BY PASTOR T. O. BANSO
Everything that God does on the earth today, He does it by His Word and His Spirit. Everything God will do in your life cannot be outside these two. In Genesis 1, we see the two at work, during what is often called the work of creation. The Spirit of God first hovered upon the surface of the deep, and then, God released His Word: let there be light. And there was light! The Word and the Spirit work hand-in-hand.
Outside of His Word, there is nothing God will accomplish in your life. Therefore, your attitude to the Word of God will determine what God will accomplish in your life. Heb 11:3 says, “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible” (NKJV). If your life is going to be properly framed, the Word of God, and your attitude to it, will play a key role.
How important is the Word of God to you? Does it mean anything to you? Do you consider it crucial to your living? When you hear the Word of God in church or hear the Word being preached on radio or television or you’re reading your Bible at home, what importance do you attach to it?
These questions are very important because the answers you give, tells a lot about where you are in life today and the direction of your life. Your attitude to the Word of God also tells me a lot about your relationship with God. If you value God in your life, you’ll value His Word.
The writer of Psalm 119:103 says, “How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (NKJV) This is a superlative description of the Word of God. He says again, in verse 11, “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You” (NKJV). In verse 148, the psalmist speaks of meditating on the Word of God. This shows a high regard for the Word of God.
Jeremiah, the prophet of God, says in Jer 15:16, “Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts” (NKJV). Did you see that? He ate the word and became unto him the joy and rejoicing of his heart. That is what the Word of God does. However, not until you find it and eat it. The lives of many people are in shambles today because of the wrong words they’re hearing and meditating (eating) upon. How important is the Word of God to you? Job was another person that valued dearly the Word of God. He said in Job 23: 12b, “I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food” (NKJV). That was a good attitude to the Word of God, for the Bible says man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God (Matt 4:4). I love the way the Contemporary English Version puts it. It says, “Jesus answered; the scripture says no one can live only on food. People need every word that God has spoken.” You, probably, have eaten once or twice today, but have you eaten His Word? You’re not supposed to be living on physical bread alone. You must esteem and enjoy the Word of God more than your daily food. How important is the Word of God to you?
If the Word of God is not important to you, you’ll not know what God has spoken about your life and His promises. Therefore, you’ll not be able to take advantage of them. How can you receive miracles from the Almighty God you have no regard for His Word, which is what He’ll send to perform miracles in your life? Matt 22:29 says, “Jesus answered and said to them, ‘You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God’” (NKJV). You must know what God has spoken, value it, tremble at it and obey it (Ezra 9:4).
There is power in God’s Word. Any life outside the Word of God cannot last. The foolish man in Matt 7:26-27, who built his house on sand, suffered a tragedy of a dismal collapse because he did not build it on a rock. Jesus interpreted that to mean that he only heard the Word but did not do it. That was a wrong attitude.
Don’t receive the Word of God as if it is the preacher’s word. If you receive it as the Word of God and believe it, it will become effectual in your life (1 Thess 2:13). Value the Word of God like a soldier will value the spoil or treasure of war (Ps 119:162).
15 Reasons the Word of God Should be Important to You
Great servant of God and Bible teacher, D. L. Moody, said, “The Bible was not given to increase our knowledge but to change our lives.” Let me share with you 15 reasons I have discovered, in the Bible, that the Word of God should be important to you.
1.It is your power for salvation (Rom 10:13-15; Ps 119:41). No man can be saved without receiving the Word of God either by hearing or reading it. The Word is able to save a sinner and make him a child of God. Why don’t you invite Jesus into your heart now if you’re not born again? Tell Jesus you’re a sinner, confess Him as your Lord and Saviour, hand over your life to Him and invite Him into your heart today. If you’ve done that, please call to share this good news with me and pray with you. Congratulations!
2. It is your key to good success. Regular meditation on the Word of God, and consistent confession day and night, plus obedience, will give you good success in life (Josh 1:8). You can’t fail when you do this. You may get success through other means, but good success comes through the Word of God.
3. It is your medicine for healing and weapon of deliverance. There is healing and deliverance in the Word of God. “He sent His word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions” (Ps 107:20 NKJV). Do you need healing or deliverance? Get the Word of God that promises you this and begin to confess it regularly, and your healing and deliverance will manifest soon. But make sure you don’t give up if it looks as if nothing is happening. Walk by faith and not by sight (2 Cor 5:7).
4. It is your light for illumination and direction. Ps 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (NKJV). The Word of God will illuminate your path and give you direction in life. The writer of Ps 119, pleads in verse 133, “Direct my steps by Your word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me” (NKJV). With the Word of God, you can’t be in darkness. His Word brings light.
5. It is your weapon of victory. The Word of God is the sword of the Spirit. Eph 6:17 says you should take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. By the Word, you’ll overcome every enemy and opposition. Don’t joke with the Word; why should you play with the weapon that will guarantee your victory?
Rev 12:11a says the believers overcame the devil by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. The New Century Version says, “And our brothers and sisters defeated him by the blood of the Lamb’s death and by the message they preached.” Preach the Word; confess the Word.
6. It is your access to the life of God. The Word of God will give you life. It will revive you and refresh you. Phil 2:16 calls the Word of God the word of life. Ps 119:50 says, “This is my comfort in my affliction, for Your word has given me life” (NKJV). The more of the Word of God you read, study hear and meditate on, the more the life of God you receive. Jesus is the Word of life manifested in the flesh (1John 1:1-2).
7. It is a more sure word of prophecy. 2 Peter 1:19 calls the Word of God a more sure word of prophecy (KJV). Holy men spoke as the Holy Ghost moved them. The words they spoke, written down in the Bible, have been fulfilled. The ones yet to be fulfilled shall be. None of the words of God shall go unfulfilled (Matt 24:35; Mark 13:31; Luke 21:33). It shall come to pass. Don’t trivialize the Word of God.
