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ACTS 29 TODAY

coming to the knowledge of the TRUTH

 

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Confession:

The Highest Form of Meditation

God created you and me with a capacity not only to

believe, but to conform to whatever it is that we are

believing and continually subjecting ourselves to THE

MOST. Unfortunately, this ability can operate in us for

the bad as well as for the good.

That’s why God gave Joshua this instruction when

Joshua was about to lead the children of Israel into the

Promised Land:

This book of the law SHALL NOT DEPART OUT OF THY

MOUTH; but thou shalt MEDITATE THEREIN DAY AND

NIGHT, that thou mayest observe to do according to all

that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy

way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good

success.— Joshua 1:8

What an incredible set of instructions! First of all, God

said, “Don’t let the Word of God depart out of your

mouth.” That means there should never be a time when

the Word in your mouth is replaced by anything else.

When you let the Word depart from your mouth, you

set yourself in agreement with the circumstances that

are arrayed against you.

But if you continue to confess the Word, you are

operating in the covenant between you and God against

the adverse circumstance. And as you continually

subject yourself to the Word by confessing it over and

over, you are applying one of the highest forms of

meditation.

Circumstances are no respecters of persons. They will

come at you day and night. But when you stand face to

face with those situations that seem impossible to

overcome and keep confessing God’s promises over and

over, you are meditating day and night. Through

meditation,you are giving the Word of God the

opportunity to transform you and your thinking so you

can actually become that victorious person you are

meant to be.

You will eventually conform to what you continually

subject yourself to. That’s why God told Joshua to let

not the Word depart from his mouth and to meditate

day and night; He wanted Joshua to continually be

subjected to the Word.

Paint a Picture of Your Answer

Due to our busy schedules, most of us cannot read,

study, or memorize the Word day and night. But we can

meditate on the Word day and night. Reading, studying,

and memorizing can only assist meditation; they do not

replace it.

You can actually take a journey into a whole new set of

circumstances in your spirit and mind as you meditate

day and night on what God has said about you and your

problem. Soon you won’t be conforming to the problem

anymore. Instead, your faith, your thoughts, and your

attitude will leave the problem behind to embark on a

journey into God where every promise is yea and Amen

(2 Cor. 1:20).

You can find a place in God where your mouth has

described the victory so many times that it has painted

a picture on the inside of your spirit. That picture of

victory becomes so powerful, it replaces anything and

everything that spells defeat.

So whenever you face a problem or are about to charge

ahead to conquer something for the Kingdom of God,

start hearing and reading scriptures that address your

particular problem.Keep on doing that until there is a

huge reservoir of the Word on the inside of you.

Then meditate on those scriptures day and night, saying

them over and over. Roll them over and over in your

mind until the picture the Word paints in your heart

becomes stronger than the picture the obstacle paints

in your mind.

Pull the Word up out of your spirit and roll it over and

over in your mind while you are driving, cleaning

house, or working on your job. Whenever you can,

describe your victory out loud.Use your words to paint

pictures of your victory. Then God will do for you what

He promised Joshua: “For then you will make your way

prosperous, and then you will have good success.”

The Role of Meditation In Overcoming My Failure

I can attest to the truth of this vital principle from my

own personal experience. For example, I will never

forget the first time I tried to preach. It was a

Wednesday night service in a small Holiness church in

Oregon. Besides my wife Rosalie, there were only three

or four people present.

 

I was sure I could do it. Many times those same four

people had sat with my wife and me in coffee shops,

talking about Jesus. I would get so carried away

preaching and pounding on the table that I’d almost

spill our coffee!

But now as I stood up in church in front of those same

four people to deliver the Word in an official capacity,

something happened! I guess it was the fear of being

put in a position where I felt as if I had to produce.

Even in high school, I’d choose to take a lower grade in

English rather than to give an oral report. The blood

would drain out of my face; I’d turn white and get dizzy

just at the thought of doing it.

Yet here I was, standing behind a pulpit with an entire

page full of notes and everyone looking at me. Rosalie

said I turned white as I stood there, trying to gather my

courage to begin. Then the door suddenly opened, and

three more people came in and sat down. That did it!

They were perfect strangers!

I almost passed out as I leaned forward, gripping the

pulpit for support. I can still remember watching my

knuckles turn white as I stared down at them. I was

afraid to look at the people.

Finally, I pulled myself together enough to read my text

— but then my mind went completely blank! Earlier

that day I had thought of a hundred things to say, but

my mental “slate”had been wiped clean by panic.

So, as an emergency measure, I picked up my notes and

began to read. But the situation only grew worse. By the

time I had finished reading my notes, I had absolutely

nothing left to say. I was paralyzed with fear!

I looked sheepishly toward my pastor for help, so she

walked up to the pulpit to rescue me.I hurt so bad

inside I wanted to cry. It was a long walk back to my

chair. I sat down just in time to hear the pastor

apologize to the people, saying, “I’m sorry, folks. He told

me he was called to preach…”

The entire ordeal had lasted about seven minutes. That

night I buried my face in my pillow and cried until

some of the hurt was gone. It was a long time before I

stood behind a pulpit to preach again — almost two

years!

It seemed as though that night had confirmed

everything I had already known. I just didn’t have what

it took to be a preacher. My grandpa’s words rang in my

ears: “You’re never going to amount to anything!”

After being devastated by my first attempt at

preaching, I knew there was a mountain of bad

programming and poor images to overcome. But, glory

to God, in the months that followed,something

happened to break that deadly pattern. I learned about

the importance of meditating on God’s Word!

Two years later, I summoned the courage to make my

second attempt at preaching. But something was very

different this time.

Even though I hadn’t physically stood before a crowd

for any reason for those two years,through meditation I

had stood before crowds and preached hundreds of

times. I would close my eyes and see myself preaching. I

could even hear myself preach the message over and

over again in my spirit. I was painting a picture of

victory on the inside of me.

You see, I meditated on verses that described the image

of truth that I needed to conform to — verses such as I

can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth

me (Phil.4:13) and …greater is He that is in you, than he

that is in the world (1 John 4:4). I kept meditating on

those verses until they actually changed the way I saw

myself!

It was incredible. When the moment came, it was

though I had preached hundreds of times. I was amazed

at how easy it was to conform to the image that had

been created in my spirit through meditation.That’s

what makes meditation so powerful: It replaces the

problem with the Word and the fear of failure with

faith in every area of your life.

 

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Larry now, I can attest to this message 100 % because I practiced preaching what God had given me to share so many times in the truck that I tell people I am not bringing a message, I AM THE MESSAGE.

So when the time did come to speak publicly in a church setting, everything just flowed out like a river, because that’s who I was now. This is so powerful in transforming lives.

UNTIL NEXT TIME: LARRY