Those who daily read God’s Word experience 7 major things. How many of these 7 life-changing experiences have you had? Which do you still need?
00:00 Introduction – Holy Spirit – the author of the Bible?
2:08 Who Can Understand the Bible?
7 Life-Changing Experiences Through God’s Word
3:48 1 God’s Word will reveal the truth about God and Life.
4:58 2 Knowing God’s Word produces faith in us
5:24 3 God’s Word is The Seed That Grows the very life of God in us.
6:22 4 God’s Word Nourishes, Strengthens, and Sustains Us
7:41 5 God’s Word heals us.
8:18 6 God’s Word gives us victory over Satan and Sin.
9:14 7 “God’s Word Washes Away Our Sin and Makes us Holy
1 God’s Word will reveal the truth about God and Life
40 men - shepherds, prophets, priests, a tax-collector, kings, a physician and a former pharisee wrote the 66 books in the Old and New Testament over a period of 1500 years. Yet, the Bible does not contradict itself or contain any errors because the real author - the one who inspired these men to record these messages from God is the Holy Spirit.
Holy Spirit - the author who inspired men to write God’s words to You.
2 Timothy 3:16 NKJV
Holy Spirit inspired men to write in this book words that contain the life, love, instruction, wisdom, correction – everything you need to live a fulfilling, rewarding life.
2 Peter 1:20-21 NLT, 1 Corinthians 2:13 NLT
Who Can Understand the Bible?
The Bible can be read aloud in 70 hours, but cannot be understood in a lifetime.
1 Corinthians 2:14 NIV
The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.
Spiritual things just don’t make sense to the mind of fallen man. They must be revealed to us.
But John 16:13 assures us that Holy Spirit “will guide you into all the truth.”
But this isn’t a passive process. God draws us to Him with kindness and love. As we desire more knowledge and understanding, God will give us more.
Matthew 7:7
7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
7 Life-Changing Experiences Through God’sWord
As you daily explore God’s Word, you will have experiences through the Word. Like Martin Luther, you will find: “The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold of me.”
(The framework for this video is adapted from Derek Prince’s teaching on the 8 Effects of God’s Word).
1. God’s Word will reveal the truth about God and Life.
Psalm 119:105 ERV, Psalm 119:130, John 16:13 , 1 Corinthians 3:16
Every Christian now has the Holy Spirit living in him/her. The Holy Spirit who authored the scriptures, now lives in us. Who better to open God’s Word to us and guide us throughout our lives. He is “the Spirit of truth.”
2 Knowing God’s Word produces faith in us.
Romans 10:17 NKJV
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Notice that “faith comes.” It is the Word of God that creates faith in us. We didn’t have faith before we heard the Word, but after hearing it, faith came. True faith is based on the revealed Word of God.
3. God’s Word is The Seed That Grows the very life of God in us.
1 Peter 1:22-23
For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.
God’s Word is the seed in the parable of the sower (Luke 8).
4. God’s Word Nourishes, Strengthens, and Sustains Us
Matthew 4:4 - "But he answered, 'It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"
Psalm 119:103, Jeremiah 15:16 God’s Living Word strengthens us, comforts us and fills our every need.
5. God’s Word heals us.
Psalms 107:19-20
Proverbs 4:20-22
22 for they are life to those who find them
and health to one’s whole body.
Health in v 22 literally means “medicine
6 God’s Word gives us victory over Satan and Sin.
Psalm 119:9, John 8:31-32 NIV
Psalm 119: 11 I have hidden your word in my heart
that I might not sin against you.
Reading, meditating on, and memorizing scripture prepare us for Satan’s lies and temptations. Like Jesus who was physically weak when tempted by Satan in the desert, our response that gives victory over temptation is “it is written.” (See Matthew 4:1-11)
7 “God’s Word Washes Away Our Sin and Makes us Holy
John 17:17 NLT Jesus prayed
Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth.
John 15:3 NIV
Ephesians 5:25-26
… Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,
Everyone who abides in the Word of God experiences these 7 benefits. God gave us this living book to give us everything we need for life and to be like Him.
Do the Activation