A Living Example for Christ

I would like to start off this message by sharing from Hebrews 4:12 which says,

For the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing apart of soul and spirit; and of the joints and marrow, and it is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Doing Gardening

A little while ago, we as a team were all on our knees on our driveway. We were not worshipping the driveway, but we had to pull out the weeds that were growing there. It was a job that needed to be done for a long time. We knew that there were visitors coming, so we really had to do it.

I had never done gardening before. I am not good at gardening and do not think I have a green thumb. Let’s put it where it is; I suck at gardening, but I jumped in there with the rest of them.

At first I tried to take the weeds out with some kind of implement, but it just fell apart all the time so nothing really worked. I tried to pull them out, but when I did that only the top came off and nothing else came with it.

I decided then to go back into the house and get myself a really sharp knife. That was when the work really started! It worked like a charm. So there I was, on my knees, trying to dig with the knife between the cracks and get the weeds out.

It was such a joy for me when I pulled on the weeds and the whole root came with it. Everyone could hear me shouting,

“Yeah, I got another one!”

What the Word Does

I just liked that feeling of getting the full root out. Eventually I got so enthusiastic that my knife slipped, and instead of getting the roots, I found the knife in my arm so I stabbed myself. That really hurt and I had to run inside and take care of it.

In that moment however it kind of woke something up within me, and the Lord started to speak to me. He said to me,

“The Word is really like a two-edged sword. It is not always just meant to be nice or encouraging. There are times when it will stab you, and when it will cause those roots to come out.”

Sometimes when that happens it is a little bit painful, but the Word is meant to do something to you and also deep within you. So you can see that there are two ways that it can affect you.

Encourages You

The first thing it does is to encourage you and lift you up. You don’t need to dismiss that. The Word should encourage you. When you are feeling down, just go into the Psalms and read a couple of them. You will feel lifted up in no time.

Convicts You

Besides encouraging you and lifting you up, the Word should also convict your heart on things that should not be there. That is like pulling those weeds with the roots that were in the driveway. The Word goes deep down and gets those things out of your heart.

It gets to all the stuff that shouldn’t be sitting there anymore. The Word can convict you of those things.

It helps you to discern right from wrong. How else can you know what is right from wrong? When you become a Christian, do you now suddenly think, “I am doing the right thing now,” just because you have given your life to the Lord?

I wish it would happen like that, but unfortunately it doesn’t happen that way. However the Word is the lamp for your feet. It is what will show you the path and show you the way. The Word will say to you,

“This is right; do this.”

Or, “This is wrong; stop doing it.”

The Word has the power to bring all those changes in your life. It is also meant to work within you. It will start a work within you that brings a deep change, so that you are not working around as the same person anymore.

You have a new image now; not just any image, but His image. If you read the Word you can see who God is. You get to know Him, and you get to know His nature and His love.

Gives Direction

You get to know how He works. You also find out what He wants to do in your life and where He wants to lead you.

So many people are walking around out there, going from prophet to prophet and saying,

“I need a word!”

I sometimes wonder how much time they spend reading the Word that has already been given to them. Don’t get me wrong, I am not against prophetic words. We send them out and I find them powerful. But don’t come back to us and say,

“Is this word now for me?”

If you come back like that, obviously it wasn’t for you. But maybe that day God wanted you to go into the Word of God and get your own word or your own direction. Then when you have that direction, you might receive another prophetic word which confirms what He has already given to you.

The Word Speaks

I am passionate about the Word, because I see so many people going astray. They are not being grounded in the Word, and they are not allowing the Word of God to speak to them. When was the last time that you heard through the Word?

The Word is really like a manual that is given by Him to us to show us how to live this life. If you don’t know what tomorrow will bring or where you should head tomorrow, get into the Word.

You may have a situation right now that you don’t know how to handle. Or maybe you are crying out and saying,

“Jesus I want to live this life for you, but I don’t know how to do it.”

