Meditation is Scriptural

“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. ” (Joshua 1:8, ESV)

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. ” (Psalm 19:14, ESV)

“We have thought on your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of your temple. ” (Psalm 48:9, ESV)

“My mouth shall speak wisdom; the meditation of my heart shall be understanding. ” (Psalm 49:3, ESV)

“when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; ” (Psalm 63:6, ESV)

“I said, “Let me remember my song in the night; let me meditate in my heart.” Then my spirit made a diligent search: ” (Psalm 77:6, ESV)

“I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds. ” (Psalm 77:12, ESV)

“May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the Lord. ” (Psalm 104:34, ESV)

“I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. ” (Psalm 119:15, ESV)

“I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. ” (Psalm 119:99, ESV)

“My eyes are awake before the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promise. ” (Psalm 119:148, ESV)

What is Meditation?
The Hebrew word translated “meditation” has two roots. The first root means to mutter or speak in a low voice. The second means to consider something inwardly or to be occupied with an idea. Meditation therefore involves the focus of my thoughts and words upon a particular idea. In scripture we see that the object of our meditation is either scripture (the Law, his precepts, etc.), the deeds or works of God (his testimonies, his might acts in scripture, the works one has personally experienced in life, etc.), or the attributes of God’s nature and character (his goodness, love, etc.).

Everyone Knows How to Meditate
Anyone who has struggled with either fear or lust knows how to meditate, inwardly considering scenarios, ideas, and images in ways that powerfully affect and shape our inner world. Most, however, have not learned to intentionally harness this capacity in the manner in which it was designed.

How to Meditate
1. Memorize a phrase or verse from the Bible. Though you can choose an attribute of God or consider a story from your own life when God demonstrated his faithfulness and power, I find it is best to begin with a particular section of scripture. Start with something short. I find it best to consider a verse or phrase which speaks of who God is (his goodness, nearness or power for instance) or who I am in Christ.

2. Choose a time. The Bible speaks of meditating all day, morning and evening, day and night. There’s no bad time to meditate. If you’re a beginner, you shouldn’t start with the “all day” goal. I recommend setting aside 20 minutes toward the beginning of your day. It has been my experience that setting aside a particular time for focused meditation actually affects the occupation of your thoughts throughout the day.

3. Choose a place. Find a quiet place that’s free from distraction. If it’s aesthetically pleasant and peaceful for you, all the better. Calm is important and if your environment contributes to this it will be helpful. At the very least, locate a spot that doesn’t work against you.

4. Choose a posture. No – you don’t have to sit cross-legged on the floor with your hands in a particular position. You do, however, need to find a position you can maintain without movement for 20 minutes. Slouching, crossing one leg over the other, and things like that will require you to shift positions frequently because of their effect on your circulation. I find it helpful to sit in comfortable chair (not a recliner) with both feet flat on the floor in front of you. Sit up straight and rest your hands palm down on your legs. There is nothing special about sitting in this position other than the fact that it allows you to not be distracted by how you’re sitting at all.

5. Turn your inward focus upon God’s presence. Jesus promised he would never leave you. 2 Cor 3:16 tells us that when we turn to the Lord the veil is removed (revelation occurs). Simply choose to be aware that God is with you and choose to be aware of nothing else. You might find it helpful to breathe deeply. Meditation is an act of the mind and body.

6. Bring to mind the verse or phrase from scripture you desire to meditate on. Begin to repeatedly rehearse this phrase or verse in your mind. As you do so, maintain your awareness of God’s presence.

7. Once you feel you are inwardly quiet and fully occupied with both God’s presence and the truth of scripture, begin to speak that phrase or verse from scripture repeatedly. No need to do it loudly or dramatically. Remember, the root word means to mutter quietly. You are now meditating on scripture!

Why was I afraid? What was the cure? Interestingly enough, correct information did nothing to help me overcome my fear. I understood enough about physics to know it was perfectly safe to ride the Shockwave. In a science classroom, if asked to explain this, I could have said some very reasonable things about centrifugal force that would have adequately explained why there was no reason to fear. And the thing is, I really sincerely affirmed this to be fact. I was nevertheless still afraid.

There is a distinction between affirming right data and belief. Belief is much more than intellectual agreement. Belief embraces more than information. It is possible to sincerely affirm correct information and yet actually believe something completely incongruent with that data.

