Meditation on God’s Word
- Michael E.B. Maher
- 7 hours ago
- 6 min read
Luke 9:44-45 “Let these words sink down into your ears, for the Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men." (45) But they did not understand this saying, and it was hidden from them so that they did not perceive it; and they were afraid to ask Him about this saying.”
And so we come to the method of spiritual growth through meditation in God’s word. In the passage of scripture quoted above our Lord Jesus was trying to get the disciples to understand what was about to happen to Him in Jerusalem. In other words they needed spiritual understanding. But as the scripture reveals to us, because it was hidden from them they did not understand Him. There was a specific reason why this truth was hidden from the disciples at that time, which we will not discuss now as it falls outside the scope of this teaching. Nevertheless it is the Lord’s statement, “Let these words sink down into your ears” that I want to discuss in this section. So what did our Lord mean when He said to the disciples that they were to let His words sink down into their ears? The disciples could hear perfectly what Jesus was saying with their physical ears, but it wasn’t their physical ears that Jesus was referring to; He was talking about the inner ears of their spirits. When our Lord walked on the earth many times He would make the following statement, “he who has ears to hear, let him hear”. When Jesus made this statement He was not referring to their physical ears, because all could hear Him with their physical ears. Jesus was referring to their spiritual ears, i.e. the ears of their inner man. So how do we hear with our spiritual ears? Our Lord Jesus said we are to let His words sink down into our ears.
Proverbs 18:8 and Proverbs 26:22 “The words of a talebearer are like tasty trifles, and they go down into the inmost body.”
As quoted above, twice in the book of proverbs the Holy Spirit reveals to us just how words enter the spirits of unbelievers, for the inmost body referred to in this passage of scripture is the spirit of man. In this world unbelievers dwell on the words of a talebearer. In other words they meditate on those words, for they like to think about what was said. And so as they continue to think about those words, those words eventually sink down into their spiritual ears and their spirits absorb them. In the same manner born-again believers can allow the word of God to go down into their spirits, because although the words are different the principle remains the same. In other words it is through the meditation of God’s word that we allow His words to go down into our inmost bodies i.e. our spirits. We have already seen in the previous section that our minds are the gateway to our spirits, and that nothing enters our spirits from the outside except through that which our minds understand. And so even when we are taught the word of God by the Lord’s ministers we still need to meditate on that word with our minds so that we can have understanding of the word taught.
Psalms 119:97-100 “Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. (98) You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies; For they are ever with me. (99) I have more understanding than all my teachers, For Your testimonies are my meditation. (100) I understand more than the ancients, because I keep Your precepts.”
You will recall that we stated earlier that our Lord Jesus was made just like us and that He grew strong in spirit. So how did the Lord Jesus do that? As a child, our Lord Jesus was taught the word of God along with the other children He grew up with, but that is where the similarity ended, for the Lord Jesus did something different with the word He was taught, which resulted in our Lord’s understanding of God’s word, even as a twelve-year-old, astonishing the theological professors of His day (Luke 2:42-47). In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit reveals to us that the reason why our Lord Jesus had more understanding than all His teachers was because the word of God was His constant meditation. And so we see a principle revealed to us, which is that meditation on God’s word produces understanding of His word in our minds, and that which we constantly meditate on will eventually go down into our spirits and our spirits will absorb those words, thus becoming stronger. Again we can look to the natural to get a better understanding of the spiritual. When we eat food in the natural, the food enters our mouths and we chew on that food until it reaches the point where we can swallow it, and only then does that food go down into our stomachs to be absorbed into our bodies, thus nourishing our bodies. And so the analogy in the spirit is that our minds can be likened to our mouths in the natural. In other words God’s word enters our minds and we chew on that word through meditation, and it is only when we understand God’s word with our minds that His word can be “swallowed” to go down into our spirits so that our spirits can be fed. The analogy can be taken even further however, for the scripture speaks of the milk of God’s word and the solid food of God’s word. Milk in the natural is easy to swallow and does not need to be chewed. In the same manner all believers are able to swallow the milk of God’s word because it does not need to be chewed. However solid food is different, for solid food cannot be swallowed unless it is chewed. And so the solid food of God’s word is no different, for it too cannot be swallowed unless it is “chewed” through meditation in His word.
Romans 8:5-6 “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. (6) For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”
In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul teaches us to set our minds on the things of the Spirit. To set your mind on something is to constantly meditate on that thing. And so we see that spiritual believers, i.e. those who are spiritually minded constantly meditate on God’s word even as our Lord Jesus did. Therefore the point remains that the more we meditate on God’s word the more of His word we will understand, and the more of God’s word that we understand, the more of His word that will sink down into our spirits thus causing our spirits to grow stronger. The principle is very clear that if we are going to grow spiritually we are going to have to set time aside to meditate on God’s word, for our spirits will never grow beyond the degree to which our minds have been renewed. In other words we cannot have a strong spirit and at the same time a mind that is not renewed to the word of God, for the two always go hand in hand, and the reason for that is because the word of God enters our spirits through our minds.
1 John 2:26-27 “These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you. (27) But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.”
So what about false doctrine? What do I mean by that statement? Although there is plenty of truth that is taught to the church, sadly there is also a lot of error and deception that is taught, and many believers become caught up in the false doctrines taught. More often that not, the believers that get caught up in false doctrine are those who can be classified as babes in Christ. So what impact does false doctrine have on their spirits? Thankfully none, for as the apostle John teaches us in the above quoted passage of scripture, the Holy Spirit that resides in our spirits teaches our spirits all things, including how to recognise that which is false doctrine. And so that is where the spirit’s understanding comes in, for as we have already stated earlier, the spirit of the believer has full understanding of God’s word, which means that the moment the saint is exposed to any false teaching, their spirit knows about it and rejects it out of hand. And so even though the mind of the believer may become deceived into believing the error taught, that word cannot enter into the spirit of the believer because their spirit simply rejects it. And so we see a biblical truth, which is that God only allows His word to enter through our minds into our spirits and nothing else.
Michael E.B. Maher
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