cured of her sickness.

These are just two instances of using the Word of God in a rather strange way. In the first instance I was the patient. I had complained of skin eruptions. I was not cured by drinking the water mixed with ash from a paper with words written from the Bible. In the second instance my wife was the patient. She had an inflammation in her stomach and she had gone to many conventional doctors but she was not cured. Finally she was cured almost instantaneously by the faith healer who gave her a capsule from the fold of the Bible.

Present Uses of the Bible

The Bible can be used in many ways. Here are some of the ways people use the Bible.

1. We read it and learn some lessons from it. We consider it like any other book. The Bible contains stories, and these stories can entertain us and give us lessons for living. The Bible contains moral exhortations and following these exhortations make us live morally right in the eyes of human beings. A reverential way of doing this is called spiritual reading.

2. Some people use the Bible to guide them in their daily activities, even in minor ones. They have a decision to make. It may be a very minor decision, like drinking water or not. They open the Bible and read the first verse their eyes alight on. Then they interpret the verse whether it is alright for them to make the decision or not. This was called sortes biblicae (biblical lots) in the Middle Ages. Some people still use the Bible in this way today.

3. Other people use the Bible to defend their doctrines against those who criticize these doctrines. This is called apology. In this way they prove that their doctrines are the right ones and their church is the true church.

4. Still others use the words in the Bible to attack the doctrines of other churches and the practices of people. Almost every night in the Philippines beginning at 12 midnight there is a radio program called The Old Path lasting for an hour. This radio program primarily attacks the doctrines and practices of churches. This is the way the Bible is used in debates.

5. Theologians use the Bible in order to advance their knowledge of theology.

6. Speakers use the Bible to spice their talks and make their ideas more credible.

7. The Bible is used in worship and the administration of the sacraments.

A More Beneficial Way of Using the Word of God

But there is a way of using the Bible that is more beneficial to us. Here is the process.

We read it through from the start to the end. But instead of looking for the stories or for the moral lessons or theological truths we look for descriptions of God. Upon coming on a description of God we pause and talk with God. Let me give an example.

We begin reading the Bible with Genesis 1. The first verse says, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” God is described here as creator of the heaven and earth. Then we pause to pray with words like ‘God, you created the heaven and the earth and that includes me. Thank you for creating me.’

Here is another example. In Isaiah 24:21 we read “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones.” God is described here as a punisher of armies. We pause and pray with words like ‘God, you punish the violent people on earth. Spare us from your punishment.’

What is the benefit we get from this way of reading the Bible? The main benefit is that we come to know more of God. And knowing him we come to love him more and being united with him we become like him. We become godly. We become divine. Then we can do what God can do because we will have his knowledge, goodness and power.

I used this way of reading the Bible, but instead of beginning in Genesis, I began with Matthew. After I finished the New Testament I went to Genesis. When I reached the Psalms a definite transformation in my life occurred. You can have this transformation too.

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Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

Vigorous, Urgent, Life-Changing Preaching

The ministry of prayer leads us to the written Word of God. Both prayer and the written Word of God are directed to vigorous, urgent, life-changing preaching. These three, prayer, the written Word of God or the Bible, and preaching, are the chief means in our spiritual development. We now discuss what vigorous, urgent, life-changing preaching is.

Meaning of Vigorous Preaching

First of all, the preaching that we need for our spiritual development is one that is vigorous. We mean by this that this preaching is full of energy because the preacher has put his whole mind and soul to it. It has a force. It has the anointing of the Spirit of God.

This does not mean that the preacher has to shout or has to have a big, resonating voice. It does not mean that he displays all kinds of gestures. He may speak quietly and slowly and even perhaps read from a prepared piece, but we can notice and feel that his words have power. From where does this power or energy come?

It comes from a deep conviction that he has been appointed by God to declare his works. It comes from a long time of prayer and study over the Bible. Study and prayer: these go together. If he merely studies the Word of God he may be a Bible scholar, an exegete, a Bible interpreter, but not a vigorous preacher. He prays as he studies the Word of God. He converses with God over his written Word.