This can be a dangerous trap for Christians. Failing to understand the distinction between what they intellectually affirm and that which they actually believe, many mistake doctrine for belief. It is possible to sincerely embrace right doctrine and have little to no faith in operation. The doctrine of Justification by Faith can be learned, rehearsed, and vigorously defended from scripture by someone who has never heard the Judge of all Creation declare them innocent of all charges. The God who is fully present in every place can always seem distant and removed from someone who fully embraces the doctrine of God’s omnipresence and has verses from Psalm 139 ready to back it up.

What do you believe about God? I’m not asking about your doctrine or your theology. What do you really believe? Is he good? Is he near? Is he powerful? Beliefs are shaped by experience not Sunday School. The lenses through which we see reality are shaped by what we encounter. Have your experiences taught you to believe that God is good? Near? Powerful? Or do you just have right doctrine.

If you discover an incongruence between the good doctrine you’ve learned in church and from the Bible and the actual assumptions your heart makes about God based on your life experiences, then what you need is a new experience. You need to encounter God, hear his voice, experience his presence. Only this kind of revelation will produce lasting growth and change. Only this kind of experience will result in faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word (spoken word) of Christ (Rom 10:17).

Am I minimizing the importance of sound doctrine? No! Bad doctrine is of no benefit whatsoever. The point is that right doctrine is simply an accurate description of reality. It explains something real. In itself doctrine is insufficient for it is simply the explanation of a thing, not the thing itself. To the degree that right doctrine leads you to pursue the reality it points to, it is helpful. But to the degree right doctrine simply becomes a collection of correct information, it is simply the Knowledge of Good, which really isn’t any better than the Knowledge of Evil. Eating fruit from either branch of that tree will kill you!

Roller coasters were not made to be studied. Get in, buckle up, and ride.

The first question “Am I loved?” is the key question during childhood. The second question “Do I have what it takes?” emerges during adolescence. A fathers role in determining how these questions are answered cannot be overstated. Acceptance and Competence are at the heart of a man’s identity and fathers are designed to impart identity as a man to his sons. When acceptance and competence are not imparted to a man in childhood and adolescence by a present and fully engaged father, rejection and inadequacy grow in the heart of a young man’s sense of self.

Man was made for intimacy – intimacy with God, with a wife, with family, with others. Of course there are levels of intimacy appropriate in each context. Intimacy always makes a demand on a man. Intimacy requires risk. Intimacy requires a man to be fully present and engaged. Intimacy excludes passivity and fear. Though a man is made for intimacy, intimacy requires strength. Strength comes from identity. Identity is all about a firm sense of acceptance that is not performance based and a sense of competence proven in the company of other men, especially a father. When instead of acceptance and competence a man’s identity becomes defined by rejection and inadequacy he has no strength to give. Intimacy is not an option. Intimacy is what he fears. If intimacy demands strength then strength is the one thing a man marked by rejection and inadequacy is convinved he lacks.

But a man still needs intimacy. In a healthy experience of life a man will emerge into adulthood convinced he is both accepted and competent. He will then bring this identity based strength to his marriage and offer his wife the strength imparted to him by his father. His wife will respond to him with respect and love in a life of genuine intimacy. This experience will reinforce his sense of acceptance and competence as a man.

When a man’s identity is distorted through rejection and inadequacy, he brings weakness to the marriage instead of strength. Instead of genuine intimacy, he is unable to fully engage. The wife then is unable to reflect his strength back to him with honor and love. Marriage then can serve to reinforce his rejection and incompetence as a man. A wife will often simply reflect back to the man the identity he brings to the marriage. My friend Bob Hamp says this is exactly what she is designed to do. She is a suitable helper.

When a man whose identity is marked by rejection and inadequacy lives in the fear of intimacy he will still look to get his need for intimacy met. He will still look for something that will make him feel, if even for a moment, accepted and competent. Genuine intimacy with the Father is the only place a man can find and sustain this. Genuine intimacy with a woman is the place this can be supported and reinforced. But genuine intimacy is the thing he fears the most. It demands too much. It exposes his sense of rejection and incompetence. So a man looks for the illusion of intimacy. He looks for the illusion of acceptance and competence.