Get into the Word of God. It has 66 books in it that will help you and show you how to walk this walk. It will show you how to be set apart for Him, how He loves you, and what He wants to do with your life. It is all there in the Word.

If you take the time to get into the Word, He can actually speak to you through it. You will never have to go a day again without hearing Him.

Here though is the problem. So many people say,

“Yes I read the Word. This morning I read a Psalm and another five chapters.”

How much of it do you remember? How much of it has actually touched you in your heart? Or did you just read it so that you could say,

“I did my task.”

You see His Word is living, and if you read it right and you give Him that time, it will speak to you. He will use the Word to speak into the situation you are in or the problem you have, and He will answer all the questions that you have right now within your heart.

You may have thought,

“How can I go on from here? How should I handle this?”

The Word will speak to you and it will answer all those questions. It is like a map and like His instrument to you, to transform you into a living example and the image of Him.

It is not just what you get out of it. It is what He can do through His Word that He has already put into place.

Balance the Word and the Spirit

You need to take the Word as a foundation and step onto it. If you build yourself and your whole life on that foundation, your life will never fall again. And even if it does, you will know,

“Oh, I built a block wrong here. Let’s go and review what God said in His manual. I should have built it a bit more to the right. This block should be a bit more to the left and I should balance it out between the two, then it won’t fall.”

Can you see the picture? Can you see how powerful the Word is? As I am sharing this I feel His power very strongly. You need to get back into the Word and get back to balance. Stop just hanging in the Spirit all the time and saying,

“Oh Lord it’s great up here but I don’t know where I am going.”

This is because you don’t have the Word in you. Your foundation is lacking down there. Only when you bring the Word and Spirit together as one, will you have the full foundation. Then you can be as powerful as you want to be.

Your life won’t lack anything anymore but you will actually have a fulfilled life. From the beginning to the end you will never stumble again.

If something unexpected comes on your path during the day, out of you will come the Word. It will pop up and you will know,

“I don’t have to accept this situation. Jesus said that I have power over all the power of the enemy. I have authority over all of these things. I don’t have to accept this.”

You can stand against the attack before it even really comes to you.

Strong in the Word

So many people are imbalanced. Then there are those who are so strong in the Word. But is the Word speaking to them or do they just know the Word?

They are good. They can quote Scriptures in an instant.
They even know the references. But is the Word alive in them? Has the Word done the work in them?

When you look at them, do you see the image of God upon them? Because that is what the Word says it will do. It will divide between spirit and soul.

We don’t want to see the soul. We want to see the spirit. We don’t want to see all the dirty thoughts of your heart. They should be cut away so that the good ones can come out. This will cause people to see more spirit than just your soul in you.

Conviction from the Word

It says in Colossians 3:10,

And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that has created him.

Which man are you feeding? Are you feeding the old one or the new one? When was the last time you were convicted of something while you read the Word? Think about it. Perhaps while you were reading God said to you,

“My child, can you see this Scripture? I would like you to change this in your heart. I would like you to let it go. You are walking in your flesh here in this area and I want you to change.”

That doesn’t sound nasty, does it? It is still loving, but the Word is still the double-edged sword. And when it hits a stone in your heart, it hurts.

When I slipped with my knife and cut into the flesh it hurt. It wasn’t just a case of saying,

“Oh look guys, it’s bleeding now.”

No, it was actually sore for a whole week. It healed really fast but I was sore there. I could feel the effects of that sword going in. And if the sword of the Spirit comes and cuts like the Word says, there should be an effect. You should feel it. It should be painful. It is not to destroy you, but to show you,

“This is my way. This is my path that you should go on. Walk this way and you will come into blessing.”

Wanting Instant Blessings

We all want to have the blessing, but do we walk according to the Word of God? Or do we just say,

“Amen, I receive!”

It is like those posts on Facebook. They say if you type amen then you will receive. It doesn’t work like that though. After you type amen, you walk away from Facebook and do whatever you feel like again.

