LIVE BY THE WORD OF GOD

Pr. James Victor Lubwama

John 1:1 (ESV)

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

The Bible was written by the Holy Spirit through inspiring the prophets (2 Peter 1:19-21, 2 Tim 3:16); and after the shading of the blood and death of Jesus, it pleased God the Father to give the world the gift of the Holy Spirit since the temple - man had been cleansed. After Jesus had been taken to heaven, the Father released the Holy Spirit on the day of the Pentecost. The bible says in Acts 2:1-4 (NIV) that;

“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them”

Since then, all members of the body of Christ received the Holy Spirit. You too have the Holy Spirit because you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior. And because you have the Holy Spirit, He speaks to you every day about the heart of God and heaven’s plans towards man. 

The Word Nurtures the Spirit

Deuteronomy 8:3 (NIV)

“He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.”

In this time, some people might say, we have been seeking God for a long time and we should choose to take a break right now. But we have two lives to cater for - physical and spiritual. When we accepted Jesus as our personal Savior, we became a new creation (2 Corinth 5:17). So it’s your responsibility to feed the new creation. The new being is fed by the word of God. The word you listen to helps the new creation to grow from one stage to another. When you do not feed the baby, he becomes malnourished. And when this happens, it affects the health and growth process.

As Christians, we need to know that there are spiritual responsibilities such as waging wars spiritually; but if you are weak spiritually, you can’t fight such a war.

We very well know that bad situations around us are engineered in the spiritual world. So if you keep feeding your inner man with the word of God by, fellowship, fasting and prayer, you will become spiritually stronger and withstand any challenge that comes your way, because you’re strong and healthy spiritually. Unfortunately, some Christians are spiritually weak; their spirits are malnourished – they don’t read and study the Word, don’t fellowship and their prayer lives is at the lowest.

It’s true that man does not live by bread alone because food alone cannot make you happy in this life. You need to balance your spiritual and physical life. You feed your spiritual life by feeding on the word that comes from the mouth of God and flows from the throne of God (1 Corinth 10:3).

The devil wants to use this chaotic season to kill your spiritual life, to kill the fruits of the Holy Spirit and, to take away the peace and joy of God you have been enjoying. In order to resist the devil, you will need to read, study, meditate and be a doer of the word, and by this you will have fought a good fight. 

Heed to the Word Without Any Diversion

Luke 10:42 (NIV) that;

“Few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

During a personal or communal devotion, if you want to hear and understand the words of the kingdom of God, close all the channels that might divert your attention and concentration. Things like radio, TV, phone etc can easily distract and divert you from the word so you need to close all those distraction avenues. The sermon is not made up of mere words, but come with a revelation and the Holy Spirit explains profoundly to you when you pay attention.

Once the word is preached or taught, the Holy spirit helps to interpret it for you; but if you're in church and you are doing a number of things while trying to listen to the word, you will miss God’s revelation in the word.

Mary chose to sit down and listen to Jesus yet Martha was distracted by other preparatory works (Luke 10:38-42). In the same way, what you do for God in church is good, but the word that God brings is better and more important. Try doing all the things that might distract you beforehand so that when the word starts you are focused and attentive. When you hear the word with a calm and attentive spirit, the Holy Spirit begins to interpret it and you get a revelation.

It’s the revelation that causes spiritual growth. But some ministers in church miss such a time because they are busy moving up and down. Truth is you are serving but you are losing and missing out on what is better and most needed. The greatest portion is for you to hear the word and understand the word of God so that you can grow spiritually. 

Jesus, Our breath

Job 12:10 (ESV)

“In his hand is the life of every living thing and breath of all mankind.” 

In these 30 days of congregational suspension, the devil is very calculative to make the weak backslide, to derail those that don’t have faith but we shall stand by the word that comes from the mouth of God because it is food for our spirits and it’s what makes us move. Jesus is our oxygen; if you take Him away from us we are finished. The bible says in Acts 17:28 (NKJV) that; “For in him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, 'for we are also His offspring."
By the time we came to Jesus we were long dead, but he breathed in us new life, so you should not let anyone or thing separate you from Jesus. In the word, we hear from Him and get life that will see us through the days to come - for His words are spirit and life (John 6:63).