Pornography and lust provide this illusion of acceptance and competence in the form of digital images. Affairs provide this in the arms of one who accepts and affirms without the demands that come from actually sharing a life together. Isn’t it amazing how once a man leaves his wife for the other woman, that second relationship simply becomes another version of the first? Once the new woman moves from being simply the illusion of intimacy to the reality, once she is no longer simply the greener grass on the other side of the fense and she becomes the field a man must live in, the new woman becomes another opportunity for genuine intimacy, the thing he fears the most.

All of this is rooted in fatherlessness. The answer is not in accountability for men that modifies their behaviors. The answer isn’t in teaching men the techniques and skills of genuine intimacy of body, soul and spirit. The answer isn’t to tell men to try harder and do better. The answer is for men to experience the reality of a Heavenly Father who alone is able to impart true manhood and thereby freedom from the fear of intimacy, freeing them to invest their strength born in true acceptance and proven competence as men in the experience of genuine intimacy.

These verses at first glance would seem more encouraging if that last bit about suffering had been left off. But it wasn’t left off so we need to understand what its significance might be. The phrase “provided we suffer with him” is a conditional statement. There’s something that either will or will not be true depending upon whether this condition is met. There are two possibilities. Either our status as children of God is dependent upon whether we suffer or our status as heirs is conditional. It seems clear to me that the issue that is conditional upon our suffering is not our status as children but rather our status as heirs. Our status as children of God is entirely contingent upon faith, not suffering, so that possibility is ruled out. D.J. Moo sees this similarly…

Paul makes clear that this suffering is the condition for the inheritance; we will be “glorified with” Christ (only) if we “suffer with him.” Participation in Christ’s glory can come only through participation in his suffering. What Paul is doing is setting forth an unbreakable “law of the kingdom” according to which glory can come only by way of suffering. For the glory of the kingdom of God is attained only through participation in Christ, and belonging to Christ cannot but bring our participation in the sufferings of Christ. Moo, D. J. (1996). The Epistle to the Romans. The New International Commentary on the New Testament (506). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Ths Spirit speaks to our human spirit that we are children. It follows from being children that we are heirs. But we will only lay hold of this inheritance through suffering. Apart from suffering, we will not lay hold of the inheritance that is ours as children. Taken in context this becomes quite interesting. Paul is here speaking of the Spirit of Adoption. In my last post I referenced Wuest’s reading of this adoption not as the receiving of someone into the family previously outside the family, but rather as the setting in of a naturally born child into a status of maturity. When this status change occurs there is conferred upon the child the authority to access the Father’s estate and do business as the Father’s representative. I believe this reading to be theologically potent simply because our conversion to Christ involves being born from above and becoming partakers in the divine nature. Given that we are children by being born from above and being partakers of his nature, whatever is meant by adoption, it cannot simply be a change of legal status that includes in the family those who were previously outside.

Let’s take these two ideas together. 1. A child in the family is recognized as mature and authorized to conduct family business as the Father’s reprentative. 2. A child in the family is only able to lay hold of inheritance through suffering. It then follows from these that maturity can be achieved only through suffering.

Are you eager for authority? Influence? Power? Glory? As a son of God is it your desire to represent Him and conduct family business in His name? If so, you desire a good thing. All Creation is longing for you to do this.

Romans 8:19
19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.(ESV)

But make no mistake about it. There is no path from here to there that avoids participation in the suffering of Christ.

I’m interested in helping people experience Freedom in 2010. If you are interested in pursuing more of the Freedom provided for you in Christ, here are Six Keys.

1) Understand what Freedom is and isn’t.
We must not equate freedom with relief from pain. The Bible defines freedom in terms experiencing God’s presence and the revelation of truth (John 8:32; 2 Cor 3:17). When I define freedom in terms of God’s presence and voice, then these are the things I will pursue and my journey toward freedom will be Christ centered instead of me centered. When I instead define freedom in terms of solving my problems, then my focus will be on self and my problems will shape my pursuit and thereby the outcome of my pursuit. Freedom isn’t when I stop doing ______. Freedom is when I’m able to relate to God without hindrance as the person he created and redeemed me to be.

2) Invest in a process.
Freedom is part of your inheritance in Christ. It is part of the promised land God desires you to possess and inhabit. But that which is fully yours in Christ must be conquered, possessed, and inhabited bit by bit. Think discipleship. Think journey. If freedom was simply about the expulsion of demons then a process might be less necessary. But I need to be set free from more than just demons. You can’t cast out the flesh.