The Word doesn’t show us any of this. The Word does not tell us that you can just say amen and it will be there. It does give us some clear steps to take though like Steps 1, 2, 3 and 4.

If you do those steps, then your life will be abundantly blessed. Then you will find those treasures that you are looking for. And you will find the fulfillment in your life that you are looking for.

No Help from the World

Out there in the world you cannot find it. You might think that you can find it. You can try with drugs, alcohol, relationships or whatever you can, but you won’t find it. Eventually you will come to the point where you realize,

“It is not worth it. This is not getting me anywhere in my life.”

Because as soon as you feel that you have it in your hands, it is like sand that just runs through again. The Word of God and God Himself are the only things that can give you that depth to your spiritual life.

A Double Anointing

If you know the Word, then by all means add the Spirit to it. If you go into the Spirit when you have that foundation, it will bring a double anointing. I experienced that the other day. It was as though the two anointings came together and there was a hurricane going on in your life.

You don’t just have one anointing or the other. You have both of them. You have a power going on in your life. You will never have to wonder,

“Is my revelation right? Am I really seeing or hearing from the Lord?”

Confidence in Him

You will not have to ask those questions because it is backed up by the Word. And if it is backed up by the Word, you know that you are on the right path. It produces like a confidence within you with is part of His image.

You might be feeling insecure today and you wonder,

“Who am I?”

Well get into the Word. It will tell you exactly who you are in Christ. You won’t find your name there, but every time it says Christ is like this, you can put your name in, because you are in Christ and He is in you.

It is so powerful. It says in the Word,

Christ has risen from the dead.

This now means that you have risen from the dead. You have the same power within you. Everything Jesus did on this earth you can do, because He is in you and you are in Him. The Word tells you to do those things.

Living Every Part of the Word

You don’t have to live a life of lack, rejection and everything like that, because the Word does not say we will get those things. Yes it tells us that we will have things like people coming after us, not liking us or hating us.

Sorry, but that is part of the walk. But you will know how to handle it, if you are grounded in the Word. You know that the forces of faith, hope and love can cover everything.

They can come against every attack that comes from Satan through man. You always have something to counteract with if you know the Word and are grounded in it. You can walk in the Spirit and you can have victory over all those things.

Are you walking around blindly thinking that everything is okay? Or are you really feeding your new man? Are you living with Christ in His death and His resurrection? Or are you maybe saying,

“I like the resurrection part. That’s awesome.”

We want everything to be happy. We want all the blessings and the positive emotions. But unfortunately the cross is still there.

Jesus hung on it, but if you are in Him, you also hang on the cross. This means that your old man hangs there and should stay there.

What comes off the cross is the new man, meaning the new creation; the new person that He has built within you. That man should walk the earth, not your old desires or the old flesh.

Being a Testimony for Jesus

I am asking a lot of questions in this message, but they are to make you think. So here is another question. Do others see Jesus in you?

When you walk into your office or your workplace, do others see Him in you? Do they come to you and say,

“There is something different about you. I’m not sure what it is today, but I have noticed you. When you walk around and people reject you, I have noticed that you do not give back. You do not lash back at them. You smile and you walk on confidently and don’t let it affect you.”

Why is this? Because the Word is so alive in a person like that. It is so grounded in them that they know,

“I do not have to let this affect me. Lord forgive them; they don’t know what they are doing.”

If we could all be like that in these situations, can you imagine how Christ would be seen in this place? Can you imagine how He would shine everywhere in the darkness?

It would happen simply because we made the Word come alive. That is why I called the title of my message Be a Living Example. You should not just be an example but a livingexample of Christ. Don’t just say to people,

“I am a Christian.”

Sometimes I think certain Christians should not tell others that they are a Christian because they are really not much of a testimony. It is sad to say this, but in every situation that you are in, look around you because there are always people around you.

Sooner or later, each of those people will look at you and you could be a testimony to them. Or you could miss it and you could show the wrong side.

