For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. 2 Peter 1:4.
And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach—if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard. Colossians 1:21-23.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Holy. Be holy for I, the LORD your God, am holy. In other words, be like Me. Imitate Me as My dear children and walk in love. Remain in My love. And what does love do? I tell you a mystery about that, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.” Ephesians 5:26-27. He gave His life for you so that He might sanctify you—that is, make you holy. And how does He do that? “Having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word.” My Word will cleanse you of all that is not holy.
The night before He died for you, the very night He was betrayed, Jesus prayed to Me for His disciples and all of those who would also believe in Him through their word, and what did He pray to Me? “But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. I have given them Your Word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your Word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.” John 17:13-19.
Today, as we continue to study holiness, our life lesson is “Sanctified in Truth.”
The word that is translated “sanctify,” in the Greek language in which it was originally written, is the word “hagiazó (ἁγιάζω),” which means to make holy, consecrate, sanctify. Jesus prayed that I would sanctify you in truth, and My Word is truth. And you know from the first line of the Bible to the last that I AM My Word. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1. And I AM holy. If you will fill yourself with My Word until it is what flows out from the abundance of your heart, you will be holy.
Treasure My Word in your heart and you will not sin against Me. Psalm 119:11. The way to keep your life pure is by living it according to My Word. Psalm 119:9. Remain in My Word and let My Word remain in you, then you can what you will and it will be done for you.
And if you sing My Word in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs you will get filled with the Holy Spirit and the fuller you get the more holy you will be for indwelt by My Holy Spirit you are My temple and My temple is holy. 1 Corinthians 3:16-17.
A holy life is a sanctified life. And sanctification is not achieved and then stopped, it is continually removing the dross from gold until the perfection of a sanctified life is completed in My Kingdom. For you have come to Mount Zion and to My city, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels in festal gathering, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to Me, your God and the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel. Hebrews 12:22-24.
How are you sanctified by My Word? How are you washed in the pure water of My Word? By My Word working in you and for you as you take it into your heart by hearing, pondering, speaking and doing My Word. If you love Me, you will keep My Words, and I will love you and come to you and take up My abode in you. And My dwelling place is holy.
Are you ready to get in the cleansing flow of renewing your mind? For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will My Word be which goes forth from My mouth. It will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:10-11.
Are you ready to be set free, for true holiness is total freedom from all that encumbers and binds you, of all that would trap and enslave you that is in the world, the flesh and the devil? I give you all the directions you need to do this in many places in My Word. So track down the treasure. But today, let Me begin in the fourth chapter of Proverbs. I will go line by line, precept upon precept, until you can reach full maturity so you can accurately handle the Word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15.
We begin with Proverbs 4:20, and you will note it is addressed to those who are My children. Those that have been born again and redeemed by the blood of Jesus, the church of the firstborn, for the first step in holiness is salvation and washing your robes in the blood of the lamb, the next step is cleansing your mind so you walk as the new creation you have become in holiness and truth.
So let us continue line by line:
1. Focus
Proverbs 4:20 begins: “My son, give attention to My Words.” The first step is to focus on My Word not your problem. What I mean by that is you must find Scriptures that address what you are facing and give you the outcome you desire. And you will find them for I have put them there for you. I send My Word to heal you and deliver you from your destructions, and I have a Word there that may have been originally delivered by, for, or to another person or situation but it will be exactly what you are going through and the Word that you need as the anchor for your soul. If you know My Word well from reading it and hearing it, My Spirit in you can remind you of it and it will rise up in your heart just when you need it. If you are not used to spending time in My Word, however, you may have to search the Scriptures using the internet for key words on Bible websites or finding lists of Scriptures for particular situations or ailments that others have complied. A good place to look is the book of Psalms. These address many of the troubles and ills you may be facing and come out with victory by declaring My Name and power to save, heal and deliver. The book of the prophet Isaiah has a wealth of these treasures. Especially in Chapters 51 through 58. And once you have found your promises, then you must exclude focusing on the fear and focus on the Word you have found. Stop looking at your symptoms and look at My Word that will heal you and deliver you. When you do that, you are opening up your heart to receive the seed of that Word that will produce the result you want and you are beginning to eat from the banquet table I set before you in the sight of your enemies (demonic and otherwise). You are starting to taste the goodness of My Word, sweeter than honey dripping from the cone, and like Jeremiah, you will begin to devour it. The worse your situation, the more you need to eat the Words that resolve it. My Word is medicine to all your flesh.