3) Get help.
At Gateway Church we have developed a powerful process to help you experience freedom. Visit us at http://freedom.gatewaypeople.com to learn more.

4) Learn to meditate on scripture.
Information doesn’t produce transformation. Revelation does. When I meditate on scripture I am pursuing the kind of revelation that can transform me from the inside out. I believe there is a level of freedom that cannot be experienced any other way. No one can do this for me. For the truth within scripture to become the kind of revelation that produces faith and results in personal transformation, the spiritual practice of scriptural meditation is essential.

5) Learn and implement new relational skills.
All of us live within family systems and play a role in repeating relational cycles that may or may not be healthy. Personal transformation needs a context in which it can be lived out in practical ways. In addition to experiencing deliverance, and inner healing,  you may also need to learn how to take out the trash, how to listen, how to prefer others, and how to establish healthy boundaries.

6) Give away what you’ve got.
The nature of grace is that it must be given away. Freely you’ve received. Freely give. The reality is that free people free people. Those who are being transformed can help others experience transformation. Moving into the next level of freedom personally often involves giving away what I’ve already received to someone else.

So, if you’re interested in pursuing freedom in 2010, then I encourage you to make each of these Six Keys a part of your journey.

In the Bible one of the primary ways the seed of God’s word matures is through meditation. When I meditate on the information in God’s word it becomes revelation. Don’t freak out at the word meditation. I realize that other religions, cultures, and even the occult practice a form of meditation. But remember, the enemy doesn’t create he only counterfeits. If there is a counterfeit meditation, then there must be a legitimate form of meditation. Here’s the difference. In occult forms of meditation my goal is to empty my mind. Biblical mediation is an exercise in filling my mind with God’s word.

When cattle eat grass they don’t just chew and swallow. They bring it back up and chew on it some more. It’s called chewing the cud. This is a great picture of what meditation is. I recall God’s word and “chew” on it over and over again. I make it the focus of my thoughts and the content in my mouth. I “chew” on it because I recognize that although I might quickly be able to absorb the information and principles, what I need is revelation of truth from the Spirit. So, I meditate in the scripture, chewing on God’s word, marrinating in it, that the seed of God’s word might grow and that the Spirit might bring revelation within that produces transformation.

The following is a selection of passages from the Bible that speak of meditation. Where the Hebrew word for meditation has been translated differently, or where the concept of meditation is described, I’ve highlited the idea.

Josh 1:8
8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
NKJV

Ps 1:1-3
Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
3 He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.
NKJV

Ps 19:14
14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.
NKJV

Ps 119:15-16
15 I will meditate on Your precepts,
And contemplate Your ways.
16 I will delight myself in Your statutes;
I will not forget Your word.
NKJV

Ps 119:97
Oh, how I love Your law!
It is my meditation all the day.
NKJV

Ps 119:99
99 I have more understanding than all my teachers,
For Your testimonies are my meditation.
NKJV

Prov 2:1-6
My son, if you receive my words,
And treasure my commands within you,
2 So that you incline your ear to wisdom,
And apply your heart to understanding;
3 Yes, if you cry out for discernment,
And lift up your voice for understanding,
4 If you seek her as silver,
And search for her as for hidden treasures;
5 Then you will understand the fear of the LORD,
And find the knowledge of God.
6 For the LORD gives wisdom;
From His mouth come knowledge and understanding;
NKJV

Prov 3:1-2
My son, do not forget my law,
But let your heart keep my commands;
2 For length of days and long life
And peace they will add to you.
NKJV

1 Tim 4:14-16
14 Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. 15 Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all. 16 Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.
NKJV

Ps 35:28
28 And my tongue shall speak of Your righteousness
And of Your praise all the day long.
NKJV

Ps 37:30-31
30 The mouth of the righteous speaks wisdom,
And his tongue talks of justice.
31 The law of his God is in his heart;
None of his steps shall slide.
NKJV

Ps 63:6-7
6 When I remember You on my bed,
I meditate on You in the night watches.
7 Because You have been my help,
Therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice.
NKJV

Ps 71:24
24 My tongue also shall talk of Your righteousness all the day long;
For they are confounded,
For they are brought to shame
Who seek my hurt.
NKJV

