Daily Bible Reading - August 12, 2018

Today's Reading:

John 1:1-18

1 Chronicles 5-6

Zephaniah 2

Listen to the Bible

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thoughts and Commentary on Today's Reading   

In John 1, we read about the Word, which became flesh and dwelt among us. The Word of Yah brought our world into existence. The Word is a Person - Yahshua. The Word is also written - the Bible.

When we take hold of Yahweh's Word, we find vibrant Life. We find transforming Power. We find everything we need. But if our Bibles are laying upon the shelf collecting dust, all of these blessings from the living Word are lost to us. We need to take it, use it, incorporate it, and let it speak to and through us.

Derek Prince, in his book Prayers and Proclamations, compares the Word of God with the Rod in Moses' hand. The following is quoted from the fifth chapter of this powerful book:

You, too, have a rod in your hand: your Bible. If you can understand its unlimited potential, you can use it as Moses used his rod: to extend God's Authority into any situation where Satan opposes the people and the purposes of God.

Over our years together, my wife, Ruth, and I fought a continuing war against Satan, who opposed us and our ministry in many different ways. I sensed that one of his goals was to kill Ruth. In this war, the Holy Spirit taught us how to take hold of the Bible as our rod and extend God's Authority through it into every area where Satan was opposing us.

The Holy Spirit led us systematically to Scripture after Scripture, and showed us how to direct them to each area of attack. The strategy the Holy Spirit taught us was:

Proclamation!

Thanksgiving!

Praise!

First, proclaim the appropriate Scripture with bold, unwavering confidence. To make this fully effective, we often personalized the passages we quoted, making any grammatical substitutions needed to apply the verses more personally to ourselves. For instance, where the Bible says, "you," we changed it in our proclamation to "I," "we," or "us."

Second, we accepted the Scripture we proclaimed as true, even before we saw its actual outworking in any situation. The natural result of this was to thank God for it.

This logically led to the third step: loud, jubilant praise!

In Song of Solomon 6:4, Solomon describes Christ's Bride, the church, as "awesome as an army with banners." Under those banners-Proclamation, Thanksgiving, and Praise-Ruth and I were able to drive out the hosts of darkness and enter into freedom that God had appointed for us as His believing people...

 In order to receive the maximum benefit from (the) Scriptures, here are three simple steps to follow:

1. Ask the Holy Spirit to make "alive" to you any Scriptures that are appropriate to your particular situation.

2. Read the Scriptures through many times - out loud, if possible.

3. Gradually proceed from reading aloud to systematic memorization. This is a natural step. The Hebrew expression for "to learn by heart" actually means "to learn by mouth." As you read the words aloud, they gradually become imprinted on your memory.

It's time to experience the Word of God personally! Get to know Him! And spend time reading, memorizing, and personalizing His Word. As you do, you will discover the life-changing Power that spoke life into this planet. And it (He) will speak Life into you as well!