2. Hear
The next line of Proverbs 4:20 is “Incline your ear to my sayings.” Faith comes by hearing and hearing My Word. Romans 10:17. That is the only way faith comes, not by asking Me for it but by hearing and hearing My Word. My Son told you to be careful what you hear for if it contrary to My Word, it will plant in you and choke out My Word. You should read Scriptures aloud so you hear them and plant them more deeply in your heart. Many only read the Scripture by their eyes but you need to say it out loud. In the book of Revelation I tell you, “Blessed is one who reads aloud and those who hear the Words of the prophecy and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.” Revelation 1:3. Also listen to the Scripture on an audio reading of the Bible and to anointed preaching and teaching on the subject of My Word and various aspects of it such as healing or deliverance. My apostle Paul explains Scripture in ways you may not find on your own, so read his prayers for you and his revelations, but he also tells you, “How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?” Romans 10:14. I will guide you to anointed preachers and teachers who will be addressing just what you need and build you up to maturity in the Body of Christ so you can stand on the Word. But you need to be seeking to find, so do not turn on secular movies, news, and shows that do nothing but feed you godless chatter. Another good way to hear is to pray and sing in tongues and ask Me to give you understanding of what the Spirit is speaking in you.
3. Read and write
The next step is Proverbs 4:21, “Do not let them depart from your sight.” Here is the counterpart to hearing, you also have to be reading and writing what I tell you down, this will write it on the tablet of your heart and let you go back to reinforce the Word each time you start to slide into fear again. I told the Israelites to write My Words on the doorposts of their houses and on their wrists and to hang them before their eyes. In other words, make a list of the Scriptures you are planting, growing, and eating and set them where you can see them, especially in places where you tend to let your mind just wander wherever it wants. I told My prophet Habakkuk to write the vision down so those who read it can run with it. When you find a Word that I give you and focus on it, listen to it aloud, then I will begin to speak to you through that Word and tell you what to do or how it will turn out. You need to write that down in your tablet or journal. When I told Moses the Ten Commandments, I wrote them for him, but the first five books of the Bible I infused in his heart and mind and showed him visions, but he wrote them down. David told you that the complete plans for the temple that Solomon built came to him in prayer with Me when he began writing them down. Get your Scripture and then just pull up a chair close to Me and let Me speak to your heart and write down what I tell you. Things of the Spirit are hard to recall later in the flesh unless you write them down immediately when you hear them in your heart. And I will talk to you if you will open your heart to Me. I stand knocking at your door and if you let Me in, I will sit down and dine with you.
4. Ponder
The next line is, “Keep them in the midst of your heart.” This is the heart of meditation. Here, as you ponder My Word that you have heard, read, and written down, it becomes your vision of the future. You make a mental picture of your new vision from My Words that replaces the vision of defeat and death, captivity, abuse, infirmity, sorrow, incapacity, loss, lack, rebellious children, and broken relationships with the promise of healing, joy, peace, prosperity, long life, renewed youth, deliverance, good relationships, established prosperous children, and victory. I tell you that Mary, the mother of Jesus in the flesh, treasured and pondered My Word in her heart.
5. Speak
Here I will jump to lines 23 and 24 and come back to line 22 as the conclusion. Proverbs 4:23-24 directs, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth and put devious speech far from you.” The mouth speaks from the abundance of your heart and the things you say will come to pass. By your words you are acquitted and by your words you are condemned. Even though it was contrary to My promise to them, I gave the Israelites I redeemed out of Egypt what they said that was stout against My Words for they kept declaring their way over Mine. And they really did not want to wander in the desert for forty years and miss all the wonderful things I had for them in the Promised Land, but they got what they insisted on saying. Do you understand? Do not speak what you do not want in the face of what I have promised you. Agree with My Word and you can have it. I watch over My Word to perform it. Life and death are in the power of your tongue. The spirit of faith speaks, My preacher Paul wrote, “But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed; therefore I spoke,” we also believe, therefore we also speak.” 2 Corinthians 4:13. My Son (who is the Word) told you that YOU have to speak to the mountain to get it cast out of your way, to level it to a plain, to cast it in the sea. Mark 11:22-24. When the disciples asked Him to increase their faith, He told them to start speaking to things that they did not want in their way. You have to speak to whatever is ailing or attacking your body and cast that out and then you have to speak the healing Scriptures to make the healing and restoration to perfect health that you want grow in and feed your flesh until it conforms to My Word that created it. All creation recognizes My Word and moves to it. Paul wrote about salvation: “The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” Romans 10:8-10. Do you see? You believe My Word in your heart and that results in establishing you in righteousness far from oppression. Isaiah 54:14-15. And you must speak it with you mouth and that results in salvation in every situation over which you are confessing My Word. And the word salvation there in the original Greek does not just mean going to Heaven and having eternal life, though that is the greatest part, but it also means healing, wholeness, provision, deliverance, rescue and help in time of trouble. You have to call things in that you want and rebuke and cancel the things you do not want. And do it all by faith, which means finding the Word that addresses it and knowing whatever I have promised you is “yes” to you in Christ Jesus. Say “amen” to that.