Some people think that we come to church to be prayed for but that is not the case because there are things He has given us without asking. A case in point, have you asked Him for the breath of life? No. Or asked for the sun to rise? The main reason we come to church is to listen to what God is saying. In the beginning, God would go to Adam and Eve every day. Why? He wanted to communicate to them and for His presence to dwell with them.

Our life is like a phone, you need to charge the battery to keep the phone on. Whenever the word comes to you, you get charged and can hear from God clearly. The power that comes from the word is what keeps us spiritually healthy and our souls awake. That’s why we do not come to church because of the problems we have since He can even take them away without us asking. For instance, some people have testified about receiving healing without being prayed for. All they did was to sit in God’s presence and listen to the word, and God dealt with their sicknesses. 

God Will Take Care of Us

Psalm 37:18-19 (NKJV)

“The Lord knows the days of the upright, and their inheritance shall be forever. 19 They shall not be ashamed in the evil time, and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.”

From the day you received salvation, God changed your name; He started calling you an upright person; you are upright by the blood of Jesus and the grace of God. If that's the case, God knows the longevity of the upright so He guards and observes it. I don’t want us to doubt God, so stop thinking that this pandemic is going to kill you before time.

The scripture above has said that for the upright; their inheritance shall be forever. This means that the things God has given you as an inheritance are not temporary. While the situation may give you the impression that your days are numbered; but if you know the truth, take heart and stand still because God knows your days. If God purposed for you to live for 90 years, even when a bad situation comes at 60 years, you will live as long as God planned for you. So to those who are washed by the blood of Jesus, nothing will come your way; nothing will befall you because God is going to hold you and fight everything that is fighting you because he knows your days.

There are two things that God considers and guards jealously - your days and your inheritance. You might look for the background of a born-again Christian and fail to trace it simply because God picks us from dust and sets us among princes (Psalm 113:7-8, 1 Samuel 2:7-8).  

Some of the things we got in salvation were under another person’s ownership but God chose to give them to us. Just like Canaan, it was not for Hebrews but God gave it to them (Deuteronomy 1:7-8). We are co-heirs with Christ; and because we inherit whatever God gives us, He puts a caveat and a hedge upon our inheritance and protects it, and no one can take it away.

The good and blessed life that you have is inherited, so don’t pay attention to those saying that this is not your place, position or possession. When God decides to give you a place, He casts down the inhabitants. Psalm 44:2 (NIV) says; “With your hand you drove out the nations and planted our ancestors; you crushed the peoples and made our ancestors flourish.”

Stop seeing problems and you think they are going to destroy you. The God who guards those that are upright through the cleansing blood of Jesus knows your days and guards them. You will not die before your appointed days. God promises us in Exodus 23:26 (AMP) that; “None shall suffer miscarriage or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days.”

God can never change His word, secondly your inheritance shall be forever because what you have is an inheritance from God and it is everlasting. Some situations say that what you have is temporary but if you got it from God, its everlasting – we are what we are by the grace of God.

Don’t Consider the Signs

You shall not be put to shame in these hard times. There are many things standing in our way at home and places of work but never be moved by signs because the devil uses them a lot to destroy our faith. We walk by the word of God. Even when the surrounding circumstances signal death, discard them because the bible says in Psalm 118:17 (GNT) that; 

“I will not die; instead, I will live, and will proclaim what the LORD has done.”

Always be interested in He who has the final say about your life because He knows your future and your tomorrow. For we are born of God; are washed by the blood of Christ and the government that cares for us is the heavenly one; so we have special protection and angels are surrounding us as seen in Psalm 37 above

People are now wondering what they will do during or after the 30 days but its not your plan that will enable you to survive. Even when you have 100 plans and God has not blessed them, none can prosper (Proverbs 3:5). Fix your eyes unto the Lord and allow your faith to grow; for He will make a way.

God knew before hand, that you would experience every situation you are going through and also came up with a solution, so when the devil raises dust, focus your eyes on God and, have faith in Him and His word.

Isaiah 45:22 (GNT) 
“Turn to me now and be saved,
 people all over the world!
I am the only God there is.”