I want to share the importance of learning to put into practice a particular word that gives real insight into what it means to ‘walk by faith’: “while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen …” 2 Corinthians 4:18 The reality of putting this word into practice comes down to giving attention repeatedly to what you’ve heard. Going beyond just ‘hearing the word’ to actually putting it into practice.
If in any real way we’re going to put into practice 2 Corinthians 4:18, so it will affect our walk, it will have to become something deliberate and intentional. It’s not ‘just going to happen’. In the epistle of James, when he speaks about proving yourselves “doers of the word and not hearers only”, a phrase he uses to define “hearers only” is FORGETFUL HEARER.
Looking to the Lord and to the word instead of what is seen is certainly a real way to practice 2 Corinthians 4:18, and choosing not to set your focus on circumstances, problems, and the way things look and seem to be headed. The Holy Spirit will illuminate verses that will enable our heart to do this, and we have to learn to be deliberate in applying and practicing it.
When the word of God unfolds in your heart and gives light, and you see that it applies to you, and you glimpse how to apply it --- that is the Holy Spirit teaching you and unfolding the word. What the LORD spoke in the following verse is more important to our walk with Him, and actually putting into practice what He unfolds to our heart, than what we may realize. “… Write all the words that I have spoken to you in a book.” Jeremiah 30:2 I have a particular notebook I refer to as my “meditation notebook”. I have written in it what I believe the Lord has unfolded to my heart over the years, particularly about seeking Him, and also how to look to Him and rely on Him through verses He unfolded to me. Reading that notebook repeatedly, not necessarily every day, has nurtured seeking the Lord and looking to Him in my walk.
I encourage you to do what Jeremiah 30:2 says. Make YOUR MEDITATION NOTEBOOK of verses that have unfolded to your heart with understanding how to apply them specifically to your life. Going over and over those things we heard, which is the meditation God reveals for believers to practice in Joshua 1:8, is a key that will enable us to PUT INTO PRACTICE what we’ve heard. Sometimes I get so amazed at how the Lord worked in another person’s life, I try to make that work for me. When I do that, I usually get sidetracked from seeking the Lord according to the insight He gave me. What ends up happening is I discover how important it is for me to put into practice what the Lord showed me because trying to make what worked for others work for me usually hasn’t succeeded. He wants us to know and believe what He shows us.
For the most part, we’re not encouraged to meditate on the word in the sense of going over and over what the Lord unfolds to our heart in the word. We have daily verses in the bible app, one year bibles, different types of reading plans, all of which have particular value. But to stay in a passage, word or theme the Lord keeps unfolding to you, we’re generally not encouraged to do that. So, in a sense, by the going from one place to another approach to the word of God, we learn to be FORGETFUL HEARERS. Yet God revealed something about Jesus and the word through MANNA --- eating the same spiritual food day after day, and through meditating on the word in Joshua 1 and Psalm 1. He does teach a FEED ON THE SAME FOOD approach.
What Jesus said, in John 8:31-32 to “continue in My word”, carries this understanding of approaching the word and remaining in it. Jesus said in John 8 the result is ‘you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free’ and He will make you free --- from sin and the lies of the father of lies, the devil. So we’re to learn to STAY IN and GO BACK TO portions of the word of God that speak to you. The fruit of doing that is we will be able to “look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are unseen…” It will become an intentional and deliberate way to practice this.
Focusing on the things which are seen can actually cause us to lose sight of what we’ve heard, resulting in not looking to the Lord or trusting Him. Remember the children of Israel in the wilderness? They came to Kadesh-Barnea and the LORD was leading them to the point where they would go in and begin to possess the land of promise. But looking at the men of great stature and the high walls that surrounded cites, they lost sight of what they heard from the LORD and actually became unbelieving. We face the same conflict in a variety of different circumstances.
In order to walk by faith in the Lord, there has to come a deliberate ‘looking not at the things that are seen’ as our focus and the way it is --- period, and a looking to Him through what He said. God turns darkness to light, makes the crooked places straight, opens doors that are closed, takes down walls, and makes a way where there is no way, but we have to believe Him.
So consider --- what are you looking at? How are you approaching the word of God? Do you have a ‘meditation notebook’, or are you open to begin one? And are you grasping the importance of going over and over what the Lord speaks to you so you can deliberately practice --- looking not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are unseen? ------------ “for we walk by faith, not by sight ---“ 2 Corinthians 5:7
This has ministered to me and taught me that I do not concentrate and study scripture, especially scripture that relates to me. I may be all over the place. I have to meditate more on my life verses.
Thank you Pastor Michael.