This kind of preaching is in contrast to what we hear today in our pulpits. Preachers nowadays usually give an explanation of a passage of scripture or an event. They may engage in expository preaching which is a word by word explanation of a Bible passage. But it is all explanation. It is not vigorous preaching of the wonderful works of God. Sometimes the feeling suggested is that the preacher is detached from his explanation. It is as if he wants to say, "This is my explanation of this passage and this is how I think you should apply it. Now take it or leave it."

What Is Urgent Preaching?

Secondly, the preaching that we need today is one that is urgent. The action needed is something that cannot be postponed. It will not wait for tomorrow or the following week. It is an action that is going to be done now, not later, here, not yonder.

The matter is so important that it is to be addressed to now. It requires immediate action. And the listeners sense this urgency.

Preaching nowadays in general does not have this sense of urgency. Because it is an explanation of a passage or of a principle or method to do to improve one's life, the action called for is one that can wait until an opportunity presents itself where the principle or method can be applied. This is later.

In contrast, genuine preaching is urgent. Do it now, or you will miss the whole show.

How Preaching Is Life-Changing

Thirdly, the preaching that we need today is one that is life-changing. It is not just mind-changing, a change of opinion, or a change of character among the listeners. It changes the life of the listeners by just their listening. They do not have to go out of the church or auditorium in order to implement something that the preacher told them to do. By the very fact that they are listening to this sermon, their lives are changed, not just for the better, but changed from one level of life to another, from the level of human life to the level of divine life, or from one degree of divine life to another.

And how is this done? By the preacher proclaiming the wonderful works of God among the listeners.

He does not provide the listeners with a list of things to do to improve their lives. Instead he tells them what God has done to their lives. And when they listen and if the Spirit so moves them, they believe in what the preacher says, then their lives are changed. The wonderful works of God are made actual in their lives there and then. If the preacher tells them that God saved them in Christ by his cross and resurrection and they believe, there and then this salvation becomes theirs, without their coming forward to profess publicly that they receive Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior.

Today's preaching usually does not instantly change the lives of the listeners. It expects that the listeners leave the church first and do what the preacher tells them in his sermon to do. For example, after listening to a sermon on God's commandment, parents leave the church to love their children. Children leave to obey their parents at home.

Such a sermon is not preaching. It is an advice on how parents are to love their children and how children are to love their parents. It is not genuine preaching.

A Sample of a Vigorous, Urgent, Life-Changing Preaching

If you say that you cannot find this kind of preaching in your churches, go to the Internet. There is a lot of vigorous, urgent, life-changing sermons in the Internet. Here is a good example from the prince of preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, although it is read by a contemporary speaker, not Spurgeon himself, because his voice was not recorded during the time when he gave his sermons. This particular sermon is entitled "The Best of Masters." Click the word "Play" after the title "The Best of Masters". Here is the URL of that sample http://tinyurl.com/thebestofmasters. Click that URL to listen to the sermon.

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Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

How the Spirit Leads Us to Listen to Effective Preaching

The reason why the Spirit of God leads us to a deeper experience of prayer, to a fresher understanding and appreciation of his written Word and to exposure to effective preaching is that he wants to develop the real Christ in us. This is spiritual development at its best. It is not we developing ourselves. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. We are here only describing how he does this from what we have learned from God's Word and what we have experienced so that we can flow, as it were, with his force, just as a sailboat sails with the force of the wind if the driver of the sailboat knows how to position the sails.

The Spirit of God leads us to an attentive and obedient listening to vigorous, urgent, life-changing preaching. This is effective preaching. It is not a preaching which tells us what to do, as most preaching in churches does today. It is a preaching which by itself changes the lives of the listeners.

The Pattern of Our Usual Preaching Today

If you listen to the ordinary, usual preaching today in churches, Catholic or non-Catholic, Protestant or non-Protestant, Evangelical, Fundamentalist or name what have you, you would notice the following pattern. The preacher would start from a story, anecdote, or a passage from the bible or an introductory statement about his preaching. Then he would expound a principle or two. Finally he would give an application which he expects his hearers would put to good use in their lives.