We all slip up at times. I am not saying that we are now perfect and are not going to sin anymore. If we say that then we are lying as the Word says. But how much are you showing to others?

Two Ways to Show Jesus

There are two ways that the Lord can be seen in and through you. The Word says,

And whatever you do in speech or action, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.

So you can show the Lord in speech and in action. These are the ways that He can be shown through you.

Showing in Speech

What kind of words do you speak through the day? What kind of actions do you show throughout your day? Are you maybe feeling a little bit convicted yet?

If you are it is because I am speaking the Word of God. I am not even speaking my own words. So far I have given you a couple of Scriptures.

That is what should happen to you. So what kind of words come out of your mouth? Do they bring glory to the Lord? When nobody is watching, what do you let out of your mouth?

Do your words glorify the Lord? Are they representing Him and His nature? Or could it be that maybe it is more your words; your own flesh talking or your own desires showing through?

When you are a little bit jealous of somebody, that may be showing through. You need to realize that your words don’t just affect you. They also affect others like the people around you.

Words Are Powerful

Words have power, and what you speak over yourself has power. But what you speak over others also carries exactly the same power.

So if you are going around slandering other people you are taking them down. You might say,

“Did you see that idiot? Did you see what he did? I can’t believe it.”

Those words affect the person. Are you saying those kinds of things, or are you encouraging others when they are feeling down?

What kind of testimony are you at your workplace? Trust me people are watching. When you say you are a Christian people will be watching you very closely. They will want to know,

“Why have you not changed?”

Sometimes suddenly people know the Bible as well. I always find that the interesting part. They never read it, but they know what we should be like. They know it very well and they will share it with you when you fail. They will be the first ones to say,

“Do you think that is what the Lord would do?”

Change Your Heart

Ask yourself what you are speaking each day. What is coming out of your mouth, and why does it come out of your mouth? Because it is in your heart. That is why I shared the first passage of Scripture showing that the Word reveals the thoughts and intents of your heart.

You don’t need to try to change your language. Don’t now try to change the words you are speaking. You just need to change your heart. When you do that things will change.

Let’s say that you speak angry words that come out in bitterness. Deal with your heart and with those gross things in your heart. If you do your language will change automatically.

What comes out will automatically be positive, because you are changing deep within. You are allowing God to take that place deep in your heart. You hand that over to Him and say,

“Here it is. Please take out those gross weeds. Come in with your knife, dig deep and take them out with the roots.”

Don’t just do a superficial job and say,

“Let’s just take out the mower and go over it.”

Yes it works really fast. But within a week those roots or weeds will be growing back again, because you never dealt with the real cause and the real problem, so allow Him to deal with that.

Showing in Actions

So then words are the one way you can show Jesus in your life. Actions are the other way that people can see Him. Actions speak louder than words. It tells us in 1 John not to love with words or speech, but with actions and in truth.

This means that you don’t put on a performance and say nice little words when you are out there with people. You may think,

“Now I have to behave. And it’s Wednesday evening and now we have home church, so obviously I must now put my best face on.”

No, it must show in actions and in truth. Your actions will also show, again because of what is in your heart. You can say the right words, but if your actions do not line up with your words, it will be worth nothing.

The world speaks great words out there. There are awesome writers and people who can quote each other all the time and they sound really great.

You can even hear Christians quoting so many worldly people, but nothing lines up with the Word. It is not based on the Word. It is all based on moral codes.

God wants to bring real action from your heart in truth. And with your actions you won’t just talk cheap. They will have an effect on people.

Jesus didn’t just talk about being the Messiah. He showed it by dying on the cross for you and for me. He took a very strong action to show and prove His love for us and by being obedient.

If God asks something of you, do you obey just by saying,

“Yes Lord, I will do it.”

Then you get out of His presence and forget about what He asked you to do already. Or do you really follow through with your actions? Because if you do, then you show the image of God and you show you mean business with God.

