Bibles for America (BfA)

How to Receive Life from God’s Word

March 04 2019

How to Receive Life from God’s Word

In a previous post, we discussed how important it is to know that the essence of the Bible is the Spirit. Since John 6:63 tells us only the Spirit can give life, in order for us to get life from the Bible, we need to contact the Spirit in God’s Word. By receiving life, we’ll be spiritually nourished, and by that nourishment, we’ll grow in Christ. So being able to receive life from the Bible is crucial to our Christian life.

How do we receive life from the Bible?

Second Timothy 3:16 tells us:

“All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”

As we previously saw, this is a key verse that unveils the essence of the Bible to us. Let’s look again at note 2 on God-breathed in the New Testament Recovery Version, paying special attention to the second half:

“This indicates that the Scripture, the word of God, is the breathing out of God. God’s speaking is God’s breathing out. Hence, His word is Spirit (John 6:63), or breath. Thus, the Scripture is the embodiment of God as the Spirit. The Spirit is therefore the very essence, the substance, of the Scripture, just as phosphorus is the essential substance in matches. We must strike the Spirit of the Scripture with our spirit to catch the divine fire.”

So to receive life from reading the Bible, we must use our spirit to contact the Spirit in the Word. Like the note says, we need to “strike the Spirit of the Scripture with our spirit to catch the divine fire.” But what does this mean?

A helpful illustration

Let’s take a closer look at the analogy in the note and talk about how a match is ignited.

The head of a match is made with phosphorus. Heat generated by friction ignites this highly reactive chemical when a match is struck against a rough surface. If we strike a match against a sweater, grass, or a plastic bottle, nothing happens, because none of these are the right kind of surface. But when we strike a match against a gritty stone, it immediately ignites into flame.

So to start a fire, we need two things: the match itself, and the right kind of surface to strike it on.

Using our spirit to contact the Spirit in the Word

The illustration of a match striking the right surface helps us see how to catch the divine fire hidden in God’s Word. To do this, we also need two things: the Bible (the match), which is outside of us, and our human spirit (the right surface), which is inside us.

If we come to the Word of God and only exercise our mind to understand it, there will be no ignition, no fire. We’ll miss the Spirit in the Word. The Scriptures have to be struck against the right surface for ignition to occur. The right surface is not our analytical mind or our changeable emotions; it’s our human spirit.

But how exactly do we use our spirit to contact the Spirit in the Word?

Exercising our spirit by praying

Physically speaking, the best way to exercise our feet is to walk. Spiritually speaking, the best way to exercise our spirit is to pray. As we read the Bible with prayer, we use our spirit. When we use our spirit by praying, we “strike,” or contact, the Spirit in the written Word of God.

Even before we begin to read the Bible, we can pray a simple prayer like this: “Lord Jesus, I want to touch Your Spirit in Your Word. Lord, I don’t want to just read the black and white letters in the Bible; I want to receive You as life from Your Word.” Praying this way makes a big difference as we learn to exercise our spirit when we come to the Bible.

Then, as we read His Word, we can continue to pray by using the words in the Bible as our prayer. We can use these words to praise, thank, and worship the Lord.  

How to pray the Word of God

As an example of how to pray with the Word of God, let’s use John 10:11:

“I am the good Shepherd; the good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”

We can use the words of this verse to pray something like this: “Lord Jesus, I praise You that You are the good Shepherd. I’m so glad You are my Shepherd. Thank You, Lord, for making me one of Your sheep. Lord, thank You for laying down Your life for me!”

In other words, we can pray to the Lord using His words, the words in the Bible, as our prayer. As we pray with the Bible, we use our human spirit and contact the Spirit in God’s Word. This causes the Word to convey the Spirit who gives life to us. We experience what the Lord spoke of in John 6:63: “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” This life feeds our spirit, satisfies our inner hunger for God, and waters our thirsty soul. And just as a child grows physically by being nourished, we experience spiritual growth in our Christian life by being nourished by the Spirit in God’s Word.

Receiving life from God’s Word

Knowing that the Spirit is the essence of the Bible will revolutionize how we handle the Word of God. We’ll no longer view God’s Word simply as a book of teachings or an outward guide on how to live. We won’t come to God’s Word using only our mind. Instead, we’ll exercise our spirit in prayer to contact the Spirit in the Word. We’ll come to the Bible to receive life from the Word of God.

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What Is the Bible in Its Essence?

February 18 2019

What Is the Bible in Its Essence?