Depending on the talent of the preacher he can make his sermon as entertaining as possible, spraying it over with insights and even jokes. The people stare at the preacher if he is really entertaining, then leave the church afterwards refreshed and blest, as they say. They are then encouraged to return the next week and give again their tithes or love offerings.

If the preacher is not that entertaining, then the listeners may be led to an early nap.

But this pattern is still there: introduction, expounding of a truth or principle, application, exhortation to do the application.

In this kind of preaching if the listeners do not change, do not improve, do not grow in their spiritual life, it is their fault. This is because they are already shown by the preacher how they are to profit from God's Word or truth but they fail to apply what the preacher told them.

The Kind of Preaching the Spirit Gives

This is not the kind of preaching that the Spirit of God gives his people. The preaching that the Spirit of God gives is an effective preaching. By the very preaching itself people are changed. They do not have to go out of the church to apply what the preacher said. Right there in their seats or as they stand if they are not seated, they are changed. This is called vigorous, urgent, life-changing preaching.

And this is the kind of preaching that we lack in our churches. This is the kind of preaching that the Spirit gives us. And this is the kind of preaching that the Spirit of God leads us to listen to. How does he do this?

The Spirit's Way in Giving Us His Preacher

The simple answer is that he, the Spirit of God, provides the preacher who will preach the way to do so. He first leads him to a deeper experience of prayer. We already discussed how he does that. Then the Spirit leads him to the written Word of God. We also discussed that already. Then the next is he emboldens this preacher to preach the fruit of his prayer and of his study of the Word.

To be able to have a deeper experience of prayer the preacher is led to be convinced by the Spirit of his inability to preach well. If he refuses this conviction by the Spirit he cannot give to us the kind of preaching that the Spirit wants us to listen to.

And this is the sad experience we have in the churches. Most of our preachers, if not all of them, are convinced of the opposite: that they can preach well. Their years of training in the seminary either as future pastors or future priests have sunk into their consciousness giving them the confidence that they can preach. If they persist in this conviction, that because of their training and experience, they are able to preach well, the Spirit of God cannot use them to give to the people his kind of preaching, the vigorous, urgent, life-changing preaching.

The reason why they cannot preach effective preaching is because they do not have a deeper experience of prayer. And they cannot have a deeper experience of prayer if they think they are able to preach well. They can only have a deeper experience of prayer if like Isaiah they cry, "Woe is me for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips."

Then to be really led to the written Word of God, a person needs to be ignorant or confused in his understanding of this Word. Unfortunately most or almost all of our preachers, whether priests, bishops or pastors, think that they are not ignorant and they are not confused in their understanding of the Word of God. They think they really know it well. Their years of training in the seminary, pouring over the Bible, studying its texts and the different interpretations of Biblical scholars and their own reflections have led them to believe that they are able to understand God's written Word.

When these preachers are convinced that they can understand God's written Word, either because they studied it or because God enlightened them on it, the Spirit cannot use them to do effective preaching. They will only at best be able to preach principles and application with appropriate illustrations and insights that tickle the ears and minds of their hearers but such preaching cannot transform the lives of those hearers.

So, if we ask again how the Spirit lead us to listen to vigorous, urgent, life-changing preaching, the answer is that he does this by providing us with a preacher who is thoroughly convinced of his inability and unworthiness to preach God's Word and also thoroughly convinced of his ignorance and confusion about this written Word. And from time to time he does provide us with these preachers, like Peter the disciple of Jesus, Paul the Pharisee, Peter Chrysologus of Ravenna, Martin Luther, George Whitefield, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Charles Finney, etc. The names are too many to list.

Effective preaching is one that changes the lives of the listeners by their mere listening. Because the Spirit himself comes with power to change them.

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Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

How the Spirit Leads Us to the Written Word

After the Spirit of God has led us to a deeper experience of prayer, he leads us to his written word. He does this because he is the one in charge of our spiritual development. He develops us spiritually so that he can form the real Christ in us. After he leads us to a personal, profound understanding of his written word he leads us to an attentive and obedient listening to vigorous, urgent, life-changing preaching.