Fulfill Your Promises

Your promises should always be carried out. If you make promises to other people you should carry them out.

I am not making this into a moral code. There are times where you really try but you can’t keep it up. However certain things you really should follow through with. Because if you don’t, people will look at you and say,

“Okay, so you are like this. That means I can’t trust you now because you are not keeping your promise. This means that God is just the same, because you are representing Him. And that means I can’t trust God because He won’t keep His promises either.”

Can you see that you are representing God in this world? You are a child of the King of Kings. That means you have to sometimes put certain things away so that you can behave like a child of a king.

A child of a king cannot just do whatever they want. They have something to fulfill in this earth. They have a protocol to walk after and to fulfill.

We also have such a protocol in the Word of God which shows us exactly what we should do and what we shouldn’t do. It really isn’t about saying,

“Do this and don’t do this.”

Don’t get me wrong, God is a God of grace. If we get it wrong we should get up again, but we should learn from the mistakes and not do them again. We should look at them and say,

“Why did I do this wrong? What happened in my heart? Why am I talking like this?”

Change Needed

You know recently the Lord convicted me of something as well. I was in a store and had a thought about somebody that was negative. I walked out of there afterwards and thought,

“Why did I think this? That is so stupid of me.”

If I had now spoken it out it would really not be from the Lord. I looked at it and I allowed God to cut deep.

What He showed me was that it was my insecurity that brought it out. You feel like you can put somebody a little bit lower and it makes you then feel a little bit better.

It was my problem, not the other person’s problem. I went wrong by allowing my flesh to take over and control me, instead of God’s thoughts and His heart to flow through me.

We all make those mistakes. Let’s be real; everyone of us makes those mistakes and we slip at times. But how much awareness do you have that you are actually doing it?

Let me get back to my question again. When was the last time you had a conviction? When was the last time you thought,

“Wow Lord, please change that in me. Please take it on the cross. I don’t want to go on like this anymore. It doesn’t represent you in this earth.”

If the actions you are taking are real, you produce the opposite of mistrust. You produce faith which again means that other people will see it. And guess what? They won’t just have faith in you. They will have faith in God.

You can say to them,

“That wasn’t about me here. It is about God.”

As soon as you do that they will trust Him and know,

“That’s awesome! I can have faith in this God, because He says what He is and He shows what He is in this world.”

Make the Word Alive

The next point is that the Word must become rhema words, not just logos words. You probably know that the written word is just the logos word. But it has to become the rhema word so that it can speak to you.

How do you do that? When was the last time the Word came alive to you? There are different ways to help you experience the Word of God.

I grew up in Switzerland and it was heaven. If you like bread and pastries and all that stuff, Switzerland is wonderful. I grew up with that so that was normal for me.

Coming here to South Africa it seems like there is only one bread which is all the same color. If you want to have good tasting bread you have to make it yourself.

When you give up bread it is even harder to handle. That is where I am right now. I always see other pastries everywhere and the memories all come back to me.

Switzerland has everything, so you have dark breads, heathy breads and white bread. You have croissants and the whole range of sweet pastries, savory pastries and everything like that, and it is delicious.

Variety in the Word

The point I am trying to make here though, is you have all of those different things and the Word of God is just like that. The Word is often compared with a loaf of bread because it feeds you.

If you see a vision of baked bread or something like that, it usually speaks of the Word of God and it tastes good. And just like in Switzerland where you had all those different things, the Word of God wants to give you the same variety; not the same old bread.

The Lord wants you to experience different things through the Word, so today I may feel like a chocolate croissant. And so I ask the Lord,

“Please, give me something different today.”

You cannot live on chocolate croissants every day because it is not good for you. Sometimes you need healthy bread that feeds you, that does something to your spirit and gives you a good, nourishing meal.

Use All Your Senses

There are five ways that you can experience the Word and make it more alive. You can do it though your five senses. You can smell it, see it, taste it, feel it and hear it.

