“The Bible is the most priceless possession of the human race.” (Henry Halley)
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. For happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding; she is more precious than rubies, and all the things you may desire cannot compare with her. (Colossians 3:16 and Proverbs 3:13,15)
As I have sought throughout my Christian walk to get to know the Lord more and more, it always kept ringing in my mind and spirit to absorb the Word of God more and more. Then as I absorbed the Word of God more and more, I knew that I must never allow it to cease from permeating my being more and more. It is a process that I am never to let up on or slack from doing as long as I can breathe. Everything in my life is to revolve around the Word of God. That is why I have a hard time accepting people who claim to be devout Christians who don’t devour the Word of God.
The single most valuable item in the world to me is my Bible. If I were given the choice of having all the gold in the world without ever being able to look upon the Bible again as long as I live, I would definitely choose a $10 Bible and shun the gold. I say that very truthfully because there is no life in the gold, but there is eternal life in the words of the Bible and that eternal life is Jesus Himself:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (John 1:1, 14 KJV)
Just look at some of these other Scriptures:
Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You. (Psalms 119:11 NKJV)
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 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. (James 1:22, 25 NKJV)
Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near. (Revelation 1:3 NKJV)
Seven times Jesus implores this in Revelation chapters 2 and 3:
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” (Revelation 2 and 3 NKJV)
I love the story of young Samuel in the Old Testament:
Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and it shall be, if He calls you, that you must say, ‘Speak, Lord , for Your servant hears.’ ” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. Now the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel answered, “Speak, for Your servant hears.” (I Samuel 3:9-10 NKJV)
Then as we go to the New Testament, we see the emphasis that Jesus speaks to Nicodemus with:
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. (John 3:3, 5, 7 KJV)
No one can ever accuse the Lord of not saying, “Listen up, for this is really really important! ”
You might wonder why I mention so much about listening when it comes to the Word of God. The answer is quite simple – the Bible doesn’t do us much good unless if we read it thoroughly and actively listen and apply what is said – thus ‘Absorb the Bible’.
A person who is much more qualified to teach on the subject is Dr Charles Stanley who wrote a book back in 1985 entitled ‘How To Listen To God’. In it he says this about the Bible:
The Lord’s primary way of speaking to us today is through His Word. We already have the complete revelation of God. He doesn’t need to add anything else to this Book. The revelation of God is the unfolding truth of God by God about Himself. It is the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, controlling the minds of men who penned the pages that make up the Bible. The Bible is the breath of God upon those men that they might know the truth.
Yes, the most assured way we can know we hear from God is through His Word. When we face difficulties and heartaches, rather than seek this counsel or that counsel, we should first go to the Scriptures.
God also speaks to us in three other ways, but they will always be in-line with the Bible. These ways are:
1. The Holy Spirit
2. Other People
3. Circumstances
Dr Stanley goes on to teach on listening itself:
There are two kinds of listeners. There are passive and aggressive listeners. A passive listener does not come to God to hear a decision from Him. The aggressive listener comes knowing and seeking to hear diligently what God has to say. If he is in church, his Bible is open and his pen is ready. If he participates in a Bible study, he is all ears and his mind is inquisitive. If he is involved in personal devotion, his notebook is replete with insight into God‘s ways. An involved listener is always probing, searching, and comparing what he hears with previous data he has accumulated. He wants to be sensitive to what God is saying; he thinks constantly, How can I apply this to my life! The aggressive listener is accurately depicted in Acts 17:11 where Paul spoke of the Berean Christians, saying, “These [Bereans] were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.” They weren’t iust saying, “Oh, Paul is coming.” They were investigating the Word.
James said, “But the one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man shall be blessed in what he does” (1:25 NASB). Notice the word intently. That means that we are to listen and hear the Word of God with a fervent focus. We are not to sit idly and allow the Word of God to stay simply on the surface level.
One of the problems today in the body of Christ is many Christians have been passive listeners for too many years. That is why after forty years as believers, they won’t teach a Bible study or lead a class because they “don’t know the Word well enough.” Where have they been for the past four decades!
We come to church, watch television, read, listen to radio, or attend revivals, seminars, or conferences so that we might listen to God, not man. Man doesn’t have much to say, but when God is speaking through His servants, then the hearer must aggressively hear what God is imparting. The passive listener comes into a church service or Bible study and never gives a second thought to what God is speaking. He is not involved in the hearing process. If God were to send Charles Stanley a letter and address it, DEAR CHARLES, and Sign it, JEHOVAH God, would I put it aside and read it after the evening news was over? Of course not. I would open the letter reverently, read every comment, read every word deliberately, and when finished, I would probably read it over again. I would put it in a precious place, so that I would always have God’s message before me.
You see the Bible is that letter, and we ought to he listening intensely because it is that truth that will shape us into His image. That is why we must listen aggressively!
In conclusion, I would like to share what the Holy Spirit shared with me. There are many Christians that learned how to be Christians backwards. That is why they have gotten themselves into such a quagmire of problems. They learned how to act like a so-called Christian from other so-called Christians, rather than learning first and foremost from the Word of God.
It is never too late to fall in love with the Word of God and absorb it into your being. Remember John 1:1 which reminds us that “The Word was God!” So to fall in love with God’s Word the Bible, is to fall in love with Jesus.
Annointing 