How the Spirit leads us to a personal, profound understanding of his written word is the topic of this article.

There are two ways the Spirit uses to lead us to his written word. The first is through our experience of ignorance. The second is through our experience of confusion.

The human mind is such that either it becomes ignorant or it becomes confused, unless it knows the real truth.

The Way of Ignorance

We are born with the innate tendency and ability to learn. As children we learned to talk and asked our parents, brothers, sisters, relatives and friends a multitude of things: the name of the animals around us, the parts of our body, why certain things behaved this way and not that way, etc.

Then in a few years we went to formal schooling. Some of us might have been bored with school life or our parents could not afford to make us continue in school and so we dropped. Or there might have been other factors that made us quit school, like an accident or a calamity in the area where we lived.

When we stopped schooling, we either learned on our own or we altogether stopped learning what we were supposed to learn in school. Most of us chose the second alternative: we just stopped learning. We dropped into ignorance. As we grew we came to be ignorant of more and more things that we were supposed to know.

But sooner or later we come to realize that we need to continue our learning. So, we either go back to school or learn things on our own. We want to get out of our ignorance. Sometime during this attempt to continue learning, we may come upon the written word of God. It may have been put purposely by the Gideons in the hotel, or we may be given a tract by a passerby, which tract contains a portion of God's written word. Unknown to us it was the Spirit who used our desire to know more because of our ignorance who led us into his written word, either in the hotel or by the passerby who gave out tracts.

The Way of Confusion

On the other hand we might have continued schooling and we graduated in college, knowing so much of so many things, so we thought. And we wanted to learn some more, perhaps now about the job we have been given. And we kept on learning. But as this process continued most of us were bound to get confused. Sometimes the conflict was between what we learned in school and what we learned in our actual job. In the school we were taught to be honest. In our actual job this may be difficult to follow, especially when we are surrounded by dishonest people. In the school we were taught not to take shortcuts but to follow the procedure religiously, as in planting grains. But in the actual field, we might find that people are not careful about the seeds of the grains they plant. So, we just plant of the seeds from the previous harvest season.

We can multiply examples of conflicts between learnings in school and learnings in actual life.

These experiences drive us to confusion. Which is which? What we learned in school or what we learned in actual life?

We seek to get out of the confusion. Some people escape confusion by simply choosing what is expedient. Everybody is doing it, so let us do it also - is the way out of the majority.

But there are a few, perhaps too few who really want to resolve the issue honestly. For this they need a norm or basis of learning that is dependable, that is not based on mere opinions of human beings. This is the time when the Spirit comes and reminds them of what they learned in church, in Sunday schools, in their catechism or religion classes. And they are driven to the written word as the pillar and mainstay of truth.

Then they study the written word now more personally and more profoundly. Where before they just memorized certain verses to win a contest or to pass an exam, now they study the written word of God because they have a personal problem to resolve. Where before they just had a passing acquaintance with the Bible, now they turn to
it as the sure way to guide them out of their confusion and ignorance.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

The First Stage of Spiritual Development

Like in other living organisms spiritual development or the development of spirits in us has a first stage, a beginning. We now go to the first stage in the process of spiritual development.

How Life Begins After Creation

After creation the life of complex molecular organisms begins as a seed. While simple molecular organisms such as the amoeba multiply by mere mitosis or division of cells, complex molecular organisms such as big plants, animals and human beings multiply by the process of seed breeding or fertilization of egg cells.

Plants produce seeds which when planted germinate into seedlings, reproducing their parent plants. Female animals have eggs or ova which when fertilized by the seed or sperm of male animals become zygotes, developing into embryos, then into fetuses to be born later as young animals. A similar process takes place with human beings. The egg cell of a woman is fertilized by the seed or sperm cell of a man. This fertilized egg cell becomes a zygote, developing into an embryo, then a fetus, and is born as a baby human being.

A Similar Process in Beginning the Life of the Spirit

Surprisingly a similar process takes place among spirits in us. Although we cannot observe this process by our eyes because spirits by nature are invisible, we can still deduce that this is the process because of the effects which we can perceive by our minds and from our own experience.

