LIVING IN THE SPIRIT — PART 2

**KEEPING YOUR ATTENTION ON THE WORD**

*Developing a Lifestyle of Meditation and Fellowship with the Holy Spirit*

In Part 1, we saw that many of the battles we face externally become battles for our attention internally.

The question is not simply whether we have problems. The question is what occupies our thoughts while we are facing those problems.

The believer who learns to look toward Christ must now learn to keep looking.

This is where meditation becomes essential.

**YOU CANNOT MEDITATE ON WHAT YOU HAVE NOT STORED**

The believer must deliberately fill his heart with the Word.

You cannot continually meditate on what you have never received.

The Word must first be stored in the heart.

Then, as we move through the day, we can return our attention to it.

This is exactly what God told Joshua:

*"This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night."* *— Joshua 1:8*

Think about the life Joshua was called to live.

He was leading a nation.

He was facing enemies.

He was fighting battles.

He had enormous responsibilities.

Yet God did not say, "When things become peaceful, meditate on My Word."

He said, "Meditate therein day and night."

The presence of battles did not remove the need for meditation.

The battles made meditation even more necessary.

**MEDITATION IS A LIFESTYLE**

Biblical meditation is more than spending a few minutes reading the Bible in the morning.

Reading the Word is important, but meditation takes us further.

Meditation means giving the Word sustained attention.

It means thinking about what God has said.

It means considering its meaning.

It means allowing the truth to descend from the page into our consciousness.

It means returning to that truth throughout the day.

The Word becomes something we carry within us rather than something we visit occasionally.

This is why the Psalmist could speak of the blessed man as one who meditates on God's law day and night.

The Word was not confined to a particular time of day.

It had become part of his inner life.

**THE DIVIDED LIFE**

One of the challenges facing many believers is that we have created two separate lives.

There is our "spiritual life"—prayer, Bible study, church, devotion and perhaps a few moments of meditation.

Then there is our "normal life"—business, family, work, conversations, travelling, decision-making and dealing with problems.

But spiritual maturity destroys this artificial separation.

The mature believer does not become spiritual only during devotion time.

He lives spiritually throughout the day.

Prayer is not merely something we do at a particular hour.

Meditation is not restricted to the morning.

Fellowship with the Holy Spirit is not reserved for church.

The Word of God is not meant to occupy our minds only when we have a Bible in our hands.

We are called to walk in the Spirit.

The spiritual life overshadows the whole of life.

We take God into our business.

We take God into our marriage.

We take God into our conversations.

We take God into our decisions.

We take God into our challenges.

We take God into our ordinary daily activities.

There is no secular compartment in the life of a believer who is learning to live consciously in the Spirit.

**DAVID: A MAN WHO MEDITATED**

David gives us a remarkable example.

His life was far from peaceful. He knew rejection, warfare, betrayal, persecution, leadership, responsibility and uncertainty.

Yet he developed a deep consciousness of God.

Psalm 1 describes the blessed man as one who meditates on God's law day and night.

David's writings reveal a man whose thoughts continually returned to God.

He could be in a cave and still think about God.

He could be in battle and still think about God.

He could be surrounded by enemies and still think about God.

He could become king and still think about God.

His external circumstances changed repeatedly, but his inward direction remained fixed upon God.

Acts 2:30–32 even identifies David as a prophet in relation to what God had revealed concerning Christ.

Such spiritual perception does not develop accidentally.

It grows out of fellowship with God.

**WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?**

This brings us to the practical question.

When you are facing a problem, what receives your attention?

When there is conflict, what do you rehearse?

When your spouse disappoints you, what do you continually think about?

When business becomes difficult, what dominates your thoughts?

When the economy looks uncertain, what fills your consciousness?

When your body experiences discomfort, what becomes the centre of your attention?

When circumstances appear contrary to God's promises, what do you continually consider?

The problem may be real.

But the problem does not have to become the object of your meditation.

The serpent's bite was real, but God told the people to look at the bronze serpent.

The storm was real, but Jesus remained the focus.

The circumstances may be real, but God's Word must remain greater in our consciousness than the circumstance.

**THE LIVING-IN-THE-SPIRIT PRACTICE**

Living in the Spirit therefore requires intentionality.

Receive the Word.

Store it in your heart.

Meditate upon it.

Return your attention to it throughout the day.

Speak it.

Believe it.

Obey it.

And remain sensitive to the Holy Spirit as He brings that Word alive in your circumstances.

When a troubling thought comes, do not simply follow it.

Ask:

What has God said?

When fear begins to dominate, return to the Word.

When anger begins to rise, return to the Word.

When anxiety begins to consume your thoughts, return to the Word.

When circumstances appear hopeless, return to the Word.

The objective is not to ignore reality.

The objective is to establish God's reality as the controlling reality of your inner life.

**FROM MEDITATION TO MANIFESTATION**

The Word is the seed.

The heart is the soil.

Meditation keeps the seed before our consciousness and allows its truth to take deeper root within us.

The Holy Spirit brings the life and power of God to bear upon that Word.

This is why the condition of our inner life matters.

We cannot continually feed our hearts with fear, anger, resentment, unbelief and the reports of circumstances, and expect the Word of God to dominate our thinking.

We must deliberately choose what we allow to occupy our hearts.

The more we fellowship with the Word, the more familiar we become with God's thoughts.

The more familiar we become with God's thoughts, the more readily we recognize the Spirit's leading.

And the more readily we recognize His leading, the more naturally we can respond in obedience.

This is how spiritual truth moves from revelation to reality in our daily lives.

**THE BATTLE IS FOR YOUR ATTENTION**

Many of the battles we fight externally are first won or lost internally.

The enemy does not always need to change our circumstances if he can change what occupies our minds.

If he can keep our attention fixed on the problem, he can keep us from consciously drawing from the truth already deposited within us.

But when we deliberately turn our attention to Christ and His Word, something changes.

Peace begins to replace agitation.

Faith begins to replace fear.

Wisdom begins to replace confusion.

Hope begins to replace despair.

And the Holy Spirit brings the Word to bear upon our present circumstances.

So, when the next problem comes, remember the lesson of the wilderness:

Look and live.

Do not spend all your attention examining the bite.

Do not spend your day rehearsing the pain.

Do not allow the circumstance to become the centre of your inner world.

Look to Christ.

Look to His Word.

Look toward the truth already planted in your heart.

And as you continually behold Him, fellowship with His Word, and yield to the Holy Spirit, you will discover what it truly means to live in the Spirit.

**A FINAL CHALLENGE**

What has been occupying your attention today?

What have you been rehearsing in your mind?

What has been louder in your consciousness—the problem or the promise?

Take that problem and deliberately place it alongside what God has said.

Then make a decision:

I will not allow my circumstances to become the centre of my inner world.

I will look to Christ.

I will meditate on His Word.

I will remain conscious of the Holy Spirit within me.

I will live from the inside out.

I will live in the Spirit.

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*Hassan Thomas Nenger* *Author, My Divine Identity as the Righteousness of God* *Living in the Spirit Series*