Jesus said, “My words are spirit and they are life” (John 6:63). Think about that for a minute.
The words of Jesus were unlike any other words ever spoken. When the Bible says that “man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD” (Deuteronomy 8:3), it likens the Word of God to spirit food. It feeds our spiritual man just like natural food feeds our bodies. This is how we become partakers of the divine nature. This is how we become “the Word made flesh” in our world (John 1:14).
The Apostle James says “receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21). It’s amazing, isn’t it? The Word not only rearranges our thinking to align with ultimate reality, but it also gives us access to an alternate state of being!
Engraft scripture into your life, so that it becomes a living and active extension of who you are, through memorizing and delighting in God’s Word. You can engraft passages on “peace” and experience “peace” in the midst of chaos. Engraft words on “faith” and fight off despair. Focus on “joy” or “boldness” and by doing so you become a partaker of the divine nature contained in those very words! By letting the Word of God get engrafted into your soul, or entwined into your way of thinking, you begin to interact with the very mind of Christ.
The more you practice this process, the more your renewed mind becomes open to “words of knowledge,” “words of wisdom,” “discerning of spirits” or any number of gifts of the Spirit! Life in the Spirit is always supernatural but not always spectacular. We all love the stories of healings, miracles, and dramatic public displays of God’s grace. Yet, there is another aspect of supernatural living. Continuous peace and joy will fill your soul as you experience divine appointments and ideas that prosper you, bless others and bring heaven to earth. Focus on internal transformation and you’ll see results in every area of your life, both subtle and, at times, spectacular.
Here’s a quick technique that works for me. Try these steps:
- Highlight or circle important words. A helpful tool that I often suggest to my students and that I still employ myself after 20 years of experimentation, is to go through and highlight or circle key phrases in Ephesians, Colossians, and Philippians. Circle every time the apostle Paul says, “In Him,” “In whom” and “in Christ.” THEN personalize and breathe into your very soul the engrafted, overcoming spiritual power of the word of God. EVERYTHING you need is available “in Christ” because of what He did for you. You are not the hero in this story—He is! Learn to receive from Him and He will make you the hero in your own story.
- Personalize Key Portions of the Bible. Personalize the part of the Bible that you most need in your life. If you are, for instance, experiencing irritation, heartache, grief and patterns that are difficult to overcome, personalize and memorize just one or two verses. For instance, John 15 says, “If you abide in me and MY WORDS abide in you, ask what you will and it will be done.”
Want to know how to personalize scripture for yourself? Here is what I prayed today!
“Lord I thank you that you are in me and I am in you! I want your words to live and speak and transform my mind, my emotions, my imagination. I believe you are penetrating every layer of my life at a conscious and unconscious level. My conscience is keen to hear you—my path is enlightened by Your Word. My body and every cell of my being is quickened by your indwelling Spirit! You reveal to me what I need to know and you show me things to come!
“Your words are my meditation, therefore I believe you are shaping my desires and lining me up 100% with your will and plan for my life. If in any thing I am missing your will, I thank you for correction and direction as you reveal your truth and more excellent way. Your desires are shaping my desires and your thoughts are shaping my thoughts therefore I proclaim now that whatever I ask is going to be done because Your words abide strongly in me.” (After praying this I ask for whatever I need.)
Question: Why not try this with me? Read what I wrote and repeat it with 100% agreement and energy and watch what happens! Comment below and tell me about it.
As One!
Lance
Thank you Lance! Once again this is just what I needed to start my day! May I meditate on the Bread of Life! May God direct and correct me as I go about my transformation into His very will for my life…and may I radiate the truth and love He has for all of us!
I really like this confession. I put together confessions for myself and continuously try to shorten, condense, and summarize it in a way that incorporates all that I want to include without it being 5 or 6 typed pages long! But no matter how hard I try, I don’t seem to be able to do it . There is so much in the bible that we need in our life it is hard to focus on just one thing.
I love to listen to you, I love to read you!
Wonderful. I agree. I am at the orthopedic dr with fractured wrist. Thanks Pat
True words, Lance.
