Another factor that is required for our spirits to grow strong, is acting on the word of God. This aspect of spiritual growth also correlates with our walk in the natural. We all know that if we exercise our physical muscles, that they will grow stronger, and if we neglect those same muscles, then they will grow weaker. In order to grow strong in spirit, we are going to have to exercise our spiritual muscles, so to speak. There is no way around it in the natural. You can read all the books on exercise and eating correctly, but until you put what you have learnt into practice, nothing changes. You can have all the knowledge, but your body remains the same and grows weaker, until you get out there and put into practice that which you have learnt. And that takes physical effort. In the spirit, there is no way around it either. You can read your bible all you want and listen to as many teaching CD’s as you like, but until you begin to put into practice that which you have learnt, nothing will change in the spirit. And that takes spiritual effort.
John 4:31-34 “In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." (32) But He said to them, "I have food to eat of which you do not know." (33) Therefore, the disciples said to one another, "Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?" (34) Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.”
Hearing the word of God, is not the only source of food for our spirits. Jesus mentioned another source of spiritual food in the above passage of scripture. For Jesus said that doing the will of God, was food for His spirit. Doing the will of God involves acting on the word of God. We have seen in an earlier section, that the church at Corinth were prevented from receiving further revelation from the Lord, because they were negligent in acting on the word that they had already received.
James 1:22-25 “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. (23) For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; (24) for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. (25) But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”
In James chapter one quoted above, the Holy Spirit through the apostle James, teaches us that the believer who fails to act on God’s revealed word, deceives themselves. Notice that these believers are diligent hearers of God’s word. They regularly attend church meetings, and most probably even read their bibles frequently, and yet we are told that they are still deceiving themselves. So, what does the Holy Spirit mean, when He says that they deceive themselves? Their deception is that they think they are growing spiritually. But in reality, they are not growing at all. If anything, they are actually becoming weaker spiritually. Notice also that the quality of the word that they hear doesn’t impact their lives either. In other words, they could even be sitting under the anointed teaching of the apostle Paul himself, and that would be of no benefit to them. Why is that? The reason is that this believer immediately forgets what he has heard. In other words, his mind has become blinded to receiving any further truths in God’s word. There is no getting around it. If you want to grow strong in spirit, you are going to have to act on the word of God that has already been revealed to you. Until you do, you will not receive any further revelation from God’s word, and you are in danger of losing that which you have already received.
Michael E.B. Maher
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