Do you know what the Bible is in its essence? The dictionary defines essence as the indispensable quality of something, the most important ingredient or crucial element of that thing. This is important because what something is determines how it’s handled. Thus, knowing the essence of the Bible determines how we handle the Bible.

We need to look below the surface

Consider an orange. When we look at an orange, we see its round shape, its orange color, and its smooth texture. All these observations are correct, but if we don’t know the essence of the orange, we might use it for something besides its intended purpose. We might play with it because it looks like a ball, or we might use it as decoration. But we won’t enjoy the essence of the orange!

However, once we know what the essence of an orange is—its nourishing fruit and juice—we treat it very differently. We no longer want to play with it or put it on a shelf. We want to eat it or juice it to enjoy its essence. That’s how we get the full benefit of the orange

We should consider the Bible in the same way. When we look at its “surface,” what do we see? We may see a compilation of interesting stories, a book of good morals and high ethics, a manual for religious practices, or a reference for doctrinal teaching. But when we handle the Bible as a storybook or a manual, we don’t get the full benefit from it.

Why not?

All these things are found in the Bible, but they aren’t what the Bible is. To get the benefit God intended from His Word, we need to see the essence, the crucial element, of the Bible.

What is the essence of the Bible?

The answer is found in 2 Timothy 3:16: “All Scripture is God-breathed.”

This verse doesn’t say that all Scripture is God-mandated, or even God-given. It says that all Scripture is God-breathed. The first part of note 2 on God-breathed in the New Testament Recovery Version elaborates:

“This indicates that the Scripture, the word of God, is the breathing out of God. God’s speaking is God’s breathing out. Hence, His word is Spirit (John 6:63), or breath. Thus, the Scripture is the embodiment of God as the Spirit. The Spirit is therefore the very essence, the substance, of the Scripture.

Breath and Spirit are the same word in the original languages of the Bible. By saying that all Scripture is God-breathed, the apostle Paul indicated that the essence of the Bible is the Spirit.

John 6:63 says,

“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”

It’s not the black and white letters of the Bible that give life, but the Spirit, who is the essence of those words. Once we know this, we’ll come to the Bible not simply to learn something new, but to touch the Spirit, the life-giving essence, in the Word.

The Bible gives us life

Just like with the orange, we can become distracted by the “surface” of the Bible. When this happens, we’re likely to mishandle the Bible and miss the life contained in the Word of God.

However, John 10:10 tell us God desires that we “have [His] life and may have it abundantly.” So the most important thing for us to get from the Bible—more important than any doctrines, teachings, or stories—is God’s life. God’s breath, His Spirit, gives life. Good teachings can’t give us life. Ethics can’t give us life. Only the Spirit can give us life, and this Spirit is the essence of the Bible.

If we see that the Spirit is the essence of the Bible, we’ll change our approach. We’ll come to the Spirit in God’s Word, and the Spirit will give us life. This life will refresh us, enliven us, feed us, and cause us to grow in Christ.

Read about how we can come to the Spirit in God’s Word in our posts, How to Get Life from Reading the Bible and Praying God’s Word: An Unexpected Experience.

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God Has a Will and a Purpose

February 04 2019

God Has a Will and a Purpose

We often think of the will of God in terms of His direction for our personal lives, things like what job we should take, where we should live, and who we should marry. But the Bible shows us that God has a will related to something He wants for Himself. The words in Revelation 4:11 bring this fact home to us:

“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power, for You have created all things, and because of Your will they were, and were created.”

This verse doesn’t simply tell us God created all things; it tells us why God created everything. He created all things because of His will. Surely His will here is for more than the direction of our individual lives.

[PLACE_BIBLE]

Note 2 in the New Testament Recovery Version on will says this:

“God is a God of purpose, having a will of His own pleasure. He created all things for His will that He might accomplish and fulfill His purpose. This book [Revelation], which unveils God’s universal administration, shows us the purpose of God. Hence, in the twenty-four elders’ praise to God concerning His creation, His creation is related to His will.

Cross-reference “d” on will directs us to Ephesians 1:11, which says,

“In whom also we were designated as an inheritance, having been predestinated according to the purpose of the One who works all things according to the counsel of His will.”

God has a purpose He wants to fulfill. So He not only created all things for His will but also works all things according to the counsel of His will. He doesn’t do things aimlessly or without intention. Everything He does is according to the counsel of His will. Even God’s predestinating of us is according to His purpose.

From these two verses alone we can see that God has something in His heart He wants to accomplish for Himself, and that it includes us. What is that purpose? What is God’s will?

To learn more about God’s will, read our post What Does God Want?

Order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version study Bible here to explore more cross-references and notes on God’s will.

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