Furthermore we have a book which describes this process and this book is credible and has influenced for good the lives of countless people. This is the Christian Bible. Through this book we can learn about the first stage of spiritual development.

We know that the process of the beginning of the spirit is similar to that of the human being because the spirit begins also, so to speak, as a spiritual egg and is fertilized by a spiritual sperm.

The Spiritual Egg or Ovum

The spiritual egg in us is the image of God. God as we know is a spirit. When he created us he created us in his image (Genesis 1:26-27). He put his egg, as it were, in us.

The image of a thing is a copy of that thing. The difference between the thing and its image or copy is that the thing is real but the image is only a figure or picture of it. Let us clarify by reference to a man's image.

A man produces a picture of himself through a camera, traditional or digital. He develops and prints this picture or image of himself. That image looks like himself but he is different from that image. He is a living being while his image is only a picture. He breathes, walks, talks, eats and works. His image cannot breathe, walk, talk, eat or work. It is lifeless.

In a similar way that is what happened when we say that God created the human being in his image. A picture of himself, of God, was put in us. But it is only a picture, an image. Like the picture of man it is lifeless. God moves, talks, but his image is lifeless.

The human egg in the womb of a woman is useless unless it is fertilized. In fact if it is already in her womb and is not fertilized within a set period of days, it is flushed out by the body as a waste. This is part of the woman's menstrual cycle.

The image of God in us is like the human egg. Unless fertilized within the lifetime of a human person, it becomes useless and the human person has not attained his/her full potential, becoming a spirit like God.

This image of God in us is the egg of the spirit in us. This is where the first stage of spiritual development occurs. This egg needs to be fertilized by a sperm or seed of the spirit. This seed is the Word of God (Luke 8:11).

The Action of the Spiritual Seed or Sperm

The Word of God is in the Bible but the Word of God there needs to be activated or brought to life by an announcer. He/she takes the Word of God, announces this in the hearing of the human person and this Word of God penetrates the image of God within that person (Hebrews 4:12). When a person believes in the Word of God this image of God which is his egg is fertilized and spiritual development or the development of the spirit begins.

This is the first stage in spiritual development, the fertilization of the egg or image of God in us by the Word of God as proclaimed by an announcer. Those of us who have gone through the experience of conversion know that this is what happened to us. And we confirm that this is so.

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Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

A Primer on Spiritual Development (Part 4)

Yesterday we learned why most people think that human beings are composed only of body and soul.

Today we continue our primer on spiritual development. Our topic is on the meaning of “development” as applied to spiritual development.

10. You have already explained something about the spirit. This topic is about the development of the spirit. What do you mean by “development” in the phrase “spiritual development”?

The root meaning of development is uncovering. Notice that the word has the letters “velo”, which sounds like “veil”. “To de-velo” or “de-velop,” therefore, means “to take away the velo, the veil, to uncover, to unwrap.”

Development, then, means the result or act or state whereby uncovering is done.

When this uncovering is done we discover the real spirit. Then the spirit can grow, can uncover its potentialities. It can fly. It can fill the world.

11. Your meaning of development is interesting. It reminds us of planting seed in the ground and covering it with soil. The development of this seed involves the gradual growth of the seed upward taking away the soil which covers it. Does something similar happens in spiritual development?

Exactly. In spiritual development the seed of the spirit is planted in us. Then this seed grows uncovering that which covers it, our human ideas, actions and our environment. As this spirit grows its effects become more and more visible (since we cannot see the spirit itself, only its effects, just as we cannot see air or wind itself, only its effects).

12. Now, it is getting more interesting. Do you mean to say that the spirit has a seed just as a plant or animal or a human being has a seed?

Yes, the spirit has a seed, just like the plants, animals, and human beings.

13. And what is this seed? Where can we get it?

This seed is the word of God. And we get this seed from the Scriptures, because these contain the word of God.

In Luke 8:11 Jesus said, “The seed is the word of God.”

Tomorrow we will explain more about this seed of the spirit and the relevance of spiritual development in our life.

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Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.