A diet of greasy, high-fat foods will drag down our physical well being. If we permit ourselves to indulge in the negative blather that spouts from the TV or internet, we may experience a heaviness of spirit. We can’t consume the words of the world, and then have an appetite for the Word of God.
We can train ourselves to develop a distaste for what what pains our spirit. Turn it off! Open the Bible!
Read it ALOUD. It’s important to hear yourself speaking the Word.
There’s a big difference between silent reading and verbal proclamation. The enemy runs from His spoken Word.
Thank you Lance!! I have a totally different view of how I am to use the Word of God since I’ve read your e-mail! Even though I’ve heard time and time again that memorizing Scripture is so important, although the way you presented it really makes more sense! You’ve made it simple! You’ve made it plain! You’ve encouraged me to take the Word of God and make it mine! As I read your prayer out loud, I sensed a freedom to believe in a deeper way that God wants me to link up with Him and dialog with Him through the Word! I’ve done all this before but you have helped God to revive what has been stolen from me and placed a deeper meaning to memorization. I especially loved the part of the prayer about God correcting what needs to be corrected. I’ve been in a process of correcting an area in my character that I knew was there but just didn’t know how to correct it. Even before I prayed your prayer, God has been allowing me to be humbled in the area where I have been wrong. Your prayer has just reinforced what God has been speaking already. It’s amazing that when God starts correcting an area in a person’s life that He says it over and over and over through people like you and through circumstances, until it has actually made a change and then He starts correcting another area! I find that sometimes He has to work on one area in layers and so He corrects again and again exposing that area and gently disciplining me because He loves me! I so desire to abide in Him more and more! I love His Word and I love Him! Thanks Lance for your prayer and for your free book download, “Convergence Code.” I really enjoyed reading it! I’ve shared with my husband and my sister especially the part about how we have been abusing the little child inside of us. Before I read your e-mail, I had been talking with God about a statement that I made in front of a group of people. I was questioning why I had said it. Your book made it plain that I was abusing that little child inside of me! It’s not enough that I get beaten up by others then to go on beating myself up! How crazy is that! I know the accuser loves for me to keep doing it! It hurts the Lord when I do that because He is not an abusive Father! He wants me to be like Jesus His Son! That’s why He sent Jesus to change my image of and not focus on my sins, but to focus on the ONE WHO has changed my identity by dying for my on the cross! HALLELUJAH!!! He is a GOOD GOD! And I’m loved BY HIM!! He is my IDENTITY!! I am in the process of taking that EDUCATIONAL MOUNTAIN in my city this fall!!
Amen! Julia, thanks for sharing! I’m glad you found this inspiring and uplifting. Keep up the good work!
I personalize Scripture all the time in my own prayer time and at Intercessors. Two of my favorites are Psalm 91 and Psalm 23. I use other Scripture also. As I pray, I try to follow Holy Spirit’s leading. He says for us to ask what we will and it will be done. If we personalize the Scripture aloud, we can be sure that it’s His will too. Then I’m not praying amiss. He says life and death are in the power of the tongue. Therefore choose life. And we know that the Scriptures are Life indeed!! Thank you for sharing what The Lord reveals to you.
You continue to teach me what I thought I knew! Thank you, dear Lance
These key words “in Him, in whom, in Christ” etc. relate to the blood covenant we have with God. Jesus is our representative from our “tribe” so it’s in Him that we stand. Understanding what blood covenant really means in relationship to what Jesus did for us ie Him being our blood sacrifice has totally deepened my walk with the Lord. I highly encourage anyone to delve deeper into what our blood covenant really means. It’s deep and will forever deepen and change your walk with the Lord 4-ever! HINT on finding info for understanding…American Indians practiced this…this covenant is so strong that the only way out of it is death. Reason why God is totally committed to carry out what He promised to us in His Word…His Word is the covenant promises made when covenant is made with someone…WOW
This is a confirmation of what I prayed before I got out of bed this morning.. I was able today to speak to a kid that didnt believe anymore because of the catholic religion that was hateful to him. He liked what I told him about Jesus.