Sense of Smell

You can smell the Word. Have you ever thought about that?

When you go through the story of Lazarus, there is that point where they opened the grave. You can smell that moment. It stank! I’m sure it didn’t smell like flowers or roses when he walked out in his bandages after being dead for a little while.

You can smell that moment. It might be gross, but it makes the story come alive. You will never again forget how the story went. As you are reading, God can talk to you in that moment and say,

“Just like Lazarus was lying dead and in the darkness, when you come out you may not smell great instantly. But as the bandages are removed from you, life will come back into you.”

You see, now we have already brought the story to life.

Sense of Sight

You can see things in the Word. Can you see the flames of fire dancing over each one on the day of Pentecost? It wasn’t just a case of saying,

“They were filled with the Holy Spirit and each of them had their own language.”

No, see what it says there. See it and live it. It is not just some words. It is living. Make the words you speak go into rhema words. Allow God to speak into you and get real revelation in that moment.

That means every time I speak in tongues there is like fire around me. It means that it is more than just speaking in tongues. No, there is power when you speak in tongues.

You can see that I am excited about this. For me this brings the Word to life.

Sense of Taste

You can taste the Word as well. You can taste the sweetness of the honey in the story of Ezekiel when he ate the scroll that God gave him. Why does it say those things? Because obviously it tasted like something. God didn’t just say to him,

“Here, eat the scroll. Eat the message and then it will be in your belly.”

First Ezekiel tasted the honey. Taste it while you read it. Then taste what it feels like when you get a message from God.

It tastes so sweet, then it turns into bitterness in your belly. Because now you feel a responsibility to take that message out to other people again.

God can talk to you like this and it makes the Word come alive. It becomes real and exciting to get into the Word.

Sense of Feeling

You need to feel the Word. Can you feel the water beneath Peter’s feet as he stepped out of the boat and onto the water? Have you ever wondered what it felt like for him to actually get to stand on the water? Feel it between your toes.

Or here is a less nice picture. Feel the nails in your hands when you read about Jesus being crucified. Do you know how painful that must have been for Him? Do you understand what it means when He says,

“I have taken all your pain and all your sickness upon me.”

When you are lying there sick and you are in so much pain, image the pain He went through as they put the nails through His hands and hammered them into the cross.

Imagine what it was like as they whipped Him on the back and spat Him in the face. As you read about all of those things you can feel the humiliation. You can feel how He felt.

Look back into your situation now. Are people spitting you in the face? Probably not. Are they just saying nasty words to you? It is nothing in comparison to what He felt, but yet He felt with you.

If you read it like that you know,

“The pain He has gone through is nothing compared with what I am facing right now. But He has gone through it for me and for this situation I am going through.

If He could react correctly and if He could say, ‘Father forgive them. They don’t know what they are doing,’ how much more can I say those words? How much more can I mean them from my heart and forgive? Because after all my situation is nothing. It is not that bad.”

You see it takes you out of your situation when you read the Word like that. It allows God to fill your situation with His view and with His truth.

The Word Will Bring Change

Do you want to grow in the Spirit and become different? Do you want to make an impact in the world? Then you need to fill yourself with God’s Word. It will not just happen if you say,

“I’m going to a meeting on Sunday. I’m going to show up at church and sing a couple of songs.”

That’s wonderful, but then you go home again and you are the same person. Well if you gave your life and you said you will follow Him, something is required of you.

Fill yourself with the Word and you will know each step of the way. You will know that there are good things ahead; that you will have a life of abundance and blessing. But it will only happen if you walk in that path and apply the Word. Then you will feel the freedom and liberty that He has for you.

So often we think,

“Now that I have given my heart to the Lord, I have to let go of everything.”

That is not what He said though. He just wants you to let go of the things that He asks of you along the way. But again do you take the time to even listen to what He says you should give up right now? Do you even hear it? You will hear it in the Word.

