Every time I start writing up a teaching from the scripture to share, I receive so many new revelations that halfway through my intended topic, I feel like I need to start over and take a different angle so that I can include the seven new points that came to mind. As I wrote this, for example, the Lord made me laugh with a vision of bread dough rising out of control, multiplying tenfold and pushing me out of the room. He is right as usual! That is EXACTLY what I am experiencing!
God’s Word is perfect and flawless. Just the principle of “the more you learn the more there is to know” lines up immaculately with how God set up His kingdom which is: plant a seed, it grows and then you will reap a harvest tenfold. Between seed and harvest there is time and dedication necessary—just like in receiving the Word of God. Here is what I mean:
You start reading the Word and you start planting the seed into your heart. When we first start reading the Bible, it does not always feel like much of a benefit. In fact it can feel laborious. It did for me—that’s a whole lot of words in a really, REALLY thick book. For someone who despised reading so much that in high school, I took the time to paste cliff notes in the book Lord of the Flies in order to pass the test in my literature class, reading the Bible felt a lot like looking out over 10 acres if rocky property that I needed to rake up and sew seed into with nothing but a rake. Nevertheless, I started reading it because of the testimonies that I had heard from other Christians who fell in love with the Lord and I wanted to know Him better. That Bible, as far as I knew, was the only way to do that.
A few months later, you finish the first read through of the whole Bible cover to cover and looking back over all those pages, you feel a sense of accomplishment. All 10 acres are sewed and you feel great for what you have just completed. Now you can say that you are a Christian who HAS read the Bible! Congratulations! For me, I felt a sense of pride and looking back, that feeling of pride was the first indication that I had A LOT more to learn.
I noticed that my favorite Christian people were pulling a lot of amazing information from the Bible that I did not even remember reading… This is the point where you feel pride begin to shrink as you realize that you cannot just plant your field and walk away lest it will never ever grow. You have to water it. When you realize that you just read the whole Bible like a good Christian and yet everyone else seems to be pulling new revelation from it that never even crossed your mind, you’ll get back into it and study it. This is where revelations begin to happen. (Here we go with the revelations building on themselves—hold on tight!)
Jesus referred to the Word as living water. Interesting that it is this “living water” that nourishes the seeds which you have planted into your heart through your first read-through of the Bible. The more you read, the better they grow and the more understanding that you will reap. It is also very interesting that Jesus is referred to as the Rock in many scripture passages. “Why is it interesting and what does that have to do with anything?” you ask— Great question! Because in the Old Testament, God instructed Moses to bring forth water from a rock in the wilderness to sustain the lost Israelites in the desert. The same that is called “living water” is the Word of God and that is also Jesus (Look in John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”). From the Rock (Jesus) comes the living water (the Word) to water the field (your heart) and bring forth fruit (understanding). A great example of how everything is pristinely coordinated in God’s Word. See? Jesus really is the answer. ☺
And then, of course, there is the harvest—you have watered much and your field has been your primary focus for a season and now your seeds have grown into fruitful plants, each of which are bearing hundreds of seeds for future fields. As you study the Word, you will be given new revelation that ties in to the revelations that you have been given previously. And yes, I promise you that you it will continue to blow your mind. Just like planting one seed to get hundreds for re-sewing would get a poverty stricken farmer great joy and motivation, so does your growing understanding generate a hunger to learn more, plant more and reap more.
As you read and understand, you change. That is the intention and there is no other book that literally changes you from the inside to the outside. “The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12. It will cut your spirit away from your carnal mind and it will free you from the bondage of this world. Bondage includes poverty, sickness, depression, anxiety, hopelessness, grief—all things in the world that do not bring true fulfillment to you is bondage. It is what satan uses to keep you weak.
The gospel in particular addresses every point of your life that is not fulfilling. It is God’s will that you are healthy, prosperous and living an abundant, blessed life. He reaches out to us in whatever way we will listen because the answer is right there at your fingertips to open the door for Him to show you how much He loves you. He sent doves and numbers to me to get my attention. I wonder what He is sending to you that you just have not noticed yet?
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