Tag Archives: studying God’s Word

Renewing Your Mind in God’s Word

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The journey of renewing our minds is a process. It doesn’t occur in a moment or two. It takes consistent, daily moments with Jesus over time. Nonetheless, it is one of the most beautiful parts of our journey with Him.

How can we do our part in this? By spending time with Christ in worship, prayer, and meditating on His Word.

Renewing our minds with God’s Word helps us grow in faith, hope, love and all the fruit of His Spirit. As we spend time studying and meditating on His Word, we will experience transformation through His truth and by His Spirit.

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
– Romans 12:1-2 (NKJV)

Father God loves to set us free from lies we believe and wrong mindsets we struggle with. He wants to transform our perspective concerning Him, ourselves and others. He even wants to help us not be led by our emotions when they are about to lead us astray.

Do you need peace in your life, freedom from fear and anxiety, an attitude adjustment, or other things?
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Being Prepared for Christ’s Return

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“Be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps lit… “Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them… if the head of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into. “You too, be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect.” …the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and sensible steward, whom his master will put in charge of his servants, to give them their rations at the proper time? “Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes… (Luke 12:35, 37, 39-40, 42 – Read all of Luke 12:35-48.)

Christ says we are blessed if we are ready when He returns. We’re to be alert and always prepared for His second coming so that His return doesn’t take us by surprise no matter when He comes. We must be ready. In verse 37, Jesus even says that He Himself will come serve and dine with us who are ready and alert for His return.

I know that I honestly don’t feel prepared for Jesus’ return! How can we be prepared? Some things I feel God brought to my mind:

  1. First, we must have faith in God to help and guide us by His Holy Spirit. Without faith, we can’t please God.
  2. We must put our relationship with Him center-stage, spending daily, quality time with God on a consistent basis. (Read the Parable of the Ten Virgins.)
  3. Read, pray, study and live His Word, including studying Scripture pertaining to the End Times. (150 Chapters on the End Times.)
  4. Help others be ready by equipping them to do #1-3 above and guide them in preparing others still–both other believers and also reaching the lost for Christ (Luke 12:42).

‘So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.’ (Revelation 3:3)

Prayer: Lord, strengthen our faith in You and guide us by Your Holy Spirit. Help us to cultivate our relationship with You in all depth and intimacy. Give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of You and in Your Word, Your will and Your ways. Help us in every way to be alert and prepared for Your return, helping others to be ready as well. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Other verses to study: 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6, 2 Peter 3:10-18, Revelation 3:1-3

Cultivating Relationship with God

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This post is mostly excerpts from a teaching on Cultivating the Oil of Intimacy by Mike Bickle.

It is not enough to study the Word, we must give our heart to God and receive from Him as we read it. Bible study must create an active dialogue in our heart with God. Scripture gives us the “conversational material” in our prayer life. It creates the language of our heart with God. Using the Word in our prayer language with God makes prayer easy and enjoyable. We must actually speak the Word back to God and against Satan’s attack on our lives. Many do not speak the Word back to God or against Satan (they only speak it to others). The power of God’s love touches us as we declare back it to God. We thank Him for the love that He declares over us.
(Mike Bickle)

We must put our relationship with God first, not work or ministry to others, not anything else, to be ready in the day of Christ’s return. Without intimacy with God, we’ll lack the fuel of God’s Spirit in ourselves and also being God’s vessel as each one is called to be like Christ to others.

Matthew 25: Parable of the Ten Virgins

The kingdom of heaven is like what happened one night when ten girls took their oil lamps and went to a wedding to meet the groom. Five of the girls were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps, but no extra oil. The ones who were wise took along extra oil for their lamps. …someone shouted, “Here’s the groom! Come to meet him!”

When the girls got up and started getting their lamps ready, the foolish ones said to the others, “Let us have some of your oil! Our lamps are going out.”
The girls who were wise answered, “There’s not enough oil for all of us! Go and buy some for yourselves.”

While the foolish girls were on their way to get some oil, the groom arrived. The girls who were ready went into the wedding, and the doors were closed. Later the other girls returned and shouted, “Sir, sir! Open the door for us!”
But the groom replied, “I don’t even know you!”

So, my disciples, always be ready! You don’t know the day or the time when all this will happen.

Mike later shares that to grow in relationship with Jesus we must:

  • Spend time regularly and intentionally feeding on God’s Word and meditating on His truths (read the quote at the top of this post).
  • Live it! We must be doers of the Word, not just hearers (James 1:22)
  • Intentionally utilize God’s Word when faced with temptation – speak His truth and take all thoughts captive to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:3-6)
  • Say “no” to things that hinder our relationship with God or keep us from cultivating intimacy with Him and living by the Spirit instead of the flesh. (Mark 8:34, 2 Corinthians 5:15, Colossians 3:1-2)

“Many ‘ministry lamps’ will go out because they will lack the spiritual vitality of the Spirit’s oil & will not be able to feed the heart of God’s people in the coming time pressures.”
(Mike Bickle)

Faith Not Feeling and Other Thoughts

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I think so often we search for feelings & experiences, forgetting that the truth of God’s Word needs to never be neglected. We can only gain the knowledge & discernment we need through studying His Word, not basing our relationship with God too greatly on feelings or experiences. Our own feelings cannot be trusted–they change faster than the weather at times & are often the result of missed perceptions of people, situations & experiences.

Truth can rarely be known based solely on our feelings. We must continue to be in His Word, being sanctified by Him & surrendering to His will each day so that we can share the Good News & God’s truth with those who do not know Him. Then we can share the Gospel while truly being examples of how God is changing & growing us to be more Christ-like, & also grow in discernment as we study His Word.

We should be being transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:1-2), not giving only to get more, chasing after every feel-good speaker or anointing we hear about to gain artificial highs, or refusing to change from our pre-salvation selves thinking it doesn’t truly matter since we’ve been forgiven (see Romans 6). How can we be witnesses by our lives to the Gospel & how the truth of His Word renews our minds if we do not continually put off our old selves & actually renew our minds (Ephesians 4:21-32 & Colossians 3:1-10)?

Nonbelievers will see & hear us, but not care a bit when we share the Gospel if our lives look just like theirs. Instead they might say, “Well, I must be fine like I am because these Christians aren’t any different from before they became Christians.” If we are without joy and love, how will they want anything to do with what we have?

We should ache to share His love — because WOW! How He so loves us to have died for our sins — but a big part of being in a right relationship with Jesus Christ is making Him our Lord & Savior:  We must wholeheartedly repent of our sins in order to do so.

In turn, a desire should grow in us to do what God requires of us to grow this relationship through His Word & doing our part as He makes us more like Christ, also being obedient to share the Gospel with those we encounter in our lives as God leads us.

Something I heard spoken about recently was calling ourselves Christians & yet not living this label:

Christian. That’s our name — a word which has root in CHRIST. Instead let us change ourselves as we deliberately strive to become more like Christ Jesus, Who gave His life for us. Let us grow closer to God through studying His Word, & grow greater in love & unity each day of our lives on this earth, seeking to be witnesses for Christ in all of ourselves — word, deed, mind, heart, soul & strength.