Then He will come to you and say,

“My child I am so proud of you because you set me first before all these things. And because you have set me first, and because you have been faithful, I will set you over big things.”

You see that is when the good promises come in. There are awesome promises in the Word, but they usually have a little trick so that you have to do something with it. They won’t just fall upon you. You have to at least believe in them.

I am not talking about your deeds here. You have to just believe that He wants to give you those things and that He has the best for you. If not, that is your starting point. Fill yourself with the Word. It will produce faith within you.

Faith comes by hearing the rhema words. Make the Word have rhema words. See it, taste it, smell it and hear it.

Sense of Hearing

I haven’t covered hearing yet. Hear Jesus being angry in the temple when He turned over the tables on the sellers. Jesus didn’t just say,

“Guys I don’t think it is very nice what you are doing here.”

No, He turned the tables over. He was pretty angry. He was pretty upset. Can you hear His voice in that moment.

Can you hear the noise when Moses put his staff into the Red Sea and it separated? That wasn’t just a little thing. Imagine standing in front of any ocean and it starts to part. Something is happening and you will hear the sounds of it.

Water alone makes a noise when it parts. That shows God’s power and His creativity. It shows His love. If He can do those things, how much more can He do for you in your life? Are you showing it though and what are you doing with all of that?

Wrapping it Up

In conclusion, my question once again is when was the last time you were convicted of something? Were you convicted of His love, or a sin that shouldn’t be there anymore? Perhaps you were convicted of something where the Lord said,

“You should have given that up my child. I want to take you to a new level but you can’t take that with you.”

When was the last time you heard from Him through the Word? Maybe you even heard from Him through a prophetic word, through somebody else’s teaching or something like that.

It doesn’t have to only be the Word of God. It can be the Word packed into something else. Whatever it was, have you allowed it to cut? Or did you just take the good parts that you liked and you said of the other part,

“I don’t like that. Let’s just move it away from here. That doesn’t look like the Lord.”

It is the Lord though. God put His own Son on the cross. It sounds cruel to me, but He did do it so that we can live. So is it too much for you to let go of those little things that you are holding onto, instead of putting them on the cross and leaving them there?

When you do that, He can then be seen in this world. His glory can be seen through you.

That is what He wants to really do. He wants to use you as an instrument in this world for others to see. He can’t just show up out of nowhere and say,

“Hello guys, I know my people are sleeping or too busy with themselves and their own desires, but here I am.”

No, He uses you, me or anybody in this world that is open to say,

“I am a willing vessel for you.”

Let Him shine through with those things in your heart. Get rid of the roots, and then really let that light shine that is deep within you.

He wants to make you a living example, so speak and act according to it. Allow God to show you where you have to change. Put the old man on the cross and then obey what He says.

Enjoy the Word afresh. Even if you got nothing out of this message, at least enjoy the Word of God afresh. Get into the Word. If you don’t have a passion, ask Him for it. He will give it to you. Ask Him honestly and say,

“I don’t have it Lord, but I would like to have it.”

If you ask Him that He will give you that passion. Before now I was never this passionate about the Word like I am at this stage in my life. Because I see that in the Word is the truth. In there is my life. In there is my foundation and everything I need.

By reading it and getting revelation from it, there is nothing more exciting. It changes your whole view. And when you go out into the world it comes out of you. In the moments when you don’t think about it, it just pops out of you.

That is exciting for me, and that is what I want to give you today. So taste, see, hear, feel and smell the Word when you read it. Don’t just say,

“Oh another Psalm. Okay let’s go through my list again. What, another chapter? Why is there now another chapter on my list?”

Make it exciting. Then you can’t wait to get up in the morning or whenever you have your time in the Word, because it is like living in a story. And while you are living in the story you are writing the story as well. You are part of it.

So if you make all those things a part of you and if you do them, your spiritual walk will never be boring again. You will rise to a new level in Him in hearing from Him. And most of all you will become like Him.

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