Ps 77:12-15
12 I will also meditate on all Your work,
And talk of Your deeds.
13 Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary;
Who is so great a God as our God?
14 You are the God who does wonders;
You have declared Your strength among the peoples.
15 You have with Your arm redeemed Your people,
The sons of Jacob and Joseph.
NKJV

Ps 143:5-6
5 I remember the days of old;
I meditate on all Your works;
I muse on the work of Your hands.
6 I spread out my hands to You;
My soul longs for You like a thirsty land.
NKJV

Prov 8:6-8
6 Listen, for I will speak of excellent things,
And from the opening of my lips  will come right things;
7 For my mouth will speak truth;
Wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
8 All the words of my mouth are with righteousness;
Nothing crooked or perverse is in them.
NKJV

Prov 15:28
28 The heart of the righteous studies [same Hebrew word for meditation] how to answer,
But the mouth of the wicked pours forth evil.
NKJV

How is it that we can hear a powerful and revelatory proclamation of God’s word, receive it with faith, feel so transformed in that moment, and then wake the next morning to discover we haven’t been changed nearly as much as we had hoped?

One of my favorite teachers, Dutch Sheets, explains it this way. “All truth comes to us in seed form.”

It may be revelation in the teacher, but when I receive it I receive it as a seed.

Matt 13:3-9
3 Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow.  4 And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them.  5 Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth.  6 But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away.  7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them.  8 But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.  9 He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
NKJV

There are so many truths in this passage that perhaps we sometimes miss the most obvious one: the word is delivered to us like a seed. When I receive the word it is a seed. Before it can bring forth fruit in my life there must be good soil, water, time, sunlight, pruning, etc. I believe there are times where we come to the conclusion that God’s word doesn’t work for us when the reality is simply that we haven’t cared properly for the seed planted to bring it to a place of mature revelation and lasting fruitfulness.

But how does God’s personal, living, and powerful word accomplish this? What is the nature of God’s word?

God’s word is creative. Review the following verses and see the implications of each concerning the creative power of God’s word.

Gen 1:3
3 Then God said,”Let there be light”; and there was light.
Col 1:16-18
16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

John 1:1-4
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

Ps 33:6
6 By the word of the LORD the heavens were made,
And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.

Ps 33:9
9 For He spoke, and it was done;
He commanded, and it stood fast.

Ps 148:1-5
Praise the LORD!

Praise the LORD from the heavens;
Praise Him in the heights!
2 Praise Him, all His angels;
Praise Him, all His hosts!
3 Praise Him, sun and moon;
Praise Him, all you stars of light!
4 Praise Him, you heavens of heavens,
And you waters above the heavens!

5 Let them praise the name of the LORD,
For He commanded and they were created.

Heb 1:2-3
2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; 3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

So we see that all things have been created by God’s word, Jesus is God’s word, and at a point in history, God’s word became flesh and came to live among us. The key thing to observe here is that God’s word is creative in nature. When God speaks, stuff happens – things come into existence.

Rom 4:17-18
17(as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed — God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;

I think most believers don’t view God’s word as being creatively powerfully in this way. Many believers hear the term “God’s word” and immediately think of scripture. The Bible certainly is the word of God, but the term “God’s word” refers to more than scripture. But even if we narrowly speak of God’s word in terms of scripture, do we really think of God’s word expressed through scripture as having creative power? I don’t think so. Not usually.

The most common illustration I’ve heard all my life is that the Bible is a manual for life. “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth” is the little acronym that serves to make this point. The concept is that we are like manufactured products and God (the manufacturer) has given us a manual. If we will learn the principles contained in the manual and apply them, then our lives will operate according to design. I believe this is how most of us regard God’s word expressed in scripture. The Bible is a repository of principles to live by.

But how much power does a manual have? What ever got created by a manual?

A manual would be the perfect solution if my problem was simply behavioral. If what I needed was mere instruction regarding what to do and what not to do, then a manual would do just fine. But I need more than that. I need a LOT more than that. I need Life. I need power. I need motives I don’t have. I need strength I don’t have. I need peace I don’t have. I need a lot of things I don’t have. A manual can’t give me what I don’t have; it can only tell me what to do with what I do have.

Even the things I do have positionally in Christ I need to enter into experientially, relationally. A manual cannot give me relational experience.