And finally, when you do these things with diligence, for this is a matter of your very life, here is the result of what My Words do in you as set forth in Proverbs 4:22 (a menorah verse in Hebrew): “For they [My Words] are life to those who find them and health to all their body (“flesh” in Hebrew).
Let Me also add that in meditating on My Word you should not be bringing in the distractions of life in your thoughts, such as worry and anxiety about your problem. Worry is actually meditating on your problem instead of My Word and that plants fear in your heart and you are eating depression by the mouthful, shutting the door to My grace, and out of the cleansing flow of My Word. You are muddying up the water.
When the worry comes, laugh at it, though you don’t feel like it, set your heart to ignore by overcoming it by speaking My Word aloud, and tell it that by the stripes of Jesus you are healed so that cannot stay or that no weapon formed against you can prosper, or whatever other promise from My Word that you are growing. And, as Job stated, without realizing he was stating the root of his problem, “what I feared came on me.” So you must be determined that you are going to shut out the worry by focusing on what My Word says about the situation.
Find the Scripture that has the promise you want to solve your problem that particularly speaks to you. For example, if you are being subject to a lawsuit or some kind of persecution at your job or in your family, find Isaiah 54:17, that no weapon formed against you shall prosper and every tongue raised against you in accusation, you will prove false, for your righteousness and vindication are from Me. Or Scriptures about Me as your deliverer, your helper, your rear guard, and always giving you the victory in Christ Jesus. Consider meditating on Philippians 1:19-20 or Romans 8:33.
If you are sick or have pain in your body, go to Exodus, Isaiah, the Psalms, Proverbs, the Prophets, the Gospels, the Letters of Paul, James, Peter, John, and Jude and get My promises on healing. There are many of them. I tell you I AM the LORD who heals you. I tell you that My Son bore your sickness, your infirmities, your sins, and your pains. It tell you that His stripes (bloody scourging) you were healed, I tell you that I forgive all your sins and heal all your ills. I tell you a lot about health for your bones, your navel, your kidneys and all your inmost parts. I even have Words about your teeth, your hair, your fingers, and your back! Find them like treasure and focus your attention on them instead of on the ailment and let the ailment know it has to go. For I send My Word to heal you. It does good like a medicine. And you cannot overdose and all the side effects are very good.
I encourage you to not be lazy about this. It is a matter of life or death, of the blessing or the curse, of My Will in your life or that of Satan.
But do not think of this as a burdensome, long drawn out process. It will give you joy and hope in what would be an otherwise hopeless situation. Like Abraham and having a child at an old age with Sarah barren for years. And this process can take place in a matter of minutes with all five steps functioning at the same time when you are familiar with My Word. If you spend time with Me each day reading and getting revelation from Me about My Word and are aware of My presence (for I am in you and with you always), My Spirit in you speaks the right Scripture to you to counter what has come against you and if you will open up your Bible right away and take that as your own and take comfort in it as I minister to you by My Word and revive you from your fear and the hit you received, then what I prophesied to you in My Word will come to pass, “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “When the plowman will overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows seed; when the mountains will drip sweet wine and all the hills will be dissolved.” Amos 9:13. And My Son said the same, “Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.” John 4:36. The harvest comes in before you have even plowed the ground and the grapes are ripe as you sow the seed. Let this become your way of living the abundant life that is life indeed. The power is in the Word, do not be looking anywhere else.
I love you. I am My Word. And so is Jesus. And I was in Him reconciling the world to Myself, not counting your sins against you. He made a new and everlasting Covenant with Me and in Him you come in Covenant with Me too. And the Covenant is My instrument of salvation for mankind, raising you up to unite with Me and making all I have yours. But how do I give everything to you? In My Word. I send My Word to heal you and deliver you from all destructions, but you must receive it, plant it, cultivate it, grow it, until the full-blown promise produces its fruit in your life. And you must not just taste My Word now and then, you must take it in, devour it, digest it, and until it becomes your very flesh and bone. You have to put My Word to work and let it work in you. If you do this for every trial, fiery dart of Satan, sickness, loss, or defeat, you will not fear anything for you know you have the seed and the food to cancel it out and the flow of life giving water to flush it out.