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 spiritual food for our spirits, for in the above quoted passage of scripture Jesus mentioned another source of spiritual food when He mentioned that doing the will of God was food for His spirit. Doing the will of God involves acting on God’s word. And so we see another factor that is required for our spirits to grow strong, which is to act on the word of God. As with other aspects of spiritual growth which we have discussed thus far, this aspect of spiritual growth also correlates with our growth in the natural. Let me explain. In the natural if we exercise our physical muscles they will grow stronger, but if we neglect those same muscles they will grow weaker. There is no way around it; we can read all the books available on how to exercise our physical bodies to make them grow stronger, but until we put what we have learnt into practice, nothing changes. In other words we can have all the knowledge there is on the subject, but until we put into practice that which we have learnt, our bodies remain the same and indeed grow weaker. And to put into practice that which we have learnt takes physical effort. In the spirit the principle remains the same. In order for us to grow strong in spirit we are going to have to exercise our spiritual muscles, so to speak. In other words we can read our bible all we want and listen to as many teaching CD’s as we like, but until we begin to put into practice that which we have learnt, nothing will change. In other words we can have all the knowledge there is on the subject, but until we put into practice that which we have learnt our spirits remain the same and indeed grow weaker. And to put into practice that which we have learnt takes spiritual effort. 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.”
We have seen in the previous passage that because they were negligent in acting on the word that they had already received, that the church at Corinth were prevented from receiving any further revelation from the Lord. In the passage of scripture quoted above the apostle James confirms that same truth to us, for he teaches us that believers who fail to act on God’s revealed word deceive themselves. I want you to notice that the believers he refers to in this passage are diligent hearers of God’s word. In other words 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. I want you to also notice that the quality of the word that they hear doesn’t impact their lives either, for they could even be sitting under the anointed teaching of the apostle Paul himself and that would be of no benefit to them. So why is that? As James reveals to us in this passage, the reason is that the moment these believers hear the word of God they immediately forget what they have heard. In other words their minds have become blinded to receiving any further truths in God’s word. This is a sad spiritual truth but nevertheless it is true. I have tested it many times by asking saints what their pastor taught them in the previous Sunday service, and more often than not, they have no idea and cannot remember anything he said. There is no getting around it; if we want to grow strong in spirit we are going to have to act on the word of God that has already been revealed to us, for until we do we will not receive any further revelation from God’s word.
Ephesians 4:16 “from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”
In the passage of scripture quoted above, the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul teaches us that the body of Christ grows when each individual member in the body does its share. In other words the spiritual growth of the corporate body of Christ only takes place when the church acts on the word of God. And so if the corporate church cannot grow unless we act on God’s word, then most certainly no individual member of the body is going to grow spiritually unless they too act on God’s word.
Luke 6:46-49 “But why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do the things which I say? (47) Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: (48) He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. (49) But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.”
In the passage of scripture quoted above our Lord Jesus plainly taught us to be doers of His word. So why is that? One who constantly puts the word of God into practice will always be spiritually fit and strong, and thus capable of dealing with any eventuality that they may come across in life; for notice that in His teaching, our Lord showed us that the flood came to both men i.e. the spiritual man and the carnal man. And so we see that the spiritual man is not immune from the tests and trials in this life, but that rather when they do come he knows just how to act and he cannot be shaken. Think about the example of the apostle Paul that we looked at earlier in this teaching and how he reacted to incidents that arose in his life. On the other hand, when believers do not constantly practice the word of God they remain spiritually weak, and so when they encounter the crises of life when they do arise, those believers are in no spiritual condition to deal with those issues and thus they experience devastation in their lives. And so we see that the believer, who consistently acts on the word of God, will become strong in spirit.
Michael E.B. Maher
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