Thank God he has given us more than a manual. His word expressed through scripture is so much more than a manual. The very breath of God is on it and in it. Through scripture (the written word) I can come to Jesus (the living word). As I hear the living word speak by the Spirit through scripture and in scriptural ways (see my Hearing God series) things change within me. Stuff I didn’t have before appears. My motives get transformed. My identity gets formed. God’s word creates. If I’m a new creation (2Cor 5:17), then this is exactly what I should expect God’s word to do. It’s what I need. It’s what God does in me through his word.

‘If there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than me or else just silly.’

‘Then he isn’t safe?’ asked Lucy.

‘Safe?’ said Mr. Beaver. ‘Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.’

Jesus isn’t safe either. You may have a very safe idea of Jesus, but your ideas about Jesus may not always match the reality of Jesus. I hope you’ve come to realize that! I’m beginning (I hope) to learn that Jesus isn’t safe.

Jesus often seems intent on absolutely messing with my business. His agenda includes taking over every aspect of my life. My very natural inclination to be driven by what I think, feel, and want doesn’t have a chance of survival when in his presence. He is certainly not safe!

This reality is pictured so clearly in the fourth chapter of Hebrews. The chapter refers back in time to the story of God’s people Israel in the wilderness. Because of unbelief and disobedience (same thing) they did not enter into the land of promise. The writer of Hebrews says they didn’t enter into “rest”.

So which is it? Did they fail to enter the land or did they fail to enter into rest? Yes!

You see, to have entered the land they would have had to completely rely on God. To completely rely on God they would have had to let go of their fears. Their fears resulted from their evaluation of their own strength in comparison to the strength of the current occupants of the land, thus demonstrating that they were ultimately relying on their own strength rather than God’s. When I forsake all self reliance and trust completely in the strength of God, I enter into rest. When I cease from my works, I cease relying on my own strength and efforts.

Heb 4:10
10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.
NKJV

It is in this context that the wonderful passage Hebrews 4:12-16 appears.

Heb 4:11-5:1
12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

14 Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
NKJV

How are we to enter into this place of rest? How are we to cease all reliance on self? The picture here is clear if you look closely.

You begin with a High Priest – Jesus. And he has a Sword – the Word of God. Where are you in this picture. The answer is in verse 13 – everything is “…naked and open…” before this Sword wielding High Priest. The word translated “open” is a powerful word picture in Greek. The word is tetracheelismena and literally means to bend back the neck and expose the throat.

Do you see the picture. There’s Jesus, the High Priest, wielding a sharp two-edged sword, the Word of God. There you are lying on the altar in front of him with your neck stretched back. Jesus isn’t very safe at all is he?

But it is from this position of surrender (rest), where I allow the High Priest to take his living and powerful word and perform surgery on my heart, that I have bold access to the throne room and the abundance of grace and mercy that only comes from him!

Heb 4:12
12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Post-enlightenment westerners tend to think of words as tools to transmit data. That’s not how we experience them though, is it? Cruel words tear us down and wound us deeply. Encouraging words can build us up and cause hope to spring up in the deep places of our hearts. Words about data do in fact transmit data, but words about identity do much more.

God’s words do so much more than transmit correct information about doctrine (what we’re supposed to agree with) and morals (what we’re supposed to do). God’s word is living and powerful. God’s word is alive and it does stuff! A lot of the stuff it does is external to me. The entire universe has been formed and is being sustained by God’s word. But that’s not the focus of this verse.

God’s word divides soul and spirit. God’s word cuts to the deepest places within me. God’s word smells out every thought and motive within my heart. God’s word is living inside me! God’s word is doing stuff inside me! This is great news because inside me is where I need the most stuff done. How about you? We tend to think that if God would just fix our circumstances then everything would be ok. But that’s not really true. What’s wrong in my life is internal, not external, in the vast majority of instances.

One of the things I need to internally experience is the division of soul and spirit. My spirit is the deepest part of me. It’s the part of me that came to life when I accepted Christ. It’s the part of me that is one with him. It is from this spirit to Spirit connection that I receive the life that comes from his voice and presence.

My soul is my mind, emotions, and will – what I think, feel, and want. I’m very used to being ruled by my soul. It’s all I was ever ruled by before I became alive in Christ in my spirit. Now sometimes, quite often actually, it is necessary to distinguish between the strong force of what I think, feel, and want and the still small voice of the Spirit. God’s word is alive and powerful within me to help make this distinction.