8. It is your unfailing promise. There are exceeding great and precious promises in the Bible. You need to study the Bible and appropriate them into your life. His word to Sarah was a word of promise, and the LORD fulfilled it. “And the LORD visited Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as He had spoken” (Genesis 21:1 KJV). She conceived and gave birth to Isaac, the child of promise, as God had said (Rom 9:9). God honours His Word, and, He cannot lie. “God is not a man that He should lie; neither the son of man that He should repent. Has he said, and shall he not do it? Or has he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” (Num 23:19) It is impossible for God to lie (Heb 6:18). God cannot lie; He will do as He has promised (Titus 1:2).
9. It is your realizable hope. The Word of God gives you hope that is realizable, because the author, God, has no limitation. He has the power, the credibility, the integrity and the resources to do what He has promised you. Therefore, your hope in Him is not misplaced. Ps 119:81 says, “I faint with longing for your salvation; but I have put my hope in your word” (NLT). Verse 114 says, “You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in Your word” (NKJV). Let your hope be in the Word of God, not in mere human philosophy which leads to frustration. It only gives false expectations.
10. It is your pathway to faith. Faith comes by the continuous hearing of the Word of God, not by any other means (Rom 10:17) The more of the Word of God you hear, the more the faith you access. Without faith, it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6). Without faith, there is very little you can accomplish in life as a child of God. Why cheat yourself by despising the Word of God?
11. It is your water of cleansing. The Word of God is a cleansing agent. Eph 5:26 says Jesus sanctified and cleansed the church with the washing of water by the word. The Word of God has the power to clean up your life no matter how dirty your life is. As you’re exposed to the truth of the Word of God regularly, you’re being cleansed. The mirror of the Word of God allows you to see what is wrong in your life and gives you the divine enablement to make amends (James 1:23-25).
12. It is your creative power. When you put the Word of God in your mouth, and you keep confessing it, the Word creates for you what you are speaking. In Genesis 1:1, it was the word of God that created everything He made. Heb 11:3 says by faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God. John 1:3 made reference to the fact that everything created in the beginning was by the Word of God.
By the Word of God in your mouth, you can frame your own world to become what you desire according to God’s plan for your life. Stop speaking negative words; stop engaging in evil speaking – words that God has not said, and you will see great changes in your life.
13. It is your nourishment for growth. 1 Peter 2:2 enjoins believers, as newborn babes, to desire the pure milk of the word that they may grow thereby. The Word of God, to Christians, is like milk for new born babies. It is also solid food for mature believers (1 Cor 3:2; Heb 5:12-14). Without physical food, a human being won’t grow normally. Without the Word of God, a child of God can’t grow spiritually. Because many Christians are not taking balanced diet of the Word of God, they’re suffering from spiritual kwashiorkor!
14. It is your protection against sin. Ps 119:11 says, “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You” (NKJV). The Word of God will keep you away from sin when you study it, meditate on it day and night, keep it in your heart and allow it to control your thoughts and actions. Exposing your mind to the Word of God regularly and continuously brings about a renewing of your mind. This results in your transformation. That is how not to conform to this sinful world. The Word of God is the antidote to sin (Heb 12:2). Bible teacher, D.L. Moody, was quoted as saying, “The Bible will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from the Bible.”
15. It is your power for reconciliation. The Word of God that believers preach is the word of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:19). The only means by which the world can be reconciled back to God is by preaching the Word of God to sinners. It is the Word of reconciliation, through the ministry of reconciliation that Jesus has committed into the hands of believers, that saves sinners. If you’re born again, this is your ministry. Your duty is to see that others are saved just as you’ve been saved. What are you doing about that? He that wins souls is wise (Prov 11:30).
Conclusion: Having read this message, God expects you to cultivate and develop a positive attitude to His Word. Reverence God’s Word. Listen to it, study it, meditate on it, confess it, and, above all, obey it. Don’t despise or disrespect His Word. Be a doer of the Word, and not a hearer or reader alone, deluding yourself. The blessing is to the doer and not the hearer or reader (James 1:23). If you’re willing and obedient, you shall eat the best of the land (Isa1:19). This shall be your portion in Jesus’ name.
TAKE ACTION!
If you’re not born again, you need to make yourself ready for eternity. I urge you to take the following steps:*Admit you’re a sinner and you can’t save yourself and repent of your sins. *Confess Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. *Renounce your past way of life – your relationship with the devil and his works. *Invite Jesus into your life. *As a mark of seriousness to mature in the faith, start to attend a Bible-believing, Bible-teaching church. There you will be taught how to grow in the Kingdom of God.
Kindly say this prayer now: O Lord God, I come unto you today. I know I am a sinner and I cannot save myself. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross to save me and resurrected the third day. I repent and confess my sins. I confess Jesus as my LORD and Saviour and surrender my life to him today. I invite Jesus into my heart today. By this prayer, I know I am saved. Thank you, Jesus, for saving me and making me a child of God.
I believe you have said this prayer from your heart. Congratulations! You will need to join a Bible believing, Bible-teaching church in your area where you will be taught how to live your new life in Christ Jesus. I pray that you flourish like the palm tree and grow like the cedar of Lebanon. May you grow into Christ in all things and become all God wants you to be. I’ll be glad to hear from you. May the LORD be with you.
T. O. Banso is the President, Cedar Ministry International, Abuja, Nigeria.
Phone No: +2348155744752, +2348033113523
WhatsApp No: +2349081295947
Email: cedarministryintl@yahoo.com,
cedarministryng@gmail.com
Website: www.cedarministry.org
