WHEN THE WORD BECOMES YOUR EXPERIENCE (PART 1)

*Faith, Obedience, and the Life in the Spirit*

"Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life." — John 6:27

When we take the Word of God, put it in our minds, and meditate on it day and night, the Word has the power to become our experience.

Some may ask, "How can meditating on the Word cause it to become my experience? Surely, there must be something else I have to do. I must take some action."

Yes, there is action—but the action is obedience to the Word and to the Holy Spirit.

That is the life in the Spirit.

**The Word Carries the Power to Produce What It Says**

The Word of God is not merely information about what God can do. The Word carries the power of God to accomplish what God has sent it to accomplish.

The Word is a seed. A seed contains within itself the capacity to produce after its kind. When the Word is received into a heart that is prepared to receive it, meditated upon, believed, and acted upon in obedience, it begins to produce its fruit.

This is why when the Jews said: "What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?" Jesus answered: "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." — John 6:28–29

Our responsibility is not to manufacture the result. Our responsibility is to believe God and cooperate with Him.

This is an important distinction. We do not create the power in the Word. The power is already in the Word. Our part is to receive it, believe it, meditate upon it, and obey the instruction of the Holy Spirit.

**Faith Must Have an Expression**

Faith is not passive agreement with what God has said. Faith expresses itself through obedience.

Consider Moses at the Red Sea. God instructed him to stretch forth his hand over the sea so that Israel could walk through on dry ground. Moses stretched forth his hand with the rod in obedience. Then God caused the east wind to blow and the waters to divide.

Moses did not divide the sea by his own power. His responsibility was obedience. His obedience was the demonstration of his faith.

This is how divine partnership works. God gives the Word and the direction; we respond in faith and obedience. Agreement is the foundation of unity in a divine partnership. God does what only God can do, while we faithfully do what He has instructed us to do.

**Take Responsibility for Your Life**

God has given authority to the believer. Therefore, responsibility belongs to the believer.

We must stop constantly looking for somebody else to change our lives. We must not always blame people, circumstances, our environment, or our past.

There is a responsibility that comes with authority. If God has given you authority, then you must learn to exercise that authority according to His Word and by the leading of the Holy Spirit.

This does not mean that we control everything that happens around us. It means that we take responsibility for our response, our obedience, our choices, our thoughts, and our conduct.

The Word gives us the direction. The Holy Spirit gives us the leadership. Our responsibility is to respond.

**The Condition of the Heart**

The Word produces its fruit in a heart that receives it. This is why the condition of the heart matters.

If you are pure and upright, purity begins with what is contained in the heart. What influences the heart? The thoughts. And what should govern our thoughts? The Word of God.

The Word of God is pure. Therefore, when our thoughts are filled with the Word, our thinking begins to take on the character of the Word. Pure thoughts produce pure responses.

But uprightness also involves our actions. It is possible to know the right thing and still refuse to do it. There must therefore be a connection between what we believe, what we think, and how we live.

When the Word governs our thinking and the Holy Spirit governs our actions, the life of the Word begins to find expression through us.

**"Trust in the Lord, and Do Good"**

One of the clearest expressions of this principle is found in Psalm 37:3: "Trust in the LORD, and do good."

Notice the connection: trust—and do good.

Many people are trusting, but they have no goodness to show while they are trusting. They say they are waiting on God, but sometimes the opportunity to obey God has already come and gone.

We can become so focused on waiting for God to do something that we fail to recognize what God is asking us to do now.

The test may already be before us. The answer may be in the opportunity to do good. The instruction of the Spirit may come through a simple act of kindness, forgiveness, sacrifice, humility, patience, generosity, or consideration for another person.

Sometimes the treasure we are asking God for is hidden inside an opportunity we are refusing to embrace.

*(Continued in Part 2)*

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